Posted on July 1st, 2016
Today was day one of the Ocean City Marlin Club’s Canyon Kick-Off Tournament and it was a busy day at the scales. Fishing was good for boats fishing outside of the tournament as well including a great story about a little girl and a big fish that just might break a world record.
Yesterday, nine year old Emma Zajdel was fishing with her Dad Eddie, Robert Clarke and his son Ashton Clarke. The group started the day fishing the Jackspot for bluefin tuna in their 23′ Key West center console, but gave it up as rain moved into the area. On their way home they saw some bait fish making some commotion on the surface at Little Gull Shoal and decide to drop in one of their already rigged tuna baits and troll around for a while. An Ilander lure with a pink head and a white skirt on top of a ballyhoo went back and enticed a bite and Emma began the fight with a large fish. When a dorsal fin emerged from the surface everyone thought they had hooked a shark, but when the fish got boat side they were able to see that they had in fact hooked a very large cobia. When they returned to the dock the big cobia weighed a whopping 94.6 pounds. If the fish qualifies it will break the current MD state record AND the IGFA Small Fry World Record for cobia. Congratulations to Emma and crew!!
The Pumpin’ Hard with Captain Chad Meeks and mates Mike and David Burt had a great day of offshore fishing today. The crew of Charlie Long, Ray Wooten, Mark Bradford, Jay Smith, Rob Bayliss and Ken Miller went one for two on white marlin, released 15 undersized yellowfin tuna and boxed a monster 102 pound wahoo.
Austin Ensor was in the deep today and had a good day of trolling and bottom fishing with the boys. Austin and his crew of Tommy Clark, Jordan Bosse, Steve Davis, Mike Walker and Mike Coppelland caught tuna, mahi, false albacore, blueline tilefish and sea bass on a very productive trip.
Captain John Prather on Ocean City Guide Service does inshore charter fishing for flounder, bluefish, rockfish, trout and tautog, but he also does inshore bow fishing trips. Well today Captain John had an awesome bow fishing trip when he put his 10 year old shooter on this huge 92 pound butterfly ray in the Ocean City inlet. Captain John says they are cooking it for dinner as I write this…..no joke!
I got a cool submission from John Wittmyer of Crabs to Go with a great shot of he and his daughter Ellen Wittmyer from their recent trip to Alaska. John and Ellen had a great day with Ninilchik Charters and absolutely smoked the Alaskan halibut.
Today was day 1 of the Ocean City Marlin Club’s 34th Annual Canyon Kick-Off Tournament and it was a very busy day at the scales. Here’s what the leader board looks like after one day of fishing. Thanks to Amanda Shick of the OCMC for update and photos!
