Flounder fishing in the back bay areas of Ocean City and Assateague remain good this week. Fishermen continue to catch a lot of throwback sized flounder but are also catching some nice ones. The top of flood tide into ebb seems to be offering some of the better fishing in traditional locations. Fishermen are also continuing to catch croakers and small sea bass; especially near the inlet. Spot, croaker and few flounder are being caught up near the Route 90 Bridge.
At the inlet area bluefish and striped bass are being caught at night by fishermen casting Got-Cha lures for the bluefish and jigs and swim shads for the striped bass. Flounder are being caught during the day along with pesky small sea bass. Those fishermen using sand fleas up close to the jetty rocks are catching trigger fish.
The big heave from Hurricane Bill has passed by and surf conditions have returned to a state where fishermen can once again hold bottom. A mix of kingfish, spot and croakers are being caught at night and bluefish are being caught on finger mullet. Water temperatures are about 79-degrees so the best fishing has been at dusk and into the night. Large sharks are still being caught and released along with a few sting rays.
The fishing fleet heading out of the Ocean City Inlet are finding small to medium sized croakers off the beaches and sea bass and flounder on the wrecks and artificial reef sites. Many of the sea bass are slightly undersized but the flounder are often rather large.
Offshore fishing should be good this week and may even be better than expected after Bill stirred things up a bit. Sometimes when the fishing is in the summer doldrums a good heave can create better fishing opportunities. The Ocean City boats are bringing back a mix of dolphin, yellowfin tuna and report white marlin releases.
Real-time water information for selected points in the Coastal Bay
Click here to view recent bay region satellite images at mddnr.chesapeakebay.net/NASAimagery/EyesInTheSky.cfm
A Couple of Closing Notes...
Don't hesitate to e-mail your recent
fishing/crabbing photos and trip information. Send your photos via E-mail by the
following Monday in order to be included in the next update. The file should be
in .jpg format with the longest side sized at 600 pixels. Please keep the file
size under one megabyte if possible. The photo should clearly depict the angler(s), fish, and ethical
handling practices. For information on ethical angling practices please
reference the Catch and Release information located at URL:
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/articles/catch_release.html
Include the following information:
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Date
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Angler(s)
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Hometown(s)
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Photo credit
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Location
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Weight/length of catch
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Bait/lure
Important Note:
If anyone in your picture is under 18
years of age, we must have a
photo release
signed by that person and a parent/guardian before we can post your picture. By sending any photos or art to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources you are giving DNR permission to use the image(s) online and in print. You are also giving DNR permission to distribute the photo for non-commercial purposes to other media, print, digital and television for their use. You are not giving up your copyright, but are allowing the photo(s) to be used for educational and news purposes.
Send your photos and information to
Keith Lockwood
The Fisheries
Service is pleased to have you visit. We want to make this
site as user friendly as possible, if you have any suggestions, please
mail them to
Paul Genovese.
