Posted on March 14th, 2020
We had another beautiful day today in and around Ocean City with sunny skies and light winds, and though it started off a little chilly, it warmed right up by this afternoon.
Since my Costa Rica trip has been canceled, I planned on getting the Fish in OC skiff ready and trying for the first flounder of the season next week….but now I guess I’ll be looking for the second. I just had a great conversation with Butch Walter…..after I talked my wife Kristen off of the roof (she wanted to catch the first flounder of the season again) and got the details on his awesome catch today. Butch was trolling the Thorofare with his wife Pam this afternoon when he was pleasantly surprised by a knockdown that ended up being the first official flounder of the 2020 season here in Ocean City. The fish ate a white Gulp 4″ swimming mullet on a one hook flounder rig and was way past keeper size at 19″. Butch and Pam were fishing 4′ – 6′ of water north of the Thorofare and saw water temperature as high as 52 degrees. My brother Jimmy and I used to catch flounder in late March when conditions were right back in the day, but never on March 14th. As nice as this winter has been I can’t say I’m terribly surprised, but I am super excited now. Congratulations to Butch on his awesome catch!!
Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star took advantage of the nice weather today and got some great work done for the Ocean City Reef Foundation and put some good tog on deck as well.
Just a short trip today with banker’s hours; kicking around the back 40 sort of day. Left the dock after 8 for Pete’s sake.. Was expecting half a gale falling out late morning – found instead a gorgeous day. I mean just as pretty as you could ever ask.
Nice when it happens.
Just had 6 mad pallets of giant landscaping block donated by Parker Block and Xpress Construction. A dozen of those monster block + James Milano brought 31 more from Long Island this morning — made for a fine reef block drop.
Paddled a bit further off than I thought I’d get today. Bite wasn’t too bad until the current dropped to near nothing. Even then we nicked a few.
Though a lifetime of fishing, it was John Sippel’s first time toggin. Up against anglers well steeped in the lore of ol’ chinny chiseltooth I wouldn’t have bet on him. So, yeah, he won the pool anyway.. (Most likely because he was wearing a good luck OCReef Foundation cap..)
Ray Nichols and Phil Young show off some of today’s taggers, Courtney’s Uncle JoJo even caught a double – we tagged 23 & had 3 tag returns also, all of which went back to provide even more data.
Jim Hou, OJ Kwon, & Walt Wozny hold up some of today’s keepers.
Pat Scida is also in the group snap..
Cheers
Blake Gunther may have gone flounder fishing today if he had known the first fish of the season was back in the bay, but he had a good day of fishing nonetheless. Blake took a solo trip and had his limit of four tasty tautog.
