“I’m not catching fish where I caught fish last year!”
“Last year, when I was on vacation, we fished at 120th Street surf
and caught snapper blues with finger mullet and finger mullet rigs almost
every evening. This year, I’m fishing the same place with the same bait and
coming up empty. What’s up?”
“Flounder fishing is terrible this year! The population must
be in danger!”
“Striper fishing is great! I saw guys catching huge ones off
the jetty last night!”
Every year is different when it comes to fishing. Weather patterns
and different water temperatures can change the fishing. Sandbars shift
in both the bay and the ocean. A hot spot in the surf last year, may
be a flat unproductive beach this year!”
Flounder fishing can be good one year and poor another. One year
we can have great flounder fishing in the spring, and another year it
is just terrible. I remember a few years back, (I believe it was the year
2000) we had great flounder fishing in May up by the Route 90 Bridge.
There were so many boats catching flounder there in 5 to 8-foot of water
you could walk across them. The next year, all the locals kept going back
there to catch them again. The water was a red brown color from runoff
and some kind of algae bloom. Hardly any flounder were caught there at
all. Many people tended to blame it on the hydrolic clam boats, but it
was probably the difference of weather pattern. (A warm winter gave us
an algae bloom and a rainy spring gave us “runoff.”) The year that
flounder was good there, we had a dry spring and not so much wind.
Some years we have a great fall on flounder fishing by the Route
50 Bridge. It is like the flounder are stacked up there, waiting to go
out with the beginning of the outgoing water. This usually happens the
first and second week of October if it is going to happen. Boaters fish
the main east channel from around 9th Street to the draw of the Route
50 Bridge on the high incoming and beginning of outgoing tide.
Last year, in 2002 we had great offshore fishing because we
had warm water offshore early. This year, in 2003 we have had
primarily Southwest breezes making for cold water temperatures,
“green water” and rather slow offshore fishing. Remember all
those “white marlin” releases we had during the 2002 White
Marlin Open Tournament? This year, we have had only a fraction
of those releases.
In the early summer of 2002 we had some really good
chunking days for tuna, though it didn’t last into the fall
like in the year of 2001. This season, of 2003, anglers have
found chunking for tuna quite slow, and anglers are actually
catching more trolling again. Tackle owners that filled their
freezers in anticipation of a good chunking year are looking
at stacks of butterfish!
Another example is in the fall of 2001 we had great striper
fishing offshore and in the surf right up to Christmas because we
had a very mild fall and early winter. We people in the tackle
business couldn’t keep enough metal lures or Stretch 25’s in stock.
In the fall of 2002 we had terrible weather and it got cold early.
Those metal spoons and Stretch 25’s collected dust on the shelf.
This year, in 2003, we are having a tremendous summer of big
stripers for anglers casting live eels and Storm type lures at both
the Indian River and Ocean City inlets at night or in the very early
dawn hours. We in the tackle business can barely keep live eels in
stock we are selling them so fast. Last year, in the summer of 2002,
the big stripers were few and far between in the heat of the summer
and you could hardly give an eel away. What is the difference?
Cold water! For swimmers going into the ocean for a swim,
it can be a rude awakening and for some a “very quick dip!” When
we go surf fishing some days your feet hurt the water is so cold.
Well, that’s good for striper fishing and these fish love it! They
are coming in the inlets and feeding and anglers are catching them!
If the water was typical, summertime warm, we would have to wait until
fall to catch these beautiful fish.
In the spring of 2002, after a mild winter, we had a tremendous
tautog run starting around the beginning of May that lasted about a
month. Anglers were catching their limits from the 2nd to 4th Street
bulkhead, North Jetty, South Jetty, and Route 50 Bridge. Anglers that
had never tautog fished before, started buying green crabs and sand
fleas and gave tautog fishing a try. You almost couldn’t fail they
were so plentiful. Were the tautog recovered and really coming back?
Well, in the spring of 2003, after a very harsh winter, anglers
were wondering-
“Where are the tautog?” Tautog fishing started late and was very poor
from the same areas. Even when the water temperature got right, the
tautog bite was very slow. Some people were concerned that the work
on the South Jetty changed the tidal flow and changed the fishing.
(Or was it just the weather.)
“Who can figure?” Capt. Monty of the “Morning Star” often says.
Tautog fishing in the spring offshore on the party boats was good,
meaning the tautog were out there, just not coming in. Then, right
in the middle of summer, when tautog fishing is usually quite slow
offshore, tautog fishing got good! What made that happen? Probably
the unusally cold water temperatures.
Last summer, in 2002, there were plenty of little live spot
around. (At least for a while.) This year, in 2003, there are a
few around and they are mostly large. A few small ones are just
starting to show up now. Will be spot be here late? Or not at all this year?
Who can figure?
One of the most amazing things about the water temperatures
this year is the surf fishing. In the spring, (when we finally
got a spring) we had the best bluefish run we have had in years.
Usually it only last two or three weeks and it is over. This season,
because of the cool spring, it lasted double that time and fishing
was pretty consistent. It was so good that anglers came in and said:
“My arms are tired of catching blues! Isn’t there anything else to catch!”
You would have thought that the striper fishing in the Ocean City
would have been good this spring will the cool conditions. But it
wasn’t. Again… who can figure!
The greatest part about this summer of 2003 is the kingfish in
the surf. For a good month now, anglers have been catching these
tasty fish in the surf. Usually you get a few small runs of them
and it is over. These fish like cool water and have stuck around.
Small baits on small hooks are catching most of the fish in the surf.
The bluefish have pretty much disappeared in the surf this summer.
Normally, you can catch small ones here and there, all summer long.
So, whole finger mullet on whole finger mullet rigs is not
a productive bait right now.
Crabbing has been interesting this summer. It started
off very slow, and then got quite good. The interesting thing
is that crabbers were again catching crabs in places we haven’t
seen them in years. We have had crabs at the 9th Street Pier and
Shantytown Pier. Has the new inlet construction changed the tidal
flow making the crabbing better. Or is it the water temperatures
and weather? Did the cold spring keep the crabs here all for us
because the commercial crabbers didn’t get many in April?
So, what’s going to happen this fall? Are we going to have
a good striper season, or will the weather end it abruptly.
Will be have a great flounder run in October by the Route 50
Bridge like we have some years? Will be catch nice trout offshore
in September, or will they all be small like last year. Will we
have a big bluefish run in the surf this fall? Will we have a
Thanksgiving striper blitz like we had a couple years ago?
Who can figure!?
Good fishing…
