Article by Capt. BJ Pietryak
This week anglers were met with fierce northeast winds and rough waters. For those brave enough to venture out, the fish were very willing to bite. Many reports of big sea bass, keeper rockfish, and several blues in the surf shows that our fall season should be a good one.
Sea Bass
Sea bass, which has been the best I've seen in years, continued to be strong this week. I received several reports from both anglers as well as the various headboats that the deeper wrecks are holding some nice knotheads. Target wrecks in the 120ft. range for the best chance at some of these big fish. The fall season means cooler water and these fish should begin to move inshore to wrecks in the 40-60 ft. range. This will make it much easier to target keepers sea bass. The fall season is also a great time to try your hand at jigging for these fish. The areas such as the African Queen site as well as the bass grounds should begin to really turn on in the next couple of weeks. Tog should also make a comeback as water cools. Salted clam and squid remain your go to baits. The bigger fish will hang tight to the wrecks so be prepared to lose a few rigs. The near shore wrecks are still holding some nice triggerfish as well as bluefish. As the water cools, the bluefish will begin targeting these inshore wrecks attacking your catches as you bring them up, reel your fish in quickly to avoid these predators. Once you get attacked by bluefish or dogfish sharks the best method is to move to another wreck as these fish will be relentless in attacking your hooked fish. You can try waiting them out, but that usually takes about 30 minutes of non fishing and then there is no promise that they will not still be lurking around waiting on the next meal. Some of the inshore wrecks are also holding cobia and triggerfish but most of these fish seemed to have moved on. A few spade fish are also being caught on the wrecks. The head boats are reporting good catches of sea bass on their trips. Many of these boats will be switching over to full day trips now that the summer season is over.
Flounder
In shore and bay flounder has been fair to good depending on the day and wind conditions. In the back bays the keeper ratio is still about 8-1. Scott Sieglar caught a nice 4 lb. flounder near the Ocean City airport this week. The fish was weighed in at Fenwick Tackle. Craig Cropper reported that he caught some nice sea trout, bluefish, and rockfish on his Roy Rigs. The bluefish have been heavy near the fishing pier and inlet area. Many anglers fishing for flounder have been hooking small fish only to be attacked by bluefish. Make sure at this time of year to reel your fish in fairly quickly to keep them away from predators. On the near shore wrecks the flounder scene has been good, but a lot of sea bass have been staging on the wrecks making it difficult to reach the flounder on the bottom. Larger baits or live spot are the best baits for getting past sea bass and reaching the keeper flounder.
Bluefish/Rockfish/Sharks
Dogfish sharks are beginning to stay on the near shore wrecks. This will soon become a problem for anglers targeting sea bass and tog. Reeling your fish in quickly will help keep these fish from attacking your hooked sea bass. In the bay areas bluefish can be found around the fishing piers. Craig Cropper caught double limits of bluefish this past week. Many anglers including myself do not regard bluefish as an edible fish however, many like bluefish baked and especially smoked. The smoked bluefish can be made into fish cakes or a smoked fish dip. Rockfish are also showing up all along the bay entrance. Many of these fish are below keeper size. A few keeper rockfish in the 29-32” size were caught this past week. Most of these fish were caught on eel type jigs or live eels. Casting along the rocks of the inlet and allowing the baits to get near the bottom appears to be the best method for targeting striped bass. A few reports of rockfish near the Assateague Bridge are also coming in, but I didn't hear of any keepers from that area.
Crabs and Clams
Crabbing remains some of the best we have had in years. Targeting water in the 6 ft. range seems to be the most productive. Bunker still is the best bait. Clams in the Assateague area remain strong although many areas are very picked over. Try going to deeper water to find untouched areas.
Tight lines and fins up! §
