Posted on October 14th, 2017
After a tough couple of days of weather anglers were once again able to get on the water to take advantage of the awesome fall fishing that we’ve been experiencing. It’s blown northeast and rained for a couple of days now and there have been very few, if any anglers fishing in Ocean City. The weather finally broke slightly today and it couldn’t have happened any sooner.
Today was day 1 of our first ever Ocean City Inshore Classic and we had a great showing at the scales. We have 16 boats fishing our inaugural event and there is a little over $4,000 in prize money and calcuttas. We’ve only had about 3 weeks to plan the event so we’re really happy for the turnout and super thankful to the folks that helped us pull it out on such short notice. The unique thing about our event, like the Rocktoberfest before it, is that anglers can fish overnight. Our fishing times are from lines in at 7AM this morning until lines out at 3PM tomorrow afternoon. It gives our participants an opportunity to fish several tides and fish at night which can sometimes be better for rockfish, trout and other species. Our scales were open at Atlantic Tackle today from 3PM until 7PM and will be again tomorrow from 3PM until 5PM. Here’s who is on the leaderboard after our first day. Big thanks to our official photographer Dave Messick of Hooked on OC for the shots. Check out his full album on our Facebook page…..
We only had one Open Division fish come in today and that was caught by the crew of the Current Situation. Tim and Mike Bielaski’s current situation is first place in the Open Division with a one pound sheepshead. The guys also caught a 1.8 pound flounder that was on the board for a bit, but was bumped by the time the scales closed.
Third place in the flounder category is currently held by Ocean City fishing legend Big Bird Cropper. Big Bird is fishing with Neighbor Dave and caught a 2.0 pound flounder today that was the first flounder weighed and is currently in third place.
Mr. Dillard Howell fishing on board the Reel Vibrations caught a 2.4 pound flounder that currently holds second place in the flounder category.
First place in the flounder category was the last fish weighed before scales closed this evening. Matt Ellis fishing with David “Croaker” Herbst reeled in a 2.6 pound flounder that is currently in first place. First place flounder will win an Ocean City Inshore Classic custom rod by JPR Rods.
The very first fish that we had come to the scales was still alive when we weighed it and it literally jumped into first place in the rockfish category which has the largest payout of the tournament. The only rockfish to hit the board today was caught by Cleon Aitkins while fishing aboard the Miller Time with Jeffrey Murdorf and Captain Brandon Miller. The 28 1/2″ rock was caught at the route 50 bridge and weighed in at an even 10 pounds. The Miller Time is currently looking at about $1,100 if their fish holds, but if no other rockfish are caught and some of the other categories stay open that number could go up.
The crew of the Reel Happy was on the board for a short time with their 2.0 pound flounder, but was bumped just before dark when the Minor Threat weighed their first place flounder.
Outside of the tournament we’ve had some decent flounder caught today and in the past week. Captain Jason Mumford of Lucky Break Charters sent me a photo of a nice flounder that would have done some damage in our Ocean City Inshore Classic. This fat 23″ flounder ate the wrong bait north of the route 50 bridge.
This past weekend we had a HUGE flounder caught from the route 50 bridge. Sean Taylor Whaley was fishing with his dad Norman Trey Whaley when he caught this doormat of a 10.4 pound flounder while fishing from the route 50 bridge. The big flattie ate a live cob mullet fished from a bobber on the north side of the bridge. Congratulations Sean!!
Thanks to our weigh master Dean Lo of the Angler and all of the folks that helped us make the Ocean City Inshore Classic possible on such short notice!
