Article by Larry Jock
Announcement
Friends of local angler and commercial diver Jimmy Jackson, who passed away this year, have arranged for a photographer to be available at the Ocean City Marlin Club on Saturday, June 26th at 4:30 pm. Jimmy was known for his artwork and duck decoys, and friends are working on an album featuring Jimmy’s work that they plan to give to his parents. If you own any of Jimmy’s work, his friends are asking you to bring it to the Marlin Club so a picture of it can be taken.
It was a crazy week of fishing in Ocean City. Between the Ocean City Shark Tournament and a good yellowfin tuna bite, there was a lot of action at the docks.
Shark Tournament
The 30th Annual Ocean City Shark Tournament really started with a bang when the first three boats to arrive at the scales weighed mako sharks over 200 lbs. The heaviest, and the eventual tournament winner, was the 471 pounder caught on the “All In” with Capt. Chad Meeks at the helm. The crew caught the beast in 250 fathoms, outside the Poor Man’s Canyon. Capt. Chad reported a crazy scene at the boat when the mako, still pretty green, went through 5 gaffs before they got it under control.
As you can imagine, when this large of a mako is weighed on the first day of the tournament, it really changes the strategy of the other contestants, so days two and three were dominated by bluefish and anglers looking to win the Open Division with a nice thresher or blue shark.
As always, the final day of the tournament was exciting when the “Rain-E-Daze” weighed a 13.3 lb. bluefish to win 1st in the Bluefish Division and the “Reel Instigator” threw a 248 lb. mako shark on the scale to snag 3rd place in the Mako Division.
Overall, the tournament was up 9 boats over last year with 4 more sharks weighed and 10 more sharks released. The release percentage for this year’s tournament ended up at 89%.
Sharks
Surprisingly, catches of thresher sharks continues to be slow, but we did see some nice makos caught this week. Most of the bites came in around the Hot Dog/Sausages/Fingers triangle, but we also saw a few caught down by the Parking Lot.
The largest thresher in the tournament was brought in by the “Teaser”. It was caught in renowned thresher territory, “B” Buoy, or as some refer to it, “DB” Buoy, located in the Delaware Bay’s Southern Shipping Channel off Indian River.
Almost all of the sharks were caught by anglers using either whole or strips of mackerel or bluefish.
Bluefish
Speaking of bluefish, choppers hit the scales hard at the Shark Tournament. The winning 13.3 pounder was caught at the “Rain-E-Daze” honey hole, north of Massey’s Canyon.
Bluefish are known to be voracious eaters, but I have never seen so many big bluefish being caught by anglers using whole bluefish for bait. Granted, most of these were caught by those looking to hook a shark, but still, a bluefish eating another whole bluefish. Amazing!
Tuna
Heading into the weekend, it looked like we were going to have another excellent run of tuna fishing.
On Thursday, the “Marli” arrived at Sunset Marina with 17 yellowfins in the box, caught in 100 fathoms north of the Washington Canyon. Capt. Brian reported pulls between the 850 and 960 lines. Also on Thursday, the “Reel Naughty” boated 5 yellowfins while trolling ballyhoo in 80 fathoms on the south end of the Poor Man’s Canyon. Capt. George reported that the yellowfins were thick, and had 8 attack their baits at one time.
Friday was the best day of the week with numerous boats returning with good catches of yellowfins, averaging around 35 lbs. Most of the boats spent the day trolling on the north end of the Washington Canyon. The “Zipper” and the “Pretty Work” led the way with 12 yellowfins each followed by the “Marli” with 11 yellowfins caught on the south end of Poor Man’s Canyon. The “Moore Bills” (8), “Bill$ 4 Bills” (4), “Lady Luck” (6) and the “Last Call” (4) followed closely behind.
Unfortunately, the bite on Saturday and Sunday was nowhere near as good as on Friday, with only a few boats hooking up with yellowfins.
Flounder
Fishermen are continuing to weed through a lot of throwbacks to catch their keeper. To give you a feel for the situation, the “Bay Bee” had 130 throwbacks during their 4 hour morning trip on Wednesday and another 144 throwbacks on Saturday.
The largest flattie we saw this week was the 28-incher caught by Capt. Jack Kaeufer on the “Gotcha”. Jack hooked the fish on an Assateague Deadly Double rig tipped with a minnow in the East Channel.
There were a few spots where anglers were able to land a keeper flounder. The East Channel near the Cement Plant, the Fishbowl, the deep holes in the Inlet at the north end of Assateague Island and in the bay behind the Ocean City?Airport were the top spots this week.
Over the weekend, some anglers got into a good number of flatties while drifting on the outside of the South Jetty, although it was almost impossible to get a keeper from around the rocks.
Anglers using squid and shiners have had the best luck followed by those using bull minnows and Gulp! artificial baits.
Sea Bass
Fishing for sea bass has been hit or miss. Most days, as Capt. Monty on the “Morning Star” reports, the black bass are “holding tight, hiding in the reefs”. Other days they are higher in the water column, feeding on “whatever drifts by”.
I have received reports from several anglers that the Great Eastern Reef has been a good spot to pick up a sea bass and even an occasional flounder.
Striped Bass
We continue to see stripers being caught in the Inlet, around the Rt. 50 Bridge and at the tip of the South Jetty. Most are too small to keep, but we did see a few larger fish caught like the 38-incher boated by Frank Lynch.
Over the weekend, anglers were having luck snagging bunker that had entered our bay and using the live bait to catch stripers in the Inlet. If you don’t have live bunker, then live spot, Storm lures or just a red and white bucktail tipped with a curly tail will do the trick.
Triggerfish
Some triggerfish were caught during the week with “Skip’s Charter & Guide Service” returning with the best catch of the week, nailing 10 triggers at the South Jetty on Friday. The fish were caught on sand fleas.
Tournaments
This weekend we have 2 tournaments on the schedule. The Ocean City Small Boat Tournament will be held on Saturday and Sunday with weigh-ins at Sunset Marina from 3:00 to 6:30 pm.
Also on the schedule is the M.S.S.A. Tuna-Ment on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Weigh-ins will also be held at Sunset Marina.
These are both good tournaments, so come on out and watch the weigh-ins.
See you at the scales!
