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

July 19, 2010

Fishing Report by Sue Foster


Lots of flounder, but lots of "shorts." Some lucky anglers had some nice
ones. Starting to see some spot in the bay along with peanut bunker and
small finger mullet to use for flounder baits! Bigger bait, bigger fish!
Still bluefish at night on the Rt. 50 Bridge and Oceanic Pier. The surf saw
lots of sharks and kingfish, spot, sand perch and croaker up to 15-inches at
night. Triggerfish are here at the inlets and bulkhead along with some
tautog action. Bulkhead and Bridge had a really good week on flounder.
Offshore we have had sharks, tuna, marlin, and dolphin. Sea bass fishing was
up and down.

Shop Online ! Fast
Priority shipping on most items. Items weighing less than 12 ounces are
shipped First Class Mail. The Online mall is always open!


T-shirts! 2010 White Marlin Open and Shark and Tuna T's are here!
White Marlin Open T's are online. Tuna & Shark shirts are limited in colors
so it's best to call 410-524-3433 to order. We moved all our leftover
2009 tournament shirts to our Fenwick Tackle location.


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- 6 A.M. until 10 P.M. Daily. Fenwick Tackle is now open 7
A.M. until 10 P.M.)
Instore Coupons!

Sharks are still the talk of the beach....There's big ones for anglers
using big baits. And little tiny dogsharks for anglers using small hooks.
Kingfish, spot, and croaker were biting. The croaker were biting mainly at
night. A few anglers reported bluefish, while others say they haven't seen a
one. Anglers fishing for kingfish and spot should use small hooks and
bloodworms or artificial bloodworm combined with a little strip of clam,
mullet, bunker, or squid fillet. For sharks, bunker fillet or whole squid on
a larger hook. Finger mullet for bluefish. Croaker and Sea Trout take a
small to medium sized hook with any kind of cut bait. Croaker also like
clam. Trout take worms. I like a combination bait of worm (real or fake) and
cut bait.

I went fishing at 3 R's and Conquest Road in DE last Tuesday and caught 4
kingfish, lots of small sharks and sand perch, one baby flounder, and a huge
fish that grabbed my hook, pulled the rod out of the sand spike, peeled half
my line off, and finally bent straight my kingfish hook. It splashed but I
couldn't tell what it was. I'm thinking a spinner shark because I saw
something black jump out of the water when I first got there that wasn't a
bottle nose dolphin.


Bill Klein of "Stripers Online" reports from the Assateague surf this week:
"Our usual summer doldrums are pretty well settling on in. The tasty
kingfish are around in somewhat better than usual numbers, and fairly lively
sharking activity continues from the local beaches."

"Makomania" posted on the 16th: "Lots of kingfish hitting at Assateague
lately Got 12 yesterday along with 3 bluefish, a small skate and landed and
released a 20-30lb Stingray, big bugger, almost 3' across!"

"SharkHunter" posted on Stripers Online about fishing the Delaware State
Park on the 17th:

"Fished out front in DSSP all with Kings and spot on FBBW this morning.
About 10 the kings stopped biting and the croakers started to hit. All
croakers were released and most of the spot as well. I kept a few kings for
shark bait later in the day. Glad I saved the kings because I ended up
catching a small black tip on a king head.The spot are in thick."

Steve Maranto posted on the 18th on Stripers Online about his Assateague
adventure: "Fished yesterday in the morning and evening. Was catching
doubles of kings and spot on every cast for a while there. It got to the
point where it was annoying because I didn't have a chance to set up my big
rod. Caught a few 4' sandbars on chunked kings. THen I ended my night after
catching and releasing a 7' sand tiger by myself about 100 yards away from
my "camp". It was a bit hairy on my own, but the thing tooook off on the
release."

Lucky OC was also lucky on kingfish on the 18th:

"went out today with the family...Weather was nice, after 12pm, the wind
shifted more from the south, and cooled it down nice. Kings all day and a
4ft sandbar on a king head... first time i actually went on the beach
without buying bait first. All the reports of spot, i didn't snag one today.
Good to see friends and spent time with the family."



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!

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

Route 50 Bridge was still good on blues at night with Got-cha Plugs and Spec
Rigs. Some nights the stripers bite is on and some nights not! Stripers
were hitting 5 and 6-inch Swimming Shad Lures, Fin-S Fish soft bodies on
lead heads, along with 2-ounce Gotcha Plugs. Sometimes the blues on the
bridge bite in the daytime too. Early morning and towards late afternoon is
best.

Had a customer come in Sunday to say the bluefish were biting like crazy on
Got-cha Plugs at the Inlet. They were catching 12-15 inch blues and could
see larger ones below them.

Tautog and triggerfish are still at the South Jetty. Sand fleas are the best
bait here and just offshore as well. Stripers on live spot or live eels or
lures.

We at Oyster Bay saw a couple nice flounder this week. Jerry Faletto of
Severn, MD with a 26-inch 7-pound 9-oz flounder caught the 9th Street pier
with a jig head with Pearl Gulp Swimming Mullet on 7/13/10

Michael Wright of Ocean City, Md with a 21 inch Flounder caught around 28th
street, using Shiners.



All these pictures are in our Photo Gallery under Bay and
Inshore Photos.



Capt. Bobby Gower of the " Bay Bee
reports lots action on small flounder with a couple keepers this week. He
had a group of kids Saturday afternoon that were catching and releasing a
dozen fish each. "Fishing was Hot! Just no size..." He did get into
approximately 15 croaker one day near Harbor Island (14th Street). That's
good news. Capt Gower says some of the smaller boats that can get into the
"skinny" water are doing good in the West channel on the running incoming
tide. Gulp swimming mullets on the hooks or lead heads with or without a
shiner or minnow seems to be the ticket this week. Finding little "out of
way" places that haven't been overfished seems to produce more keepers as
well. "You need clean water. If the water isn't clean and clear, you can
forget about it!" says Capt Gower.

I can attest to the Gulp baits being productive. I have never sold so much
Gulp in our stores! So it's got to be working! I like to put Gulp on with a
minnow, shiner, or fresh cut bait.

Capt. "Skip" Doug Mcguire also charters in the bay.

Check out all the pictures on our their facebook page.... SKIPS CHARTER
SERVICE / BAIT AND TACKLE SHOP OR SKIP MAGUIRE

Tight Lines.......Capt. Skip.......410-430-5436"

Oyster bay tackle
11615 Coastal Highway
Ocean City, Md
410-391-0222
http://www.oysterbaytackle.com/