Posted on July 10th, 2020
We have had some absolutely beautiful weather over the past few weeks with calm seas, sunny skies and little to no precipitation and anglers have been enjoying it every single day. Well today Mother Nature decided that our good weather loan was due and we paid it back in a major, major way. Tropical storm Fay rolled by our coast over several hours early this morning and dumped a deluge of rain on the area. She also blew 35-45 MPH winds with heavier gusts in several areas. The combination of over 6 inches of rain (measured at my boat) and strong winds led to flooding in the area that was even still apparent this evening. Thankfully Fay is headed to the north at a pretty good clip and we should only feel residual effects for another day or so.
TS Fay basically shut down fishing and outdoor activities in the area today and put a reel damper (pun intended) on the Ocean City Tuna Tournament. The OCTT has become a fish 1 of 2 day event with scales at the Ocean City Fishing Center Saturday, July 11 from 4 PM until 8:30 and Sunday, July 12 from 4 PM until 7 PM. All things considered it is still going to be an impressive event. The forecast has forced most smaller boats to sit this one out, but there are still going to be some seasoned tuna fishermen trolling the ocean this weekend in search of some big tuna and some big money.
2020 has definitely been a strange year with too much craziness to mention. I find it a strange coincidence that the 33rd Annual Tuna Tournament has 33 boats and $330,000….but maybe that’s just me. I sat down with Brian Tinkler just a little while ago to discuss the OCTT and what’s going on. You can check it out in the video below.
Spectators are allowed at the Tuna Tournament scales this weekend with masks required and social distancing and other restrictions in place. We will also be Livestreaming all scales action with the Hooked OC crew. You can check out the rules and view the live broadcast at www.OCTunaTournament.com
Like I mentioned at the top, there wasn’t any fishing going on today that I know about, but yesterday Chef Paul Supplee of Boxcar 40 fished with Captain Zach Odachowski and Ben Odachowski and had a good day. The crew released a white marlin and boxed five nice tunas that had a stringer weight of 265.
Yesterday Captain Chase Eberle and his crews on Chasin’ Tides Charters had some nice fishing with catch and release action on striped bass on the jetty and catch and release action with some sharks in the ocean. They also trolled up some Spanish mackerel and bluefish on the inshore lumps.