Drifting Easy by Sue Foster

			5/12/05

            Drifting Easy by Sue Foster

            “I’m here for the week and can’t decide what to fish for. Should 
I fish for tautog (love to eat them) or should I get into the bluefish 
action on the beach?”

            It’s always a fishing dilemma. Should I fish here? Or should I 
fish there? Fishing can be different every day. Just because the blues 
blitzed the beach on a Saturday doesn’t necessarily mean the blues will 
blitz on Sunday.  One thing is for sure. If you look at the tides and the 
wind on a particular day, it will help you decide what to do. This is 
particularly true when deciding to fish on the bayside for tautog or the 
beach for blues.

            The wind! When I go fishing from the shore, I look at the wind 
prediction before deciding what to do. For weather in Ocean City, MD it is 
best to look at a marine forecast rather than just a regular weather 
forecast.  It gives you a much better scope of what is realistically going 
to happen when you go on your fishing vacation. I go to
http://weather.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/fmtbltn.pl?file=forecasts/marine/coastal/an/anz650.txt 
on the Internet which is COASTAL WATERS FROM FENWICK ISLAND DE TO 
CHINCOTEAGUE VA AND OUT 20 Nautical Miles. Most good marina and tackle store 
web sites have one of these Coastal Marine Weather links on their homepage. 
Save it to your “favorites” and check it out before driving 8 hours to Ocean 
City. It gives you a forecast of how many knots the wind will blow, the wind 
direction, and wave height. This is especially great for the surf fisherman. 
The forecast is for 5 days. If you see 25 to 30 mile per hour gusts coming 
from the Northeast, and 6 to 8 foot wave heights, you can bet you won’t be 
holding bottom very well.

               Many of the television stations give you a weather report 
from Salisbury, which is 30 miles inland from Ocean City. What a difference 
30 miles can make!

Here’s a typical 5-day Marine Weather Update. SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY FOR 
HAZARDOUS SEAS IN EFFECT FROM THIS
AFTERNOON TO THURSDAY EVENING

Today (Thursday)
W WINDS 15 KT...BECOMING NE IN THE AFTERNOON. SEAS 3 TO 4 FT
BUILDING TO 4 TO 5 FT. A SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS LATE IN THE
MORNING.

TONIGHT
NE WINDS 10 TO 15 KT. SEAS 4 TO 5 FT.

FRI
E WINDS 10 KT. SEAS 3 TO 4 FT.

FRI NIGHT
SE WINDS 10 KT...BECOMING S AFTER MIDNIGHT. SEAS 3 FT.

SAT
S WINDS 15 KT. SEAS 4 FT.

SAT NIGHT
S WINDS 15 KT. SEAS 4 FT.

SUN
SW WINDS 10 TO 15 KT...BECOMING NW AFTER MIDNIGHT. SEAS 3 TO
4 FT. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND TSTMS.

MON
N WINDS 20 KT. SEAS 5 to 6 FT. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND TSTMS.





First of all, quite obviously, I wouldn’t venture out into the ocean 
Thursday afternoon in a boat as there is a Small Craft Advisory. If I was 
planning to fish from the shore somewhere on Thursday, I would see from the 
forecast that the wind, though blowing  briskly, is from a Westerly 
direction in the morning. A straight west wind will be right at your back if 
you are surf fishing on the beach. Even though it might be rough offshore, 
the surf would be calm directly in front of you on a straight west wind. 
Fishing the surf would be fine until the wind shifted to the Northeast. This 
shift might make the fish bite for a while, for sure, but once the seas got 
up to 5-feet, it would be hard to hold bottom. So, go surf fishing in the 
morning, and maybe tautog fishing in the afternoon! A Northeast would be at 
your back when fishing on the bayside! Northeast can also make the inlet 
fairly calm and bring in fish (as long as the wind does not get up too 
much!) Casting lures at the inlet or the Oceanic Pier is also good on a 
Northeast wind.

Thursday night? 15 miles per hour from the Northeast isn’t too strong. Might 
be a little hard to hold bottom in the surf, but Northeast breezes generally 
brings in clean ocean water to the bay. It would be a good night to fish the 
Route 50 Bridge or Oceanic Pier for stripers, blues, and trout.

Friday, the forecast is for an East wind (directly off the Ocean). But the 
forecast is only for 10 Knots and the seas are predicted at 3 to 4 feet. 
This should be a good day on the beach for blues and stripers as long as the 
wind does not “get up” more than predicted. (My rule of thumb is this: As 
long as the waves are not larger than 4-foot on an easterly breeze, you’ll 
be able to fish. As long as the wind does not surpass 15 knots you’ll be 
fishing. If the easterly breeze gets up over 20 knots on the beach, the 
discomfort begins! )

If you are an avid tautog fisherman, this Friday forecast would also be a 
good wind  for you! So on Friday, you would just have to toss a coin and 
decide which direction to go in. I usually choice the surf when I can, as 
there are plenty of “bad weather” days that you can tautog fish. If this 
forecast was called for in the summer time you also have the “plus” of “no 
biting flies.”  Especially on Assateague, and the Delaware Seashore State 
Park, any West wind will bring bugs. Any East wind is less buggy!

Friday night the wind is predicted to switch to the Southeast. This is an 
excellent wind for the beach, but it is also an excellent wind for the 
Oceanic Pier or Route 50 Bridge. The South wind, when it comes up, may put a 
damper on the fishing if it comes up too hard.  A straight south wind, 15 
miles per hour, is not the greatest wind for fishing, but it’s not bad 
either. I would call it a so-so wind.  Tautog fishing would be fair at the 
bulkhead and inlet. It could be great on the Route 50 Bridge on the incoming 
tide as long as the water does not get dirty. South wind is also good at 
Indian River Inlet for tautog fishing on the south side of the inlet. The 
wind would be at your back making for an easy cast. (Any time you can get 
the wind at your back when fishing from structure it makes for easier 
casting.)

By Sunday, the wind is predicted to blow from the Southwest and then switch 
to the Northwest. This makes for unstable weather and you can bet they’ll be 
a “wind switch” and a temperature drop. This can put the wind at your back 
for surf fishing, which is not bad in the spring and fall. But if it is 
summertime, be sure to take the “bug spray.”

I hate a Northwest wind when fishing the bulkhead for tautog. It can be cold 
and blow right in your face. The water from the bulkhead can lap right at 
your feet at high tide!  Your sinker tends to sweep in towards the snags. In 
the spring and fall, I’d opt for surf fishing.  If you do go tautog fishing, 
try the Route 50 Bridge on the outgoing tide so the wind is more at your 
back.

“How about a straight North wind?”

On Monday, the forecast is for a hard breeze from the North. This can be one 
of the worst winds we have in Ocean City. It blows right down the beach, and 
right down the bulkhead when fishing for tautog. If the wind blows hard from 
the North, it’s best to fish a place like the North side of Indian River 
Inlet or the Ocean City Inlet, so the wind would be at your back. The Route 
50 Bridge on the outgoing tide would also be comfortable, but if the water 
is dirty it could be unproductive.  Five to six foot seas and a North wind 
will not make for good surf fishing. Take the sputnik sinkers if you try!

Whether you are a boater or not, looking at a Coastal Marine Forecast can be 
very helpful when deciding where to fish.  Like the weather station, they 
are not always right, but it is a helpful guide when going on a fishing 
vacation.

Good fishing….



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