Posted on May 29th, 2019
It was a hot one today! Truck thermometer read 93 at one point in Ocean Pines, but summer is coming so its time to get used to it. The wind was down and the sun was out too making it a spring scorcher on land, but with water temps still in the 60s it was beautiful on the water.
I’ve had a few questions the past few days wondering why the flounder fishing is off right now and I imagine its because of the fluctuating water clarity back in the bay. We also have an early tide cycle which puts high tide and the cleanest water in the early morning hours when there are only a few anglers out on the water. As the tide moves later in the day we should see more anglers being able to take advantage of the high tide….hopefully the ocean keeps pushing clean water into the bay on the incoming.
Water temps in the back bay are drastically different on the high and low tide recently and that may be helping some species arrive a little sooner than normal. Water temps on the high tide have been as low as 61 degrees and as high as 80 degrees on low tide. I’ve seen several grey trout or weakfish, and recently we have seen the first sheepshead of the season show up. Both of these fish are usually later season fish, but we’ll certainly take it. This morning Jeff Kauffman of Ocean City was fishing the inlet on his “Heavy Eyes” when he landed this nice grey trout. The big “weakie” ate a 5″ jerk shad and was 27″ long and weighed 5 pounds, 9 ounces at Bahia Marina.
Francis Haislmaier and Valerie Cannuli landed this small sheepshead while fishing the OC inlet this morning.
Captain Wayne Blanks of Bayside Guide Service caught some bluefish and short stripers at the route 50 bridge this morning. One bluefish was a jumbo 30″er.
Captain Jason Mumford of Lucky Break Charters was able to find a good pick of flounder on the first part of the outgoing tide this morning before the water got warm and dirty.
Michael Park caught this 2 pound, 13 ounce flounder this morning while fishing on the Tortuga with Captain Drew Zerbe and jumped into 3rd place in our season long Doormat Derby.
Big Bird Cropper and his buddy Dave caught seven short rockfish, two bluefish and one flounder on a four hour trip this morning.
Chris Brackens of West Ocean City was fishing with the Fin City crew when he landed this 20″ keeper flounder while trolling the Thorofare. Guys said that the water was filthy and the fish would only eat rigs with spinners and beads.
Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star reported warm conditions on the ocean today and a pretty good sea bass bite.
Hi Scott – Found a gorgeous summer day & a somewhat fussy summer bite – Fish Harder!
Worked.
Caught plenty good.
Don Zimmerman of West Minster MD won the pool with a 19 inch sea bass—he had similar sized fish to boot. Donna & Cyrus Staniec of Solomons MD show off their fish individually as well.
Also & in the group snap are Les Good of Middletown PA – Lorraine Matarese of Smyrna DE – George Steiger of Belcamp MD – Doreen Lichtman of Cherry Hill NJ – & Aaron Frisch of Brooklyn NY..
Captain Chris Mizurak of the Angler out of the Talbot Street Pier also reported a good sea bass bite with a nice mix of keepers and throwbacks.
