Posted on October 4th, 2016
We are keeping an eye on hurricane Matthew even more today as he has made a lean to the west and the eastern seaboard, including Ocean City and surrounding area in the “cone of uncertainty”. Mother Nature is the only one that truly knows Matthew’s path, but forecasters are saying that it is headed toward the United States now and some models have it coming very close to, if not making landfall. Hurricane Matthew is a very large, powerful storm and will probably remain so for several days. Current forecasts predict that he will be in or around our area sometime Saturday night into Sunday.
I’m pretty certain that we will see some impact from Hurricane Matthew over the weekend, no one knows just how much. Let’s hope that he ventures out to sea sooner than later.
There can be a pretty good bite before a major storm or hurricane. I’m a firm believer that fish, like land animals, can feel weather and pressure changes. Maybe they realize that meals might be tough to come by for a few days so they pig out, who knows, but there can definitely be good fishing before a blow.
Captain John Prather of Ocean City Guide Service was on the bay this afternoon and had some good pre-storm fishing. Captain John fished the route 50 bridge with live spot and put his angler on a nice keeper rockfish. He also released 10 more rockfish and a dozen tautog.
Fishing at the Oceanic Pier and around the inlet has been really good the past few days in front of Matthew’s approach. Bear submitted several pictures today of anglers that have been having some great luck. Mike from Pennsylvania caught this 1 7 1/2″ keeper flounder on a minnow from the pier.
This angler lucked into an 18″ keeper on the pier.
Butch from Essex, MD fished the north sea wall and landed this 18″ keeper flounder on a bucktail.
Amber Smoker has been “smoking” the fish from the north sea wall and getting Bear some great shots. Amber caught this nice 17″ keeper tautog on a sand flea today.
Amber has also been having luck with throwback rockfish, some more tautog and even one grunt. She has almost perfected the “fish selfie”.
Last week Niki Pino of An Optical Galleria caught and released her first white marlin aboard the Poore Sport out of Sunset Marina. Niki was fishing with her family Bob, Anthony and Chris Pino and Captain Steve Poore. The white was originally tagged off the coast of Virginia Beach on September 11, 2015.
Niki’s husband Bob also from An Optical Galleria caught some nice rockfish yesterday on a beautiful evening trip.
