Posted on November 11th, 2017
Let me first apologize for not posting for a few days…..but when there’s nothing going on, there’s nothing going on! I think Mother Nature forgot November had started so she decided to give us a reel good taste of it this week. We’ve had rain, wind and now the coldest temperatures so far this year and it just hasn’t been conducive for many to get fishing. The ocean has been closed for business thanks to the wind and inshore fishermen have avoided the harsher conditions waiting for a warm up next week. Folks tend to give it a try no matter the weather on the weekend, and that’s just what happened today.
I’m sure there are still a few flounder hanging around the inlet area and the route 50 bridge. The water temp is still in the mid 50s and flounder are ok with that, but as nighttime temperatures start to stay in the 40s and below water temps are going to fall quickly and flounder will be on the move offshore. Cooling water may skedaddle the flounder, but it gets other species like rockfish and tautog going. There is a pretty insane tautog bite in the inlet and back bays of Ocean City right now and there are some keeper fish in there. Anglers are having good luck with sand fleas and green crabs on both jetties, around the route 50 bridge, on the bulkheads behind Ocean City and off the rocks at Martha’s Landing in West Ocean City. Captain Jason Mumford caught 8 keeper tog between 16″ and 19″ and one throwback rockfish on green crabs and had another 50 or so throwback tog.
Bear down at the Oceanic Pier has been braving the cold the past few days and has been seeing some really good tautog fishing. Bear reports several throwback tog being caught daily with some nice keeper fish coming in on occasion.
The cooler water temperatures will have a tendency to get rockfish more active as well. Big Bird Cropper was out on the bay throwing Roy Rigs in the cold weather today, but had plenty of action to keep him warm. Bird saw some big schools of short rockfish today and caught and released 20 or more himself.
Cooler temperatures will also get fresh water fish more active and have them chasing baits and it’s a great time to get the kids out to wet a line. This nice largemouth bass ate a spinner bait presented by my young buddy Johnny Malinowski earlier in the week.
