WEEKLY “Gone Fishing” AT THE BEACH By Sue Foster June 10th, 2013

Courtesy of At The Beach

Featured Photo From Oyster Bay Tackle Photo Gallery

 June 10th, 2013

Water Temp: 65.5

Fishing Report by Sue Foster

Fair flounder fishing in the bay. First reports of croaker from the
Ocean Pier. Mixed bag of fish from the surf including sharks, skates,
rays, kingfish, spot, sea trout, and blowfish. Sea bass fishing is
improving offshore. Crabs are showing up the bay.

 Oyster Bay will be open 7-7 or 8 Mon through Thursday...-Friday-7-9 and
 Sat- 6-9 & Sun-6-7 or 8. Fenwick Tackle will be open 7-7 weekly and
 till 8 or 9 on Fri and Saturday nights.   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 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 caught a lot of
 tautog down there this week. Not many keepers, but the action was
 there. Flounder are also caught from the bulkhead along with a few
 bluefish.  The Ocean Pier it also open. Anglers there caught sharks,
 skates, blues and croaker this week. Both of these are places you can
 fish without a MD license. If you fish the bulkhead you still need to
 obtain a free registry. We can do that for you at Oyster Bay Tackle or
 call 1-855-855-3906. If you fish the Ocean Pier they will register you
 for you.

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.
>
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 a mixed bag of fish. Kingfish, blowfish, croaker, spot,
sharks, sea trout, skates, rays, and a few blues were the reported fish.
We didn't get a lot of feedback this week because of the stormy weather.
Most reports were a little bit of this and that. More smaller fish than
larger fish have been biting unless you are into the shark fishing!

MDT35 posted on Stripers Online on the 6th (Thursday): "The beach is
definitely transitioning from spring to summer.  Got the pass to make
one final overnight trip yesterday...I fished 6 rods, 1 of which was
setup for panfishing.  The skates and doggies were relentless.  On the 1
rod setup for panfishing  I had a real steady pick of Whiting, Croakers,
spot, and a couple blowfish.  Some real nice size to the Whiting and
Croakers.  My setup consisted of 40lb braid running line, 30lb mono tied
with 2 dropper loops snipped with a #1 Kahle hook snelled in, no floats.
 Fishbites Blood Worm was the ticket.  Tossed several of their heads way
out but got no visits from the biters."

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 flounder biting.
There were skates, shad both day and night, a few stripers, some blues,
and a scattering of sea trout.    (You do not need a fishing license to
fish the Oceanic Pier.)

 Larry Jock of the  Coastal  Fisherman reports on Saturday:  "Tonight around 8:30 PM, Capt. Skip
 Maguire called in to report that the striper bite around the tip of the
 South Jetty was red hot. They had already caught many fish, including a
 40-incher they had in the box. All were caught on live spot."

 On Tuesday, Larry reports: "Michael Hoyt caught a 20.5-inch flounder
 while fishing on the head boat, "Morning Star" at an artificial reef.
 Fish was fooled with a chunk of clam."

 Ed Dorsch e-mailed in his fishing report from Saturday: "My son and I
 bought a new boat at the boat show in March and FINALLY got the chance
 to take her out for her maiden flounder fishing voyage yesterday. The
 weather obviously wasn't the best and we were forced to fish all
 outgoing tide. Seemed like the storm held up the afternoon incoming
 quite a while. Anyway, despite dodging the big afternoon storm by
 deciding to have lunch, we managed to land a couple of keepers ...17"
 and a real nice 19.25" drifting minnows near the OC Airport. Nice that
 the first fish landed on the "Net Flounders" was a keeper.

Oyster Bay Tackle and Fenwick Tackle snapped a couple pics of fish this
week: On Thursday, Jim Patton from New Market, Md caught a 24 inch
Flounder weighing in at 4.6 pounds during a outgoing tide around the
East Channel using a Aqua Clear rig with Minnow and White Gulp. He also
had another keeper. It wasn't the most pleasant of days, so it certainly
was a great catch considering the weather!

Jason C Hughes from East Berlin, PA fished the RT 50 Bridge during the
evening for Striper on High Tide using Storm Lures and came up with this
22 inch Flounder weighing 4.5 pounds

These pictures are in our  Inshore Photo Gallery.

Ed Bush from Selbyville, De caught a 19.5 Pound Black Drum during low
tide using Grass Shrimp as bait near Rt 54 on Friday. On Tuesday Ed Bush
of Selbyville, DE came into Fenwick Tackle with three Black Drum caught
from the Rt 54 bridge in the "ditch" on grass shrimp. Largest was 3
pounds 12 ounces (19-inches). Caught on grass shrimp. His pictures are
in our  Delaware Photo Gallery.

Some nice sized bluefish was the Route 50 Bridge at night. Stripers were
spoty this week from the Bridge. Some shad reported caught and released
from the Homer Gudelsky Park. Some really big rays in the bay this week
as well.

Jeff Grimes Of Helbent Charters reports on the 3rd: "I just wanted to
let you know we fished 8 hours last Saturday and we had one keeper
Flounder. We were forced to fish the out going tide which lasted all
morning. The water in the inlet and out behind the island all the way
back up to the campground was very dirty. We fished in both those areas
with no luck. The other thing was the water depths out in both those
areas has changed. The inlet at low tide was 30 feet all the way out and
almost all the way to the south jetty. The other area that was a big
change from last year was the out side of the commercial harbor near the
sunken ship New Hope at the end of the dock. You used to be able to
drift to within about 20 feet of the boat and now you can only get
within 50 yards of the boat. That area really filed in. We had no choice
but to fish the Captain Hill area all afternoon to stay out of the wind
and there is where we caught our one keeper Flounder. We saw no other
fish caught all day so the bite was very slow. The bay and especially
the inlet was covered with large rays. They were everywhere and we only
hooked one all day we saw hundreds of rays on the surface and heaven
only knows how many more under the surface. The wind made for a tough
day and Sunday had even more wind projected do it was a no go on Sunday.
Live bait was the choice over Gulp on Saturday. Lets hope once again for
the winds lay down.

On the 9th Capt Jeff reports: "Finally a day without wind and rain! We
fished the last several hours of the incoming tide this morning which
was slack for almost 90 minutes and for a few hours of the out going
tide. When the tide finally turned the fish continued to have lock jaw!
We did pick up a weak fish and another short fish in the inlet but we
did not see any flounder caught all day! Even with all the rain the last
few days the water quality was very good today at least while we were
out today which I thought may have been a problem. It was a great day on
the water today but it looks like we have a chance of rain three out of
the next four days so keep the rain gear close  by. The fish we caught
today preferred pink Gulp. There is still time to book a trip this
summer so give me a call at 717-574-4010 or email me at
helbentcharters@hotmail.com. You also reach me thru my website
helbentcharters.com or thru facebook. See you on the water." Capt. Jeff
has one of the few charters going out of North Ocean City.

Dave Beall of Dave's Delmarva First Mate Service reported: "This week
started out like last week but it seems like the new moon brought a
little more action to Indian River Inlet. The bite at tide change would
only last for about 30 minutes most days if you were lucky. There was
still an occasional Gray Trout, Flounder seemed to pick up some and
there are still Rockfish in the dark from the bridge out to the jetties.
It looks like the spot have decided to finally show up although they are
not here in huge numbers yet but I am sure that there are rockfish,
flounder and trout following them. I caught several Flounder in dirty
water this past week with a 1/4 oz. bucktail (use a heavier bucktail in
deeper water) with a white head red wrap and a chartreuse skirt and I
added a trimmed chartreuse gulp sand worm to the hook. Cast and retrieve
the bucktail very slowly with a short erratic jerk  every 2 to 3
seconds. Remember that flounder will sometimes follow a bait for a while
before it hits it so you want to make the bait look injured. Have a
GREAT WEEK, 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. One group caught
one and a half dozen in an hour and had dinner. Crabbing has started
late, but now that we have warmer weather, we should have some good
crabbing. (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 2nd:

"Fish Report 6/7/13 Cbass: Steady If Not Great Hooked On OC Victories
Of All Sizes

X-Long Cbass June 13th 5:30 to 4:30 - $150.00 — Big Boat Ride —
Relentless Anglers Preferred!

Sailing Everyday Reservations For Sea Bass Trips at 410 - 520 - 2076.
See much more info at http://morningstarfishing.com 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..

Hi All, It was comforting to come across a section of reef & paint many
sea bass 10 to 30 feet up in the water on my depth sounders; great to
see schools of cbass up off the bottom. When we anchored they followed
our baits down and CHEWED for a while. Happened a couple times this
week. Nice. Everyone likes drop & reel fishing — especially the
captain.. Mostly though we're still, and will remain, working for a
catch. Sending very nearly everyone home with dinner plus a few. Every
once in a while someone will push into the high teens. Catching a lot of
fish & keeping dinner.

Did have a young man catch two flounder. One was a keeper, the first
filleted on my rig this year. Hoping for a good season on
fluke/flounder. Should start biting well in a few weeks.

Still seeing a couple ling (red hake) almost every day. That's a huge
increase from recent years past. Scientists blame our region's ling
demise on climate change. Odd: I think water's warming is mostly up-top
thus far – on the surface; that we often have cooler than average bottom
temps as ice-melt waters seep low & south..

The boat's sailing extra-light with people during the week while I'm
canceling sold-out trips for weather on weekends. What could go wrong?
Ahh, it'll come around..

We did increase the amount of substrate available for naturally
occurring corals & mussels to attach too this week. OC Reef Foundation
put a barge-load of concrete pipe right on target at Ake's Reef 4.5 NM
SE Ocean City Inlet. Almost adjacent to the last bargeload of pipe &
nearly hitting the steel boat we sank last November; Ake's Reef
footprint was expanded. We'll do it again soon. Get out to Jimmy's too.

Ours is a small barge, but four bargeloads since spring is a great start
on 2013. See ocreefs.org to contribute, or just play the Reef Raffle
when you're aboard.

See you on the rail..

Regards, Monty

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 6th: "Twenty fathom structure
 looks pretty sharky so far this season. Good numbers of Threshers have
 been reported from The Fingers over the past two weeks. Several have
 been sizeable specimens, over 200 pounds.....Regarding other Ocean
 opportunities, sea bass were available on reef and wreck structure
 between 100 and 150 feet of water. Captain Brent on Katydid said bass
 had been spotty since the season opening, but they finally showed signs
 of starting to stack up around certain spots. Brent bassed yesterday,
 and his nine guys returned with their boat limit of chunky knotheads,
 many close to 2 pounds. They also had several quality ling. A few days
 earlier, Captain Brent hosted the fishin' Falgowski family for a wreck
 trip. The group came in with 105 bass and 20 ling. Kenny Luckanish
 stopped by to weigh a 3.95 pound citation sea bass he decked aboard the
 Thelma Dale IV. Offshore bottom bouncers had success too. Captain Pete
 and the boys on Candy's Reel Choice deep dropped in Baltimore Canyon
 for 15 golden tilefish to 30 pounds, plus a mix of sea bass, ling and
 black belly rosefish.

 Back in Delaware Bay, drum fishing held up well through the past week.
 Fish continued to come from the Coral Beds area, but a good bite also
 developed northeast of Brandywine. .... Drum should be available
 through this new moon, but catches normally fade out by mid June.

 The return of weakfish continues to please Delaware Bay fishermen.
 Numerous seatrout have come from the submerged jetties at Roosevelt
 Inlet, the Ferry Wall and Inner Wall. Soft artificials such as Gulp!,
 Bass Assassins and paddletail worms worked well. Jeff Purdy used a
 purple and pink paddletail on a red jighead to tempt a 5.6 pound trout
 from the Ferry Wall. Not to be outdone, Jeff's Dad Vince Purdy took a
 5.3 pound trout and a bonus 1.9 pound speckled trout using the same jig
 and paddletail combo at the same spot the next day. Glenn Barrett
 brought in a 3.5 pound weakie that swallowed a spot he was reeling in
 from the Cape Henlopen Pier. Chris Huk had a 28 inch trout that blasted
 a topwater plug he was working along the grass in Lewes Canal. Flounder
 catches in the Canal improved the last few days. Some flatties were
 also caught along Lewes and Broadkill Beaches. Karen Revis stopped by
 with a pair of keepers to 19 inches she got drifting minnows in
 Broadkill River. Croakers and spot have been plentiful around the
 Henlopen Pier and along Lewes Beach and will jump on pieces of
 bloodworms or Fishbites on small hook rigs. Kingfish and blowfish have
 been caught in the Ocean surf with the same baits."

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 5th:

After Two and a half weeks of fishing over the wrecks rocks and
artificial reefs targeting Black Sea Bass since the season opener on the
19th of May there are a few things that I can say with certainty. There
are definitely some nice Sea Bass around but not like years past, if
your looking for freezer packing action and limit catches of fish I'm
not your guy, and last but not least - does the wind never stop?

The Delaware Bay has been pretty lively with the Drumfish on both sides
of the Bay and there are also more and more reports of Croakers being
landed in several locations. There also seems to be a lot of Kingfish
around for those targeting them and some of the sharpshooters continue
to catch some nice Trout jigging around the structures. The Croakers
being around this early should bode well with the inshore fishing and
with the Half-Day trips as we roll into Summer.

The plan for my All-Day trips is simple we are going fishing. On days
with just a few anglers we will likely be doing some drifting the open
bottom and we will see a variety of fish with both the Flounders and the
Sea Bass when the conditions are good. On Days where we have a decent
crowd or the wind is blowing it is still likely that we will be
anchoring over the wrecks and the reefs targeting the Bass and some
Ling. Trips depart the dock at 7:00 a.m. and we generally return around
4:00. Half Day trips will be targeting Croakers, Kingfish, and possibly
a few Trout and Flounder in the Bay.

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 It's official - New
Summer Flounder regulation is 17" minimum size with a 4 fish a day limit
and no closed season. This goes in to effect Tuesday June 11. June 6-
News Flash: Spot and Croakers is the Inlet. On June 6th: Surf fishing
has come on pretty good lately. We have been getting southeast wind on
the incoming tide and it is pushing warm water and fish our way.
Starting to see the switch to what we call "small fish season" typical
of the warm water summer months. The surf action is dominted by small
fish: kings, spot, croakers etc. They are hitting just about everything;
bloodworms (real and fake), clams and fresh bunker. Not too many
bluefish around on the beach right now as has been the case so far this
Spring. Still the occasional striper in the suds. We saw two 20 pounders
early in the weekend. The striper bite on the beach will slow down as
the water warms. Horseshoe crabs and cow nose rays are migrating now so
don't be surprised if you get hooked up! The striper bite in the Inlet
has been at night and the early morning hours. Swim shads and bucktails.
The fish have been tight to the rocks. North side on incoming and south
side on outgoing. Eels will become increasingly effective as the water
warms. Daytime incoming water has produced bluefish and shad. Flounder
are still in the bays with the cooler water temps hanging around. The
VFW slough and Masseys are the hotspots. Minnows and Gulp Alive are
working well. B Buoy and the Old Grounds are the best destinations for
seabass. When the wind is not blowing. Which has been rare."

Bill's Sport Shop (302-645-7654) in Lewes, DE reports on June 4th:
Various reports from yesterday:  croaker, spot, weakfish, kingfish,
puffers, striper and keeper flounder were being pulled from the surf.
Anglers were using blood worms, Fishbites, bunker and clams. Customers
have been reporting many stripers being caught at night from the jetty
at IRI. Sea bass have been reported at Site 11 and the Old Grounds. Mako
and thresher are being reported from the Baltimore.."

Capt.Dan Stauffer (866-623-4746) of the  Fin Chaser does wreck,
inlet and trolling trips. Here's one of his reports from this week:

"06/08/13 First shark trip of the year. We’re greeted by weather that is
much better than the forecast is calling for. Baits hit the water and
the wait begins. After about 90 minutes drifting in all kinds of crazy
directions we have our first shark in the line. The 60 lb. dusky is
released after a short battle. Almost immediately we have another shark
messing with a bait but after a 15 second run the shark drops the bait
and doesn’t return. The next few hours see’s more clouds and only a few
bites. Shortly after noon a big thresher grabs our floater and the fish
is on. After about 20 minutes the main line breaks for no apparent
reason. The shark might have caught it with his giant tail. The guys
decided to wrap things up a little early due to heavy rain that moved in
while we were doing battle with Mr. Tail."

Lots of sharks offshore. Our own Walter Moore of Oyster Bay caught a
huge 18ft thresher shark estimated at 500lbs. It took 3 hours and 30
minutes to bring in on his boat "Moore or Less". It was caught on a
Shimano TLD25 reel spooled with 50lb mono on a 20-50lb class rod. The
fish was so big he had to have it towed in on another boat. Caught on a
Tahoe 215cc deck boat. Pictured at Advanced Marina using their boat
forklift. Chum: Captain Mac's monster mash. Bait: Boston mackerel

His picture is in our Offshore Photo Gallery.

 Larry Jock of the Coastal  Fisherman reports from offshore on Sunday: "At 9:00 AM, the charter
 boat, "Restless Lady" reported that they have a 75-inch mako on the
 boat. Caught outside the Hot Dog. At 9:30 AM, Capt John Oughton on the
 charter boat, "That's Right" reported in. It was a slow start, but they
 have caught 3 out of 5 yellowfins, deep in the Baltimore Canyon
 (37.974973/-73.598313). Rumors have it that yellowfins and bluefins are
 being caught in 200 fathoms on the northeast corner of the Wilmington
 Canyon."