Article by Capt. Lance Smith
Flounder fishing in the bay has been abysmal for the last few weeks. Persistent south winds are keeping the water churned up and dirty. Flounder are sight feeders and anytime the water clarity is off the bite will suffer.
I personally can't remember the last time it was this bad for this long though! Don't get me wrong, there are certainly still flounder around, and if you put your time in they can be caught. Many people make the mistake of thinking that flounder fishing is over after Labor Day when the truth is that the best is yet to come. Soon, the flounder that have spent the summer in the back bay will begin staging around the Route 50 Bridge area in anticipation of their long trip out to the continental shelf to over-winter. Baitfish begin to do the same thing and the flounder gorge themselves. Flounder fishing in Ocean City can only get better so don't get discouraged and give up just yet.
When the conditions in the bay are lousy, like they are right now, with dirty water everywhere, there are some things you can do to improve your chances of putting some flatties in the boat. Firstly, find the cleanest water you possibly can. Keep in mind that you most likely won't find any gin clear spots. All you are looking for is water that is less dirty than the surrounding areas. A quality pair of polarized sunglasses are essential for this task and should be a part of every fisherman's arsenal. Many times, simply moving to the other side of a sandbar where the current may be slower, or where some man-made object is blocking the wind can put you on the fish. One of the best ways to learn how to spot water color changes is to spend some time up on the Route 50 Bridge. From this vantage point, you can clearly see all of the sandbars on both the north and south sides of the bridge, and you will notice how some areas are slightly bluer, or at least less brown than others.
Last week my father and I were drifting north of the bridge with some really beautiful live mullet that I had castnetted. I was hoping that some larger flounder would be hanging in the 20 to 25-foot depths around the area of the drawbridge opening. The tide was running out extremely hard and the water was heavily stained. After spending half an hour there with no bites, I carefully maneuvered the boat around the large sandbar that seperates the main East Channel from the area known as the "Fishbowl." The water in this area is much shallower, with twelve foot holes near the bridge fading into four to five foot deep flats to the north. The water was cleaner, the current was slower and we began to get a few bites. By the way, hooking a flounder on a 6 or 7-inch long mullet is akin to dropping back to white marlin. If you manage to actually hook fish on 1 out of every 4 bites you are doing well. The drop-back needed to allow the flounder time to eat your mullet can seem to last forever, especially on a strong running tide. Many times you will set the hook, only to end up winding in a mullet which has no scales and evenly spaced needle-like teeth marks. Standing as high as I could get, I noticed that the water further to the west was slightly cleaner than the water in the Fishbowl. To make a long story short, we moved to an area between Skimmer Island and the West Channel by Hoopers Restaurant and we began to catch some fish.
If I were fishing from shore in hopes of a flounder dinner, I would drive to at least three different possible locations before I ever put a hook in the water. Park, get out of the car and go for a walk first. Take note of the water clarity and look for schools of shiners on the surface. Sometimes you can barely see them and other times they will be visible a foot or more below the surface. Remember that the direction of the tide will always play a role in water color.
Water at the North Jetty can be brown on one tide and blue on another, so don't get stuck spending the whole day in one spot. In addition to finding the cleanest possible water, lure/bait clarity can make a difference when conditions are tough. Using a chartreuse or hot pink bucktail with a matching GULP! mullet can sometimes outfish the plain white lure/bait that many of us stick to. I have actually found that black can be a great choice of colors when the water is murky. Black lures can really stand out to a flounder when silhoutted against the sky.
When using bucktails or GULP! baits on leadheads, don't lift the rod tip quite as high during your jigging motion. Lifting your bait too far off the bottom can take you out of the fish's zone of vision. When using live baits, extra shiny fish like live mullet and peanut bunker are the way to go.
It's no secret that while flounder fishing in the bay is tough, flounder on the inshore wrecks, artificial reefs and shoals are snapping. This is a great time of year to hop on one of the many headboats in town and take a trip out for some doormats. If you have your own boat, make sure that you purchase one of the Ocean City Reef Foundation charts from a local tackle shop or at the Coastal Fisherman office. Many of the larger flounder offshore are hanging in fairly tight to bottom structure and being right on top of a piece of hard bottom will really increase your chances of snagging a big one.
While simply beginning a long drift in the general area of one of these reef sites may produce a few bites, your odds will definitely increase if you do some searching first. Spend some time circling the boat over your pre-determined GPS numbers with your eyes locked on the depth sounder. When you mark structure, save the exact location on your GPS.
A very helpful tool that I use on every wreck fishing trip is a marker buoy. Marker buoys can be bought from local tackle shops or can be handmade pretty simply. All that is required is a brightly colored bottle with a lid, enough crabbing twine to reach bottom, and a brick or two for weight. Drop the marker directly on top of the structure that you wish to fish and allow your vessel to drift away from the spot for 100 yards or so. Pay attention to the track on your GPS and you will know where to begin "down-drift" so that you pass your marker. I say "down-drift" because this concept is often very much different than down-wind or down-current. If you simply begin drifting down-wind of your marker, you may find that you pass no where near it because the underlying ocean currents are confounding your drift. After a few successive drifts, you may find that the fish are only biting when you are within a certain distance of your marker, or on one side of it or the other. Once you develop a pattern, you can make shorter and shorter drifts and really begin to pound the fish. Don't fall into the temptation of anchoring even though it may seem logical to remain right on top of the fish.
You will ALWAYS catch more flounder from a drifting boat than an anchored one.
While the inshore waters were incredibly blue and clear for most of the summer, the same persistent south winds that have muddied the bay have stirred up the nearshore bottom as well. If you begin your day on one of the sites closer to shore, such as Purnell's or Kelly's Reef, and find the water dirty and the bite slow, moving a few miles offshore to areas such as the Bass Grounds or African Queen can make a huge difference. When headed to the canyons, I am always amazed at the abrupt changes in water color at certain distances from shore. You can often see a defined change in color somewhere between two and six miles offshore and fishing the sites on the cleaner side is usually a good choice.
Flounder baits for ocean fishing are essentially the same as those you would use in the bay. Just increase the size a bit. Instead of using a half-ounce bucktail with a 3-inch GULP!
Swimming Mullet, move up to a 3 or 4 ounce bucktail with a 5-inch trailer. Make your strips of squid longer and try long tapered strips of fresh bluefish or sea robin. I have even found that 6 or 7-inch belly strips from mahi, wahoo and tuna are excellent baits. When your strip bait becomes tattered or sandy and discolored, change it out for a fresh one. If your bait looks shiny, clean and ready for you to eat, the flounder will appreciate it.
One of the most intriguing parts of fishing in the ocean for flounder is the variety of other species that can be caught. Sea bass, tautog and triggerfish are always a possibility as bycatch and their numbers will only increase in the next few weeks. If you happen to be lucky enough to catch your limit of flatties, having some sort of crab bait on hand is a great way to change the pace and keep on catching. Many times, triggerfish and tautog will be right under the marker buoy you set but have simply been ignoring your flounder baits. Holding the boat in position over the structure while a few anglers drop down live sand fleas or sections of green crab will quickly reveal if anybody is home. If the fish are there, you already know which direction the boat will lay when you set anchor and your previous drift speed will give you an indication of how far away to drop it.
Whether you choose to tough it out in the bay and hopefully scratch out dinner, or venture to the inshore wrecks and reefs, remember that no one is holding a knife to your throat and forcing you to stay in one spot. Fuel prices have come down a bit, so venturing across the bay or further offshore isn't quite as painful as it was last year. We could all use a little excercise, so walking from the tip of the North Jetty to the 2nd Street Bulkhead isn't going to kill you. In essence, don't settle and never give up. The fish are there and they have to feed eventually. Experiment with locations and lure colors and keep pounding away. Funny thing is, I just looked at the weather forecast and it looks like we may have an extended period of easterly winds! Hopefully by the time this column hits the streets, we will all be fishing in gin clear water reminiscent of the Bahamas and it will stay that way till November.
Lance Smith is an outdoor writer and Captain of his family’s boat, “Longfin”.
