Tunas, Flounder, Sea Bass and A Big Ol Red Drum

By Scott Lenox

Posted on June 26th, 2026

Today was day 1 of the 2026 Battle for the Buckle Tournament and we had some nice fish hit the leaderboard. There are 13 boats competing for over $57,000 in prize money and there will be some good money going to charity as well. Here are the standings after day 1.

Captain Jason Mumford of Lucky Break Charters put this lucky angler on an awesome fish while bottom fishing the OC Inlet today. This beautiful 32″ red drum put up an awesome fight and was released to fight another day.

The tuna bite was good for some in the Poorman’s Canyon today. Captain Chris Watkowksi and mate Ben Harding found eight very nice yellowfin tuna on today’s trip aboard the Spring Mix II.

It was one nice yellowfin tuna and a pile of blueline tilefish for this group fishing with MobSquad Fishing and Captain Nick Sampson.

Captain Chase Eberle of Chasin’ Tides Charters had a good day of fishing for his groups that included some fun catch and release shark fishing and some tautog and rockfish action in the back bay and OC Inlet.

Jameson Weber from Fallston Md & Sue Cuomo from Ocean City fished with Mike Brockmeyer and landed 5 keeper flounder today from 17.5″ to 20″. Two were caught on live spot and three were caught on Deadly Doubles with Gulp and shiners.

Captain Chris Mizurak of the Angler reported a choppy sea today, but a good bite for flounder and sea bass.

Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star had a nice day on the rip today with plenty of sea bass and some very nice flounder.

Sea Bass on a (not so) blustery day – 6/26/26

Boyyy.. Starched flags had me concerned this morning. I even gave clients a rough water warning. After clearing the inlet a mile or so the ocean had an angry look to it. Dogone SSW winds are the hardest to cipher. If they switch about on the compass? Then all’s well. No real sea height builds. If a moderately hard wind holds tight at, say, 210 degrees, seas will build swiftly.

My concerns were needless this day. Though winds seemed near 20, the forecast of decreasing speed mid-morn was accurate.

We pressed on.

Sea bass were oddly cooperative. Hungry ones bit fast, many others–a busy screenful–did not.

Like ever – catch the hungry ones and the dumb ones then go find more.

Flounder were biting too. Throwbacks at first,

then some good ones,

then some really good ones.

Soon my sea bass trip was a fluke trip.

Made a nice day of it. Dinner and then some..

Bob, now officially on a streak, won the pool.

Ken limited on fluke. Jake, employing his reef builder’s karma, won the t-shirt for largest flounder. Bob had a double on em.

Nice summer day..