Despite some nasty weather fishing has been good in the Ocean City region. The large bluefish have moved on south for the most part and now fishermen can concentrate on the large striped bass that are still roaming off the beaches. Fishermen at the Ocean City Inlet have been catching some nice striped bass by casting swim shad lures and drifting live eels.
Surf casters have been catching striped bass on cut baits fished on bottom rigs. Dogfish are up to their old tricks of chewing up baits but most fishermen are not complaining too much. The current water temperature along the beaches is about 50-degrees.
The fishing for large striped bass within 3-miles of the beaches has been very good this week as fishermen troll large parachutes, bucktails and diving plugs down to where the fish are holding. At times feeding fish can be marked by diving birds and anglers have been jigging or dropping live eels down to the fish. Hopefully good weather will prevail and these large striped bass will stick around for a few more weeks.
Tautog season opens again on January 1st so it may be a great way to start off the New Year for fishermen if weather conditions are favorable. Fishermen, boat captains and just about everyone else will be waiting to see what the Federal Government decides about opening up the recreational sea bass fishery in 2010 in federal waters.
Please check out the following link to a page of some of the young happy faces that came to the fishing reports this past year. May they warm your heart during this chilly season.
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.
