Sea Bass, Flounder, Sheepshead and A 100+ Pound Yellowfin Tuna
By Scott Lenox
Posted on September 28th, 2024
Hit the above vid for the Daily Catch at the Ocean City Fishing Center!
We had a breeze out of the south that when pushed against the outgoing tide made for a pretty swell inlet….not in a good way. I fished the inside of the south jetty with our Deadly Tackle tog / bottom jigs and our new One Drop tog/sheepshead rig and had some success with the sheepshead, but it almost came at the expense of losing my lunch. Still, caught my personal best sheep at about 6,5 pounds so it was worth it!
Captain Chris Watkowski of the Spring Mix II had a great day in the canyon today putting his crew on a load of mahi and eight very nice yellowfin tuna that included a stud fish of 101 pounds.
Ben Bosley and his wife had some luck behind Assateague Island today when they put this very nice 22″ keeper flounder in the box. They were using the Deadly Tackle live bait rig with a Gulp tipped with a minnow.
Tristan Barth fished the Homer Gudelsky Park and landed this 19″ keeper flounder.
Captain Chris Mizurak of the Angler reported a bumpy sea today, but his folks put together a nice catch that included plenty of keeper sea bass with some keeper flounder too.
Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star had to deal with the mystery swell today, but the sea bass….and his clients didn’t mind too bad.
Sea Bass 9/28/24 – Where in the heck did that swell come from?
(no spots left for tomorrow.)
Quite the storm last night. Thousands and thousands at the Ocean’s Calling music festival must have been questioning their sanity.
Marina parking lot nearly empty this morning, tonight they’ll charge $100 a spot for boat shuttle parking to the venues.
I will cheerfully leave it for everyone else to enjoy.
Had a great crowd with many regulars today. Though we tied her loose into a fog, it wasn’t too dense in the inlet. Once out front it tightened considerably however & remained with us well into the morning. A swell of up to 12 feet — a swell that could not have been from last night’s squall – made fishing a bit too much for some today. Even one of my favorite anglers (his initials are NN) brought a young man & disregarded advice he himself must have given hundreds of times – bonine/meclazine is cheap insurance.
At what will be my first site with over 5,000 reef blocks; Donna & Maniya deployed 24 more at Capt. Bob Gowars’ Memorial Reef before heading further east. We’re closing in on it – there are 4,718 reef blocks and 116 pyramids sent off the back of my boat at Capt Bob’s. Well, that and 17 truckloads of concrete pipe, two tugs and a barge make up the reef group. What I’m attempting now is to connect the barge to its nearest tug, “Steve’s Way,” which is only about 50/60 feet away.
Had a bit of doctoring to do on the way off when a fellow burried one barb of a treble hook deeeep into his index finger. Wasn’t simple. When he declared it was too deep to remove? I had the hook laying on the table with saline spray-wash in hand. Fortunately it was a brand new hook. We washed it and surrounding area well beforehand; then, after removal, treated the wound with more saline, iodine, a waterproof bandage, and a latex glove. While there’s little chance of a nasty infection, there will be plenty of pain.
Arriving at the grounds I’d chosen for today’s fishing, I found the current flying from the north.. (an odd descriptor for movement of sea water, but one we often use, “Man, the tide was flying” – meaning fast, of course.)
Sure didn’t hurt the bite any – sea bass were chewing ..boy was there a lot of weeding though. For a good while you had to catch 6 or 7 doubles to drop one in the cooler. Later in the day the bite was nearly opposite – fewer bites but a far better grade of fish..
Who can figure it.
I hadn’t any idea previously, but Ms Holly’s kryptonite doesn’t just work on Hurricane Murray.
Oh No.
Easily among my top-top-top anglers; Bernie, quite literally a fish killing machine, was fishing next to the Keeper Queen herself – Ms Holly. Poor Bernie.. I’ve seen him limited before anyone else had three! Yet he must have been muttering under his breath this day when Holly boxed her fourth to his one early on. He tried to catch up – almost did..
And then, his mojo in a beaten heap ..well, it wasn’t pretty.
Hard to beat Lady Luck at her own game.
Rich was sure getting it done, caught the day’s only keeper fluke & a bunch of really nice sea bass that included the right one – the pool winner.
Maniya leveraged her ‘reef builder’s karma’ to win the 50/50.
Certainly wasn’t the beautiful day I thought we had coming. Was plenty fishable though. And while no limits like we had the last three days? ..had a nice catch indeed.
Cheers,
Monty
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