Article by Larry Jock
Welcome back to another year of the Coastal Fisherman. I wish we could say that the fishing season is starting off with a bang, but unfortunately the winter and early spring were unseasonably frigid, resulting cold water temperatures that have delayed the traditional start of our season.
How cold was the water? So cold that tautog weren’t even biting back in the early part of this year.
The cold and windy weather put an early end to our striper season in mid-January, but as you will see in the pages of this issue, we still saw some really nice fish caught after Christmas and into the very early part of January. This past season produced some of the largest stripers we have seen in many, many years. Unfortunately, it was difficult to get to them due to windy conditions and the Polar Vortex that brought record breaking cold weather to our region and absolutely crippled water temperatures.
While we are talking about striped bass, it is encouraging to hear that the Mid-Atlantic Marine Fisheries Council has asked a panel to look into the possibility of opening up the EEZ (3-200 miles) to catch and release striper fishing. Although many of us feel the time has come to abolish the 3-mile limitation all together, at least this is a start and possibly a foot in the door to getting it opened for good. Like I have said in the past, it doesn’t make sense to close a fishery based on science and not open it based on science.
Another change on the regulation front came with the creation of 4 regions for flounder management. Delaware, Maryland and Virginia are now in the same region so we will all share identical flounder regulations for the season. This makes a ton of sense and keeps us from paying a penalty for overages from coastal states north of the Delaware Bay.
There has also been a change to sea bass regulations as well. The season, which starts up on May 19th, will allow anglers to keep fish that are 12 1/2-inches or greater, but the number of fish you can keep dropped from 20 to 15 and we lost 5 days of the season. Sea bass management is a mess, and there isn’t enough room in this column to get into it.
Now, onto the report…
Flounder fishing is just starting to see some life as water temperature in the bay creeps up into the mid-to-high 50’s at low tide. This past weekend we saw a couple of flatties end up in coolers from anglers fishing in the Thorofare and behind Harbor Island. Jack Kaeufer boated a nice 20-incher on Saturday while drifting a Timmons’ Tempter in 59-degree water at the end of the outgoing tide behind Harbor Island. An angler on the charter boat, “Get Sum” landed a 16-incher just north in the Thorofare.
Tautog fishing in the bay has mainly centered along the stretch of rocks off Martha’s Landing. I have received a few emails asking for the exact location of this spot. Martha’s Landing is a neighborhood in West Ocean City that borders the west side of the bay between the Ocean City Inlet and the opening to the Ocean City Fishing Center. You will find boats anchored along the rocks that butt up against the big houses along the bay.
Tog fishing has also been fairly productive over the last couple of weeks for those fishing off the bulkhead that runs between 2nd and 4th Streets in the East Channel. As always, green crabs have been the top bait.
Head boats have returned with some nice blackfish from ocean structure when conditions have allowed them to venture outside the inlet. Site 11, the Jackspot and the African Queen have all produced fish for the cooler.
The surf bite off Assateague Island continues to be slow with water temperatures hovering around 50-degrees. Although prime conditions for skates, only an occasional striper and black drum have been caught. Lang at Buck’s Place said that there was good action for a pair of anglers who fished from the beach on Sunday. They reported a steady striper bite at the mid-day low tide. Most of the fish were in the 20-inch range but one of the anglers did land a nice 39-incher on fresh bunker.
On Sunday, May 4th, the Ocean City Reef Foundation is hosting their annual dinner. This year it will be held at the Ocean City Marlin Club and is limited to the first 144 attendees. There will be some great prizes and auctions, so please mark it on your calendar and support this awesome event.
I’ll see you at the door!
