Posted on July 26th, 2015
To say that we have been blessed with some awesome fishing weather would be an understatement. The sea conditions for the past few days have been beautiful and that trend is expected to continue for at least the next couple of days. It’s really nice when the weather and the fishing compliment each other, and that’s exactly what we found today. The Fish in OC fleet, along with a few friends, is tearing up the fishing scene!
The Boss Hogg out of Sunset Marina with Captain Brian Porter and mate Buck put the smack down on the ocean today. The “Hogg” finished with a limit of sea bass, a limit of tilefish, a white marlin release, 20+ mahi, one of which was 41 pounds, and two yellowfin tuna weighing 81 and 87 pounds. Awesome fishing to say the least.
The Moore Bills returned on Saturday with the best white marlin catch that I have seen yet this year. Captain Rob Skillman and mate Steve Moore put their crew on 16 white releases in one trip!
The Spring Mix II out of The Ocean City Fishing Center with Captain Chris Watkowski has been on a roll as of late. Today it was with mate Marshall Freng in the Poor Man’s Canyon. The Spring Mix II ended the day with one white marlin release, a real nice yellowfin and 10 mahi.
Captain Dave Black on board My Cin out of Sunset Marina had a great day today catching a white marlin, three gaffer mahi to 25 pounds and a nice blue marlin estimated at 350 pounds on stand up gear. Here are a few shots of the blue one in action.
Inshore Captain John Prather on The Ocean City Guide Service was on it once again today. Captain John had yet another successful morning trip to an inshore wreck with several throwback flounder, five keeper flounder and a nice triggerfish caught on Gulp and strip baits.
This afternoon it was back to bow fishing in the bay for The Ocean City Guide Service where Captain John put his marksmen on two nice southern rays and one cow nose.
Lastly, I received an awesome submission from my fishing friend Austin Ensor who just cashed a check for $15,705 in the Big Fish Classic for a 197 pound swordfish. Here is a report from Austin from the trip where they landed the big sword, and someone lost a finger. In his words…..
David Bradley owner of the Sea Prowler was kind enough to let me run his boat for the 2015 Big Fish Classic. Departed OCMD inlet at 330am on Friday July 24th with 300 pounds of ice, 150 ballyhoos, 4 flats of butterfish, and some eager fishermen. Lines in at 7 am. Started in the tip of the Washington and worked the area. First bite came at 10:29 am and resulted in 42lb wahoo. Around noon we started on the chunk. Hooked 14 yellowfins and sharks got all but 1 which was 49.5lbs. Big eye came screaming into the chunks toss him a large squid and the fight was on. 45 min later he chaffed off. Also released 3 brown sharks during the day. Set up for the evening troll and saw 2 white marlin. At 10:34 pm the long rigger snapped out of the clip but did not come tight I ran down from the bridge dropped it back approx. 25 ft and jigged the bait twice. The line started to peel off so fast it burned my finger. I put the drag to strike and at 18lbs of drag the fish dumped my 80 to half spool. Drag went to 24lbs where it stayed the next 2.5 hours. The bite came on the long rigger on a 1 oz joe shute crystal with a trolled ballyhoo and a 12/0 circle hook. Josh Ensor battled the fish the entire time dealing with massive head shakes and the fish wanting to stick to the bottom. The fish came up beside the boat and was gaffed without incident. Fish hit the deck and I think you guys on land heard us yell and celebrate. Not only was it a swordfish, it was a fat one. I ended up having to cut the side out of the backup fish bag in order to make sure our catch was properly iced. Ran to my chunk spot and started the night chunk. Tons of life but no tunas in the dark. At 230am we started catching the sharks and released another 2. But the second one caught at 4 am got back at us. Jason’s hand was on the side of the boat when the shark made a run towards the bow. The wire took the greater part of the tip of his finger off like it was hot butter. Shark was released safely and then we had to do offshore surgery. With a basic medical kit Mike did the best he could to doctor Jason up. With Jason loosing feeling in his hand and the risk of infection I decided to terminate the trip and get him to a hospital. I used the Sat phone to arrange a ride to the hospital for Jason. We dropped Jason off at Sunset marina at 7am. Got fuel and ice and returned the deep, started back fishing at 930am. Caught 5 10-15lb mahi on the day troll. Lines out at 3pm. Great 26 kt ride home seeing flying fish and turtles all the way to 8 fathoms. While we were trolling during the day Jason was in Salisbury getting surgery on this hand. He was in recovery till 2 pm. I picked Jason back up at sunset marina at 4pm and he rode to the scales with us sling and all. We weighed the sword fish at a whopping 197 pounds. Next the yellowfin and wahoo. Stringer weight of 290lbs. Great trip full of twists. Another great trip with 37 hours at sea.