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

Oct 11th, 2010

Fishing Report by Sue Foster

Water Temperature (WTMP): 66.2°F

Columbus Day Weekend was beautiful in Ocean City. The Ocean City Surf
Anglers Club held their annual fishing tournament in Ocean City on Friday
and Saturday. Anglers caught tons of small snapper blues, a few nicer sized
blues, one 32-inch striper, a 22-inch flounder, and some nice kingfish. Red
drum were biting on Assateague and that apparently was excellent on Friday.
Flounder fishing was still just so-so though I did see some pictures of some
keepers caught from the West Channel just South of the Rt. 50 Bridge. Tautog
fishing turned on with some nice keepers inshore and just offshore on the
wrecks. Route 50 Bridge at night saw lots of striper activity with a few
keepers and some really good sized blues up to 14 pounds! Sea bass fishing
was really good offshore. Now it will be closed for 2 weeks.

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! We still have 2010 White Marlin Open T's.
Tire Buddy III
Tire Deflators are back in stock!


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- 8 A.M. until 6 P.M. Weekends open at 7 A.M. Fenwick
Tackle 7 A.M. until 6 P.M. Daily except for Tues and Wed- 9 AM to -5 PM)

Instore Coupons!

We had a really nice weekend in Ocean City. Snapper blues were biting along
with some flounder, one 32-inch striper that we heard of, and one 22-inch
flounder. Most of the bluefish were small but some got up to 15-16 inches.
This weekend was easy to hold bottom, but if you find you can't hold bottom
try using a "
sputnik sinker if you can't hold with a regular surf sinker. I always
carry a 3 1/2 or 4 ounce sputnik in my tackle box.

Ocean City and Fenwick Island has some really nice cuts with an outer bar.
At low tide it's pretty easy to walk out on the bar and cast into the deeper
water.


Bill Klein of "Stripers Online" reports on Oct 1st: "Some wonderfully
cooler autumn weather is here at last, and the drum action on our beaches
has been memorable, to put it mildly. Not much to dislike about that
combination. One can only hope the stripers put on as half as good a showing
as the drum have blessed us with so far."

Jan Snyder of Timonium, MD e-mailed in his pic and report:

"Here is a pix of 42" Red I caught yesterday at Assateague. Caught on fresh
bunker chunk on falling tide. This was measured and released to fight
another day. I was "whipped" after beaching it. I had forgotten how hard
they pull !
I have to give credit to my friend Fred Husman for putting me on the spot
and assistance in landing this since I have lost several big fish lately in
the wash."

His picture is in our Surf
Gallery.

"Coop" posted online on Friday: "finally...got 2 red drum...one on first
cast and one before dark." I also saw online that
"Possum" finally got a drum.... that same day. I saw on reports that spot
and kingfish were in the surf on Assateague on Thursday and that snapper
blues were in the surf on Friday.


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

Gil Simon of Hampstead, MD came into Oyster Bay with a 15" tautog he caught
on green crab. His buddy, Mark Perdue of Aberdeen, MD landed a 5 1/2 pound
sheepshead caught on a sand flea. Both were caught on Gil's boat, the
"Feelin' Frisky" at the South Jetty on Saturday. These pictures are in
our Photo Gallery under Bay and
Inshore Photos.


Anglers fishing the Route 50 Bridge are doing really well on stripers at
night. A couple cloudy days saw anglers picking them up by day. Bluefish are
in the mix and we heard of several big ones. The blues on the Bridge are
running much larger than the ones in the surf. Anglers are picking at
flounder by day along with some good catches of tautog. Lots of anglers
have been fishing the 9th Street Pier for flounder. The 2nd through 4th
Street Bulkhead attracts both flounder and tautog.

Pondo Swartz of Baltimore came into Oyster Bay with a 37-inch bluefish, 14.9
pounds, caught from the Rt. 50 Bridge on a Swim Shad on Saturday night. He
says he's been catching lots of stripers, all on white colored Swim Shads
but no keepers this week. His picture is in our Photo Gallery under Bay and
Inshore Photos.


Bob Thompson of Ellington, CT sent in his bridge report on the 8th:

"Just got back to OC from CT in time to sit out the wind and rain. Once it
settled down a bit, I tried the bridge but got skunked 2 nights in a row.

Tonight was completely different. Arrived on the south side of the bridge at
12:30AM for turnaround toward low and had my 1st Striper at 1:05 - a 24"
short. Picked up one more about the same size and then moved west to
another light where I got a 26"er, a 29"keeper (photo attached) and another
26"er. Kept going west into the shallows but nothing doing. On my way back
east to head home, I picked up another 26"er at the same light where I'd
started the night.

All were caught on a plain 1oz. White Bucktail (No grubtail) cast close in
along the bridge and allowed to hit bottom before starting the retrieve. The
fish are holding close in at the shadoiw line so if you haven't had a strike
before the tide moves your lure out 30', reel in and start again.

I didn't see any baitfish but there were several big splashes when I think
something was chasing prey and when I gutted the keeper, she was full of
them! Two 5" Butterfish, 2 4" White Perch, 3 Shiners and several smaller
fish that were too far gone to be identified. A belly that full and she
still hit the bucktail!

There were 2 fishermen at the west side of the draw that were using cut bait
and had some pretty nice Blues - perhaps 3 to 4 lbs. No one else from east
to west side.

Hope the weather and fish hold. Six fish made for a good night and it's good
to be back!"

Bob didn't have a camera man so his picture of the fish is in our Photo
Gallery under Bay and
Inshore Photos.


Capt. Bobby Gower of the " Bay Bee
reports so-so fishing on the bay. On Friday he had 16 throw back flounder.
On Saturday the boat had 10 throw backs in the morning and 6 throw backs in
the afternoon. On Sunday morning the boat had 16 throw backs by 11 o'clock.
There have been small snapper blues as well. Capt Gower says the Bay Bee
will continue to do flounder trips Thursday through Sunday. Starting Nov
1st, rockfish trips will begin.

Nick of the Get Sum is doing
charters for tog, flounder and stripers. Nick had a good tautog trip on an
inshore wreck this week.

I had a customer that was doing well on flounder in the West Channel over
by Homer Gudelsky Park. I know he had a couple keepers this weekend using a
home made hi/low rig with white Gulp on the bottom hook and chartruese Gulp
on the top hook!



Harbor Tackle (410-213-9365) reports red drum on Assateague!


J.J. from the Oceanic Pier (410-289-2602) reports lots of flounder this
weekend, but not many keepers. The big news was the "keeper" tautog bite.
The tautog were averaging 15 to 18-inches. At night some snapper blues were
biting on
Gotcha Plugs and Spec Rigs
but it wasn't real consistent. There was also a ton of small sea bass biting
from the pier. 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 on the 8th: "Small blues on the
beach and a good mix of small stripers, flounder and kings. Togging in the
Inlet is good. Bluefish are coming in on the incoming tide in the Inlet.
Night time striper fishing has been good.

The 13th Annual Delaware Seashore Fall Surf Fishing Classic had 280 anglers
participating in the tournament last weekend. The weather cooperated on
Saturday but turned ugly on Sunday. There were plenty of small fish around.
Blues, kings, stripers, flounder and even some weakfish and pompano. The big
news on Saturday was that Dennis Utz not only landed a 44 inch red drum on
3R's Road, he later landed a 45" red!! Needless to say it was the biggest
fish of the tournament."

Thanks Clark!

Bill Sports Center (302-645-7654) reports good fishing on the beach with
snapper blues. Stripers, bluefish and tautog at the Indian River Inlet. Cape
Henelopen Pier has had flounder, spot, and croaker.



E-mail Sue Foster at: Oyster Bay
Tackle with your pictures and/or reports. Vacation Pictures are
welcome! (Please send me a real picture and not a link to a "Kodak moment!")
E-mail me your name and where you are from so we
can put you in our weekly fish reports and/or Gallery!


Anglers now need a DE Fishing License to fish, crab, and clam in DEL: The
state has published a very good
FAQ on the license requirement. Individual Delaware Fishing Licenses are
now available
online.
Stop into Fenwick Tackle and get your license. 302-539-7766.

Delaware anglers will also need a F.I.N. number every year, similar to a
hunting H.I.P. number. It is free, very simple to get, but necessary. DNREC
has e-mailed us how to get it! To obtain a F.I.N. number anglers may visit
www.delaware-fin.com, or call 800-432-9228, any time of day or night.

In Maryland, In Maryland, you do not need a license to fish in the ocean or
coastal bays until 2011, but you do need a free Registry number from NOAA if you are 16 and
older. Go to www.countmyfish.NOAA.gov to print your free number. You can
also call a toll free number and get it in a few minutes. 1-888-MRIP411
(1-888-674-7411). They will ask you for your name, address, and phone
number. It's not a large big deal, no one is fining anyone, but it will help
the states to count angler's catches more accurately.


Capt. Mike Abbaticchio of the
Judith M at Bahia Marina (410-289-7438, 410-251-5859, 443-497-1361)
fishes out of Bahia Marina at 22nd Street in Ocean City. See our web site
for details. WWW.JUDITHMFISHING.COM "

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