Article by Capt. Lance Smith
Most anglers visiting Ocean City are in search of only a handful of fish species. Those fishing in the bay typically target flounder and striped bass and most can adapt to catching bluefish or tautog when they are biting. Fishermen who venture offshore to the 30-40 fathom lumps and the canyons are most likely searching for white marlin and yellowfin or bluefin tuna. Whether you are fishing inshore or off, from a boat or from a pier, there are just some times when your usual quarry simply isn't biting. It could be weather, boat traffic, or a thousand other factors.
Then there are the times when the fishing is so good that the challenge disappears, the fillets and releases pile up and anglers look to challenge themselves with something new.
The great thing about fishing in Ocean City is that we are just far enough south along the coast that we get regular visits from all sorts of fish species. Most of these "other" species are caught by surprised anglers who were not even targeting them. I was amazed as a kid when I caught a spotted sea trout in the bay. We caught weakfish all the time, but never one of these. I can still remember the first time I caught a king mackerel at the Jackspot. For quite a few years in my pre-teens I joined my best friend and his father for a trip to Key West every January to specifically target king mackerel. Yet, here they were, right in my own backyard. Had it not been for engine trouble that day, stopping us from making it to the canyons, I wouldn't have this fishery as a back up plan.
When you see a triggerfish, cobia, spanish mackerel, wahoo or "puppy" red drum in the pages of the Coastal Fisherman, there is a good chance it was an accidental catch. There is an equal chance however, that the angler in the photo knows something that you don't and probably should. Most of these oddball fish can actually be caught in decent numbers if you are willing to hang your neck out and try something different. For example, until recent years it wasn't common to see a red drum photo in these pages. With the exception of last year (no idea what happened), they have become a regular and quite simple to catch fish in these parts. Anglers adapted and started fishing sand fleas around the Route 50 Bridge, live bunker in the inlet and various lures in the northern bay and puppy drum catches soared. If and when they appear this year, remember that these are schooling fish and if there is a picture of one in the paper, there are sure to be more around.
Triggerfish are another summer visitor to the bay, the inshore wrecks and even out to the canyons. As silly looking as they may be, triggerfish are delicious table fare and put up an excellent fight on medium tackle. Typically, they can be found in the same spots that you would find tautog in the spring and fall. They are rarely caught as bycatch when fishing for flounder because they prefer hard structure and dine mostly upon shellfish. Anchoring over structure in the bay, fishing the inlet rocks and dropping over nearshore structure like Fenwick Shoal and Russell's Reef are proven ways to land some of these bucktooth beauties.
Triggerfish have exceptionally small mouths for their size and can be even trickier to hook than tog. Small, pre-rigged blackfish hooks that can be picked up in any local tackle store and sufficient weight to hold bottom are a good way to start trying this fishery. Small pieces of clam and green crabs work well, and I have found live sand fleas to be an absolute killer bait. If you are taking a trip aboard one of the local headboats for a day of sea bass fishing, stop and purchase some sand fleas before you leave the dock. If sea bass fishing is slow, you have your limit or you see a fellow angler land a trigger, try dropping down your hook size and using some crab for bait. If you happen to be offshore tuna or marlin fishing and come across a floating object, it may very well have many dozens of triggerfish hanging around it. I always carry some small hooks and split shot offshore to take advantage of this situation. Offshore triggers are less picky than their nearshore counterparts and will eat just about anything presented on light spinning tackle.
Sheepshead are another shellfish eater that tend to hang out in the same spots as triggerfish. These black and white striped battlers can get pretty large around here. Every year some are caught around the 15 pound mark. The North and South Jetty’s are where most of these fish are landed but I have some spearfishing friends who bring back loads of them from the nearshore reefs and wrecks. Again, like the trigger and the tog, these fish can be difficult to hook. The key is to wait for the right "feel" when the fish engulfs your crab bait. They will suck in a crab and crush it and spit the shells out multiple times. Once you have a feel for the correct hook set timing, sheepshead put up an excellent bulldog type of fight and their firm white flesh is delicious. One tip on sheepshead. Many anglers have difficulty telling the difference between a small black drum and a sheepshead. The easiest thing to remember is that a sheepshead has a forked tail and the black drum’s is flat across.
Fishing the many artifical reefs and buoys off the coast can produce some gigantic cobia in the heat of summer. Cobia can be very frustrating to catch and anglers will often throw a dozen or more lures or baits at cruising fish before they get a bite. Live spot, croaker, eels and even whole blue crabs are the baits of choice for cobia fisherman. Lures like bucktails with plastic trailers and large surface poppers can also tempt them into striking. On glass calm days, they can often be seen cruising on the surface over wrecks while leaving a tell-tale wake behind them. Other times they can be found hanging underneath navigational markers, especially to the south off of Assateague and Chincoteague. One year while fishing the Tuna Tournament, down towards the area known as the Parking Lot, we encountered dozens upon dozens of cobia that were hanging underneath mating sea turtle pairs. Every turtle we approached had at least one and sometimes 3 or more huge cobia lurking beneath. These fish could have been free-gaffed you could get so close to them and I know that there were a few approaching the 100 pound weight class.
Accompanying cobia on the wrecks and lumps are spanish and king mackerel. If you have a medium sized boat and grow tired of bottom fishing, all you need to tangle with some of these toothy predators are some rockfish/striper trolling setups and small flashy spoons. Smaller Clark or Drone spoons, rigged behind inline weights from 8-20 ounces and trolled around 4 knots can make for an exciting day on the lumps. Diving plugs such as Rapala’s also work when slow trolled and you stand a good chance at landing some bluefish or hard fighting false albacore tuna while fishing in this manner. Regardless of what you troll, these fish have razor sharp teeth so be sure to use wire leaders. Also, dolphin (mahi-mahi) will often venture within ten miles of land when the water is right and even a few barracuda are caught every year off of our coast!
A few miles further offshore, from the Fingers and the Sausage lumps on out to the canyons, wahoo can be targeted with regularity. This is my personal favorite pelagic species. In order to troll specifically for wahoo, you are going to need to adjust your normal tuna or marlin spread of trolling lures/baits. Wahoo like two things, fast moving baits and deep trolled baits. To our south, it is not uncommon for captains to troll for wahoo at 12 knots or more! This can burn quite a bit of fuel so I prefer the deep trolling method. A six rod spread of diving plugs such as the Rapala Magnum series or Braid Marauder style plugs (rigged with wire leaders) is the way to go for these giant relatives of mackerel. In addition to the diving plugs, downriggers are often very useful. I like to use two downriggers, each with heavy, fish-shaped weights, and set to run at 25 to 50-feet deep. On these downrigger lines, ballyhoo rigged with wire leader and a black/red or black/purple skirt can be deadly. Adding a few skipping or swimming ballyhoo with dark skirts to the trolling spread can create some incredible airborne bites as a wahoo rockets up from below. Wahoo are often attracted to the upwellings created by underwater lumps and wrecks. Like mahi-mahi, they are often associated with floating objects too. Many an Ocean City wahoo has been hooked from beneath an errant floating 2 x 4 or free drifting bass pot float by a crew with good eyes.
Lastly, our summertime shark population explodes with a myriad of species visiting from the south. Blacktip, spinner, dusky, tiger, sharpnose, and hammerhead sharks can all be caught within a few miles of the beach. Necessary for this fishery is a bucket or two of chum, some fresh caught bluefish or frozen mackerel and some shark rigs and floats. Drifting, or even anchoring over the inshore lumps with frozen chum and baited hooks can create non-stop action with sharks throughout the summer. Almost all of these inshore/nearshore shark species are essentially inedible so please take a picture and release your catch. Large circle hooks and pre-rigged shark leaders can be found at most tackle shops in the area and work perfectly. Don't be surprised if a cobia shows up in your chum slick or a school of spadefish visit your boat. Just remember to be careful. Even the smallest of sharks, if handled improperly, can cost you a hospital visit.
While most of our visiting fish species in the bay can be caught from shore, a rental boat or a charter with one of the advertisers in the Coastal Fisherman can certainly increase your odds of a decent day's catch. There are also quite a few charters available that will take you fishing inshore instead of the canyons. These trips can be perfect for first-timers because the run to the fishing grounds is short, the action is typically faster, most of the fish can be handled by novices and costs are significantly lower. The warmer the weather gets, the more abundant these "other" fish become. Be willing to commit an entire trip to something new and who knows, maybe you'll discover something the rest of us don't even know about.
Lance Smith is an outdoor writer and Captain of his family’s boat, the “Longfin”.
