Article by Larry Jock
It was a crazy week of fishing in Ocean City. Billfishermen returned with riggers full of flags and inshore and bay anglers continued to battle the effects of Hurricane Earl. However, as each day passes, fishing improves.
Marlin
The 2nd Annual Branch Kreppel Memorial Blue Marlin Tournament was held over the weekend, having been rescheduled from its original date back in late July. No blue marlin were weighed, but there were quite a few white marlin released. The “Billfisher” led the way with 14 releases during their 2 days of fishing, followed by the “Reel Joy” with 3 releases and the “Four Play” with 2 releases.
The white marlin bite moved south into the Norfolk Canyon last week where, on Monday, the “Cerveza” returned from an overnight trip with 67 white marlin releases and a couple of sailfish. The “Reel Chaos” were also on an overnighter and ended up with 47 white marlin releases. The bite was deep in 1,000 fathoms. It was a great day, with several other boats posting big numbers:
“Reel Joy” - 20
“Billfisher” - 19
“Miss Annie” - 12
The bite continued in the Washington/Norfolk Canyons on Tuesday with some more impressive numbers of white marlin released:
“Playmate” - 14
“Billfisher” - 12
“Moore Bills” - 10
“Lil’ Man” - 10
The weather was snotty for the next couple of days, so billfishing didn’t really resume until Saturday when anglers headed south of the Norfolk Canyon. We didn’t see any double-digit catches, but several boats posted nice numbers:
“Wave Paver” - 8
“Billfisher” - 8
“Par V” - 7
“Reel Joy” - 6
On Sunday, boats continued to make the trek to the Norfolk Canyon. Several boats released one or two white marlin and a couple of boats posted higher numbers:
“Billfisher” - 7
“Alican” - 3
The “Grandé Pez” returned from an overnight trip to the Norfolk Canyon with 7 white marlin releases.
There were also several blue marlin released during the week and several more broken off.
On Tuesday, the “D.A. Sea” released a blue marlin in the Norfolk Canyon. On Friday, the “Wave Paver” released a blue in the Washington Canyon where, on Sunday, the “Marli” also released a blue marlin. During the Blue Marlin Tournament, the “Shelly II” broke off 2 blue marlin in the Washington Canyon on Sunday. The “Tighten Up” also reported seeing a blue marlin in the Washington Canyon on Sunday.
Swordfish
As you saw on the cover, the “Gettin’ Jiggy” was on an overnight trip in 500 fathoms outside the Wilmington Canyon and captured a 140 lb. swordfish on a tinker mackerel.
Tuna
Tuna fishermen hoping that the effects of Hurricane Earl would jump start the tuna fishery were disappointed last week with only a few boated. Those that were caught were scattered, with catches recorded in the Poor Man’s, near the Hot Dog and in the Washington Canyon.
Some years, we have seen a good shot of tuna caught late in the year, so everyone is holding out hope that the yellowfin season, which had been good prior to the last month, will continue.
Dolphin
Those in search of mahi had all they could handle over the last month and the bite continued last week with boats returning with very large catches of mostly bailer dolphin. Like the white marlin bite, dolphin action centered around the Washington and Norfolk Canyons. Uriah and John, fish cleaners at Sunset Marina, were up to their elbows in dolphin when some boats returned with 40-60 dolphin.
In the Blue Marlin Tournament, the “Four Play” won the Dolphin Division with a 26 pounder caught in 45 fathoms inside the Baltimore Canyon.
Shark
We haven’t seen any mako sharks in quite some time, so I was somewhat surprised to see the “Jade II” roll up to the OCFC? scale on Sunday with a 170 pounder caught during an overnight trip to the Washington Canyon.
Wahoo
The wahoo bite is definitely heating up. In the Blue Marlin Tournament, the “Shelly II” boated a 44 pounder on Friday and followed that up with a 49 pounder on Sunday. The large wahoo was one of four caught by the crew that day in 35 fathoms north of the Washington Canyon.
On Saturday, the “Reel Chaos” threw a 66.4 lb. speedster on the scale at Sunset Marina after hooking it in 100 fathoms in the Washington Canyon. On Friday, the “Marlin Magic” boated a wahoo at the Hot Dog and the surprise catch of the week occurred on Tuesday when the headboat, “Morning Star” captured their 2nd wahoo of the season.
I would guess that there were over 12 other wahoo caught over the weekend that we didn’t take pictures of, so it was a good week for wahoo fishermen.
Flounder
No doubt, flounder fishing has been horrible ever since Hurricane Earl rolled by off of our coast. Bay waters have looked like mud, leaving flounder fishermen frustrated. The good news is that slowly but surely, our bay water is starting to clean up and it looks like flounder fishing is turning on with some larger fish in the mix.
There were some really nice flounder landed in the Bahia Marina Flounder Pounder on Sunday, led by Finn McCabe’s 27-inch, 8 lb. 1 oz. flattie caught on a live mullet in the West Channel.
The West Channel must have been a hot location on Sunday with the top three finishers in the tournament hooking their fish near Hooper’s Crab House.
We also saw flounder being caught in the East Channel near the Cement Plant and by anglers fishing between the East and West Channels.
Live bait is the ticket right now, whether it is spot or mullet. Both are available in our bay right now but if you don’t have a chance to catch or net either of these 2 species, you can always fall back on Gulp! Swimming Mullets or the larger Gulp! Grub.
Sheepshead
There is a good sheepshead bite around the South Jetty right now. We saw several last week by anglers fishing with sand fleas. The “Honey One” caught 4 on Saturday and Steve Joyce landed one on Monday morning.
Striped Bass & Bluefish
As always, anglers fishing from the Rt. 50 Bridge are very quietly landing good numbers of striped bass and bluefish at night. The bite on Friday night, around 10:30 PM, was particularly good with one angler saying that it looked like it was “raining rockfish” from anglers tossing short stripers from the bridge back into the water.
Those anglers fishing from a boat had good luck bouncing live spot under the bridge during the outgoing tide.
In the Surf
As you may have read in Dale’s column on page 2, reports of red drum being caught have come in from anglers fishing off Assateague Island. One angler released a 51-incher, estimated to weigh over 60 lbs., after hooking it on a large mullet.
Anglers have also been catching spot, flounder, stripers, croakers, kingfish and snapper bluefish in the suds.
Upcoming Tournament
The Challenge Cup, pitting Ocean City and Cape May anglers against each other in a billfish release tournament, will be held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Last year, the Cape May Tuna & Marlin Club won the tournament and early reports have over 28 boats venturing down from New Jersey to defend their title. Our guys have been on a roll lately, and I’ll go out on a limb and predict that the trophy will be coming back to Ocean City on Sunday. Best of luck to all of the anglers participating in the tournament.
