Okay, I will move down off my soap box for now. Let’s talk some more about what happened in Ocean City fishing this past week. I’m going to start with the charters I had this past week. As most of you know most of the charters I have been doing lately are for stripers. This week was no exception, all five were striper trips, but we did mix in some flounder fishing with it with great results. The first charter was a mother and son team, Ritz and Sherry Burgee from the Baltimore area. Ritz loves to fish, actually he lives and breaths it, this was his first South Jetty Striper experience and he was like a little kid in a candy store. We ended up boating between 40 to 50 stripers on the trip with 3 keepers, we also did a little flounder fishing with lots of action, but just fell short of that 18” minimum size. After the charter Ritz had such a great time he talked his mom into booking another charter with me just a few days later with even better action than on the first trip. I think by the end of the second charter Ritz had caught a good case of what I call “Striper Fever”.

Another trip worth writing about was a nice group of guys from Harrisonburg, Va. Jim Mason, and his 2 son in-laws Rusty Showalter and Seth Caldwell. This also was a South Jetty striper trip. This was the first time these guys fished with me, so they had no idea what they were in for. Well, it was another awesome trip with double and triple hook ups on every drift with non stop action. By the time we hit the dock these guys had boated well over 50 stripers with 3 nice keepers, one measuring 39” and Rusty even caught a 21” flounder. All the fish were caught drifting live spot.

Well the 3 other charters I had this past week weren’t any different then the two I wrote about. So if you’re a fisherman that likes lots of lite tackle action, this is the trip for you, the bite hasn’t slowed, if anything its picked up this past week with nicer size stripers moving in. Give me a call at 410-430-5436 and book a trip while the fishing is still red hot.

I still have lots of reports from local tackle shops, and charter boats so lets get right to them. Our first report comes from Chris at the Ocean City Fishing Center in West O.C. ; seeing lots of yellowfin tuna this week at the docks, the bluefin bite has slowed down with only a few anglers catching them. We did see more dolphin this week then in weeks past. The flounde r fishing is still red hot, with most fishermen having non stop action, but most fish are on the smaller side. Captain Mark is still catching lots of sharks on the “Fish Finder”.

At Buck’s Place on Rt. 611 Travis reports; The surf fishing has slowed down this week, but we did here reports of skates, blues, and the occasional sand shark being caught. The bait of choice this week is fresh bunker or mullet.

At Sunset Marina in West O.C. Haddarty reports; There’s still lots of makos being caught at the Hambone and Hotdog. Offshore fishermen are reporting the makos are feeding on the football size yellowfin in that area. The Bass Grounds are giving anglers lots of sea bass and flounder action, with one sea bass weighing over 6 lbs. Most anglers are scoring with cut squid and minnow combos. The bay flounder fishing is fast paced but most fish are not measuring the 18” minimum.

At Oyster Bay on 118th street Tom reports; The spot have showed up in big numbers from the inlet to 94th street, best baits are blood worms or squid. Croakers finally made their appearance in the O.C. inlet, the flounder bite continues to be good, but most flatties are short. And finally, the surf is producing sharks, skates, and spot.
Steve at Alltackle.com in West O.C. reports; yellowfin at the Washington, also big bluefish on the Chicken Bone. And still lots of makos being caught at the Fingers mostly on mackerel.

At John Henrys Bait & Tackle in West O.C. Tim reports; The surf fishing has slowed down, but in the coastal bays anglers are catching flounder, stripers, tog, and triggerfish.
Beverly at Harbor Tackle in West O.C. reports; Not much happening on the beach this week only small blues, some kingfish, lots of skates, and a few sharks. Flounder fishing seemed to be a bit better this week. I heard of more legal flounder being caught. The percentage of legal flounder to undersized was about 25%. Most legal flounder were in the 18 to 23 inch size. And finally, last Friday, Bill Snyder of Ocean Pines hooked up with a 25” 5.9 lb. flounder at 4th street bulk head using live spot for bait.

Teddy at the Oceanic Pier reports; The flounder fishing is picking up with more keepers being caught. Still lots of tog being caught but their starting to be on the smaller side with the weather getting warmer. We also are seeing triggerfish being caught by the sea wall and off the north jetty mostly on sand fleas. Teddy also said there are croakers finally starting to bite in the inlet, but most are on the smaller side. The bait of choice is bloodworms, and finally the night fishing still continues to be good for blues, shad and a occasional short stripper.

Here at Talbot Street Bait & Tackle we saw some nice fish at the scales this week. The first to come in was a unusual catch coming from the bay, it was a2032” cobia caught by Ray Delfera, from Brookheaven Pa. Ray caught it at the 2nd to 4th street bulk head on shinners. We also saw some nice flounder from the Rt. 50 bridge, which has been smoking hot lately for day time flounder fishing. First to come the scales was long time customer, Les Luco of Catonsville, Md., it measured 18 ½” and was caught on live minnows on a bridge spreader bar. The next day his son Scott Luco also from Catonsville came in with a nice 19” flattie, also caught on a bridge spreader bar rig with shinners as bait. I’m going to take a minute here to talk about these bridge spreader bars, if you happen to drive across the Rt.50 bridge you will see a lot of fishermen using a long bright colored bobber with a long wire rig attached about 2 foot below it. This is a bridge spreader bar, which is the most effective rig to use when targeting flounder from the bridge. If your serious about flounder fishing from the bridge this is the rig to use. Les tells me he has had over 25 flatties per trip this week from the bridge. If you need help setting up a rig for the bridge, stop by the tackle shop and one of our employees will show you exactly what you need to be a successful flounder fisherman off the bridge.

The last few reports come from a few charter boats here in O.C. The first is from Captain Steve on The Happy Hooker a bay flounder party boat. Steve reports; Once again this week the20flounder bite was excellent, we carried over 250 customers and all but 3 caught flounder. The only down side is there are very few keepers to be found. There really wasn’t any place better then any other, it seems the little fish are everywhere, just look for clean water and a good drift. Over the last few days there has also been several people that have reported good numbers of croakers by both the Rt. 90 Bridge and also the Verrazano Bridge. Which is almost a month earlier than last year and hopefully a sign of things to come.

The next report is from Captain Victor from the Ocean Princess, he reports; Pretty good fishing over the past week. Some trips are better than others, but we have been pulling in a fair amount of sea bass along with a few triggerfish and flounder. Most of our sea bass have fallen short of the 12 ½” size limit set this year, but we have had a few decent size keepers come over the rail. Triggerfish have been coming on steady, and its not uncommon this week to come home with more keeper triggerfish than sea bass. Hopefully the flounder bite continues to improve over the next few weeks.

The final report comes from the Restless Lady charter boat, Captain Todd reports; We went fishing at the Poormans at the 100f and landed 30 yellowfin tuna. 6 were keepers up to 35 lbs. We had a mako bite that threw the hook after two jumps. Water was 68degrees, and there was tons of bait in the water……squid. We never had a single hook-up, always 2 to 3 at a time, once we had six at a time, they hit the rasta bars and naked ballyhoos. Our best catch of the week was a 183 lb. Bigeye Tuna, the largest of the year landed in O.C.