Posted on July 25th, 2025
I just left Talbot Street for day one of theHUK big Fish Classic and the fish were a no-show. We had eight boats fishing the window from Friday into Saturday and all of them decided to stay out fishing overnight into tomorrow. We should have some action at the scales tomorrow afternoon from 4 PM until 9 PM, and then Sunday should be off the hook… Pun intended.
Surf fisherman extraordinaire David Moore has been having great luck down in the Assateague surf with some big red drum up to 48 inches.
Captain Dave Caffrey of On The Run charters is back in action and today he put a limit of Flounder in the box to 23 inches.
Captain Tony Battista has been having some really good luck with the flounders lately. Today it was some nice fish from the route 50 bridge and yesterday it was some keepers from the ocean.
Brian Lamb aka “Big Nurse” of Leesburg VA with a nice sheepshead he got on the south jetty yesterday on a 5” swim bait. He was fishing on the SS DS.
Anglers fishing on the Morning Star with Captain Monty Hawkins had a great time putting Flounder, Seabass and some mahi on ice.
Thank Goodness..
Was a painful spell with that shot of cold water on the bottom – spent weeks looking at screens of fish with nary a soul getting bit at times. Scuba divers and scientific instruments read as low as 48.5 on the bottom in over 100 feet. On the surface? 80 plus!
What a thermocline..
Might come right back too; sure didn’t play like that this day.
AJ and her gang of lady anglers: Tori, Amanda & Liz, did the deed on today’s reef block and pyramid drop; both landed perfectly atop our new barge. That reef, and all the pieces around it in Ringmaster’s & Capt Bobby’s Reef Groups shall become a mecca for future anglers.
Promise.
And of reef builders’ karma?
Sheesh.
AJ was my first angler with a catch of double digits in sea bass in over a month; Liz (with an AJ assist!) boxed a 23.5 in fluke for the pool; and Tori, whose luck was slow starting, boxed the day’s only mahi (heard she had a good coach too..) Together with Amanda they all boated a fine mess of fish.
The gals certainly weren’t alone. Had fish around the rail. Even the skipper jigged up a few cbass for sashimi with Shelly tonight..
Nice when it happens. Maybe now I can get a couple gallons of tomato juice and wash some of this skunk off my rail.
Water looked a lot better too. Having caught mahi as early as June 14th I boldly scheduled most of July and Aug in mahi trips. They’re going to bust loose soon!
Cheers!
Monty
