Posted on December 30th, 2020
Ocean City, Maryland is fondly referred to as the “White Marlin Capital of The World” and if some of the Fish in OC fleet continues on the trail that they are blazing Ocean City may also start being referred to as the “Tautog Capital of the World.” There are some big fish off of our coast and anglers come from all over to put the bend on a big “blackfish” or “white chinner”, and we are at the time of year when some true jumbos are coming up. Captain Kane Bounds and the crew of the Fish Bound had another incredible day of tog fishing today with lots of nice fish that ended up in the cooler for dinner and some HUGE fish that were caught and released. Captain Kane had seven fish over 10 pounds today with fish between 10.6 and 15 pounds that were released and one giant that was harvested because it died during the fight. Angler Dennis was lucky enough to put the hook in this 31.6″, 21.12 pound tautog that is the 11th tog over 20 pounds for Fish Bound and is now the largest tog caught out of Ocean City this year. Congratulations to Dennis, Captain Kane and the rest of the Fish Bound crew on an awesome day of fishing.
Captain Chase Eberle of Chasin’ Tides Charters had a great day of tog fishing today as well. Captain Chase put his group on a limit of dinner sized fish and also released fish of 10 and 11 pounds.
The ocean going party boat fleet had their last day of sea bass fishing today and they had great luck with some nice fish. Captain Chris Mizurak of the Angler put some big bass in the boat up to 3.5 pounds and also had some keeper sized scup (porgie).
Captain Monty Hawkins will be togging after the first of the year, but today it was a nice day on the rip with some sea bass and several big scup.
My last sea bass trip of 2020 didn’t exactly go out with a bang.. Waren’t a whimper either. A gorgeous sunrise, bit of a saddleback dolphin show; some decent fishin too I expect.
Local man/myth/fishing legend – the Cornflower his dernself; David Confair bagged out with 15 keeper cbass at 11:10.. Finished the day with other clients at 12, 13, even a 14, but no one else could seal the deal.
Cornflower’s like that.
Too many scup? Not really. Lots of short cbass; even a few bluefish. Sure had a lot of nice scup/porgy for these parts though. A major Maryland coast fishery each spring from the late 1930s to the last of the 1960s; I’ve only caught em good a few times myself. Last December (2019) was the first time I actually targeted them..
Zig had the biggest scup today weighing 3lbs on the nose. Tony Mack of Wilmington DE had more scup than sea bass with 11 porgies in his cooler. He had the right cbass though – beat Zig by an ounce or two to pocket today’s pool money.
I’m thinking those scup may well be worth a dedicated trip.. With sea bass closing soon, I may just go try em..
Don’t look like fishing weather anytime soon. I’ll let my crew howl at the moon for New Years. Will post some sort of trip for when the weather breaks.
Regards,
Monty
