Posted on October 2nd, 2019
Mother Nature dialed up the thermostat and the ceiling fan today and had it blowing warm air on us all day long. It got to 90 degrees where I was and the report from the ocean was that it was rougher than the weatherman said it would be. That being said, it’s October and warm weather and fishable days are going to be few and far between soon so anglers were out taking advantage of the conditions and having much luck.
Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star steamed a little further than normal today on a trip that was longer than normal and had a boat limit of sea bass under circumstances that were…..not normal.
Hi Scott,
One of the voices from within my tackle box said I ought to try a 12 hour trip today. Dang sure could have picked a calmer one!
Dropped blocks at Two Tanks Reef where we now have 935 reef blocks. There’s an APC & M60A1 Abrams main battle tank about 60 feet apart from the Army’s “Operation Reef EC” in 1994. We’re slowly stitching them together to make a single, much larger reef.
Too windy to press offshore any further, we fished a couple spots there with some, if limited, success.
Then, as forecasted, twenty knot winds began to diminish. Picked up the anchor and went back to plan A.
Oyyyyy… What a bite. Found thirty-five feet of sea bass and Boy were they chewing!
The bite was so good our very own Prince of Portliness, Hurricane Murray his dernself, was able to repeatedly catch doubles on bare hooks – no bait, no grub, no gulp – just two shiny hooks – even keeper doubles!
Soon everyone had lost track. I had to call a halt & move off while mate Cody did a count. Five clients got to make one more drop and we were done—a complete boat limit.
Like it like that!
Dern sure glad we went. Looks like a LOT of “Stay in and do maintenance” weather coming!
Cheers
Monty
Offshore, Captain Joe Drosey and the crew of Rhonda’s Osprey enjoyed some good fishing with a white marlin release, a pile of tasty mahi and some jacks.
Captain Chris Mizurak kept the Angler a little closer to the beach today and had some good closer to shore fishing. Anglers on the Angler had keeper sea bass and nice triggerfish on today’s trip.
Budd Heim of Ocean Pines and the Atlantic Coast Sportfishing Association had a great day with some sheephead at the south jetty today. Budd caught two fish of 22 3/4″ and two smaller fish releasing one of each size to promote catch, photo and release. Below is one of the 22 3/4″ers that weighed in at 8 pounds 4 ounces.
Captain John Prather of Ocean City Guide Service put his crew on a PILE of very tasty blowfish today. John used Fishbites and good technique to load the cleaning table with some “chicken of the sea.”
Bear down at the Oceanic Pier in downtown Ocean City sent this photo of Mike and the fat weakfish that he caught on a live mullet from the pier.
Jerry drove his Harley up from Walterboro, SC to fish with his buddy Big Bird Cropper and the two had a great day of Roy Rigging. The guys had good action with flounder, bluefish and small rockfish and Bird even did a pretty good job of keeping his finger out of the pictures.
