Article by Larry Jock
What an incredible long weekend of fishing, highlighted by the first white marlin of the season released by Anthony Pino on the “Marli”. The marlin was hooked outside the Rockpile, where most boats had their sights set on yellowfin tuna. This is the earliest recorded catch of the first white marlin of the season. Ironically, it beats the June 1st catch made on the “Enticer” back in 2002 with Capt. Brian Porter at the wheel, the same captain who was on the “Marli” last Sunday.
Tuna
Outside of the white marlin release, the star of the weekend was the arrival of yellowfin tuna. Boats returned on Saturday and Sunday with good numbers of yellowfins in the box in addition to large numbers of releases. The better bite was definitely on Saturday, when boats arrived back from outside the Rockpile with a bluefin tuna and high single digit catches of yellowfins. The “Restless Lady”(6), “Always Late” (8), “Reel Naughty (7) and “Grande Pez” (9) all had good days trolling for yellowfins.
On Sunday, we didn’t see the strong numbers of yellowfins caught like the day before, but the “Marli” really got on them, hooking 40 while trolling between 100 and 300 fathoms outside the Rockpile. The “Jade II” also had a good day, capturing 6 yellowfins and releasing 30 outside the Rockpile.
Quite a few boats returned with the allowable 1 bluefin tuna with many reporting multiple releases.
On Saturday, the “Grande Pez” reportedly landed a 115 lb. bigeye tuna and another boat captured 3 around the 461 Lump. Hopefully, we will have pictures of those catches for next week’s issue.
Bluefish
The 2nd Annual Ocean City Marlin Club Memorial Day Bluefish Tournament was held on Friday and Saturday. Friday’s action was slow with only 2 boats weighing fish. The “Reel Estate” boated a 13.4 lb. chopper at the Hambone that ended up tying for 1st place in the tournament. On Saturday, quite a few bluefish hit the scales, led by the 13.4 pounder caught on the “Big Herring” that tied for 1st place. The fish was also caught at the Hambone.
By far, the majority of the big bluefish we saw this weekend were caught at the Hambone. Others were caught at the Fingers, Sausages, Hot Dog and Chicken Bone.
As we have been reporting for the last month, smaller snapper bluefish are still roaming the bay around the Rt. 50 Bridge. Anglers are having the best results when tossing small lures towards the end of the incoming tide.
Sharks
Just in time for next week’s Mako Mania Shark Tournament at Bahia Marina, we are beginning to see some makos and threshers hit the scale.
The wildest catch of the week had to be the 470 lb. thresher shark that was caught on Sunday by anglers fishing at the Fingers on a 22-foot Sea Ray. The fish obviously wouldn’t fit in the cockpit of the boat, so it had to be dragged all the way to Sunset Marina.
Also on Sunday, the “Reel Serenity” returned with a 197 lb. mako shark hooked on a bluefish fillet at the Fingers. The “Cheryl Lynn” also weighed a mako shark that was caught on a mackerel at the Marine Electric. This mako tipped the scales at 133 lbs. The last mako weighed on Sunday came in on the “10-Seven” when the anglers returned from southeast of the Jackspot with a 224 pounder. Capt. Mike Riley reported water temperatures hovering around 66-degrees.
Striped Bass
Over the long weekend, there was a tremendous striper bite around the South Jetty, although the vast majority of fish were too small to keep. Drifting over the tip with live bait was definitely the trick with several boats reporting hook-ups on every drift. The charter boats, “Get Sum” and “Skip’s Charter & Guide Service” had several good trips during the last week, returning with good numbers of keepers in the box and plenty of action for their customers with 20+ throwbacks per trip. Angler Dave McKay told me that he got worn out after a couple of hours tossing a white bucktail tipped with a white worm at the rocks and hooking up on almost every cast.
Sea Bass
Anglers are ecstatic about the opening of the 2011 sea bass season on May 22nd and are hitting the ocean reefs and wrecks like crazy.
Headboats are returning with good numbers of sea bass caught on clams and squid.
We also saw some really nice size sea bass, highlighted by the 6 lb. 4 oz. knothead landed by Ricky Herbert on Wednesday during a trip aboard the “Morning Star”. Ricky hooked the fish on a diamond jig at a natural reef.
A couple other big sea bass were caught over the weekend when, on Saturday, Dae Kim boated a 4 lb. 1 oz. sea bass after hooking it on a squid and Gulp! combination at a natural reef. Then on Sunday, Jeff Lin captured a 5 lb. 12 oz. beauty on a chunk of clam at an ocean wreck.
Tautog
With most anglers now targeting sea bass, the number of tautog hitting the scales has definitely decreased. The two largest tog weighed this week were Secarr Fullenwilder’s 12.7 pounder caught on Friday at an ocean wreck aboard the “OC Girl” and Melanie Hohrein’s 11 pounder caught on Saturday while fishing on the “Morning Star”.
Flounder
We didn’t see a lot of flounder caught this past week, but we certainly saw a few really nice fish. One thing I have noticed this year is that the flounder are fat! Anglers are still reporting a lot of throwbacks which is surprising since the minimum size was reduced to 18-inches. As proof of this claim, on Saturday the “Bay Bee” had over 60 throwbacks!
The largest flattie we have seen in Ocean City this year was caught on Saturday by Bob Spetzler while fishing from the 4th Street Bulkhead. Bob hooked the fish on a live minnow at the beginning of the outgoing tide. Earlier in the week, Tom Walas caught a 26-inch, 6 lb. 12 oz. flounder on a bridge spreader bar while fishing off of the Rt. 50 Bridge and on Thursday, Noel Cook was drifting a minnow in the Thorofare when he boated a 26 incher that weighed in at 6 lbs. 1 oz.
The best baits to use seem to be live minnows, shiners and the Gulp! artificial baits (swimming mullet) with fishing in the East Channel, Thorofare and around the Rt. 90 Bridge affording anglers the best shot at a keeper.
In the Surf
After a spectacular spring run, action off the beaches is beginning to slow although anglers are still catching a few large stripers with some black drum, snapper bluefish, kingfish, skates and sharks mixed in.
This weekend is the 15th Annual Mid-Atlantic Mako Mania Shark Tournament held at Bahia Marina. This is the first shark tournament of the year and always provides a lot of excitement for spectators. Weigh-in’s are Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm.
Bahia Marina always does a great job hosting tournaments and is a great place for spectators to view some awesome catches. It is also an excellent tournament for kids since they get up close to some big sharks.
See you at the scales.
