As September 13th approaches and the closure of flounder season is upon us; fishermen are enjoying good fishing in the back bay area of Ocean City and Assateague Island. Boat traffic will be down this post Labor Day week so it will be easier to fish some of the channel areas such as the Main East Channel. Finger mullet and spot have been two of the favorite baits for fishermen who are looking for bragging size flounder. The inlet area has been a good place to find such good fish as well as outside the inlet area and along the beaches.
During the day fishermen are catching flounder, croaker, trigger fish and even a few nice sized tautog in and around the inlet area. At night bluefish have been very plentiful and easy to catch on Got-Cha type lures. A few nice striped bass are also being caught each night in the Route 50 Bridge/inlet area on swim shads and live eels or spot.
Surf fishermen are catching a lot of small bluefish on whole or pieces of finger mullet. A mix of spot, croakers, kingfish and flounder are also being caught. Croaker and flounder are being caught by boats fishing outside the inlet along the beaches. The boats heading out to the wreck and reef sites are picking away at the sea bass with a high throwback ratio still evident.
The boat fleet that is fishing the more offshore waters is seeing excellent numbers of white marlin near the Baltimore and Wilmington Canyons. A couple of boats recently got into some small yellowfin tuna action but most are reporting a mix of skipjack tuna, false albacore, dolphin and a few wahoo.
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.
