WEEKLY “Gone Fishing†AT THE BEACH By Sue Foster July 15th, 2013

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WEEKLY “Gone Fishing” AT THE BEACH compliments of: Sue Foster, proprietor of OYSTER BAY TACKLE, Ocean City Maryland, and Fenwick Tackle, Fenwick Island Delaware. Sue provides us hopeful fish catchers with a timely UP TO DATE FISHING REPORTand other handy fishing advice.Courtesy of At The BeachFeatured Photo From Oyster Bay Tackle Photo Gallery |
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 15th, 2013 Water Temp: 72.7 Fishing Report by Sue Foster Saw some nice fish this week! Flounder are back biting in the bay. Had some good reports of many keepers this week. Puppy drum are around the inlet rocks and the bridges. Lots of spot in the bay. Triggerfish are moving in as well. We've had an absolutely great week on kingfish in the surf. There were several reports of sea trout in the surf and bay. Flounder are biting offshore on the wrecks. Pretty good sea bass fishing too. Big eye tunas were the word from offshore! 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. I heard there were some nice keeper flounder caught there this week. 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 had 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. 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. We also have the 2013 Shark Tank Tops. Got a few left. Get them quick. (Shirts going fast.) Stopping in to Oyster Bay Tackle or Fenwick Tackle? Clip out a coupon for xtra savings! Coupons Surf fishing was extremely good on kingfish this week. Paul Coughlin from Oyster Bay Tackle commented about Friday night: "Good whiting bite on North O.C. beaches Friday evening, after the rains. Strip baits/bloodworm combos on the low tide. Small trout also." The surf water is warming a bit now that we are getting some easterly breezes. We should see more trout and croaker. A light east breeze is just the absolute best for surf fishing! "Bunkerhands" posted on Stripers Online on July 9th: "Spot and kingfish at Bethany this weekend. Bloodworm Fish Bites and fleas. Peeler fleas in the surf as well but hard to keep on the hook. Water was clear and cold. No bugs. Really nice." "MTD35" posted: " I did take my family out to Assateague last week before they closed at KM17 and the kids caught a bunch of Whiting and Spot, many of the whiting were some the biggest we've ever caught. no love on the big rods." "GoatDelux" posted: "Fished Fenwick all last week with my boys. They had a ball catching spot and kings on almost every cast later in the week. I got into a couple of big butterfly rays, cownosed and a big shark before putting a float on the big bait. I took the boys to the bayside for a change of pace and to my surprise my 5 year old caught an 18" striper, next cast 20" puppy drum on bloodworm. I landed two keeper pups also from there that were released largest 21". Great week fishing rain and shine!" (These guys were fishing a private community pier on the Fenwick Ditch. There's really no public access to the great puppy drum fishing here unless you are in a boat or brave the bridge with no safety screen between you and the cars!) No fish is worth risking your life as far as I'm concerned! Wayne McPartland e-mailed in early last week: "Caught 12 kingfish Saturday evening at the north side of OC then this pig of a ray took a 20 lb rod/reel 50 minutes to beach. Grady Hearn of lutherville entertained a mob of sunset lovers. Grady reckons the ray weighed as much as a bag of concrete and had a wing span of close to 5 feet. Needless to say, he can't wait to go kingfishing again." Matthew Kurowski e-mailed in earlier this week: "My wife bought her license yesterday at Oyster Bay. Her first time fishing in the surf this morning, and she caught this cool puffer (northern burrfish). My son loved it! On bloodworms/fishbites combination (per the recommendation of your team at Oyster Bay). The pic of the ray and the burrfish is in our Surf Fishing Photo Gallery. 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.) "Jollywan" posted on Stripers Online about some great fishing in DE" "Fished Roosevelt for a few hours tonight incoming......really funny night, figured I would catch spot for bait and strip or toss whole. Couldn't get a single one for 2 and a half hours on fish bites, while 4 other fishermen were cranking them in.... I saw one guy actually walk off of the jetty with 13 spot in a bucket. Well, as it turned out fish bites on teeny hooks were the way to land 4 trout, and 2 flounder. One of the trout made it to 14 and change and one of the flounder was 19 and change. I will eat good tomorrow. Threw a few jigs, had a couple taps. Finally caught a spot on the bait rod and stripped it. Had two really nice hits on it, one no hook, the other came unbuttoned after a few seconds. Either way, great weather, and a easy trip. Saw what looked like two sharpies hitting the jetty as I walked off....." Oyster Bay Tackle saw lots fish from the bay this week, proving there's definitely fish around. Denny and Zach Blessing of Oyster Bay Tackle went fishing in the Ocean City Bay on the last of the incoming tide by Buoy #6 in the Thorofare on Saturday in 25 foot of water caught 4 keeper flounder all on live minnows fishing aboard their boat the "OC Joy". They caught at least 20 flounder. Gill from Hampstead, Maryland caught a fat 16.75 inch Tautog using Green Crabs as bait during the High Tide around the South Jetty. The Tautog weighed in at 3.2 pounds. Damien Taylor e-mailed in on Saturday: "My wife and I and a family friend rented a pontoon from Under the Bridge Watersports. Big thanks to Stacy for making the rental super easy. Fished north about halfway between 50 and 90. Caught tons of spot. Moved down to around the airport and started picking up some short flounder. Decided to move again and headed just north of 9th street pier. Caught this nice flounder on cut spot. My wife caught a very nice needlefish. Also on cut spot. Looked like she had a marlin the way it launched itself out of the water. Great time had by all." (We see these houndfish needlefish all the time in FL. I got a little scar on my hand to remind me to never grab one by the tail without holding on to the head!") Mike Brockmeyer e-mailed in this morning: "Sue, good morning ! just wanted to send you a picture of my wife Debbie Brockmeyer with a 25.5†– 6.6lb she caught live lining bunker in the east channel at the Coast Guard Station on Saturday the 13th. This was one of 3 we caught that day. Larry Jock (Coastal Fisherman) took pictures as well at Akes." (That's really a nice fish. OK guys! Time to pull out the cast nets and start throwing for peanut bunker. They're easy to catch and make great bait!) Robert Gunkel from Pasadena, Maryland caught a beautiful 26 incher weighing in at 6.5 pound Flounder using Live Minnows as bait on the Incoming Tide around the East Channel on Sunday. Dan Mattio from Kingsville, MD, Curtis Day from Silver Spring, MD and Bob Weaver from Joppa, MD boated three flatties in the east channel. They measured 22", 20" and 19" and were caught on the outgoing tide. They were caught on mullet, baby spot and mud minnows. Aboard the BoJo ll on July 9th. Bill Ruscitella from Purcellville, Va took his 11 year old son Ryan Ruscitella and his 10 year old friend James Alba fishing around Harpoon Hannas and caught this 20 inch Red Drum on a Live Minnow during the outgoing tide. These pictures are in our Inshore Photo Gallery. J.J. from the Oceanic Pier (410-289-2602) reported good fishing with flounder, red and black drum catches, trout, some blues. The Croaker were biting this week along with spot and little sea bass for the kids. Some keeper tautog were reported this week from the end of the pier. Short stripers at night mixed in with the trout and blues. (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: "Carl Haws and Vicki Haws caught 3 keepr flounder on Gulp! and minnows near the duck blinds. Fish measured 16.5, 17 and 22 inches. Charter boat, "Lucky Break" had 6 flounder caught on the west side of the Inlet near the mouth of the Commercial Harbor. Largest fish measured 22.5" and weighed 3 lbs. 6 oz. Capt. Jason said that pink was a hot color today. Charter boat, "Get Sum" had 7 flounder, caught on Gulp! on the west side of the Inlet, extending down into the West Channel in front of Gudelsky Park. Largest fish measured 20.5-inches." "Baron Sea" caught 12 flounder in the East Channel and 3 red puppy drum by the South Jetty. Largest flounder was 25-inches. Almost every day except for the days we had downpours Larry Jock had good reports from Get Sum, Bay Bee, Ocean City Guide Service, Lucky Break on the flounder scene.... (Good to see the flounder bite back on again!!!) Capt Jeff from Hellbent Charters e-mailed in his report this week: "Got up Friday at 6:30 and it was aldeady raining and it never stopped till late afternoon.We finally had some clean water. Thi past Monday we had some clean water and we caught 12 Flounder with 2 nice keepers. All it takes is clean water and we can catch fish! On Saturday morning I thought well after 5 inches of rain the previous two days I was not to sure what we would find. Well we were rewarded with the cleanest water I have seen all year an caught 22 Flounder but only two keepers. We found ths bite in the inlet,commercial harbor and down by the airport. After about 2 hours of thlaztede out going tide you could see the muddy water coming in from all over. Well it was fun while it lasted. The larger fish seemed to like live minnows and the smaller fish liked the white Gulp.Well as expected we found dirty water which slowly cleaned up with the incoming tide.We had to work hard to come up with 8 Flounder with one nice keeped.The bite was once again a 50 / 50 split between white Gulp and live minnow. Once again the weather looks dry for next week which should only make for better fishing. Still time to book a trip, call me at 717 574 4010 or email me at helbentcharters@hotmail.com. You can also check out my website at helbentcharters.com. See you on the water." Capt Jeff is one of the few charters going out of North Ocean City. Dave Beall of Dave's Delmarva First Mate Service reported this week: "The fishing at Indian River Inlet this past week was good up till the new moon and tapered off after. There were Flounder and Trout on the ebb tide and Stripers and Puppy Drum on the flood tide. The Trout & Flounder like Gulp and 2 & 3 inch rigged soft plastics and the Rockfish like bucktails and 4 & 5 inch rigged soft plastics with Bio-Edge Bunker scent. The Flounder bite should improve as the water clears up. 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! Crabbing has been good but did slow up a bit 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. Capt. Monty on the " Morning Star reports on July 14th: Greetings All, Just in from a research/tuna trip. Did not find any new rock bottoms, nor did we catch a tuna.. Saw plenty in gloriously calm seas—even a marlin, but they were in no mood for my humble offshore talents. Couldn't focus our attention on the catching if we were to do any finding. Did send my passengers home with sea bass & ling, a pollock too. Of several dozen scientists & managers I invited for the camera work, all wisely begged off to await shoreside video. Sure missed a pretty day on the rip though.. Here's the rundown from last week's fishing: If I'd written a report Saturday the 6th it would have been about a tough pick of good fish and high man getting to 15 keeper cbass. Sunday's 18 hour blueline tile/cbass trip was very kind despite a continuation of saucy SW winds. Jigging was no good. Using at least 24 ounces, we often had 1,500 feet of line out to hold in not-quite 400 feet. Fish bit though – nonstop. Monday went well enough – good sea bass around & even a few ling to fry. Had I written Tuesday it would have been about an awesome flounder bite. Nice Fish. Frank W had the boat's first 4 fish limit for 2013. Another fellow had to give fish away because he was over his limit. Wednesday? Rough seas with little action. Thursday cancelled. Oil Change.. Friday was calm with a sloooow bite. Caught a handful of sea bass & a few keeper fluke. Some did much better than others. At least we stayed relatively dry while Ocean City drowned under many inches of rain.. Saturday 7/13 saw great fishing, among the best days this year — even a few limits of cbass, but no flounder whatever. Its A Summer Bite. Experts abound who can elaborate on what we're going to catch — Me? I'm going fishing for sea bass & flounder. Every day one species will bite better than the other. I hope. I do not know which.. 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 11th: "Good sized bluefins have come from traditional tuna structure such as Massey's Canyon, the Chicken Bone, Hambone, Nineteen Fathom Lump and Hot Dog. Most boats have been trolling spreader bars and skirted ballyhoos, but chunkers have started to take some fish as well. ..... Continuous southwest winds mad for challenging conditions some days, but the Old Grounds between DB and DA Buoys yielded a fair number of flounder. ...The inshore wrecks harbored a variety of summertime species. The gang on Katydid worked some inshore snags Tuesday for 37 triggerfish, 3 spadefish and 80 kingfish. With hot weather, triggerfish have shown up around the Outer Wall. Andrea Monetti and Mike Surowiec anchored near the lighthouse Tuesday for a great catch of 31 triggers to nearly 3 pounds. Sandfleas were the bait of choice. Aaron Brommer hooked a 2.96 pound trigger at the Ice Breakers on Martha Marie. Tim O'Connell was casting a pink bucktail with light spinning gear along the Outer Wall for trout he felt a heavy hit. Three hours later, he boated a 65.6 pound black drum. Warm weather has attracted other exotics to the Bay. Bud Posey had the uncommon catch of a 7.61 pound cobia aboard the Pirate King II. Bay boaters contiuned to enjoy good catching with croakers, spot, kingfish, blowfish and trout. Reefs 5 and 8 and The Shears held plenty of the scrappy panfish. The hardheads have been small for the most part, but some 12 plus inchers are mixed in. Bloodworms, Fishbites and clams as baits ensured lots of bites. Flounder catches have been improving on Bay reefs. Captain Carey reported 11 keeper fluke, 4 legal trout and all the croakers you wanted during a Bay trip Tuesday. He said they released many good sized brown sharks too. Captain Brent's group on Katydid kept 14 nice flounder in the Bay today. Flounder are still coming from Lewes Canal. Fred Robinson tempted a 4.3 pounder and 2 other keepers from the Canal with pink Gulp! Kenny Dear captured a 24 inch 5.48 pound flatfish in the Canal using minnows. Stripers are active in the Canal too. Slot size fish were concentrated between the drawbridge and train bridge and could be caught with pencil eels, clams, Rat-L-Traps, soft plastics and swimming plugs. Working poppers along the marsh banks also resulted in bites from rockfish. Tautog season reopens July 17 IN DEL..." 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 11th: Despite too many day's to count in a row of the persistent southerly winds that have plagued our region we have continued to have good success with our fish catching action here at the Wharf. The Flounders continue to add up nicely on the Full-Day trips and on the Half-Day trips they have seen some of the best fishing for the Croakers so far this year during some of their excursions in just the last seven days. Back up in the Delaware Bay anglers fishing on the Half-Day trips or some of the private charters are enjoying some good mixed bag panfish action and they have not had to put up with the swells that we have seen on the Ocean. Croakers are still seemingly everywhere and when they turn on it has not been uncommon for Jr. anglers to land 15 or 20 fish during a Half-Day trip. Capt. Mike also reports still catching quite a few Kingfish, plenty of small Trout and even a few Flounder and Triggerfish on a couple of his trips. Croakers however are usually the primary target and what he tries the hardest to find for the fisherman for the steady action. The Croakers for the most part have still been on the small side with the bigger ones measuring at about a foot long or a little nicer. This action with the Croakers should only continue to get better and the size a bit bigger as the summer progresses. The next 12 hour Sea Bass trip will be the following Saturday 7/20. Reservations are required in advance for the 18 hour long range trips. My Full-Day trips depart the docks at 7:00 a.m. and for the next several weeks I will be primarily targeting the Flounder fishing structure bottoms of the "old grounds" we have only been seeing a few Sea Bass. We provide the Squid and the fresh cut meat and if you have any secret weapons be sure to bring them along with you. We have been getting away with anywhere from a 3 oz. bucktail when the conditions warrant to as much as 12 ounces of lead when the wind blows hard against the tide. Anything you could possibly need to catch these fish we have right on board. 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 8th: "The best fishing lately has been on the beach. Plenty of small king fish, croakers, and spot around. Bloodworms - real of FishBites were the ticket. The fish are in tight to the beach so don't flex your muscles and try to fish the English Channel by throwing as far as you can because you just threw over all the fish. They are literally right behind the first set of breaking waves. Had a couple of reports about a few bluefish around on the beach on Sunday. They were chasing schools of bunker. Daytime inlet fishing for stripers was slowed by the heat and boat traffic. Both drove the fish deep during the day. They picked at a few stripers during the night time hours. Floating live fleas was the most effective method. The good news in the inlet is that the warm water fish are here - sheepshead, triggerfish, red drum and black drum. Live fleas were the best bait for these. Scattered reports of flounder, spot and croakers in the bays. Reports of flounder and seabass on the Old Grounds southeast of B Buoy in 80 feet of water. Offshore - Old Inlet's Dave Tolbert had a 70 pound bluefin trolling on the tea cup. " Bill's Sport Shop (302-645-7654) in Lewes, DE reports good flounder fishing offshore. They've seen flounder up to 6 pounds. Washington Canyon saw dolphin and big eye tuna. Flounder bite is good is good just about everywhere and lots of puppy drum have been seen as well." " 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: 07/13/13 Another super early leave pays off for this crew from MD & NJ. The baits go out, twenty minutes later our mid-rigger get nailed. After a fantastic fight, Dave stick the gaff into the 85 lb. bluefin. The next few explosions miss the bait. Finally a bluefin with good vision smashes our short rigger. Fifteen minutes later we put the 65 lb. bluefin in the box. Our next fish is about the same size as the first fish we killed and is released at the boat. All this action is drawing quite a crowd and soon there are way too many boats working the same little area and the bite dies. The next two hours produce nothing so the guys decide to head in early allowing them plenty of time for the drive back to north Jersey with a cooler full of bluefin loins. 07/12/13 Broke the inlet at 3:30 am in horrible fog and heavy storms ahead. Zigzagged most of the 45 miles to the grounds avoiding small pockets of heavy rain. The baits hit the water around 6:00 and we start looking. About forty-five minutes later there’s a huge boil on our short rigger followed by an explosion on our mid rigger, both fish miss the baits. I swing around and our long rigger gets nailed and we put a 10 lb. mahi in the box. Another pass and another hook-up. Thinking we have a smaller bluefin on we’re happily surprised when Dave see’s those golden yellow fins and we put a 30 lb. yellowfin in the box. My next pass yields the same results, another 30 lb. yellowfin for the guys. The next 90 minutes see two more yellowfin added to the box with several other fish that missed the baits. By this point other boats have noticed me working this small area and move in for the kill. Unfortunately, it is the bite that gets killed. Spent the next two hours searching for a bluefin with only one knock-down. Sometime around 11 they guys tell me to head for the barn. Back in the slip early with four yellowfin to 40 lbs. and one mahi. Ocean City saw a lot of big eye tuna this week for sure! Some days tuna fishing was great and other days it was slow. Well, that's fishing!
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