What the Hell is a Unicorn Filefish?

By Scott Lenox

What the Hell is a Unicorn Filefish?

It was a really beautiful day in Ocean City and off in the ocean today with light winds, sunny skies and awesome temperatures.  Today’s weather was the reason that I love the fall in Ocean City and today’s fishing was the reason I love fishing in the fall in Ocean City.  There was some good offshore fishing today, some good ocean bottom fishing and some good flounder fishing in the bay.  I also got two reports of fish that don’t get caught much around Ocean City.

Offshore fishing was good again today as the mahi bite continues to impress.  Most boats are catching their limit or close to their limit of 10 mahi per person if they really try and there are some nice fish in the mix.  Captain Kyle Peet of the No Quarter had a great day out in the canyon when he put his crew on three white marlin releases and a pile of mahi that covered the dock.

Captain Jeremy Blunt of the Wrecker had some junior anglers on board today and they had a great time releasing one white marlin and boxing a bunch of mahi.

The crew of the Spring Mix II with Captain Chris Watkowski and mate Ayrton “The Kayak Kid” Pryor could have filled the box with mahi too, but they decided to stop at 15 being that was all they wanted to eat.

Ocean bottom fishing was good today for the ocean party boat fleet and sea conditions couldn’t have been much better.  Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star reported a boat limit of sea bass today with some nice fish.  A couple of guys caught their fish on jigs while a couple of other anglers didn’t keep any fish under 15″.  It was good fishing.  Pictured are Melvin Fleming of Alexandria, VA – Ted Diego of Dundalk, MD – Mike Ziegler of OC – & Chris Harris of Woodbridge, VA.

Captain Victor Bunting of the Ocean Princess had a good day fishing over ocean structure today putting some nice sea bass in the box.  Captain Victor also won the favor of the crew of the Angler when he delivered some hot dogs from his full galley.

I had the pleasure of fishing with the crew of the Angler with Captain Chris Mizurak and mates Dean Lo and Rich Fouts today for an upcoming episode of Hooked on OC and we had a great time.  Anglers on board the Angler had bluefish, flounder, sea bass up to 3 pounds and triggerfish.  Gary Dodd won the fish pool with a HUGE 4.5 pound trigger caught on squid.

Today was a good day to take advantage of a little cleaner water in the back bay on the change of the tide and no one had better luck than Dave Beach and he was fishing from shore.  Dave used live bunker and live mullet to catch his four fish limit of flounder at 17″, 17.25″, 17.5″ and 18.75″.

Mike Montalone caught 10 flounder with three keepers north of the route 50 bridge on gulp and squid baits.  Photo submitted by Captain Marc Spagnola of Dusk to Dawn Bowfishing.

Captain Wayne Blanks of Bayside Guide Service put his angler on a nice 18″ keeper flounder that fell to a live bunker in the west channel.  The crew also caught several throwbacks in the fishbowl.

Captain Drew Zerbe of the Tortuga has had some keeper fish come over the rail in the cleaner water on the past couple of trips.  Here are some keepers from today’s drifts.

Captain Cale of the Bay Bee out of the Ocean City Fishing Center had some keeper flounder for lucky anglers on this morning’s trip.

I almost didn’t believe from my buddy Brian Mullins when I got it today, but I the below photo is evidence and he has no reason to make it up.  There’s no denying that there are A LOT of small sea bass in the back bays of Ocean City, but I’ve never seen a fish of legal length caught anywhere inside of the inlet.  Especially since the limit has been at 12 1/2″.  That all changed today when Fang was fishing with Brian at the south jetty and caught a 13″ keeper sea bass on a sand flea.   Yes…..a keeper sea bass on the south jetty.

Another rare catch recently was this unicorn filefish that was caught by Brandy Timmons from the Assateague surf.  Brandy caught the rare catch on a Joe Moore long ranger rig tipped with a Fishbites® bloodworm.  We see filefish all the time under lobster pots and floating debris out in the canyons hanging out with triggerfish and mahi, but I’ve never seen one caught inshore, much less from the surf.  Filefish are good to eat, but Brandy released the fish after some pics because she didn’t quite know what it was.

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