December 26, 2019 Coastal Update:
Happy Holidays and Merry Fishmas anglers - we hope your holidays are full of lake trips, bucktails, and winter water wonderland fishing success stories. This week, the below report is going to be a little light due to the hectic nature of the festive season and much-deserved breaks of tackle shop employees, but we still encourage you to get out and finish out 2019 with your last fish(es) of the decade. Next week when everyone’s back from vacation and we can get in touch with all our usual sources again we’ll be back with the first FishTalk fishing report of 2020!
Stripers are being caught in good numbers off the Delaware coast inside the three-mile limit from Indian River south, by trollers. There are also still small stripers inside the OC inlet and although we didn’t get confirmation of any ocean-run keepers south of Delaware, it’s a good bet that this is more from a lack of info than a lack of fish – now should be a good time to give it a shot.
The sea bass bite has remained steady on the wrecks, with plenty of exciting limit days this week for anglers who ventured out. Capt. Monty on the Morning Star has been cruising farther but still filling coolers with mostly bass, a few porgies, and also some bluefish, and even a nice flounder showed up this week. Tog and flounder have been in the mix as well, feeding on green crab and sand fleas.
The brief weather window last weekend allowed at least one boat and a captain with moxie to get offshore (go, Derek go!) where the count was one for four, on swordfish. Yup, they’re still out there!
December 19, 2019 Coastal Update:
Between lousy weather and more lousy weather, reports from the coast are pretty thin this week. But between storms and winds, boats trolling Mojos, tandems, and Stretches have started to see some of the big stripers showing up along the coastal shoals including inside the three-mile limit. Delaware boats out of Indian River had good action the past week, and Old Inlet is reporting fish under birds just outside Indian River plus a bite in front of Sea Colony. Both Ocean City and Virginia Beach also saw a few big fish come in, though no readers sent us a pic to prove it – darn!
Capt. Monty on the Morning Star is still pushing off the dock from Ocean City every time the wind allows, and continues to load up on nice sea bass. Boats running from Virginia Beach are in the same, well, boat, though many are now switching over to tog since as we noted last week, it’s become necessary to make longer runs these days to get to actively feeding bass. A few porgys and blues are in the mix on the wrecks. And in the Utterly Weird department, an Atlantic pomfret was reported (and photo verified) caught by a boat out of Ocean City last week. Can anyone remember seeing one of those on the docks around here before? We didn’t think so.
At the inlet rocks throughout our range tog are still biting on sand fleas and green crab, but as has been the case recently, the vast majority don’t quite make the grade. We heard from one reader who caught a half-dozen in Ocean City last week, but not one was a keeper.
What about the surf? We had no reports from the surf this week, but that’s little wonder considering the weather and the time of year. That said, if you’re ever going to drag a monster striper through the suds, the appearance of large fish within spitting distance of the shoreline means now’s the time to take a shot.
December 12, 2019 Update:
The weather forced most boats to sit at the docks much of the week and we heard zippo from offshore, but the Mid-Atlantic Rockfish Shootout did go off last week (Knot a Care II won with 31.6 pounds) in Cape Charles, with anglers hunting for and finding some slot fish. Despite a reduced field there was still a payout over 22K and some bigger fish were caught and released. Trollers pulling big tandems and Mojos along the near-shore shoals did encounter the first of the large fish out of Indian River and Ocean City as well, but it’s still just a fish here and there as the bulk of the big migrators inside the limit remain to our north. Reports from above Atlantic City are solid in the surf with boats trolling inside the three-mile limit also making strong catches, so more fish are on their way down the coast.
The wrecks are still producing strong catches of sea bass out of OC and Virginia Beach when boats can get to ‘em, although more and more we’re hearing about problems with weather, spiny dogfish, and the bass pushing deeper as water temps fall.
Anglers hitting the rocks at Indian River and Ocean City as well as at the CBBT are still catching tog on sand fleas and green crab, though the majority of the fish are undersized and the bite seems to be slacking up a bit from previous weeks (or maybe we just heard from fewer anglers because the weather’s been so difficult). Anglers fishing the Route 50 bridge in OC are also catching throwback stripers.
December 5, 2019 Update:
The surf remains quiet… very quiet, as we wait, and hope, the big stripers currently off Jersey stay close to shore as they move south. A very few biggies were caught in our region this week, with scattered, onesie-twosie-keeper catches reported from Indian River (on eels at night) and over-slot fish from the CBBT area (trolling big baits). Everything we heard from OC was of throwbacks, with good C&R action at the Route 50 bridge, but there’s a lot of bait off the beach and it’s a fair bet some bigger fish are out there, for those brave enough to put in the effort.
Inshore, tog are still the main attraction. Anglers fishing the rocks in Indian River, Ocean City, and the CBBT continue to catch good numbers on green crab and sand fleas. The majority are still throwbacks, but weeding through ‘em often leads to fish in the cooler. The best bite close to home that we heard of came from down south, at the CBBT. A better bite is on the wrecks off the beach, where sea bass are still snapping as well and are making up the bulk of the catch for most wreck anglers fishing mixed baits. Interestingly, Capt. Monty on the Morning Star has been reporting a nice mix of porgy in the catch, too.
Offshore reports were thin again this week, though at least one boat out of Virginia Beach reported a sword and a bigeye. Considering the weather and the time of year we don’t expect to hear a heck of a lot more intel from the canyons for the season, but if a weather-window appears there’s definitely still some serious potential. Swords have been coming from about 100 feet off bottom in 1,500 to 1,200 feet of water, and bigeye have been coming on buoy lines.