Drifting Easy by Sue Foster

“It’s August and it’s hot! The water temperatures are up and the fish seem
to be slowing down. Where and when should I go fishing? “

August fishing can be very good or very bad. All depends on how you go about
it! When the water temperatures heat up to near 80-degrees you need to
change your tactics just a little. “The early bird gets the worm,” often
rings true for the angler in August. The anglers that are out there on their
boats or casting from the shore at the “crack of dawn” (or an hour or two
before) are often the ones that are weighing in those fish!

In a boat, you have the best advantages early because the water temperatures
are cooler. There is also the advantage of little boat traffic first thing
in the morning. No matter what the tide is, by 10 A.M. you’ll notice a load
of boats and jet skies going here and there, to and fro, stirring up the
water. This can be especially important if you are fishing the Inlets for
stripers or trout. These fish like to feed at first light in the heat of the
summer and will quit biting as soon as the boat traffic gets heavy. There
are many local anglers that “work the rocks” from 5 A.M. until 7 or 8 A.M.
then call it a day. Most people are just getting started by 8 A.M.!

“How do you fish the Inlet for these stripers and trout?”

If you are in a boat, you want one of four baits if you want to use live
bait. You want to buy or catch live eels, spot, bunker, or finger mullet.
You can usually buy live eels at most tackle stores. Live spot is harder to
buy and also expensive. You can catch your own with small hooks and pieces
of bloodworm or artificial FishBite bloodworm. Live bunkers or finger mullet
usually need to be cast netted and thrown in your live well. Eels will keep
in a cooler with no water as long as you keep them cool and damp. All the
other baits need to be kept in an aerator bucket or live well or they will
die in short time.

“How do you rig these live baits?”

First of all, you need a fairly large hook. An Octopus or Kahle
styled hook in the 3/0 to 4/0 size is good. Any pre-made “eel rig” for
stripers will work for all the other baitfish. If you want to make your own
rig you can do this either of two ways. Tie a good-sized hook to the end of
a 30to 36-inch piece of 30 to 40 pound test monofilament or Fluorocarbon
leader. At the end of the leader tie a black barrel swivel. Now you can
either set this up on a fish finder rig, or make an egg-sinker rig.

To make an egg-sinker rig tie a barrel swivel to the end of your
line and then tie a piece of 30 or 40 pound test leader about 8-inches long
to the barrel swivel. Slip on an egg sinker in the 1 ½ to 3-ounce size
range. Then tie your barrel swivel attached to your long leadered hook to
the end of that line. The egg sinker will slide back and forth between the
two barrel swivels.

Hook the eel, spot, bunker or finger mullet through the upper
lip, eyes, or just behind the mouth.

The larger the baitfish, the longer you need to let the fish eat
before setting the hook. I count to 10, feel for the weight of the fish as I
raise my rod tip, cross my fingers, and set the hook hard!

There are two ways to fish for stripers and trout in the inlet. Drift
through the inlet with whatever sinker weight it takes to hold the bottom
for one tactic. The other tactic is to use just a little weight (or no
weight when the water is slack) and cast towards the churning water at the
tip of the South Jetty. Yes, where all those other boats are throwing! On
calm days, anglers go to the south side of the south jetty and drift or cast
to the deep hole near the end of the south jetty. Others drift over the deep
hole just offshore of the North Jetty.

“What about flounder fishing? It seems to be falling off? Even the croaker
didn’t bite around the Rt. 90 Bridge the other day!”

Again, when the water temperatures get hot, adjust your fishing time to
early in the morning and fish again late in the afternoon towards evening.
Cloudy days are often good days to go as well, as the sun does not heat the
water up so quickly. Rt. 90 Bridge for spot and croaker may be dead on a
90-degree hot day, but might be great on a cloudy, slightly drizzly day. It
may also turn on later in the day when the sun starts to go down!

Water temperatures are cooler in deeper holes. Try to fish the deepest holes
you can find. The deep holes of the Thorofare, the main east channel between
14th Street and the draw of the Route 50 Bridge, and the area between the
draw of the Route 50 Bridge and the Inlet. The bay behind Assateague near
the Airport often holds some nice fish in the summer. Fish the higher tide
as the water is deeper. Two or three hours before high tide and two hours
after high tide is the best tide in the summer. If you can coordinate that
with an early or late “time frame,” your chances to catch fish are even
greater.

Flounder bite offshore in August. If you can run your boat a ways out of the
inlet and fish any of the “shoals” outside of Ocean City you will likely
catch some flounder. Make your drift so you work the edges and the top of
the shoals. Use a long leadered hook and use shiner and squid combination,
or any kind of cut bait like fresh spot fillet or bluefish fillet. The reef
offshore of 28th Street is good. Little Gull Shoal, Big Gull Shoal, any of
the lumps and bumps just offshore of Assateague Island is good. You may also
run into croakers out there!

Wreck fishing can produce flounder as well as sea bass in the heat of the
summer, though sea bass fishing can be slow. If the current is not running
too hard, drift all around the wreck areas with your long leadered flounder
rigs. I like to use an egg sinker or fish finder rig offshore rather than a
3-way swivel. When you fish in deeper water the 3-way with sinker snap can
get twisted.

“I don’t have a boat and I’m not catching any fish!”

Again, try fishing early, early in the morning and then again at dusk and
after dark in the heat of the summer. Surf fishing is best between 5 A.M.
and 10 A.M. and again between 4 P.M. and dark. After dark often produces
good catches of croaker, trout, stripers, sharks, and bluefish. Middle of
the day fishing on a hot scorching day can leave you fishless.

The same is true when casting lures from the Jetties, Route 50 Bridge, and
Oceanic Pier. When daytime fishing, try to do early in the morning, late in
the day or night, or pick those cloudy drizzly days. Some of the best and
biggest croakers are caught at night. Most of the stripers and trout are
caught at night or first thing in the morning. If you can get an incoming
tide after dark, you’re likely to have luck. Add a light east wind and you
are in!

Good fishing…