Article by Capt. BJ Pietryak
This past week saw Ocean City with minimal traffic on the water. The lessening of boat and bank anglers made the back bay areas much easier to fish. The near shore waters were productive with several unique species coming back to the docks including barracuda and moonfish.
Near Shore Wrecks & Reefs
The artificial reefs have been hit hard during the summer months resulting in a smaller amount of keeper fish, however the slower week allows the wrecks to refill with fish. Anglers found the fish more willing to bite as well as being of a better size class. The African Queen site remains your hot spot with some decent sea bass catches as well as flounder. Justin Mazurek, Stacey Sullivan and Aubrey from PA caught 6 keeper flounder at the African Queen on the charter “Grim Reaper” with captain J.D. Eddy. Matt Seeley, Dave Seeley, Chris Binder and Jonathan Drake from NY were out at the twin wrecks bringing home 15 keeper sea bass with numerous throwbacks. Chase Porter was out at the Bass Grounds trolling for spanish mackerel and was rewarded with numerous ribbonfish. Capt. Chris Mizurak of the “Angler“ headboat reported that minus a few sloppy sea conditions on a few mornings, they had some nice catches of keeper sea bass. Clam and squid are catching about the same now with sand fleas doing just a little better. They also hooked several nice trophy flounder. Gulp and long strips of squid account for the majority of these fish.
“Bottom Bouncer Fishing” reports the ribbon fish are still chewing and they appear to have them dialed in. Many times they’re finding it hard to get away from them!
Kevin McNelis went out with his dad and was rewarded with his father catching his personal best fluke measuring 23”. Kevin states even though they brought home a limit, watching his father bring in the big one made it his best trip this year. McNelis is another name we have seen several times this past summer. It's great to see these fine anglers who remain so consistent in their catches. When looking for your restock of lures and baits, Atlantic Tackle reported they just restocked their Ottertails and added some new rattletail as well as Cobia Crushers to their shop. Ottertail are often hard to find but work really well for deeper flounder. Many of us get stuck using the same Gulp baits on our rigs, however I have found that changing it up every once in a while to a bait like Ottertails can really spark a bite. The fish have seen so many Gulp baits go by their faces at this time of the year and a new eel type tail may be just the ticket.
Out at the Old Grounds, Gary Chandler was fishing on the “Flip N Fins” boat with Capt. Rich Harpel catching some nice flounder up to 6 lbs. with squid and cut bluefish.
Jeremy Michalski and Cameron Ball had a great day of fishing on “Tipsy Tiki”, boating 10 keeper fluke as well as 5 keeper sea bass.
Ocean City fishing report had a new species reported when 3 Atlantic Moonfish were caught last week. Moonfish are usually a more southern fish and often found in around 300 feet of water. They eat various foods but their main staple is crustaceans such as sand fleas and small crabs. Moonfish do enter brackish water and school near the surface at certain times of the year.
Capt. Monty Hawkins of the “Morning Star” also had a strange catch last week when they boated a tripletail. Many anglers in Florida target these fish on a daily basis however, they are only seen in our waters on very warm summers and even then, only one or two are ever caught. Talk about a great catch and even better table fare!
A rarely seen barracuda was caught on the surf this past week on chunk bait. Barracuda are seen in our waters each year but this 25 incher is much bigger than we usually see.
Down south just over the Virginia line I know of a lot of big ones being caught including local Tim Tribbits and his 100 plus pounder he caught a few weeks ago. Tim and Tyler were also out this week in Oyster, with 6 year old Hobie Savage from Lewes DE and Hobie caught a citation 25”, 10 lb. 2 oz. sheepshead caught at the CBBT.
Bay Area
Joan Martin of Plymouth Meeting, PA caught a nice 20.5” flatfish along with a second keeper at the Rt. 90 Bridge using minnows under the guidance of captain Carlo Augustine.
7 year old Cole Domin was also fishing above the Rt. 90 Bridge and returned with a big 9” croaker. The fish was caught on bloodworm Fishbites. He was aboard his dad’s boat the “C Side' out of Sunset Marina. Behind Assateague Island, young Don Martz was able to bring in a nice 17” fluke. Once again the kids are showing the adults how it's done! Jack Harris caught a nice 19” fish on a live bunker drifting at the entrance to OC. Tanner Adkins was near the Rt. 50 Bridge and pulled in a trophy 28.5”, 6.9 lb. weakfish. Tanner was using a live mullet. We don't see many big weakfish like this as often as we did years ago. Great hook up Tanner!
Clams & Crabs
Crabbing remains good but slowed down a bit last week with averages being around 8-10 keepers per pot with fresh bunker being the best bait. Behind Assateague Island the clamming has been good with clams shallow in the sandy bottom, however most are very large and good only for soup and stuffed clams.
Until next week...
Tight lines and fins up §
