Posted on April 10th, 2019
We were blessed with yet another beautiful spring day today in and around Ocean City. There was a slight breeze, but skies were sunny (eventually) and temps were warm up into the 60s. I say eventually because there was a pretty good fog bank over West Ocean City and Ocean City first thing this morning, but by the time I was done shooting a segment at Atlantic Tackle it had burned off and was very nice.
The first black drum of the 2019 season was caught by local surf fisherman and photographer extraordinaire Allen Sklar yesterday while fishing the Assateague surf. Allen and a friend had a few hours to spare before attending the funeral of Ocean City fishing icon Mac Simpson who passed away on Friday of last week at the age of 90. I didn’t know Mac personally, but from what I’ve heard about him from fishermen that I respect and have learned a lot from like Allen and Dale Timmons, Mac was an exceptional fisherman and an even better friend. I can’t give Allen’s story justice so I’ll let his FB post speak for itself…..
A fishing friend came up for Mac’s funeral today…..we had a few hours to spare this morning so we did what Mac would have wanted us to do, we went surf fishing. Within 15 minutes I had a Black Drum, my first fish of the season. I had some big enlargements of Mac in the truck so……thanks for sending me the fish Mac, I gave it to Joel and Betty for the family dinner.
The short stripers continue to devour baits in several spots around the bay and inlet and yesterday John McElfresh reported some fish from the Verrazano Bridge behind Assateaugue Island. John found a big difference between water temps just like Big Bird did the other day with 47 degree water in the inlet and water as warm as 60 degrees at Verrazano where he released some short stripers on pink glitter lures.
