Ocean City Fishing

If I had to choose only one word to describe Ocean City this past week, it would be “HOT!” Up until now, we have been lucky enough to have had cooler than normal temperatures, but that surly was not the case this week. The air conditioners were cranking around OC, and people were heading to the water to keep cool.

Fortunately for us, the air is not the only thing that has been smoldering; the fishing has been pretty darn hot as well. This past week concluded another “White Marlin Open” and the results were spectacular. An outstanding 93 pound white marlin took top prize, and a huge “grander” blue marlin took center stage and captured a new state record. The White Marlin Open always brings a lot of excitement to Ocean City, and this year was no different. In fact, with the extraordinary size of this year’s fish, the 2009 tournament has to go down as one of the best in the recent past.

Offshore fishing was not the only action going on around town this week, however. A lot of anglers reported good fishing inshore as well. Schools of croakers have been continuing to filter into the bay, along with spot, and some more decent-sized summer flounder. Striper fishing contin ues to be good around the Rt. 50 Bridge and the inlet. In addition to fishing in the bay and inlet, a lot of anglers like to fish from the surf this time of the year as well. Some very respectable sharks can be caught inshor e during the summer months, and a lot of anglers have been turning out to catch these toothy critters from boats as well as from the surf. An 80 lb. spinner shark can take drag like a tuna and will leap from the water like a marlin, an exciting experience for any angler for sure!

A lot of reports have filtered in from around Ocean City this past week. So, let’s take a look at them now. The first reports I’m going to write about are a few of my charters this past week. The first was a inshore shark fishing trip, which are very popular with children of all ages, and even adults. We travel anywhere from 4 miles to 10 miles off the beach, so you can still see land from the boat, which is good for first time anglers who aren’t sure how they will be fishing off the coast of Ocean City. It’s a good mix of sharks mostly small dusky and thrasher sharks in the 4 to 5 foot range on light tackle, which is a great fight for most anglers. What’s nice these size sharks are small enough that their easy to handle and everybody on the boat gets to see these toothy creatures up close and actually get to touch them before their released. I’ll be booking these trips for the rest of the summer and i nto the fall, so give me a call if your interested in some great light tackle action that’s sure to make that drag sing.

The other charter I want to talk about was another great family trip, my bay flounder and croaker charters. This trip was a great group from Chicago, IL. The Hoffman family, David and Lisa and their children Lindsey, Josh, and Ethan, and their Pop Pop Neal Hoffman who put the trip together for them. We started in the east channel with a lot of action with small flounder which the kids had a blast catching. By the way the hot bait was Berkly Gulp with shinners or smelt. After a couple of hours we made a move to the south bay by the airport. We had another good bite with the flounder being a little bit bigger with most being 16 to 17 ½” just shy of that 18” we were looking for. Pop Pop Neal ended up catching a 18 ½” flounder to put in the box, plus little Ethan landed a legal croaker that also went in the box. I’ll be booking these bay flounder and croaker trips for another month until the Flounder season closes on September 15th. Another great trip is offshore flounder wreck and reef fishing which is really starting to heat up quick and will only get better over the next few weeks. I will being doing some of these trips in the next few days, so hopefully I’ll have some great stories and pictures for my readers the next few weeks. Lets get to more reports from around Ocean City.

The first report comes from Tim, at John Henrys Bait & Tackle; The surf fishing has really slowed this week. There are a few kingfish being caught, mostly on bloodworms,=2 0some surf anglers are still catching sharks and rays. The coastal bays are still producing some nice flounder, croaker, blues, and stripers. The tog are still biting around the jetties, and Rt. 50 Bridge, with a occasional triggerfish mixed in.

At Buck’s Place, Shannon reports; Big sharks from the surf, a 8 ft. and 9 ft. sand tiger sharks were caught this week on cut baits. Flounder fishing was better towards the end of the week, but most anglers are still catching mostly shorts. Croaker fishing is really starting to take off, but most fish are on the smaller side, bloodworms and fish bites are the beast baits. Still some keeper stripers coming from the inlet and Rt. 50 Bridge.

At the Oceanic Pier, JJ reports; Good week for flounder, lots of numbers and lots of keepers. We’re seeing lots of croakers now, with most anglers using blood worms for baits. We are seeing lots of small spot and sea bass, great for the young kids to catch, non stop action, also blood worms are the best bait for them. Lots of stripers from the seawall and Rt. 50 Bridge, most anglers are fishing live eels. Here at the pier at night, their catching mostly blues, and a occasional shad, mostly on Got-cha Plugs and Spec Rigs.

Beverly at Harbor Tackle, reports; Nothing much has changed in the past few weeks. The surf fishing is producing more big sharks, croakers, blues, and kingfish, along with p lenty of rays and skates. Lots of flounder caught in the usual places, however, most are under the 18 inch minimum. The croaker catch is getting better. Some small tog are around. The Inlet and Rt. 50 Bridge are producing legal stripers, blues, and flounder.

Captain Victor on the Ocean Princess reports that fishing has been great! It is the best I’ve seen in a long time. We are catching croakers and plenty of them. They aren’t the biggest fish but there are some nice ones mixed in. Some trips we catch small ones with a few big ones and other trips we will catch all nice size croakers. If you want to catch fish, now is the time to come. There are a few flounder, sea bass or trigger fish mixed in with the croakers but don’t count on them, this is a croaker fest.

At AllTackle John reports; Bay fishermen are seeing lots of flounder and hard head. The surf fishing has definitely slowed down the last few weeks, but anglers are still catching some kingfish, croaker, and spot. Offshore fishing is hit or miss for most boats, but the marlin bite is better, with most boats catching them not far offshore.

Here at Talbot Street Bait and Tackle, the flounder fishing during the day is red hot off the Rt. 50 Bridge. Bridge spreader bars are the ticket, rigged with minnows and squid or shinners and squid. There s still a good night bite off the Bridge, with anglers scoring some keeper stripers and blues. Most are being caught on Gotcha Plugs , Rubber Shads and Buck Tails. The croaker bite in the bay has gotten red hot the last few days, with most fishermen using blood worms and Berkley Gulp. The tog bite is mostly in the inlet area with some anglers also catching triggerfish also.