Ocean City Maryland & Assateague Island - Delaware Beaches - Ocean n Bay Fishing Report
By Sue Foster, Oyster Bay Tackle Shop, Ocean City MD - Fenwick Island DE

April 19th, 2010

Fishing Report by Sue Foster

Water Temperature (WTMP): 50°F

The first keeper flounder were caught in Ocean City aboard the Party Boat
"Bay Bee!" Blues showed up this week. The first sea trout was caught in the
surf on Assateague. The first black drum were caught on the barrier islands
of Virgina. Tautog fishing has picked up. Stripers were reported in the bay.
The bite at Indian River Inlet has turned on. Tautog fishing offshore was
good.

Shop Online Spring
Sale! Fast Priority shipping on most items. The Online mall is always
open! ......


T-shirts! 2010 White Marlin Open T's are here! 2009 long and short
sleeve shirts are on sale starting at 9.99 Instore (Oyster Bay location) and
online.


2010 tide tables now available in our stores or online. You'll find our
tide chart and MD regs under "More Fishing Info" on our website.

(Oyster Bay hours- Monday-Friday-9-4:30 & Saturday 8-5, Sunday 8-3. Fenwick
Tackle is now open. Sunday and Mondays we close early- 8-noon or 1 PM.
Call 302-539-7766.

Larry Jock of the Coastal
Fisherman tells us about the first flounder and bluefish catches along
with some striper reports!

THURSDAY, April 15, 2010: Small stripers are being caught in the bay by
anglers trolling tandem bucktails. Red and white with a curly tail seem to
be working the best.

SATURDAY, April 17, 2010: First day of flounder fishing was today, but the
very windy conditions kept most anglers at the dock.

The " Bay
Bee" did have 9 flounder today with 3 being large enough to keep. Fish
were caught in the bay behind Assateague on minnows and Gulp! artificial
baits. Largest was 20.25 inches.

The "Get Sum" had 10 short stripers, 2 bluefish and a couple of short
flounder today, all in the bay behind Assateague.

Nick of the Get Sum is doing
charters for tog, flounder and stripers.


Harbor Tackle (410-213-9365) reports on the 16th: "A few of my customers are
starting to hook up some stripers at Assateague Island using fresh bunker.
The Inlet is producing scattered stripers. The tog fishermen are catching
fish at the usual places mostly using live green crabs along with frozen
sand fleas and live chowder clams. Some flounder have shown up in the south
bay behind Assateague and some stripers have been picked up too. Devon
Fernandez picked up a 23 inch tog using live green crabs in Ocean City."

Looks like the surf fish report for the weekend on Assateague was mostly
sharks and skates. At least anglers were catching something!

Tim Thorpe certainly caught something on April 16th! He e-mailed in his
story and picture: "Sue, it was pretty dead fishing at Assateague beach last
Friday until I caught one!! I had two poles out for larger fish and had one
smaller rig set up to catch spot or anything small for live bait. I was
using bloodworm fishbites with clam on the same VERY SMALL hook. I caught
it on the outgoing tide in what appeared to be a bit of a pool not far off
shore, inside the bar.
It was a 27 " spotted sea trout. FUN!! It made the day a success." His
picture is in our Photo Gallery under Surf Fishing Photos.


Many anglers ask about reading the beach when surf fishing. "Poppy" a very
good angler has posted another very good description with pictures on
Stripers Online. Check it out:
Reading the Beach He draws it out completely! If you're not catching
fish in the surf, you need to study this!

Had one Ocean City report from Bob Thompson: "Back in OC for a couple of
months and thought I'd let you know that I picked up 2 "Shorts" about 18"s
each this past Tuesday (4/12) from the beach side of the north jetty on a 5"
white Zoom lure. The 2 Stripers were caught on an incoming tide and I've
tried there again since then with no luck. Same from the bridge but I notice
that the bay has really filled in on both sides of it and it's quite shallow
soon after the outgoing tide starts to turn. Have to go out and scout for
holes and edges at daytime low!"



Need surf
rigs? We have plenty in our shops or buy online! Shop Online


J.J. from the Oceanic Pier (410-289-2602) reports that the pier is now open.
They are open week days till around 7 P.M. and later on weekends, weather
permitting. They caught a few more tautog this week along with a "short"
striper. One angler had a bluefish on and lost it. That's a good sign!
Anglers might have done better if the weather had been nicer. Anglers at
night use
Gotcha Plugs and Spec Rigs.
Shad also take Sabiki Rigs. J.J. wants everyone to know that when you come
to the pier, go to the Oceanic Motel and park, then come buy your ticket and
he will give you a pass for your car. There is also a big municipal pay lot
about a block away from the pier. Call J.J. at 410-289-2602 for parking
details.

Clark from Old Inlet (302-227-7974) posted great news on the 18th!

"First bluefish caught in the Inlet this morning. 16-18 inch range. On
bucktails during incoming tide. Sporadic striper bite reported on the beach
from Fenwick, 3 R's and Cape Henlopen. Small blues on the beach at the Cape
as well.
Plenty of sharks and skates Saturday on 3 R's. April 15 -Walter Davis just
weighed a 16 pound striper caught this morning. Storm Lure on the south
side! Hot flounder bite reported in the VFW slough. A good customer had 8
keepers this morning. The best tautog bite has been in the deep hole by the
bridge on the south side. One guy had two over 19 inches yesterday. The
striper bite appears to be improving. North side on incoming and south side
on the outgoing lately but it has been changing almost daily. We have been
told that the flounder regulations for 2010 will be 18.5 inches minimum
size, 4 fish a day and the season will close October 13. This will take
effect in early May."

Thanks Clark!

I also had some reports of good striper fishing from the Indian River Inlet.

Bill Sports Center (302-645-7654) reports good flounder fishing in the VFW
slough at Indian River. He's weighed in some nice stripers from the Inlet as
well. Delaware Bay has been real good on stripers with clam. Anglers have
been limiting out on tautog offshore. Inshore tautog fishing is picking up.

To the South of us....

Julie Ball tells us about the first black drum
in "The Virgina Beach Sport Fishing Report" on April 17, 2010: "...
The newest spring player is an Eastern Shore favorite, the black drum. The
folks at Chris' Bait and Tackle confirmed the first recreational catches of
black drum from the surf lines of the seaside barrier islands of the Easter
Shore. So far the black drum are only ranging from 10 to 15-pounds, but this
showing could be a good sign of things to come."

Julia tells us about the flounder action in VA:

"Flounder action slowed some this week, but folks are still finding some
keepers with a few doormats in the mix. The best flounder action is still at
Back River, the bend at the third island of the CBBT, and along the
Baltimore channel in water ranging up to 45-feet. Scattered keepers are also
hitting baits within Lynnhaven and Rudee Inlets to around 21-inches. Along
the Eastern Shore, fish are coming from the buoys along the bayside of Cape
Charles, as well as seaside out of Oyster and Wachapreague. The best
enticement for these fish is fresh stripped bait paired with a live minnow
on an outgoing tide lately."


We fished in VA this weekend and did real well on flounder up to 21 1/2
inches. I caught one on Friday that went 21 1/2 inches and another on
Saturday that went 21-inches. All together, three of us had 12 keepers in
two days. My picture is in our Vacation
Photo Gallery. The weather man was wrong both days. It really windy on
Friday when it was supposed to be calm. And on Saturday, when the weather
was supposed to be windy and cold, it was really nice in Virginia! It was a
great weekend to have a little fishing vacation!

Maryland anglers have been awaiting the final outcome of the Maryland
Flounder Options.
Oyster bay tackle
11615 Coastal Highway
Ocean City, Md
410-391-0222
http://www.oysterbaytackle.com/