Ocean City Maryland & Assateague Island – Delaware Beaches – Ocean n Bay Fishing Report
By Sue Foster, Oyster Bay Tackle Shop, Ocean City MD – Fenwick Island DE
June 17th, 2013
Water Temp: 64.6
Fishing Report by Sue Foster
Flounder fishing in the bay has been hit or miss with the weather. First
reports of croaker in the bay. Mostly small fish in the surf including
kingfish, spot, and croaker. If you want to catch something big in the
surf there's sharks and rays! Oceanic Pier saw the first triggerfish of
the season. Blues, shad, trout, and some striper action at night from
the Oceanic Pier and Bridge. Sea bass fishing is good offshore. Crabs
are showing up the bay.
Oyster Bay is now open summertime hours 6 A.M. till 10 P.M. daily.
Fenwick Tackle is open 7 A.M. till 10 P.M. Daily. E-mail Sue Foster
at: Oyster Bay Tackle.
The online mall is open.
We sell MD licenses and 2013 boat stickers at our Oyster Bay and
Fenwick Tackle locations. De Licenses are sold at our DEL location.
IF YOU WANT A BOAT FISHING LICENSE PLEASE TELL US THAT WHEN YOU GET
TO THE COUNTER. Voids are no joy! For DEL boat fishing licenses you
MUST bring in a current boat registration and a driver's license. (For
MD boat stickers, all you need is a driver's license.)
MD fishing licenses are really quick and easy once you're in the system.
If you have last year's license, bring it in with you, and all we have
to do is punch in the DNR ID number Otherwise, bring in your Driver's
License.
BTW, There's a mistake in the MD Fishing Guide about clamming. If you
are out of state it IS legal for you to catch clams in Worcester Co. The
state fixed the mistake online, but of course, thousands of Guides were
already printed! I have had several e-mails about this.
The Bulkhead at 2nd thru 4th Street is open and anglers caught some
legal flounder and tautog from the bulkhead this week. You can fish
here without a MD license but you still need to obtain a free registry.
We can do that for you at Oyster Bay Tackle or call 1-855-855-3906.
The Ocean Pier is another place you can fish without a MD License. If
you fish the Ocean Pier they will register you for you. You do have to
pay a fee to fish the pier. The pier this week caught bluefish, spot,
croaker, sharks, rays, and even some speckled trout!
2013Tide Charts are now available in our stores and online. Go to our website and click on
More Fishing Info.
Flounder season is now open in MD- Minimum Size - 16" Creel - 4 fish
open all year.
New Ocean City chart by Capt Seagull available:
Buy at Oyster Bay Tackle or online. The bay portion of this chart is a
little small, but it shows the nearshore Reef Sites with numbers.
2013 White Marlin Open T's are here! Instore or Online. (We also got some tank tops in our stores.)
>
2013 Shark T's! In store or on Online. We also have the 2013 Shark Tank Tops.
Got a few left. Get them quick.
Stopping in to Oyster Bay Tackle or Fenwick Tackle? Clip out a coupon
for xtra savings! Coupons
Surf fishing was up and down with the wind this week. There were several
days that you just couldn't hold bottom! I had one report from an angler
on Friday night that he caught lots of kingfish just before dark on
Fishbite Bloodworms. After dark he caught a nice shark. There were also
some spot, blowfish, sea trout, flounder and just a few bluefish
reported. It's summertime fishing so be sure to grab kingfish rigs and
either Fishbite Bloodworms or real bloodworms along with some kind of
cut bait. Put a little of both on the same hook. We call that a sandwich
bait! Works great.
Jollywan posted on Stripers Online on the 15th: "Fished in and around
Lewes, got croaker to a solid 15". Saw a couple short trout and short
stripers caught."
"PukeNukem" posted on 15th as well "Fishing was alright this week but
kinda slow for bigger game. Fishing all night for the last day 4 or 5
days... Blues, sting rays, and shad off the 50 bridge been seeing some
massive rays and sharks down there as well. I had something break my
50lb braid on a 20 min fight the other night there as well. Fishing
around Delaware bridges was ok had a couple black drum 19 and around 25
in but that guy fell down as I had him to the top of the railing. In
Cape Henlopen DE killin it at night last night around 50 croaker, 10
weakfish, a couple flounder, and a baby blacktip shark."
Denny Gopear of Lewisberry, Pa fished morning low tide off of 129th
street on the 16th, caught 1 20" striper on squid on a misscast in the
breakers. Fished the evening incoming tide on the 16th 1 small croaker
and 1 34" dogfish on squid. Not much going on.
Ron Kerston sent me his blow by blow report from this weekend: "We came
to Ocean City in search of the bluefish that were roaming the bay prior
to the tropical storm. Unfortunately, we arrived on Saturday right
after the storm blew through town. I thought for sure the bay water off
the Route 50 bridge would be dirty, but to our surprise, it was
fishable. I was not the cleaner green water we’ve seen at times, but it
was fishable. We ran into some shad on Saturday and Sunday night.
However, I was really impressed with the striper bite on both nights,
especially Saturday night. The striper bite began as the tide began to
change around 6:00 p.m. Since the blues were scarce that night, we
decided to give the stripers a try. We used the swim shad lures. We
hooked several big fish, but since our gear was for smaller bluefish, we
only brought a few over the rails, but we must have seen at least twenty
stripers caught. By the time twilight rolled around, the bite stopped,
but it was fun while it lasted. On Sunday evening, the water became
cleaner. The birds were quite active, starting at about an hour before
dark. We caught a few blues, but the catch was mostly shad. We fished
again on the incoming tide on Monday morning. The water was a really
nice green color. The blues began to bite about two hours into the
tide. We had some really good action on blues from 15 to about 20
inches long for about 1 to 2 hours on both sides of the bridge. They
stopped biting at about 11 a.m., but by then it was time to leave
anyway."
We at Oyster Bay Tackle took pictures of several fish this week:
Jimmy Monceaux of Ocean City, MD came in with a 16 1/4 inch tautog
caught on sand fleas on the outgoing tide from the bulkhead between 2nd
and 3rd Street on Saturday. He caught 7 total, eight inches and up.
Ed Bush from Selbyville, Delaware caught another Black Drum at 21
inches and weighed in at 3.75 pounds using Sand Fleas as bait near RT
54 in Delaware.
Last Monday afternoon, Bob Pino from Centerville, Md and Perry Toskov
from Glen Burnie, Md fished near the RT 90 Bridge using Live Minnows
fishing for Flounder when Perry and came up with a nice 29 inch
Bluefish, weighing in at 6.5 pounds. The guys had one throw back
Flounder and a Skate during their trip.
Harry Still of Boiling Springs, PA came in to Oyster Bay with a 20 3/4
inch flounder weighing 3.3 pounds, caught on live minnows on the
incoming tide with Capt Jeff Grimes on the HellBent Charters on
Saturday.
On Wed, Ed Bush of Selbyville, DE came into Fenwick Tackle with 2 black
drum (19") and one red drum (20") caught from the Fenwick Ditch on the
morning tide on grass shrimp.
If you want to catch grass shrimp you need to buy a fine mesh net and
scoop next to pilings.
On Sunday, Father and Son duo Dave Beach Sr from Fallston, Md and Dave
Beach Jr from Ocean City, Md, Maryland fished for Flounder around the
Bulkhead on 2nd St during both Tides. They fished incoming and
outgoing tides using Live Mullet and Peanut Bunker and caught a couple
of good looking Flatties. The Flounder were 21.5 inches and 19 inches
weighing in at 4 pounds and 3 pounds.
These pictures are in our Inshore Photo Gallery.
Ed's pictures are in our Delaware Photo Gallery.
Many anglers ask about reading the beach when surf fishing. "Poppy" a
very good angler has posted another very good description with pictures
on Stripers Online. Check it out: Reading the Beach He draws it out
completely! If you're not catching fish in the surf, you need to study
this!
Our online mall is now open and we have:
Trailhead Tire Deflators! We also carry the Oasis Trailhead brand.
Surf Packages, complete with sinkers. (Also flounder, Aqua-Clear, Swim
Shad, and Got-cha Plug Packages.)
J.J. from the Oceanic Pier (410-289-2602) reported hit or miss flounder
fishing. Croakers hit the pier this week. Anglers also started catching
little sea bass along with spot. Yea! The first triggerfish were
reported as well. At night the pier saw shad and blues on either tide,
and sea trout on the incoming tide. They did pretty good a couple nights
on the trout. Spec Rigs and Gotcha Plugs work at night. (You do not
need a fishing license to fish the Oceanic Pier.)
Larry Jock of the Coastal
Fisherman reports on Saturday: "The charter boat, "Get Sum"
returned from their morning trip with 4 keeper flounder (largest
21.5-inches). All were caught on Gulp! Swimming Mullets at the South
Jetty during the outgoing tide. Water temp was 62-degrees.
Head boat, "Bay Bee" had 4 keeper flounder during their morning trip.
Fish were caught right outside the Ocean City Fishing Center in the West
Channel. Largest measured 20 1/4-inches.
Dan Leonard and Brian Schmidhauser caught 2 flounder (17" & 20") by the
duck blinds on Gulp! and minnows.
Anglers on the "Islander" had a couple of big sea bass (3 lbs. 15 oz & 4
lbs. 9 oz.) caught at the Twin Wrecks on clams. They also released a
small tiger shark and a small mako.
Head boat, "Flounder Pounder" brought back a pair of flounder from their
morning trip. Fish measured 18 and 21-inches. Caught in the East Channel
on squid and shiners."
Jeff Grimes Of Helbent Charters reports on the 16th: "I just wanted to
let you know we fished 8 hours last Saturday and we had one keeper
Flounder. We were forced to fish the out going tide which lasted all
morning. The water in the inlet and out behind the island all the way
back up to the campground was very dirty. We fished in both those areas
with no luck. The other thing was the water depths out in both those
areas has changed. The inlet at low tide was 30 feet all the way out and
almost all the way to the south jetty. The other area that was a big
change from last year was the out side of the commercial harbor near the
sunken ship New Hope at the end of the dock. You used to be able to
drift to within about 20 feet of the boat and now you can only get
within 50 yards of the boat. That area really filed in. We had no choice
but to fish the Captain Hill area all afternoon to stay out of the wind
and there is where we caught our one keeper Flounder. We saw no other
fish caught all day so the bite was very slow. The bay and especially
the inlet was covered with large rays. They were everywhere and we only
hooked one all day we saw hundreds of rays on the surface and heaven
only knows how many more under the surface. The wind made for a tough
day and Sunday had even more wind projected do it was a no go on Sunday.
Live bait was the choice over Gulp on Saturday. Lets hope once again for
the winds lay down. I booked several trips in the past week so do not be
disappointed and book your trip by calling me at 717-574-4010 or contact
me at helbentcharters@hotmail.com. Check out my website at
helbentcharters.com. See you on the water!
Dave Beall of Dave's Delmarva First Mate Service reported on the 16th:
"I had a great week of fishing this past week at IRI. Flounder and Trout
on the Ebb tide and Stripers on the Flood tide. Best baits are 1 to 3
oz. Bucktails for Rockfish and Gulp, Bass Assassins and small jigs
worked best for the Trout and Flounder. I like to use a 30 to 40 # shock
tip and using a Sebile Knot to attach the shock tip to my main line
instead of a swivel but 15 to 20# for Trout and Flounder. I also use
different scents on my lures based on what the lure is supposed to
imitate. All the fish that I caught were tight to the rocks and the bite
lasted well into the daylight hours. When you look for the fish, you
have to work the rocks. Fish a spot for 10 to 15 minutes and if you
don't get bites move 15 to 20 feet away. The technique is to Cast up
current so that your bait gets to the strike zone on the drift before it
gets to where you are standing. To figure out where the strike zone is,
you have to methodically pick out a land mark on the opposite shoreline
to cast to. Be sure to let your bait sink until you feel it hit the
bottom and then pick up your line so that you can stay in touch with
your bait as the current brings the bait back to you. The discipline is
to remember where you casted to so if you get a bite then you'll
remember where to cast back to so that you get another bite. The speed
of the current will determine the weight of the lure that you use and
the slower you move your bait the better. After a while you will get a
rhythm that will help you keep you from getting hung up on the rocks.
The flounder that I have seen have been bigger this week with many in
the 20+ inch range. There have been quite a few keeper rockfish as well.
It appears that the arrival of the spot has had an effect on the number
of fish. Have a GREAT WEEK, Dave." Check out his new web site.
Flounder and Surf, Rig and Lure Packages, Selection of Swimming Shads or Gotcha Plugs!
Homeowners are catching blue crabs behind their houses. (You can
handline or use traps at the Northside Park at 125th Street.)
Capt. Monty on the "
Morning Star sends us his update and comments on June 7th:
"Sailing Everyday Reservations For Sea Bass Trips at 410 - 520 -
2076. See much more info at http://morningstarfishing.com Regular 8 Hr
trips $110.00 - 7AM to 3PM – Saturdays 6AM to 3:30PM - $125.00 LEAVE
YOUR BEST POSSIBLE CONTACT NUMBER - Weather Cancelations Are (far too!)
Common - I Make Every Attempt To Let Clients Sleep In If The Weather's
Not Going Our Way..
Be A Half Hour Early - We Like To Leave Early. Clients Arriving Late
Will See The West End Of An East Bound Boat..
5,020 'Oyster Castle' Reef Blocks By The Rail — 1,498 @ Jimmy's Reef —
Now 496 @ Ake's Reef And Growing..
Hi All, It was comforting to come across a section of reef & paint many
sea bass 10 to 30 feet up in the water on my depth sounders; great to
see schools of cbass up off the bottom. When we anchored they followed
our baits down and CHEWED for a while. Happened a couple times this
week. Nice. Everyone likes drop & reel fishing — especially the
captain.. Mostly though we're still, and will remain, working for a
catch. Sending very nearly everyone home with dinner plus a few. Every
once in a while someone will push into the high teens. Catching a lot of
fish & keeping dinner.
Did have a young man catch two flounder. One was a keeper, the first
filleted on my rig this year. Hoping for a good season on
fluke/flounder. Should start biting well in a few weeks.
Still seeing a couple ling (red hake) almost every day. That's a huge
increase from recent years past. Scientists blame our region's ling
demise on climate change. Odd: I think water's warming is mostly up-top
thus far – on the surface; that we often have cooler than average bottom
temps as ice-melt waters seep low & south.. Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net Partyboat Morning Star
http://morningstarfishing.com Ocean City, MD"
Go to " Morning Star to read Capt Monty's entire newsletter...
E-mail Capt Monty at: Capt
Monty about upcoming trips or to subscribe to his newsletter:
mhawkins@mediacombb.net
Capt. Monty Hawkins mhawkins@siteone.net Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservation Line 410 520 2076 http://www.morningstarfishing.com/
Watch the weather.
Help and Donate to the Ocean City Reef Foundation! http://www.ocreeffoundation.com/
It's a 501c3 tax deductable .org
Joe at Lewes Harbour Marina (302-645-6227) reports on June 15th: "June 13, 2013 - New
Flounder Regs The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission approved
a coastwide recreational summer flounder harvest limit that allowed for
changes in Delaware's flounder regulations. As of June 11, anglers
catching summer flounder in Delaware waters will be able to retain
smaller fish, with no closed season. Under previous regs, legal
flounder had to be at least 18 inches long. The new minimum size is 17
inches, and anglers may keep four fluke per day. This should mean more
in the box for summertime fishermen, and less wear and tear on the
flounder population, since anglers won't have to cull through and
handle as many fish prior to releasing them if they don't meet minimum
size. Flatties continued to come from Lewes Canal and Broadkill River.
Terry Euston and Scott Proctor stopped by with 5 nice keepers caught
with smelts and chartreuse Gulp!. Chris Teeter was casting a chartreuse
Gulp! from Lewes Beach when he connected with a 4.4 pound flounder and
a 15 inch trout. Delaware Bay structure is also yielding some flatfish.
Captain Brent's afternoon group put three in the box yesterday, along
with a bunch of croakers, while working reef 5. Matt Adams managed the
largest flounder, which weighed in at 4.63 pounds. The resurgence of
weakfish has been a bright spot this spring, and many good sized trout
have come from the same spots that produced years ago. The submerged
jetties at Roosevelt, the Ferry Wall and Inner Wall were likely haunts.
Soft artificials like Gulp!, Bass Assassins and paddletail worms were
effective offerings. Francis Walsh was tossing a Pink Ghost Bass
Assassin Shad at the Ferry Wall when he hooked a beautiful 4.05 pound
weakie. Dustin Schell captured a 4.1 pound seatrout while working a jig
and bunker strip combo from a pier inside Cape Henlopen. Kingfish are
another Bay species that seem to more plentiul this year. Numerous
kings have been caught on live bottom in The Shears and on the Coral
Beds, and also from Broadkill Beach. Bloodworms, Fishbites and bits of
clam were favorite baits. Patrons on the Angler headboat have done well
with kings, returning with buckets of the tasty panfish. The Bay is
also holding plenty of spot, croakers and blowfish. These should offer
great action for anglers of all skill levels this summer, especially
kids. Some uncommon species have made an early appearance in the Bay
this spring. Taylor Deemer spotted a big Spadefish swimming around the
pilings of Cape Henlopen Pier, and tempted the 4.72 pound beauty with a
small piece of clam. Striper fishing has been good in Lewes Canal. Guys
baitng with clams or peeler crab on bottom rigs got into bass. Many
were shy of the 28 inch minimum, but some were keepers. "Rick" weighed
in an 11.9 pounder he took from the Canal using frozen peeler. Drifting
eels or casting RatLTraps around the drawbrdge resulted in legal
rockfish too. The 20 to 26 inch slot limit for stripers goes into
effect July 1. Sea Bassing was fair at Site 11, but better for those
willing to travel farther off to structure in 120 foot depths. On
Sunday, bassers aboard Katydid had a banner trip. They boxed 240
quality blueheads, and nearly 60 ling. Bernie Smelstoys and friends had
their limit of 140 bass and 26 plump ling Sunday on the Grizzly.
Offshore trollers found yellowfin tuna in the past few days. On Monday,
the charterboat Moore Bills out of Ocean City returned to the dock with
15 yellowfins they landed while trolling 200 fathoms in the Baltimore
Canyon. Other crews reported tuna catches from 50 to 70 fathoms of the
Washington."
Anglers need a DE Fishing License to fish, crab, and clam in DEL:
Individual Delaware Fishing Licenses are now available online
Stop by to the Oyster Bay Tackle location and buy your 2013 Ocean City
Reef Foundation Charts. The donation fee for these charts are $50. $54
if you use a credit card. These charts pin-point all the GPS numbers for
all the Artificial Reef materials that have been scattered near offshore
wrecks, reefs, and obstructions. The charts give you hundreds of numbers
to find fish. All the money collected goes back into the Artificial Reef
Foundation. Come to Oyster Bay Tackle or buy online.
(They are up in price, but all the numbers have been redone and the
charts are in book-form.)
Check out the link on our web site to the local chapter of the MSSA. They are keeping us
abreast on all the Fishing Issues. From our Oyster Bay Website, go to
"More Fishing Info" on the left hand side, and click on "MSSA Atlantic
Anglers".
Check the weather before driving hours to go offshore or fish the surf.
Go to Coastal Marine Forecast to get an idea of
the weather and height of the waves.
Capt. Rick Yakimowicz of the "Thelma Dale V" fishes out of Fisherman's
Wharf. Here's his report from June 12th:
Other than the weather you won't hear any real complaints about the
fishing this past week at the Wharf as far as I am concerned. I was able
to mix it up a little over the week with the anchoring over structure
and I was also able to do a little drifting the few times the wind gave
us a break. At times the action was very good with the Sea Bass and Ling
and we even managed quite a few nice Flounder for our efforts during a
couple of our trips.
We are basically in our full season schedule now with All-Day trips
sailing daily and Half-Day trips running twice a day. All-Day trips
depart at 7:00 a.m. and will be targeting Flounder and Sea Bass and
possibly some Ling if we venture further offshore. Half-Day trips depart
the docks at 8:00 a.m. and then again at 1:00 p.m. and they will be
targeting the Croakers, Kingfish and Trout.
If you would like any more information about trips sailing out of the
Wharf or you would like to book a private charter or reserve space on a
special trip please give us a call at (302) 645-TUNA.
His full report and boat info is here.
Capt. Rick Yakimowicz Thelma Dale V catchfish@verizon.net"
Old Inlet Bait and Tackle (302-227-7974) reports on Lots of small fish
on the beach typical in the summer heat. Mixed bag of spot kings and
croakers. Occasional black drum in the mix too. Have to heard about a
striper on the beach in roughly ten days but this is to be expected when
the water gets warm. Surf water temp is in the mid sixties. Very few
blues around on the surf. It's been a strange year for them. Fresh
bunker, bloodworms (real and fake), and surf clams are the best baits.
No hot spot to report. 3R's gets fished the most so that is where most
of the reports come from, but the fish are spread out up and down the
beach. Loads of rays and skates around. Its migration/mating season. So
be ready on the beach! Rays are a problem in the Inlet and bays as well.
The flounder bite has picked up but you'll have to deal with the rays.
Gulp Alive swimming mullet in white on a lead head are like flounder
candy. Just weighed a 3 lb 6 oz trout from the Inlet. Craig Manning, of
York PA landed it on a saltwater fly. The Inlet bite has been hit and
miss. They are picking up a few stripers here and there on swim shads
and bucktails. A few blues and shad around on the incoming tide during
the day time."
Bill's Sport Shop (302-645-7654) in Lewes, DE reports on June 15th: Paul
P caught a 18.5” keeper flounder at Massey’s Ditch on a bucktail and
Gulp. Also, reports of keeper sized trout being caught. Bill Jr., Ellie
White and Kieth Tolley fished the south side of IRI, back by the condos.
Bill Jr caught a horseshoe crab, a turtle, a crab and 2 cow nose rays.
Ellie had 2 short flounder, and Kieth was high hook with 2 short
flounder and a 19”’ keeper. All on spec rigs and Gulp! ’Fran the Man’
Seiver called while fishing the IRI last evening and told me that
everyone was catching blue fish, and that there was a blitz occurring.
They were biting on Gulp, bucktails and flies. He said that he only kept
what he wanted. He said that six of them were in the 18 to 22” range.
Fishing at Conquest Rd., a small group of seniors caught flounder, king
fish and small blues on fresh bunker on a #6 top and bottom rig along
with skates and rays. Justin Pastoriua, Plymouth Meeting, stopped in for
more equipment and mentioned he caught a 30” striper at 3Rs today on
fresh bunker."
Capt.Dan Stauffer (866-623-4746) of the Fin Chaser does wreck,
inlet and trolling trips. Here's one of his reports from this week:
"06/15/13 Ran east to the Baltimore Canyon looking for the fish. The
morning was slow, boats were scattering trying to find a bite. We were
pulling 10 rods but still had room for one more in the spread. I decided
to go “old school” and throw out a set of cedar plugs tight to the
transom. Less than 30 minutes later we get hit by the yellowfin. Five
rods go down and one by one the fish make it to the boat. Problem is
these are the small guys and only one is of legal size. Still lots of
fun for the charter. The next attack is about 45 minutes later. This
time six rods go down and immediately the lines get crossed into a big
tangle. By the time the mess is straightened out, one tuna has already
thrown the hook and another is lost in mid fight. Two make it in the
box, both around 30 lbs. The last fish is less than two feet from the
gaff when one of the guys knocks the drag button and the fish takes off
and throws the hook. About 30 minutes later we get jumped by a pair but
only one comes tight and this is a better class fish. After a great
battle, the mate has the 65 lb. fish on the gaff. Back in the slip with
four yellowfin in the box and a very happy bunch of guys. Oh, about that
“old school” fishing, those cedar plugs were the first thing to get hit
all three times."
His picture is in our Offshore Photo Gallery.
Larry Jock of the Coastal Fisherman reports: "BIG news today... the first white marlin was
released by Tim Hawn while fishing on the charter boat, "No Quarter".
Fish was released in 1,000 fathoms outside the Poor Man's Canyon in
79-degree water. This fish earns Tim and the crew $10,000."
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