Drifting Easy by Sue Foster 

            “Where can we go fishing from the shore? I have older kids in 
the 10 to 17 year age range that are driving me crazy to go fishing!”

            When you take a very young child fishing, you can bet the 
activity won’t last long and anywhere you can dunk a worm on a little hook 
will suffice. When you have older kids that really want to catch a fish 
bigger than a bluegill, you need to find the deeper swifter water closer to 
the inlets to have a chance of catching larger fish.

            The surf is one place you can take the older kids where they 
will have fun fishing and use up some of that energy.  In the town of Ocean 
City and Fenwick Island you are allowed to fish off the beach before 10 A.M. 
and after 5:30 P.M.

            “What can we catch? What should we use?”

            In late summer you can catch a variety of fish including snapper 
blues, kingfish (whiting), spot, small trout, flounder, sharks, and skates. 
By day, use a kingfish rig or small bluefish rig with a combination bait of 
worm and squid strip to catch the smaller fish. If the family is just 
interested in bluefish, sharks, and skates, squid is a good all around bait 
that works well.

            Snapper blues start making a come back in late summer. You can 
also try using a whole finger mullet on a whole “finger mullet rig” for the 
blues. Even though they are not real big, they still give a pretty good 
fight and the mullet rig is easy to use as you don’t need to do any cutting.

            If you fish the surf, use hurricane or pyramid type sinkers in 
the 2 to 4-ounce range on the bottom of your rig.  You want to use rods in 
the 7 to 11 foot range with reels spooled with 12 to 20 pound test. And 
please use sand spikes so your reel doesn’t fall in the sand!

The Ocean Pier is a pay pier that runs parallel to Ocean City Inlet. You can 
get on the pier by parking in the Inlet Parking Lot and walking up the steps 
to the fish on the end of the pier. You can fish this pier with the same 
rigs and sinkers that you would if you were surf fishing if you fish from 
the very end of the pier.  The pier is noted for their catches of sand 
sharks, skates, and snapper blues.

You can also fish this pier with a regular top and bottom rig and a bank 
sinker on the higher tide. Don’t fish all the way to the very end but 
instead, fish just behind the breakers with strips of squid, spot, or 
mullet. Cast out, and retrieve in slow to fish for flounder and croaker with 
size number 2 or 1 hooks. Go down to a size number 6 hook if you are using 
worm for bait and try for kingfish and spot.


 The Oceanic Pier is a pay pier that is located at the Southern most end of 
Philadelphia Ave. near the inlet.  Once you get to the pier, go in and pay 
for your ticket and the clerk will give you a pass for your car. You can 
then park in the Oceanic Pier Motel lot. The Oceanic Pier is a good place to 
fish. Anglers catch flounder, bluefish, tautog, small sea bass, sharks, 
skates, blowfish, toadfish, sand perch, croaker, trout, and spot. By day, 
the basic bait is a combination of a live minnow or a frozen shiner with a 
strip of squid beside it on the same hook. You can use either a single 
long-leadered type flounder rig, or a two-hook top and bottom type rig.  Use 
hooks in the size #2 to #1/0 range for flounder. Use bank sinkers in the 1 
and a half to 3-ounce range.

The best place on the pier is towards the end. Cast out into the channel and 
slowly retrieve in your baited rig. If you don’t care what you catch and 
just want to catch little fish, use a size #4 or #6 hook and fish with a 
worm and squid combination and fish close to the pilings.

The Oceanic Pier is a great place to fish at night as long as you can catch 
an incoming tide (between low and high tide.) Anglers fish with artificial 
lures mostly at night, but you can continue to use bait if you like. The 
best artificial lures at the Oceanic Pier are not large. Spec rigs which are 
shad darts tied in tandem, Got-cha plugs, and four-inch curltail grubs tied 
on 3/8 to ½ ounce lead heads tied in tandem are the artificial lures of 
choice. You will be surprised that flounder actually take lures at night, 
but the most prevalent fare after dark are the blues and sometimes trout and 
stripers. The stripers are usually “short.”

The Route 50 Bridge is located one block South of 1st Street. You can park 
on either side of the Bridge and walk up on the catwalk and fish. By day, 
you fish much the same as you would on the Oceanic Pier. Most anglers use 
frozen shiners with a strip of squid on the same hook and fish for flounder. 
Cast out your rig and reel in slowly for the flounder. Don’t fish straight 
down unless you want to catch little sea bass all day long.

Some people like to use a spreader rig from the Bridge. This coat-hanger 
type rig puts both hooks on the bottom.  Put a two-ounce sinker in the 
middle of the rig and attach a leadered hook to each loop of the spreader. 
Then, place a big bobber or float on your line approximately 4 to 5 feet 
above the spreader rig. This will actually float the hooks out over the 
bottom. It’s just like drifting in a boat!

At night, anglers use lures. They generally use larger lures on the Route 50 
Bridge than on the Oceanic Pier because the current is stronger. One can use 
Got-cha Plugs, ¾ to one-ounce bucktail jigs with plastic curltail grubs 
attached (6-inch), any of the swimming shad lures in the 4, 5, or 6-inch 
range. Some anglers tie the swimming shad lures in tandem to get them closer 
to the bottom for catching stripers. The Route 50 Bridge at night is your 
best bet for striper fishing in Ocean City when fishing from the shore.  One 
can also use live eels for stripers. The Bridge also sees trout, bluefish, 
and flounder at night.


The Homer Gudelsky Park is a free public area. It is a fairly new park that 
anglers used   to call “Stinky Beach.” Traveling west over the Rt. 50 
Bridge, make a left at Golf Course Road (next to Royal Farm Store) and make 
the next immediate left (Old Bridge Rd.) It is a nice beach with rocks along 
shore. One can cast shiners and squid for flounder- worms for sea bass and 
spot- or lures for blues and stripers. A surprising number of stripers have 
been caught there at night on either swimming shad lures or large live 
minnows.


The 9th Street Pier is a free public pier located on 9th Street and the bay. 
Use shiners or live minnows for flounder-- squid strips for seabass and 
bluefish-- worms for Norfolk spot. Fish it just like you would the Oceanic 
Pier.  There’s not much action here at night however, as there are no 
lights.

The 2nd thru 4th Street Bulkhead is a free public area located on the 
bayside. It is a little hard to fish as it is has a lot of snags, but quite 
a number of good fish are caught here. The trick is to fish on the slacking 
tides, not when the current is running very hard. When the current is slack, 
you can cast out into the channel and bottom fish for flounder, croaker, and 
bluefish. When the current is running hard, you just can’t cast out into the 
channel because your rig will be swept back in and you will get hung up.

On a running tide, you need to fish straight down. Once your sinker hits the 
bottom, don’t move it, just let it sit there. If you fish straight down use 
sand crabs that you dig in the ocean and fish for tautog and triggerfish. 
You can use worms and squid and fish for the little sea bass until you get 
tired of catching them!

Yes, there are places to fish from the shore. If you are staying in North 
Ocean City you will need to drive a couple miles unless you fish from the 
beach.  But the drive is well worth it.

Good fishing…