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 24th, 2013
Water Temp: 68.9
Fishing Report by Sue Foster
Flounder fishing in the bay was just so-so this week. Windy weather made
the water dirty. Best fishing was around the inlet. Anglers saw some
nice stripers around the South Jetty. Surf had a couple really good days
on kingfish (Northern whiting). Other days anglers caught numerous
spot, a few bluefish, and a surprising number of blacktip sharks.
Offshore anglers caught sea bass and some flounder. Further offshore the
tuna action was hot.
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 MD 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 can catch
flounder, tautog, spot, croaker, little sea bass, triggerfish, bluefish
and the occasional striper, drum, or trout. 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. This
week the pier had some croaker, spot, sharks and rays
2013 Tide 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 saw some decent action on kingfish this week. One man
fishing Assateague said he's just been doing great on them with Fishbite
Bloodworms. Some days are better than others of course as we continue
to have days with lots of wind. Anita Chandler stopped by Fenwick Tackle
to say she caught lots of kingfish Friday night just before dark in the
Delaware State Park. "They bit anything you threw out there! Bunker,
bloodworms, Fishbites! Then I caught a 4 foot black tip shark. Only one
bluefish."
Another customer stopped by to show me his catch and release picture of
a 51-inch Blacktip shark caught from the Fenwick Island Surf. Another
angler came in to say he caught lots of spot from the surf on Saturday
morning. Another man said he caught a 15-inch sea trout along with his
kingfish.
Summertime fishing.... Small hooks and worm or Fishbites on kingfish
rigs will catch you the panfish. Large hooks and cut bait will catch you
sharks.
Don Bouchelle caught and released a nice shark from the MD/DEL line
Saturday night. He e-mailed in his picture and report: "Hello Fenwick
Tackle, Fished Sat evening and caught this line stripping Shark on
fresh Bunker on the super moon tide! what a nice fight. The fish was
unharmed and promptly released..."
His picture is in our Surf Fishing Photo Gallery.
"Martzy" posted on Stripers Online on Friday: "Got into DE yesterday
afternoon and hit the surf. Got 10 kings and a pile of spot. Took the
spot to a different location and livelined them with nothing to show, so
i caught shad, blues, and some micro stripers instead. Took the yak out
in the bay this morning and got 6 of those flatfish. Two were right at
legal but went back, the 20"er however is gonna suffer a different
fate."
"Surffish" posted on Friday: "Took the kids to Assateague Island on
Friday. Observed a couple fishing and catching blow toads. Another guy
joined em about forty yards away but didn't catch a thing even though he
was holding his rod the whole time he was fishing. At about 5:30 pm the
couple landed what seems to be a large whiting and released. I walked to
parking lot to grab my rods and decided to join the fun. Caught whitings
and spot for couple of hours fishing. The couple fought something on
their light tackle till the line snapped. Kids had a great time then the
blood thirty insects fed on us as we walked towards the car. Note to
self: "do not forget to spray bug spray"."
(Yes, I sold a bit of bug spray this week at our stores!")
We at Oyster Bay Tackle had a very quiet week on pictures. Finally on
Monday morning we clicked a good picture of a nice sea trout. Fatime
Seseir from Hatfield, Pa caught a beautiful 23.5 inch Sea Trout from
the RT 50 Bridge using Lunker Shads with a Jig Head during the outgoing
tide. The Sea Trout weighed in at 3.7 pounds.
This picture is in our Inshore 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 decent flounder
fishing this week. Not red hot, but the days the wind was not blowing
anglers caught some. Summertime fish are there. Spot, sea bass, croaker,
and rays. Not great numbers of little fish, but most people caught
something. At night the pier saw shad and blues this week. Quite a few
nice sea trout were taken from the sea wall near the pier. There are
still tautog biting too. (You do not need a fishing license to fish
the Oceanic Pier.)
We heard flounder fishing was really slow over the weekend because of
the wind and dirty water. But some anglers found fish!
Larry Jock of the Coastal Fisherman reports on Saturday: "Charter boat, "Get Sum" had 10
keepers while fishing in the bay behind Assateague Island near the duck
blinds. All were caught on white Gulp! Swimming Mullets.. Isaac and
Nathan Mitchell had 4 flounder from the East Channel. Heaviest weighed
4 1/2 lbs. and was caught on a minnow.
On Friday Larry Jock reported: "Charter boat, "Happy Hooker" had a load
of kids from a Fishing Camp on board this morning. One angler had a
17-inch flounder caught in the South Bay near Marker #4. Olivia Kipe
stopped by to have her picture taken with a pair of flounder she caught
this morning in the West Channel. Largest fish measured 20-inches.
Caught on Gulp! shrimp."
On WED: "Big Bird Cropper and David Leizear ended their day with a
29-inch striper, a 19-inch weakfish and a 19-inch red drum, all while
fishing around the Rt. 50 Bridge. "Skip's Charter & Guide Service"
ended their trip with 12 stripers hooked and only 1 keeper while
fishing with live spot around the South Jetty. Very rough conditions."
Had one man report catching a red drum on a sand flea drifting thru the
inlet!
Jeff Grimes Of Helbent Charters reports: The weather gods smiled on
this weekend but the fishing goods were not as kind. We got a late start
on Saturday and missed the incoming tide and that left us with dirty
water to fish in the rest of the day. We did pick up one Flounder in the
inlet on a live minnow. The weather was the best we have had all year
but the fishing was tough with all the dirty water. On Sunday we got a
much earlier start and got to fish the incoming tide for several hours
with clean water. We did find a bite with white Gulp being the perfered
bait. We fished the inlet with no luck but our move upto the airport and
a good bite. The bite was split between Gulp and live minnows. As
expected the south wind kicked in and made the afternoon very tough to
fish.There is still time to book your trip so send me an email to
helbentchsrtets@hotmail.com or call me at 717 574 4010. Check out our
website at helbentcharters.com. See you on the water.
Dave Beall of Dave's Delmarva First Mate Service reported on the 23rd:
"Hey Sue, There are still some nice Flounder around at IRI and they are
hitting a variety of baits. I caught a 22+1/2" on a 2" Tsunami Golden
Bunker with spots pattern Thursday am and caught a 23" on a 5" white
Gulp Jerk Shad with a white1/2oz Jig Head this am. With a 2" bait you
have to use very thin limp line and flouro leader (15#) and cast it up
current and pick up your slack back to you mainly to stay in touch with
your bait (let the current move your bait). I have also caught a few
Weakies and a good number of short Stripers by accident as well. Little
Croakers are here and will eat the curl tails off of your Gulp swimming
mullet so use Gulp Shrimp and they will hold up. If you think that you
are fishing slow enough/ Slow it down even more! Have a GREAT WEEK Sue,
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 20th:
"Fish Report 6/20/13 Cbassing OK to V. Good A Day Off Supporting
Sharks In Number
Sailing Everyday (even Sunday 6/23 – lots of spots open then & during
the week) Reservations For Sea Bass Trips at 410 - 520 - 2076. See much
more info at http://morningstarfishing.com
Back to the deep on Sunday, June 30th. Take a couple guys –- not as
deep, no goldens — Jig for sea bass and bluelines (bait's OK too) —
2:30AM till 7 PM(ish) — $300.00 — 8 Sells Out (so crew can fish some
too!) — Boat Goes Slow & Not In A Straight Line As I'm Also Looking For
New Spots — Manual Reels Only With No More Than 2 Hooks — Weather
Sensitive Trip — Leave A Good Contact Number — As Always, Mates Work For
Gratuities.
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..
5,208 'Oyster Castle' Reef Blocks By The Rail. Now 1,560 at Jimmy's —
578 at Ake's..
Greetings All, Windy? Yes, but generally worth the wait when we get out.
First time I've ever seen cbass bite better in June than May. Lost
Wednesday to rainy weather. Tuesday we had a few folks in the low teens,
Monday too. Seeing a couple flounder almost everyday.. Perhaps we'll
start focusing more effort on them. Friday past was lost to high winds;
Saturday the best day sea bassing this year. Had a great bite another
day mid-week on the 12th—fish were even hitting a 4 ounce jig—followed
by another blow day..
Lost Friday & Saturday the week before with tropical storm Andrea and
offered all those cancelled-trip clients Sunday, which was wide open —
No Takers.
Hmmm.. Good weather but no clients on a Sunday.. Senior deckhand Mike
said he'd just as soon take a day off -me too- so we met with a few
friends to cover fuel at 2:30 AM Sunday morning & went tile fishing.
Meandering on offshore at a fuel saving speed looking for new-to-me
wrecks & rocks.. No discoveries this trip except that some bearings were
ruled out as targets. Starting our drifts in almost 900 feet of water,
we caught golden tiles on each pass: a wonderful day. Exhausting though
- no electric reels allowed on my boat.
I think Saturday past's sold-out sea bass trip was every bit as fun. Had
3 of my most long-time clients aboard, fellows who were fishing with me
back when I was a new deckhand. Showed 'em some nice sea bassing while
we cut-up with their sons & grandsons. The good stuff of life – the
best. 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 20th: "Offshore trollers have
had success with tuna. Yellowfins were reported scattered along the
edge, with catches coming from the Wilmington Canyon, the West Wall of
Baltimore Canyon and the 800 square of Washington Canyon.
......Offshore bottom bouncing was good for tilefish. Last Saturday,
the gang aboard Katydid scored a load of gray tiles to over 15 pounds,
plus a bunch of rosefish and several golden tile. .... Inshore bottom
fishing has has been pretty good too. On Tuesday, Captain Brent's group
on Katydid had 120 sea bass, several ling and three nice flounder.
Flounder have been roaming the Old grounds southeast of DB Buoy. Mike
Newsham and friends had 10 keepers in 80 feet of water there on Monday.
Fluke activity has also improved in Delaware Bay. Flukers aboard
Katydid captured 20 keepers to 3.6 pounds while drifting Site 5 on
Wednesday. Some flatties continue to come from Lewes Canal and
Broadkill River. Eilene Euston and Peg Proctor checked in with 4
flounder from the Broadkill caught using pink Gulp and smelts. Mike
Smith and Mike Smith, Jr celebrated Father's Day by taking 4 quality
flatfish betweeen 3 and 4 pounds from the Canal with Gulp! Panfish are
plentiful in Delaware Bay. Croakers and spot seem to be just about
everywhere, and will hit bits of bloodworm or Fishbites on small hooks.
There have been more kingfish in the Bay than there have been for some
time. They are concentrated on live bottom along the western edge of
The Shears and on the Coral Beds, but casters on Lewes and Broadkill
Beaches, and in the Cape Henlopen surf have also encountered kings.
Striped bass are hanging out in Lewes Canal. Rock were hooked using
clams or peeler crabs on bottom rigs. Boaters casting eels, RatLTraps
or Storm Shads around the drawbridge also got bit."
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 21st:
After a couple more weather related days tied to the docks late last
week we managed to get out both days over the weekend and we have been
out every day so far this week. Other than Saturday's trip offshore for
the Sea Bass and Ling with one of the nicest crowds of the year, we have
spent all of the rest of our time drifting for Flounder with some pretty
favorable results when the weather and the conditions allowed.
So far things are looking very promising for continued action with the
Croakers and the Kingfish as well as small Trout up in the Bay. Half-Day
trips and some of the charters that have been working up in the Bay
continue to see good numbers of these pan fish regularly. While the fish
continue to be on the small side as far as the Croakers are concerned
they seem to be plentiful right now and they stretch along miles of
coastline and in the upper reaches of the Bay. This is a real good sign
for what we may have to look foreword to as the season progresses. The
Croakers showed up really early this year and the bigger ones will
likely be right around the corner. So far the biggest Croaks have been
about 13 inches long but I am getting more reports of some nicer fish
starting to show around different areas over the last week. Some of
these Croakers are even being caught in the canals and rivers leading
into the Bay.
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 the 19th: "Not much
in the report has changed since last week. Lots of small fish on the
beach typical of the summer season. Mixed bag of spot kings and
croakers. 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, skates and horseshoe crabs around.
Its migration/mating season. So be ready on the beach! The flounder bite
has picked up in the Inlet but you'll have to deal with the rays. Gulp
Alive swimming mullet in white on a lead head are like flounder candy.
The Inlet bite has been hit and miss. They are picking up a few stripers
here and there on swim shads and bucktails. Word is the barge on the old
bridge pilins has been holding fish. Its been mainly a night time and
early morning bite. A few blues and shad around on the incoming tide
during the day time. Reports of seabass and a few flounder on the "Old
Grounds" southeast of B Buoy in about 80 feet of water."
Bill's Sport Shop (302-645-7654) in Lewes, DE reports on June 18th: Joe
the Postman pulled a 25”, 4.6# flounder at the Old Grounds on cut bait.
From Capt Aaron Hurd, ‘Gale Force Charters’: “The Brookens party from
Chambersburg, PA fished on ‘Gale Force’ yesterday in the rain and Ronald
Miler landed an 8# weakfish. The group also caught blues and short
stripers.” Jerry Ford, Milford, DE, caught a 24” weakfish on the rocks
at the north jetty at Roosevelt Inlet on a ½” jig tipped with a 4”
chartruese Gulp curly tail. Also, a 20” flounder and a 15” weakie were
caught inside by the Coast Guard Station at high tide, and lots of small
croaker biting the tails off. Great day on the Gulp—outfished
minnow,clam, etc…. Gary Wasbers caught a 3.25#, 20 ½” flounder at the
Pier on Gulp!"
" Pretty cool web site... Lots of pics, reports and descriptions and
directions to get to some of those fishing places in DEL everyone talks
about but you might wonder where they are! The site is DSF Delware Surf Fishing.
(http://delaware-surf-fishing.com)
Capt.Dan Stauffer (866-623-4746) of the Fin Chaser does wreck,
inlet and trolling trips. Here's a couple of his reports from this week:
06/22/13 Out with a crew from Wenger Feeds of PA for a day of tuna
action. Our first attack saw four rods go down. We knew immediately
these fish were not keepers and all were released. The issue with small
fish has plagued the fleet all week. Shortly after that the fog rolled
in and everyone’s bites stopped. The sun finally broke through and so
did the bites. The next few attacks only yield one “blt” (barely legal
tuna) for the box. Worked a little area during the afternoon and managed
to find a few more fish, two of which made it in the box. Back in the
slip with three “blt’s” in the box. Kinda embarrassing but after talking
to a few other boats I felt much better about our day compared to many.
06/21/13 Ran north with a JR and his crew looking to fill the box with
sea bass. Bite was spotty at our first stop but that changed at our
second drop. Fish were hungry, and the size, very respectable for this
time of the season. Also managed a couple nice ling cod too. One of the
guys was putting on a conger eel catching clinic, I swear he must have
caught four of five of these nasty buggers. Back in the slip with 60
fish in the box.
His picture is in our Offshore Photo Gallery.
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