Posted on November 15th, 2017
Now that the hoopla from this weekend’s opah catch is starting to settle down I have a chance to report on some of the awesome fishing that we’ve got going on this November. Like most Novembers, the weather will keep us from getting out at least a couple of days every week, but when anglers do get out they are having some really good luck.
Fishing over ocean structure has been good for the ocean going party boat fleet when Mother Nature allows them to get out. Reports are that the water is still relatively warm for this time of the year and that fishing could improve as it cools down. Captain Victor Bunting on the party boat Ocean Princess is reporting good fishing on their trips with sea bass, bluefish, triggerfish and some flounder. It’s not a drop and reel fishery, but it could improve as the water temperatures fall and some of the sea bass and flounder are big.
The Judith M with Captain John Bunting was out early in the week and was on some good bottom fishing as well. Captain John fished outside the Jackspot and put his clients on some good sea bass action with bluefish, bonita and mackerel mixed in.
Inshore fishing has been productive over the past week with rockfish and tautog leading the headlines. There are still a few flounder holding at the route 50 bridge and I’ve even seen some trout the past few days. Big Bird Cropper has fished the bridge and inlet just about every day and has had great luck with rockfish and flounder. Bird had John Wittmyer from Crabs to Go out to catch over 20 rockfish, and on another day he had Cherokee out for his birthday and put him on over 20 rockfish and a nice flounder.
There hasn’t been a good run of speckled trout this year, but there have been a few caught. Anthony Sousa of the Ocean City Fishing Community caught this beauty on the route 50 bridge last night. The big “speck” was 22″ long and ate a tandem swim shad.
