Coastal Mid-Atlantic Fishing Report, March 28 Update:
Spring has officially arrived, and we are starting to reap all the benefits from the change in season. Flounder action is slowly picking up and most of the action is still south along the Delmarva coast. A few more catches out of Chincoteague and Wachapreague have rolled in, nothing stellar, but a few fish here and there. Two anglers fishing with Captain Tim Walsh to the south of Chincoteague boxed a few nice flounder that included a 17, 22, and 24-inch fish. Other reports show a few keepers and some shorts for successful anglers. The outgoing tide will be best this time of year as water is warmed in the shallow bays. The warm water often triggers the flounder to feed more aggressively than when the colder ocean water is being brought in with an incoming tide. Minnows, shiners, squid strips, bucktails, and Gulp! baits are all popular options to put on double dropper rigs and bounce bottom for the flatties. Warmer weather will continue to bring in flounder from the ocean and we should start to see these fish show up around Ocean City in the coming weeks.
Tautog fishing continues to be good off the coast with double digit fish in the mix for several weeks in a row. The Fish Bound was out this week and had an excellent trip boating a limit of tautog with fish up to 14 pounds. Wreck Dawg Sport Fishing out of Virginia also ran several trips this week and has been consistently staying on the big fish. One of their anglers landed a jumbo 17-pound tog this week and their crews have had numerous double-digit fish each trip. Along the beaches, the first reported black drum was caught this week by an angler fishing in Chincoteague. This is just the start of the drum run, and we should see increasing numbers of black drum running in the surf from Virginia Beach up to Delaware through April and May. Sand fleas and crab baits are excellent choices when targeting drum in the surf. In the back bays, water is heating up, and so is the striped bass action. Water temps are in the 50’s and schoolie stripers are getting more active in the coastal marshes. There have also been fish around Route 50 and Route 90 bridges and Scott Lenox from Fish In OC reports that he got out on the water along Route 90 and yielded striped bass up to 26 inches. Most fish will be under the 28-31” coastal slot, but there are a few slot sized fish around. Fishing is on the up and up folks!
Coastal Mid-Atlantic Fishing Report, March 21 Update:
The striped bass bite in the coastal back bays is heating up with warming water temperatures. We had an angler check in who said that they found water temperatures as warm as 55 degrees this week and the bite is getting more consistent. Earlier in the month they were getting one or two fish a trip and now they are closing in on double digit numbers while fishing. Back bay shorelines in areas of three to four feet with structure and moving water has been the ticket to finding fish. Most fish have been chunky 18” to 25” which are super fun on light tackle. There have also been some stripers hanging around the Route 50 and Route 90 bridges. Fish In OC reports that they had a report from an angler fishing the Route 90 bridge that caught a 28.5” slot striper that ate his jig. The back bay bite should only get better as water temperatures warm up.
Tautog fishing has also been picking up with the warmer weather and we had successful reports from both Ocean City and Virginia Beach. Captain Kane Bounds of the Fish Bound had to move around a few times to locate the fish, but he finally found some structure that provided a limit of tautog for his anglers. The Virginia Beach charter boats have also been finding good fishing at the offshore reef sites with double digit fish being caught most days and plenty of fish to take home in the cooler. Wreck Dawg Sport Fishing was out again last weekend and had a stellar trip which included a dozen double digit fish and several in the eight-to-nine-pound range. The bigger fish were let go and a dozen smaller fish were kept for the dinner plate. When the weather allows boats to get offshore, fishing has been good.
Coastal Mid-Atlantic Fishing Report, March 14 Update:
The first flounder of the season has been caught! Sea Hawk Sports Center reported that they got the first confirmed report of a flounder behind the Virginia barrier islands this week. Captain Matt Abell reported the catch, and it was a 24”, five-pound fish that was caught on a Sea Hawk flounder rig. This is the start of the exciting return of one of the most prized fish along the coast. More fish will continue to move inshore in the coming weeks, starting along the southern barrier islands and making their way north from Wachapreague, to Chincoteague, and eventually Ocean City. The flatties aren’t the only fish to get excited for as black drum will also start to make an appearance along the beaches in April. Time to start dusting off the fishing gear if you haven’t already.
Only a few boats have been heading offshore recently, but we did have two successful reports from the deep blue this week. Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star went out on a scouting trip for cod earlier in the week. Monty says he has had successful trips for cod out of Ocean City during years of cold winters, but didn’t find any this time. He did find some other fish though. His anglers boated some small tautog, a pair of nice ones, and even a few sea bass. Down off Virginia Beach, Wreck Dawg Sport Fishing had a trip that dreams are made of. Their crew reported catching over 100 tog with 20 fish breaking the double digit mark. Several fish were caught on jigs and the biggest weighed 16.5 pounds. That is some of the best tog fishing we have ever heard of!
Coastal Mid-Atlantic Fishing Report, March 7 Update:
Coastal fishing has been slow to pick up as we slowly march towards the arrival of spring. The special February black sea bass season has ended in Virginia and anglers will have to wait until May 15th before being able to put them in the box again. Fishing was excellent last month and there seem to be plenty of fish to target when the season returns. In the meantime, tautog will soon become easier to target for anglers. Virginia Beach Sport Fishing let us know that they see these fish move inshore to the mouth of the Bay when water temperatures rise into the low 50’s. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel is an excellent location to target these fish when they arrive, particularly around the rocky islands. Tautog prefer to hangout in areas with structure and there are several areas along the coast where they can be caught at near jetties when water temperatures warm up in the spring. Cape Henlopen and Ocean City are two areas to keep in mind for tog fishing in the spring. Fiddler crabs, green crabs, and white leggers are the more popular baits.
While there is not much to fish for right now, that will change in the coming weeks and by April, the fishing scene will look a whole lot different. April is typically when we see a good run of black drum along the beaches and Assateague Island is where many surf anglers spend their springs. While black drum are the main target, there are often post-spawn striped bass making their way back north that can be caught too. Sand fleas, clams, and chunks of cut bait can all work. Usually by mid to late April, you can spend some time digging around in the sand at the beaches and find yourself enough sand fleas for the day. While we patiently wait for these bites, there are some schoolie stripers in the back bays and some around the Route 50 and Route 90 bridges behind Ocean City if you have the urge to chase cast a line.