Posted on June 10th, 2016
It was a really nice weather day in Ocean City today. Conditions in the back bays were very nice and lots of boats were able to get out and do some fishing. Offshore was a little bit rough, but doable, and some of the local party boat and offshore fleets poked their noses out the inlet and made a day of it.
The summer flounder is probably the most sought after inshore species targeted by anglers fishing the back bays of Ocean City. I’m an avid flounder fisherman so I can tell you from personal experience and from the reports from my Fish in OC inshore partners that flounder fishing this spring has pretty much stunk. Theories for the bad start to the season range from too much rain in May, to the dredging to clean up the inlet after winter storm Jonas…I happen to think it’s a combination of both. The good news is that more and more flounder are showing up on the inshore wrecks and reefs, and there are more keeper flounder being caught in the bay lately.
Captain John Prather on Ocean City Guide Service is out on the back bays of Ocean City pretty much every day. Captain John has been doing a lot of casting at the south jetty and route 50 bridge because the flounder fishing has been so awful. Today it was a different story when Captain John put his crew of youngsters on five keeper flounder. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come and I’ll be reporting more keeper flounder from Ocean City…..maybe with a couple of my own pictures.
Captain Chris Mizurak on the Angler has been getting in on a little flounder action himself. There are more and more flounder showing up on the wrecks and reefs of Ocean City every day and the local party boat fleet is starting to reap the rewards. Despite the rough seas today, Captain Chris put anglers on good catches of sea bass and some flounder up to three pounds.
Offshore conditions were a little rough today as well, but that didn’t stop some of the fleet from getting out to the canyons to take advantage of the tuna fishing.
Robert Coughlin and his crew had a fantastic day on the charter boat Marli with Captain Mark Hoos and Mate Mark Stephens. They captured 17 Yellowfin Tunas, released another 20+ and boxed seven big gaffer mahi.
Captain Josh Ruskey, along with mates Paul Daisey and Marshall Freng, fishing on the Boss Hogg out of Sunset Marina had a good day in between the Washington and Norfolk Canyons putting their crew on nine yellowfin tuna and nine nice gaffer mani. Tuna fishing is HOT!
I got a submission from Chris Shamblin from Hebron who is a regular on the Oceanic Pier with a great catch from last night. Chris was fishing the route 50 bridge in the west channel during the incoming tide when he caught this beautiful 41″ rockfish on a Roy Rig.
