Article by Capt. BJ Pietryak
Fishing this past week has been great! With less boat traffic and more fish around, now is the time to get out and catch a nice dinner or just enjoy a day on the water. Flounder in the back bays as well the near shore reef areas has been the best in years.
Flounder, Croaker & Bay Fish
Flounder in the back bays of Ocean City remains very good. The Bay Bee reports good catches on all of their day trips. Some nice flounder as well as schools of croaker can be found in many of the normal spots. The main channel along the Second Street Bulkhead is the hot spot this week with the channel near the airport as a close second. Many citation flounder are being caught on squid and minnow combos. Drifting a bucktail tipped with long squid strips is a good way to target big trophy flounder. Using this method will not give you the numbers of strikes as a smaller more traditional rig will, however, the fish you catch will be mostly larger citation size. When drifting bucktails or using a live spot for the bigger fish make sure you drop the bait back to the fish when you feel a bite to allow the fish to eat before setting the hook. Many of these big fish will nip at the back of the trailing bait before engulfing it. The area near the Verrazano Bridge is a great place to target croaker as well as lesser abundant species such as sea trout and redfish. Swimbaits or paddle tails are a great way to search the area for these fish. The local Roy Rig is also a great lure to throw when searching. A jerk jerk, pause, retrieve works the best and will draw the fish away from the structure of the bridge or away from the grassy shoreline. The redfish will search out the bottom for crabs and shrimp, so bouncing along the bottom will be the method for them. The sea trout will stay close to the bottom and watch as bait swims above darting out to attack it. Redfish and sea trout will remain strong now through the fall season. Many anglers overlook these fish as they are not a targeted fish by many in the summer. Many anglers don't realize that redfish and trout are readily available along the Rt. 50 Bridge as well as the Verrazano Bridge now through the end of November and after that can be found along the rocks of the inlet or around the pilings of the fishing pier.
Sea Bass & Near Shore Species
Sea bass remains very strong this year with anglers returning to the docks with multiple keepers or even limits. Normally this time of year even catching one or two keeper sea bass is hard to do. Last year as well as this year we are seeing multiple catches of not only keepers but big keepers. Many attribute this to the lack of fishing pressure last year during the Covid crisis. Victor Bunting on the Ocean Princess reports good catches of sea bass on all of his half day trips and very good catches with some limits on the 6 hour trips. The African Queen reef is the hotspot of the week. The cable piles are holding a ton of sea bass with large flounder along the sandy edges. Victor reports salted clam is his bait of choice with squid being a close second. Monty Hawkins on the Morning Star reports he has been adding concrete blocks and other reef structures to the Ocean City reefs. These reefs hold tons of fish in what would otherwise be a sandy dead area. Capt. Monty further reports that they are catching nice sea bass and flounder on most of their trips. Monty has also caught several nice mahi as well. The Angler and Judith M are also reporting many good trips with anglers slinging some nice fish over the rails. Deeper wrecks and snags near the Jack Spot and Great Eastern Reef are accounting for some big sea bass. Many of these deeper wrecks as well as the ones closer to shore are loaded with triggerfish this time of year. These fish are very tasty and have very nice white fillets that can be prepared in different ways. Small pieces of crab or squid chunks on a small circle hook are a good way to fool these fish. Once hooked, leave the fish in the water and more will follow it to the surface. This fish is one of the hardest ones to fillet and a very sharp knife will be dull after filleting just one. Using the fish fillet service at Sunset Marina is a great idea for those not wanting to try knife skills on their tough skin. The cutters are very experienced and will cut your fish for a reasonable charge. On the near shore humps the cobia have started to really bite. Chumming early in the morning or late in the evening is the best time to set up for this specie. Site casting while slowly motoring around the shoals just south of Ocean City is also a good strategy. Live eels will be the preferred bait but bucktails with an eel or worm off the back will also get the job done. Many sharks have now inhabited our waters with the warmer weather. Large dusky sharks as well as many other species can be caught while chumming for cobia.
Looking south from OC to Virginia, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel has tons of cobia that showed up in May and have simply not left. There are almost daily reports of trophy fish coming into Virginia tackle shops every day and Virginia has not seen this good a cobia catch in years. Makes you wonder what the fall rockfish season will be like. Looking back to the wrecks outside of OC, many are now loaded with sheepsheads. If you can find the correct wreck you can load up on these tasty critters. Shrimp or crab is the bait of choice.
Until next week...
Tight lines and fins up
