Coastal Fishing Report, October 25, 2019 Update:
Boats that headed out to the inshore wrecks enjoyed some wonderful fishing. Runing out of Delaware Capt. Cook on First Light Charters reported excellent sea bass action about 20 miles out, along with a few flounder. Large flounder are finally showing up with some level of consistency. Some doormats have been in the mix, hitting live spot and large pink, white, or chartreuse Gulp! soft plastics. Capt. Monty’s reports from the Morning Star (Ocean City) were much the same, with an excellent bass bite when the weather allowed for it and a nice surprise 15-pound tog (on clam bait) just yesterday.
Flounder are also available in the inlets, although they’re a good bit smaller. Better action in Indian River and Ocean City is coming from numerous tautog, snapping up sand fleas fished close to the rocks. Most are throwbacks but a few make the grade. The occasional sheepshead has been mixed in. In the Virginia inlets, more anglers are focused on the speckled trout bite up inside and along the shallows; soft plastics in white and chartreuse are the top offering. A few (mostly small) flounder are here, as well.
What about the surf, and offshore? In both cases we didn’t get much solid intel this week, as rough weather had the waves churned up often. We did hear (third hand) that during weather-windows, a few brave souls proved that yellowfin and wahoo are still out at the canyons.
Coastal Fishing Report, October 18, 2019 Update:
Wind has been an ever-so-slight issue lately, so we’re afraid the report’s on the short side this week. Many of the offshore boats have hung it up for the season, though no doubt there are still some fish out there. In fact, one boat came into the Virginia Beach Fishing Center this week with not one but two swordfish, plus a bigeye in the boat. Closer to the beach the sea bass bite has been pretty stellar, and Capt. Monty on the Morning Star reported some limit catches plus flounder and triggerfish this week. Similar reports trickled in from the few boats that managed to wreck fish out of Indian River.
In the northern inlets (Indian River and Ocean City) there are now plenty of tog lined up around the rocks. Sand fleas and crab chunks fished on top-and-bottom rigs are the way to get ‘em, and while the vast majority are undersized, there are a few keepers here and there. In the Virginia inlets, more anglers are either drifting for flounder, or moving inside a bit and casting small plastics or fishing fresh shrimp, for specks.
Coastal Correspondent John Unkart hit the beach again this week, and despite a rough surf managed to pull up spot, small blues, kingfish, small sharks, ocean perch, and “lots and lots” of puffer fish. He also caught some (very) undersized juvenile black drum. The one red drum he hooked up and fought somehow morphed into a ray, by the time he got it up to the beach.
Coastal Fishing Report, October 10, 2019 Update:
Most of the past week was essentially a blow-out, so we don’t have much to report on the ocean fishing front. Actually, we don’t have a darn thing – everyone we spoke with basically said “it’s been windy… very windy.” The surf has also been quite rough.
On the bright side, the inlets have been providing fair flounder fishing this week even with the water riled up, and although the numbers aren’t huge, boats are coming home with keepers here and there from Indian River down to Rudee. Bouncing soft plastics like Gulp!s or drifting finger mullet or minnow/squid combinations on Fluke Killers has been the ticket to landing them.
Anglers in Ocean City have been enjoying a steady but underwhelming striper bite – although the fish are hitting jigs consistently near the Rt. 50 bridge, they remain undersized by a longshot. There was also good action to report from Lynnhaven and Rudee for anglers tossing four-inch paddle tails.
Yup, we know that’s a very short report, especially for covering such a large chunk of the region. Sorry folks, we promise we tried to gather the intel… blame the weatherman.
Coastal Fishing Report, October 4, 2019 Update:
The fall bite is picking up, people! Let’s start on the beach – Coastal Correspondent John Unkart has “moved” back on to Assateague this week, and reports that the surf has unfortunately been quite turbid and stirred up by the waves. Fish are there and are snapping, however, with hordes of spot plus an occasional pompano biting on bloodworms. He’s also reeled in some snapper blues, and a few small flounder. Reports of kingfish were still coming from up north in Delaware as well as down south in Virginia, and there’s little doubt that waves of kings will continue to move through the entire area for the immediate future. Spot, blues, and a few pompano are also headlining the action in Virginia’s surf. Again, bloodworms are the top bait unless you want to target blues, in which case slicing up a fresh spot you just reeled in is the best way to get ‘em.
Reports from the coastal bays are of a slightly improved flounder bite, though we haven’t heard of any reliable action. Again, turbid water has hampered the bite a bit at times this week in many areas; when it clears up flounder fishing should improve dramatically. Bluefish have also been moving in and out of the inlets, and there’s still a bite for (throwback) stripers for those slinging jigs at the Route 50 bridge in Ocean City. A few weakfish have also popped up here, as they have in the VA inlets. Where there are rocks there are increasing numbers of tog, too, though most we heard about this week were throwbacks.
Along the inshore wrecks and reefs, though it’s been tough to get off the dock some days the sea bass continue biting on clam baits. Those dropping smaller hooks are also reeling up plenty of triggerfish. Captain Monty on the Morning Star has been reporting good action overall, though weather has made things difficult at times recently.
Offshore, when the boats have been able to get out they've found the slow tuna bite has been picking up a bit (particularly in the southern canyons) and a few longfin have showed up (particularly in the northern canyons) as well as the hoped-for yellowfin. Billfish fishing is hit or miss with boats reporting between zero and six or seven bites on average, and a couple-few swordfish have also hit the docks in the past week. Mahi are also still around. The bigger recent development, however, is the steadily improving wahoo bite. Boats trolling just inside the canyons have been hooking into as many as seven or eight in a day of targeting them – so it’s safe to say a fall ‘hoo bite is officially on. Ballyhoo run with purple or dark reds is the ticket and remember that putting out a Z-Wing or similar planer and getting a bait or two deep is a very good move when fishing for this species (read October Wahoo, to brush up on your tactics).