Article by Sue Foster
“I want to go out on a party boat!”
Party boat fishing is a lot of fun, especially if you wake up feeling good after a night’s rest. I can get a little sea sick out there in the rolling water, and I have seen I’m not alone. I always take a Dramamine or a Merazine an hour before we sail, and I am just fine. If you have never been out in the ocean before, tuck a pack in your bag just in case. It takes about an hour to kick in, so take it at the first sign of discomfort.
If you flip through the Coastal Fisherman, you will see party boats that go out for a full-day and other boats that go out for a half-day. The serious angler should always go for the “full-day.” Full-day in Ocean City usually means you’re back at the dock by 3:00 pm with plenty of time to get cleaned up and go out to dinner! When you venture offshore for a full-day, the Captain can travel farther and hopefully find more and larger fish. Half-day boats are limited to how far they can go and usually fish areas like the Bass Grounds and African Queen where many of the private boaters and half-day charter boats spend their days.
If you have limited time, or just want to get your feet wet and see what it’s all about, a half-day boat is a good idea. If you have a spouse who is not sure he or she really wants to go out or a child that might get bored, the half-day boat is for you. It’s always a nice boat ride on a nice day no matter what boat you take.
Look at the weather forecast, and I don’t mean a local beach forecast. Check out the marine forecast at http://weather.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/fmtbltn.pl?file=forecasts/marine/coastal/an/anz650.txt. This is COASTAL WATERS FROM FENWICK ISLAND, DE TO CHINCOTEAGUE, VA OUT TO 20 NM. It tells you the wind predictions and direction of the wind. Anywhere from 5 to 15 miles per hour and 2 to 4 feet is usually a nice day. When you see winds increasing to over 20 knots, and waves building to the 4 to 6 feet range, it’s generally “not so good.”
Weather can change all the time, so keep checking it. Call the boat and make reservations and make sure you know what time the boat leaves. Just showing up at a marina without a plan is not the best choice, unless that is what the marina told you to do. Sometimes party boats have special trips with special hours, a private charter, or are already booked up.
Be sure to take something to eat and drink, suntan lotion, hat, boat shoes, sunglasses, ice, a light cover-up if it gets chilly and a rain jacket if rain is predicted.
“Anything special I should know about party boat fishing?”
The most valuable lesson is to listen to the Captain and mates. Let them rig up your lines properly and watch the people around you that are catching fish.
Let your line go straight down until the sinker hits the bottom and then reel in the slack. Most party boats will be fishing over artificial and natural wrecks and yes, there are snags out there. If you keep a tight line, you will less likely get snagged and you can feel the bites better. If you do get snagged, don’t reel and reel and fight the snag. It’s not a fish, it’s a snag. Stop, put some slack in your line, and gently lift your rod tip up and down and maybe it will come out. Capt. Monty says it’s like getting a hook in your finger. The harder you pull, the deeper it will go! Let off, and try to work it out.
Keep your bait on your hooks fresh. If you are using clam, thread it on so the dark, yucky stuff is at the tip of the hook. If you are fishing for sea bass, you are trying to catch a 12 ½ incher so it can go in your box. Bigger pieces of bait will generally catch you bigger fish. If you are fishing with crab for tautog, it is very important to keep your bait very still on the bottom. Move your body up and down with the rocking of the boat, not your sinker. Keep that sinker totally still and not moving.
When you get a bite, set the hook and start reeling and get the fish off the bottom immediately before it goes into some part of the wreck or artificial reef structure and gets you snagged. If you hook a fish and get hung-up in the bottom, give the line slack for a few seconds, then try again. Sometimes the fish will swim out of the snag. That happened to me last week. We were fishing the cables at the African Queen, and I put my rod down and had a good bite. The fish was on, but then it got snagged tight. I let my line go slack, counted to 10, then tried again and came up with my very first codfish!
When the Captain moves to a new fishing spot, the fish will often jump on the baited hooks right away. Then the fishing spot may peter out as the hungry fish are caught, so when the Captain moves to a new spot and tells you to “let ‘em down” do it quick and maybe you’ll catch the big one!
It doesn’t take rocket science to catch a sea bass. You just have to keep bait on your hook and get to the bottom. Tautog and some of the other offshore fish are a little trickier. Look, watch, and listen.
Party boat fishing is fun. You meet new friends, enjoy fresh air and hopefully catch some dinner. It’s a nice way to spend the day. Always remember to tip the mate, and if you miss a fish, or the fish is a 1/2-inch too short, don’t get mad. It’s just a fish!
Good fishing….
Sue Foster is an outdoor writer and co-owner of Oyster Bay Tackle in Ocean City, MD and Fenwick Tackle in Fenwick, DE.
