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.

With that said, let’s take a look at some of the reports that have come in from around Ocean City this past week.
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, some 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 Sunset Marina, Butch reports; Still have a good bite of 140 lb. to 150 lb. class bluefin at the Hambone. Yellowfin are still few and far between, gaffer dolphin at first lump, 12 miles of the coast. Flounder fishing has slowed this week due to the dirty water this week. Most of the flounder being caught are undersized, and the croaker are finally showing up in the back bays.

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 bet ter 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 Ocean City Fishing Center, Katie reports; The best catch of the week was a bluefin tuna that tipped the scales at 163 lbs. We also had bluefin at 139, 141, and 150 lbs. All the bluefin are being caught at the Hambone, the yellowfin are all on the small side. Lots of gaffer dolphin hitting the docks with a few king mackerel mixed in. Some boats also caught and released several white marlin this week. We even saw several mako sharks this week, in the bay the croaker are really starting to bite, we had one boat return with 43 croakers in their cooler. We weighed-in several nice sized flounder this week, one 5 lb. and one 7 lb. And finally the bay bee reported they are catching over 100 flounder throws back a day.

Pete at AllTackle.Com reports; The Twin Wrecks and the 20 line are producing bluefin and a few yellowfin on the troll. Most anglers have to weed threw the smaller flounder to get a few keepers. The Rt. 50 Bridge is still producing keeper striper and nice blues at night.

At the Oceanic Pier, JJ reports; Still have a good Flounder bite going on during the day, the croaker bite continues to improve daily, bloodworms are the ticket. We still have a few anglers fishing for tog, but most are undersized. The bluefish bite is still good when the schools move through, Got-cha plugs work the best along with Spec-Rigs. We are seeing some striper action from the sea wall at night, most fisherman are using live eels.

Beverly at Harbor Tackle reports; Not much to tell, more sharks at the beach along with a few blues, kings, rays, and skates. The Rt. 50 Bridge is still producing legal stripers at night, plenty of flounder but not many keepers. We did weigh-in a nice keeper flounder this week, caught by Jere Putt, it was 25” and weighed 7.5 lbs. it was caught in the east channel on live spot.

Adam at Bahia Marina reports; The founder bite remained steady this past week with many throwbacks being caught and a few nice keepers mixed in. A few anglers have been able to find some croakers in the bay so it shouldn’t be too long until they are in here thick. The Judith M continues to catch Sea Bass and Triggerfish. A few trips produced large flounder as well. Some of the flounder tipped the scales in the 5 to 7 lb range. Offshore angler continue to pick at large bluefins. Most of the fish have been in the 120′s. The Ebb Tide returned to the dock with a 66 inch bluefin that weighed 154 lbs. There are also plenty of gaffer dolphin being caught and some yellowfins as well for those who venture further offshore, but the yellowfin bite has definitely slowed down compared to what it was a couple of weeks ago.

Capt. Steve on the Happy Hooker reports; Fishing in the bay this week slowed considerable do to strong south winds in the early part of the week. There were still fish to be found, it just took a little extra work moving from spot to spot to find them. Monday showed signs of the water cleaning up and a few more fish being caught, with your best bet being in the deeper water.

Capt. Mark Sampson of Fish Finder Charters reports; I’m doing near shore shark trips 10 miles from the coast. It’s a ½ day charter for spinner sharks, Atlantic sharp nose, and dusky sharks in the 40 to 60 lb. range. This week we also caught 3 tiger sharks 35 lbs. to 125 lbs. it’s very unusual for them to be this close to the shore line. We also caught our first black tip shark of the year, it was in the 50 lb. range. It was a good week with a nice mixture of shark species. You can call Capt. Mark at 410-726-7946 or visit his web site at www. big sharks.com it’s a great trip for the young ones.

Captain Victor Bunting on the Ocean Princess reports; Some ups and downs with the fishing this week. Early in the week things started off pretty good with a steady pick of sea bass and the occasional floun der and triggerfish. By mid-week fishing had slowed down and we had some pretty slow days of fishing. I just came back in from our Sunday morning trip and we had a good day. Lots of throwback sea bass and some flounders, but the catching was fairly good. If your planning on filling up a 100 quart cooler with fish right now, it ain’t gonna happen, but you might pick up a keeper or two. I have heard reports from boats in the bay and from surf fisherman that there are a few croakers around. Hopefully they will be showing up any day and we’ll be able to fill that 100 qt. cooler.

Here at Talbot Street Bait and Tackle we saw several nice flounder at the scales, but the biggest was caught by a local. Howard Agnew, from Salisbury he was fishing on the party boat the Angler, when he hooked into a 27 ½” 8.5 lb. flounder while jigging with a bucktail. This week it seems that some of the best flounder fishing is coming from the Rt. 50 Bridge, and the east channel. The hot baits are live spot, Berkley Gulp, shinners, and live minnows. If your looking for croakers try the south bay by the commercial harbor, definitely use bloodworms and fish bites. If your looking for tog the south and north jetties are the hot spots. The best bait are sand fleas or green crabs. And finally for stripers both jetties and the Rt. 50 Bridge are the hot spots. Use live eels, spot, got-cha plugs, and rubber shads.

Finally the last report comes from the charter boat restless lady, they report a great week of charters with the highlight of the week being a overnighter. We left Monday at noon returned noon Tuesday, caught 3 yellowfin, kept one, released 2. The big bluefin was a 150 pounder, also caught a 124 lb. mako, and a 65” white marlin. Not bad for a 24 hour trip.

Right now we are in a transitional phase here in Ocean City, and a mixed bag of fish is present. Some of the bigger flounder have finally arrived to the area, which has been a delight to many of our local bay and bridge anglers. Most of the migratory rockfish have moved through, and the summer residents have set up shop in the inlet and around the bridge. There are always some nice-sized resident fish that are pulled from the inlet during summer months, so anglers should look for patter ns to begin to develop for these fish. Blue fishing continues to be good. Rays and some nice “biter” sharks are being taken along the beach. Trigger fish are now being caught inshore in the bay and probably off the wrecks. I heard of a cobia that was taken last week. And speaking of a mixed bag, we caught a very pretty red drum on one of my charters just yesterday.

A lot has been going on around Ocean City this past week, and I have quite a few reports to share with you. So let’s get started, we’ll start out with a few of my charters this past week. During and right after the full moon things definitely slowed down out at the south jetty and in the bays. Actually, it was some of the slowest action I’ve experienced this summer. But we got through it and the last few days we have seen a big improvement with striper and flounder fishing. One of the trips this week we had a little excitement with a unusual catch for the south jetty. It was with a great group from Bradford County, Pa., Marilyn, Jacob, and Jordan Grover, plus Jordan’s girlfriend, Jessica Tunnicliff. I had taken Marilyn and Jacob fishing a few years back when they were on their honey moon, so they were experienced in fishing the south jetty. We made a few drifts over the tip with a few small stripers hooking up but nothing to get excited about. Then Jacob hooked up with a big fish that started to burn up some drag on the reel, at first I thought we h ooked up with that big striper that everyone is hoping for. Jacob did a excellent job fighting this fish, with it making several runs back towards the jetty, but he always seemed to get it slowed down before it reached the rocks and cut the line. After about a five minute fight he finally got it close enough for us to see the fish, it turns out to be a big red drum. It still made two more runs from the boat before it tired enough for us to get it in the net. After a quick measurement of 32”, we realized it was to big to keep and released it back into the water for another angler to hopefully enjoy some day. Its funny, with customers most of the time your telling them the fish is just short of the legal limit and you have to release it back into the water, but its very seldom you tell them the fish is to big and you have to release it. With red drum there is a slot limit of 18” to 27” so needless to say Jacob was a little disappointed, but he still had the thrill of the awesome fight the fish gave him.

The next charter was just yesterday with a great group from Rochester, NY. It was a mixed group of two families that vacation together every year in O.C., the Cardamore’s and the Schlegel’s and Jerry Pelano who put the trip together. It was one of the charters that we had action from the very first drift to the last which always makes for a great day on the water. We started out at the south jetty with plenty of striper action, but we just couldn’t seem to get that 28” we needed for a keeper fish. But finally after 2 hours of non-stop shorts, Brent Schegel hooked into that big one we had been waiting for. It gave Brent a awesome fight with several drag burning runs that he barely stopped. But after what seemed like ten minutes the beautiful stripper gave in and came to the boat and was netted, with lots of screams of excitement and high fives from everybody on the boat. After everybody calmed down we measured the fish at 38 ½” with a weight well over 20 lbs. Not bad for Brent’s first keeper striper. We fished the south jetty for a while longer with still plenty of action, but no keepers. Then we decided to head up the bay for some flounder fishing. Once we got there and got the lines in, it didn’t take long for the first flattie to hit. It was a good bite but most fish were on the small side, until Jerry hooked up and the way the rod was bending we knew he had a keeper on. The flounder was a nice fat 19 ½” which put a little excitement back into everybody. We fished about another hour or so with all the other fish coming in under the 18” minimum. Well I had a lot of other trips this week I would like to write about, but unfortunately, I don’t have the time or the room in this article if I’m putting in other reports from around O.C. But I would like to thank all my customers for fishing with me and hope they have lasting memories for years to come.

The first report comes from JJ at the Oceanic Pier; Lots of flounder this week, the best week of flounder fishing yet from the pier. Lots of spot and small sea bass all caught on bloodworms, great action for the kids. The tog are still biting, but all are undersized. The night fishing, lots of croaker, and still catching blues and shad some nights.

At the O.C. Fishing Center, Kathie reports; Lots of bluefin tuna hitting the docks, just a few yellowfin here and there. Lots of dolphin and also a few white marlin releases reported. Flounder fishing in the bays still is red hot, most fish are on the small size, with a few keepers mixed in.

Kathie at Buck’s Place reports; Tyler Dubois of Baltimore caught some nice fish from the Rt.50 Bridge, a bluefish that was 34 ½” plus a striper that measured 29”. we had lots of reports of good bluefish and striper bites from the bridge at night mostly on Got-cha Plugs. Surf fishing is slow, with most anglers catching, blues, sharks, skates, and rays. Flounder fishing is still good in the south and north bays, but most fish are throw backs.

At John Henry’s Bait & Tackle, Tim reports; Catching big blues and striper from the Rt. 50 Bridge. Coastal bays still producing good fl ounder bites. Surf fishing is slow but most fisherman are catching sharks and rays, but the kingfish are starting to show uo with the spot and croaker.

Here at Talbot Street Bait & Tackle, Rick reports; seeing some keeper flounder at the scales, most flatties are 18 to 22” range, most caught on Berkly Gulp, and shinners. Also weighed in some big blues from the Rt. 50 Bridge all caught on Got-Cha Plugs. Also reports of sand sharks from the surf.

Beverly at Harbor Tackle reports; Fishing with their dad’s at Fenwick Shoal, Rayn Starner caught a 46 ½” 27 lb. 5 oz. cobia, and Austin Bainbridge caught a 4ft. hammerhead shark. Bev also reports, more sharks in the surf, along with kingfish, bluyes, croakers, skates, and rays. Some trigger fish and spade fish at the inlet. A few more legal stripers from the Rt. 50 Bridge and finally, lots of flounder but most under 18”.

Capt. Victor Bunting on the Ocean Princess reports; Fishing has been good again over the past week. We still are seeing a good number of flounder and triggerfish coming in on most of our trips. Our biggest flounder this week was a 24” caught on a morning trip by Joe Smith along with some other throw backs and keepers. Went back down to the same area in the afternoon and didn’t see another flounder the rest of the day. We still are picking away at the sea bass, some trips better than others. The first signs of ocean front croakers have appeared and hopefully we’ll be having some good days fishing for them coming up.

Finally our offshore report comes from the boat the Restless Lady, they report; We went to the Hambone and caught 4 bluefins. We kept1 at 36” and 40 pounds. And 1 at 64” and 140 pounds. All caught on ballyhoo and spreader bars on the troll. We went out to the Baltimore Canyon and hooked a mako and a white marlin and both threw the hooks while making jumps. Them fishing seems to be improving as the water warms.