Delmarva Offshore Report for Upcoming Weekend

[Fish-N-Fool]

With the remnants of Hanna speeding off to the north, on Monday a few of us got together to fish for fun/meat out of Ocean City, Maryland. It was our intention to troll the Sausages to Hot Dog area for Wahoo before running off into the deep to see if we could catch a few whites before finishing off the day with a couple deep drops. Unfortunately, the best thought out plans do not always pan out...

We arrived at the second Sausage to find 68 degree pea green water. Some of the worst water I have encountered off Ocean City the past 20 years. Visibility was less then a foot. It was decided to run until we found water that may hold fish. We crossed the 40 line before water began to clear and warm to 71. Clarity grew better when we hit a temp break from 72 to 76 degrees right on the fifty line. As the spread was being set, lobster balls came into view (these were in 54 fathoms on a line from OC inlet to tip of Poormans). Passed by the first ball and to our delight found it loaded with Mahi that savagely attacked the lines. Changed tactics and decided to bail dolphin. Spent the next four hours chasing fish from ball to ball. What a blast, they were loaded up on every ball. We threw 39 gaffers in the box to fill our freezers while Lenny Rudow (Ultimate Angler) tagged and released all the smaller Mahi caught for an Atlantic Coastal water research project. With sore wrist we decided to run straight to one of our deep drop locations in 115 fathoms in search of a couple tilefish in lieu of trying to troll up a white since we were fighting the clock. We made three drops. One Golden tile was caught that pulled the scale down to 50 pounds and another nice tile unfortunately snapped off from too much pressure trying to crank it off the bottom quickly. With daylight quickly disappearing we began the 65 mile trek back in, however, greed set in as we passed two balls right on the 100 line that were loaded up with gaffers. Another ten were thrown in the box giving us one short of our allotment.

For those who know me, I preach catch and release with the exception of those fish to be used for table fare. I’d like to mention that all these fish were cleaned and will be consumed this winter. If fishing this weekend, there are plenty of Mahi for those of you who are interested. Also, it is the time of year to score on Wahoo. Think black/red or black/purple skirted ballyhoo trolled off planers or Z-Wings! Tight lines and good luck.

[Jaydog]

Great work...sounds like a hell of a trip. I'll take those kinds of numbers everyday of the week. Hopefully I'll be having the same success this week.

[Rob Rondini]

thanks alot for the report fish!

[Anders]

that is a ridiculous amount of mahi, even to eat! great job guys, especially the piggy tile

[laxkeeper29]

Thats one helluva tile! I'd hate to be the poor soul that cleaned all those mahi though

[scott w]

Thats one helluva tile! I'd hate to be the poor soul that cleaned all those mahi though

i hope to have that problem sat... nice job guys!

[FINRAZOR RODS]

Just plain awesome!