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
July 22nd, 2013
Water Temp: 71.9
Fishing Report by Sue Foster
Flounder bite slowed up a bit this week with dirty water. Still, some
nice ones were reported! Just got to find clean water. That's the trick.
Kingfish and spot in the surf galore! Red and black drum are being
caught around structure. Lots of spot in the bay for kids to catch along
with some blue crabs. Sea bass fishing was respectable offshore along
with catches of flounder and triggerfish. Further offshore we saw tuna
and dolphin.
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. 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 a free fishing zone. 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. Keeper flounder can be caught there if you are patient
and fish the slacking tides. When the tide is moving hard, fish
straight down. It's plenty deep! If you cast out during a hard running
tide, you will constantly get hung up! Anglers can also catch little
sea bass, spot, croaker, bluefish, tautog, puppy drum and trigger fish.
The Ocean Pier is another place you can fish without a MD License. This
week the pier continued to have good catches of kingfish along with
croaker, spot, trout, puppy drum, snapper blues, flounder, sharks and
rays. You can catch anything on the pier that you can catch from the
surf. There were definitely lots of rays and sharks this week!
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.
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.
Stopping in to Oyster Bay Tackle or Fenwick Tackle? Clip out a coupon
for xtra savings! Coupons
It's been one of the best years we've ever had in Ocean City on kingfish
(whiting)." A kingfish rig (small hooks) with a combination bait of
bloodworm or Fishbite bloodworm with a little strip of squid or any kind
of cut bait will catch you kingfish, spot, and small trout. A few blues
have been in the surf as well. But not many...
Jeff Sarver e-mailed in this weeK: "I wanted to send you a couple
pictures of my son Nathan Sarver from our recent vacation. There is a
14" King from 7/12 and a 13" shark from 7/16. He caught them both at
139th in Ocean City on cut spot. Nathan is 8 yrs old and from
Cairnbrook, PA."
Skip Cerf e-mailed in early this week: "Got this huge haul of spot (fish
bites), kingfish and bluefish (cut spot) off 127th st surf on Monday
morning. 2 of the kingfish were in the 13-14" range. Awesome day!
These pictures are in our Surf Fishing Photo Gallery.
"Rfiller" posted on Stripers Online on July 14th: "Caught a bunch of
spot, my daughters (5 & 8) had a ball reeling them in. Also caught a
Cusk Eel and had a tremendous fight with a cow nosed ray. I've never
seen a fish strip line like that."
"Cody" posted on Stripers Online on the 21st: "Went out on 3r's today
around two- immediately started hitting spot- to the point that I got
tired of catching them. We used fishbite bloodworms and small hooks with
floaters and it was a fish every time you got the line wet. It reminded
me of catching sunfish in a stocked pond on hot dogs- those who have
tried it know what I mean. I cut up my first two spot and got them out
as far as I could on a fish finder with no luck at all. Some rays
caught, some Delaware state fish and more spot than you could ever want.
I was planning on staying into dusk/nighttime but the weather didn't
want me to- I am OK with rain but when the lighting starts and I am
holding a 12 foot rod I give in."
"Plug" made a comment the same day: "Shoulda cut some of them spots into
small chunks and fished them. Lotsa kingfish around today but they
wanted meat."
I like to use a piece of bloodworm or Fishbites and add a small strip of
cut bait such as that fresh caught spot when I fish for kings!
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.)
Oyster Bay Tackle snapped a couple pictures this week.
Matt Boyle from BelAir, Maryland caught a 3 pound 19.5 inch Flounder
using Gulp during the outgoing tide along the East Channel.
Georgia Touloumes from Pittsburg, Pa was fishing near Harpoon Hanna's in
Delaware when she caught a 21 inch Black Drum using Squid and Minnows as
bait. While Georgia was fighting her fish a couple of good citizens (
Malcom and Alec) came by with a boat to help her pull it in. They were
nice enough to net the fish for Georgia and got the fish to shore for
her. The fish weighed in at 5.75 pounds.
These pictures are in our Inshore Photo Gallery.
J.J. from the Oceanic Pier (410-289-2602) reported a lot of flounder
this week along with sea trout and kingfish. Some red drum were caught
and lots of rays and skates. (You do not need a fishing license to fish
the Oceanic Pier.)
Route 50 Bridge has seen flounder by day along with some snapper blues
and a few trout. At night the fare is bluefish, trout, and some
stripers.
Larry Jock of the Coastal Fisherman reports on Sunday: "12:00 PM - Charter boat, "Get Sum"
had 4 keeper flounder during their morning trip. 1 was caught in the
East Channel, 2 behind Harbour Island and 1 at the mouth of the
commercial harbor. All on white Gulp!. Ella Peters caught 2 flounder
weighing 3.4 and 3.6 lbs. in the West Channel.Liam Cheek caught a 3 lb.
flounder just north of the OC Airport. "Jezebel" weighed a 3.8 lb.
flunder and had a load of triggerfish. Caught at Fenwick Shoal. "Myra
HT" weighed a 13.4 lb. striper caught at the Rt. 50 Bridge."Spring Mix"
weighed 2 flounder (2.6 & 3.2 lbs.) caught at Winter Quarter Shoal.
On Saturday: "11:15 AM - Dean Pecunes caught a 17-inch flounder on a
white Gulp! Swimming Mullet in the Fishbowl (between the East and West
Channels)."
On Friday: "Jeff Faille reported in that he had 2 puppy drum, 3 bluefish
and 8 short stripers at the South Jetty."
There were also reports of spot and croaker in the Ocean City bay.
Capt Jeff from Hellbent Charters e-mailed in his report this week:
"ACCTVer a week of dry weather in tbe past week one would think the bay
would be nice and clean but you would be wrong! The tide this weekend
was very early in the moring leaving us with an out going tide and diry
water. We found everyone fishing in the same areas. We did catch some
fish but we worked hard get them. Every fish we caught in the last two
day was caught on a live minnow. Not one fish was caught on Gulp. We
used all different Gulp and no matter what color we offered up the
Flounder liked the live minnow. The best part of that was the family I
hsd out today just csme bsck from a vacation in NJ. and were thanking me
several times for my tip to use Gulp. The wind finally is forecasted to
lay down so lets hope we get the bay to clean up.Still time tobook a
trip. Call me at 717 574 4010. Email helbentcharters@hotmail.com.
Website helbentchsrters.com. See you on the water."
Capt Jeff is one of the few charters going out of North Ocean City.
Flounder and Surf, Rig and Lure Packages, Selection of
Swimming Shads or Gotcha Plugs!
Crabbing was OK this week. Northside Park at 125th Street is a good
place to crab. There's plenty spot fish to catch there too. You can also
crab from the Isle of Wight at 62nd Street, Convention Hall at 41st
Street, Jamestown Road (the whole city park side of the lagoon), 9th
Street Pier, or Assateague State Park.
If you want to go clamming from the shore in Ocean City you can clam
behind the Convention Center at 41st Street or go to Assateague. No
license required for crabbing or clamming in MD Coastal Bays.
Capt. Monty on the "
Morning Star reports on July 21st:
Greetings All, I'd like to see Friday's fishing everyday. One stop
shopping. Pretty sea bass, a few ling; Some folks very close to a
limit.. Nice. Most days we're working harder for a catch. Sending almost
everyone home with a good fish fry. Despite an incredible calm, there
weren't many fluke/flounder this week. Mostly sea bass. Then, Saturday,
when it was borderline-rough; Windy enough for me to issue a weather
warning advising, and I quote: "If you closed (a locally famous bar)
last night, this would be a great time for you to reschedule" — Well..
the boyz in the bachelor party predictably left a lot of room at the
rail for crew to fish. I give these guys credit though: Despite a few
sorrowful groans, there were no whiners.
Hardly a scientifically sound sample; I have asked numerous experienced
anglers how many times they went in the ocean with a hangover: "Once!" I
suppose ignoring the lessons of history lies at the core of wisdom.
Learning to recognize the experience of others as having great value
must come the hard way ..at least for those of us with a Y chromosome.
Ahh, digression aside; Crew (making use of all that rail-space where no
one was fishing) caught more keeper flounder Saturday (when they
shouldn't have bit at all in heavy seas) then we did all week (when they
should have been biting fine in a flat-calm..) Summer is all about sea
bass & flounder. One will bite better than the other everyday. I can not
predict it. We find out which species while fishing..
Get another chance this week — looks like a LOT of calm weather coming.
Waves have fallen flat as I write. Cancelled my 18 hour trip for sea
heights days ago — oops. Maybe – Just Maybe — Go Filming In The Deep
Next Sunday.. (email if interested)
I believe it was Thursday last when, in the calmest of calms, we spotted
a shark finning at the surface on our way home. I slowed the boat and
many passengers came forward to see. I was expecting a decent
hammerhead: Mako. Good sized & fat, probably better than 300 pounds; I
bet it's feeding on abundant cownose rays..
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.. "
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
Capt Chris Mizurak of the Angler (410-289-7424) e-mailed in: "We are
sailing daily from 730 am to 2pm. The cost is $65pp, which includes
rod,reel,and bait. This upcoming Friday 6/21 & Saturday 6/22 the boat
is chartered, we have an open boat on Sunday. For more information and
reservations please call 410-289-7424. Thanks and hope to see you soon!"
Capt Victor of the Ocean Princess e-mailed in on July 2nd:
"The Ocean Princess is sailing two trips daily 8am to 12 noon and 1pm to
5pm. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays the Ocean Princess also
takes a night trip from 6pm to 10pm. For reservations or additional
information call 410-289-6226."
Joe at Lewes Harbour Marina (302-645-6227) reports on July 18th: "Delaware's Tautog
season reopened July 17th, and anglers found blackfish willing to bite
along the Outer Wall and Ice Breakers. It was a good opening day for
David Ruta, David Ruta, Jr and Mike Ruta. They returned from the
Haystacks with their limit of tog to 7 pounds, plus some nice
triggerfish. Dave Ruta, Jr decked a 7.02 pound citation earner. Shane
Roth checked in a 5 pound blackfish he got at the Wall Wednesday, and a
5.92 pounder Thursday. Spadefish were also at the Wall with tog and
triggers. Todd Manning hooked a 4.77 pound spade at the Inner Wall.
Bottom bouncers in the Bay continued to do well with kingfish,
croakers, spot, blowfish, and spike trout around reef sites 5 and 8.
The Angler Headboat had some great days on kings recently. Flounder
action in the Bay was so so. Bites usually occurred only during the
last couple hours of flood tide, and first of the ebb. There have been
a few decent catches. Last Friday, flukers on the Katydid captured 20
keepers on a Bay reef. Charlie Zukowski had the heaviest, a flattie
weighing 6.3 pounds. On Saturday, the crew aboard Katydid kept 16
flounder. Joe Walker pulled a 6.2 pound flatfish from Bay structure
Sunday. Charles Small, Jr scored a 4.96 pounder on the Martha Marie. On
Monday, the guys aboard Katydid put 13 keeper fluke in the box. Ocean
flounder pounders found some cooperative flatties on rough bottom
between DB and DA Buoys. ....
Offshore tuna fishermen have had some good trips. Last Saturday, Bill
Swords, Jon Bixler and friends trolled a 50 inch bluefin and a pair of
gaffer dolphin at Massey's Canyon. They then moved off to the Baltimore
where they dropped for 8 golden tiles, and bailed 15 more mahi.... "
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 July 17th:
Here we are well into the third week of July and I can finally report
that we are starting to experience some summer like weather. Not only is
the air and the water temperature starting to warm up but the fishing
scene has been turning on with deep water Flounder in the Ocean,
Croakers and Kingfish in the Delaware Bay, Tuna along the inshore lumps
and the canyons and Tilefish for those that like to drop to the bottom
in the deep blue.
For the last several weeks our Fluke fishing has been painfully slow at
times but it has also been very consistent, all tolled since the middle
of June when we started drifting primarily for the flatties we have
landed just over 800 keeper flat fish which I don't think is too shabby
considering the weather and some of the conditions that we had to
endure. Our fishing has been primarily fishing the hard coral bottoms
and ledges of the "old grounds" and jigging continues to be the best
method of catching these fish. Bucktails and a teaser when you can get
away with it or just a jigging style rig when we have had to press up
with the lead to get to the bottom. We have seen numerous fish in the
three to five pound class, multiple limit catches on some days, a few
citation sized fish over seven pounds and some very good short action
from time to time. This fishing hasn't been all peaches and cream
however on just about any given trip you will still see a few shutouts
at the rail. For the most part however everyone usually at least gets in
on the throwback action and manages a fresh Flounder supper or more when
the conditions are right. We are still struggling with the Sea Bass
there seems to be very few on the open bottom right now so it is almost
exclusively Flounder that's at the top of the menu.
Back up in the Delaware Bay Capt. Mike reports steady action most of the
time with the mighty Croakers on his Half-Day excursions. Pan sized
Croakers, Kingfish, Spike Trout and various assortments of other fish
have been pleasing anglers on a regular basis providing good fish
catching action for the Jr. anglers. The Croakers they have been seeing
on the average have been about a foot long and at times as big as about
fourteen inches. They have also seen some good numbers of big Spot on
some trips. The overall action up in the Bay seems to be turning on with
the summer heat, there are also more and more reports of nice Flounder
being landed on both sides of the Bay and the Croakers and Kingfish and
the small Trout are seemingly everywhere.
We have a host of trips departing the Wharf for whatever your pleasure
might be. The All-Day trips sail daily departing the docks at 7:00 a.m.
I rarely return before 4:00. These trips will be targeting primarily the
Flounder. Half-Day trips depart at 8:00 a.m. and then again at 1:00 p.m.
We run evening trips on both Friday and Saturday nights departing the
dock at 6:00 p.m. The Lewestown Lady is available for the offshore trips
for private charter as well as inshore fishing for full or half day
trips. Capt. H also has several more long-range trips on the schedule
advanced reservations are required for these trips.
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 15th: " The big
news of the week is that Tautog season in Delaware reopens on Wednesday
July 17. Minimum size 15 inches with a five fish a day limit. Black
drum, sheepshead and triggerfish in the mix along the rocks as well.
Live sand fleas and green crabs are the best baits. The best fishing
right now is on the surf. Plenty of spot, kings and croakers around to
keep you busy. Live and imitation bloodworms are the baits of choice.
The fish are tight to the beach. Just over the breaking waves. The best
striper fishing in the Inlet is at night. Floating sand fleas has been
the best method. Eels, dark plugs, black bucktails and swim shads will
work but fleas are the best right now. Saw another trout this past week.
Michael Kresge of Reeders PA landed a 4 pound trout on a fly in the
Inlet. The flounder have started to move offshore to deeper cooler
water. Site 10 produced some nice catches recently. The Old Grounds
southeast of B Buoy (80 feet of water) are a popular destination in July
and August. The heavy Spro bucktails with a squid strip trailer work
well out there. Still some flounder in the Inland bays. Spot and
croakers in the mix too. Gulp Alive swimming mullet are the ticket along
with minnows and squid."
Bill's Sport Shop (302-645-7654) in Lewes, DE reports flounder and red
drum at Massey's Landing. Black drum in Indian River Inlet. Flounder in
the Indian River Bay and offshore. Triggerfish at the Inner and Outer
Wall. Surf fishing has seen kingfish, weakfish, croaker and spot.
Flounder on inshore wrecks and at the Old Grounds along with sea bass!"
" 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:
07/19/13 A little bluefin action with a family of five from Allentown,
PA Our first encounter sees two rods get hit, one comes tight and one
doesn’t. After 20 minutes and two anglers, we put a 75 bluefin in the
box. Our next bite completely missed the bait. The action slows so I
troll north toward a group of boats working another hill. Just before
reaching them we get jumped again by two fish. Like before, one comes
tight, one doesn’t. A few minutes later we put a 50 lb. “under” in the
boat. With our bluefin limit reached, we decide to look elsewhere to see
if we can find something else. Two hours later and only one “knock down”
the family decided to call it a day which make one girl on board very
happy since she has been battling the dreaded illness for the past few
hours.
07/16/13 The MD DRN crew from Easton wants to go monster hunting. Not
interested in bluefin, yellowfin or mahi, these guys wannna lock horns
with a “eyeball” aka big eye tuna. Ran 60 mile south and threw out the
spread. Two minutes later we have a small mahi in the box. The next few
hours are spent working the bait around the pilot whales. Finally, in
the middle of a turn, our long bait gets crushed. Handing the rod down
from the bridge I can feel this is a serious fish and tell the guys I
think they just got their wish. Two and a half hours and requiring all
the guys twice on the rod we have a gaff in the 225 lb. big eye. This
was truly a team effort since the fish went deep, got tail wrapped and
died. We had to work him up from what I guess was 800 feet.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment