Posted on July 11th, 2015
Day two of the Ocean City Fishing Center’s 28th Annual Ocean City Tuna Tournament is in the books and there was some changing of the leader board happening at the scales tonight. Overall the fishing was slower today with 70 boats fishing than it was yesterday when only 34 boats fished. I spoke to several captains that caught nice bigeye tuna today and they said that it was their only bite of the entire day. I’m a big proponent of the theory that when the ocean is too calm and/or there are too many boats fishing in a small area that fish like tuna get spooked and don’t bite as readily. Today both of those scenarios were in place. The ocean was flat calm for most of the day, and there were A LOT of boats fishing because it was a nice calm Saturday. That theory seemed to be a reality today as fishing was slower, but we did see some action at the scales tonight.
There are still no qualifying dolphin or lady angler fish, but we did have a junior angler fish hit the board this evening. Hugh Thomas Cropper weighed a 43 pound yellowfin for the Myra H T which is currently good for first place.
The Foolish Pleasures weighed a nice 131 pound bigeye that is good to hold 1st place for the single heaviest fish for boats 40′ and under. Combine that fish with their catch from yesterday and they hold a 2nd place tie in the overall stringer category with 182 pounds for their two days.
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The Foolish Pleasures holds that 2nd place tie for overall stringer with the Sea Slammer who caught the biggest tuna of the tournament so far. Angler Rob Wagner muscled in a 182 pound bigeye good for 1st place in the single heaviest fish division as well. If they are across the board the Sea Slammer is looking at a couple of hundred thousand dollar$ for this fish right now.
These fish didn’t qualify but I always like to add junior anglers when I get a chance. These guys were fishing on the OC Girl and had a great time, but their tuna and mahi just missed the 30 pound minimum for tuna and the 20 pound minimum for dolphin.
Inshore today we had reports of a variety of fish caught on the inshore wrecks and reefs off of Ocean City.
Captain John Prather on the Ocean City Guide Service out of the Ocean City Fishing Center had an afternoon trip to an inshore wreck and caught a few sea bass and some nice keeper flounder.
Captain Monty Hawkins on the Morning Star out of the Ocean City Fishing Center reported an odd summer variety today. It was his first day without a flounder in weeks, but he did put this crew on cod and ling along with sea bass and mahi.
Tomorrow is the 3rd and final day of the 28th Annual Ocean City Tuna Tournament and it should be a good one. We expect 85 boats to be fishing and the final day of the big money tournaments are always exciting. Come on down to the scales at the Ocean City Fishing Center from 4PM – 7 PM and see what hits the dock.
Here are two great videos from Dave Messick and Hooked on OC of the Day 1 and Day 2 scales action. I’ll see you down there!
