Posted on July 11th, 2020
Check out the above video to find out what’s going on with the 33rd Annual Ocean City Tuna Tournament.
Today was day 1 of the 33rd Annual Ocean City Tuna Tournament and although only 3 of the 32 boats entered in this year’s event fished, they all made it to the scales. All of the boats reported that the weather wasn’t as bad as most of us thought it would be and fishing was reely good with stringers for all three boats. There was a chop heading out this morning, but all of the boats that I heard from said seas were around 2′-3′ for most of the day and it was very fishable. The weather is supposed to get even better tomorrow so if fishing is as good for the 29 boats left to go, we could be in for a busy, busy day of scales action. Here’s who’s leading after three boats hit the scales on day 1. Thanks to the OC Fishing Center for the pics.
Lady Angler, 2nd Place Heaviest Fish and Third Place Stringer (Can not win both stringer and heaviest fish categories)
El Bendidos 49 Pounds Lady Angler and Heaviest Fish / 163 Stringer Weight
2nd Place Stringer / 3rd Place Heaviest Fish
Sushi 217 Lbs Stringer Weight / 49 Lbs Heaviest Fish
1st Place Stringer / 1st Place Heaviest Fish (Can not win both categories)
MARLI 50 Lb Heaviest Fish / 236 Lbs Stringer Weight
Happy Birthday to Captain Mark Hoos!!
Outside of the tournament Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star reported that it was actually very nice fishing off the beach today and he had some flounder and some jumbo sea bass come on board.
Thought we might get a gale from yesterday’s wind. Stronger. Tropical Depression instead. Used to be we’d watch the flags at the CG station. Red rectangular flag w/a black box was storm warning (like Fay,) two of em a hurricane. Didn’t have the hour-by-hour forecasts of today. Had to listen to endless repeats of the marine forecast on VHF radio. Just about time our region’s report would come, your concentration would fade and you’d miss it. Listen over & over again, & watch the CG tower was all you could do from the boat.
Not so with TD “Fay.” Knew it was a fast mover hugging the coast; came a bit stronger than thought, but rip on by it did.
That’s a good thing. When a storm lingers we get shore-side damage and a condition at sea I call “black water.”
Here storm energy has transmitted to the ocean bottom in deep storm swells. All the dead phytoplankton (what’s turning the Mid-Atlantic’s once-blue waters green) is stirred up far into the water column. Visibility along the bottom drops to zero—even 30 and more feet above the seabed.
This, of course, makes catching mighty difficult, especially for flounder & tautog.
Fay’s affect could not have been too bad. Bernie O’Brian of Oxford NJ caught my boat’s first limit of summer flounder (fluke) for 2020 – and did it on a sea bass trip.
At the moment I’m not targeting fluke. It’s a fair guess they’ve been ‘rocking up’ for the fall spawn for a while. Sea bassing has been supremely kind this summer. If an angler wants to buy a sea bass ticket and try the fluke, that’s a-ok by me. Ought to ready to switch to what’s biting though.
One of these days—maybe soon, I’ll begin directing effort at fluke and advertise it.
Did I mention sea bass?
Nice Bite Today!
Only had a handful of folks. Worried about weather I suppose.
I thought the inlet challenging in a hard ebb—gave repeated warnings to client to “hang on!”
Three outboards came out right behind me. I guess it wasn’t ’too rough.’
That was it for rough seas. By the time we headed home it was near-about calm.
Almost half my clients limited on sea bass. Dang sure there were some pretty ones too.
Even MIT student DJ (that’s ‘Mate in Training’, not the school my father and grandfather attended!) ..even DJ caught himself a dandy. They MUST have been thick!
Zach Klina (red) of Ocean Pines took today’s pool. He and Anthony from Selbyville limited first too.
In other snaps and the group shot are: Rich Bulizak from Seaford – Colin, Ryan, & Owen from Catonsville MD – plus Jeremy, Mike, & Amanda from Mt. Pleasant Mills PA.
