Coastal Fishing Report, September 27, 2019 Update:
Coastal fishing has been highly productive lately. As in, WOW! Up north Captain Charles Cook of First Light Charters reported catching large triggerfish, lots of sea bass, big triggerfish, and the occasional sheepshead as well, while fishing the inshore wrecks and reefs. Inside Indian River most everyone’s focused on the flounder fishing, which has been so-so, but some blues are also being caught near the inlet rocks.
Coastal Correspondent John Unkart reported that tog fishing has been picking up in the inlet at Ocean City. The south jetty and the rocks around Martha’s Landing have been productive areas. The inlet has also been holding a few flounder, which are being caught on mullet and pink or white soft plastics. Bluefish have been common and will take cut bait. Blues have also been marauding by the Route 50 bridge, and anglers casting soft plastics to catch the (throwback) stripers there are pulling back plenty of half-tails. When it happens, go to Zmans or spoons, and you’ll put blues in the cooler. Meanwhile at the wrecks off OC sea bass fishing has improved, and plenty of boats are catching their limit. In addition, the Ocean City Fishing Center reported that a few flounder were caught on the wrecks by anglers using large soft plastics and live bait. Capt. Monty on the Morning Star has been steadily reporting a bass bite ranging from decent to great, with triggerfish and an occasional flounder in the mix. He also reported catching a porgy this week.
Inshore action in Virginia remains focused on the cobia, which have slowed a bit up to the north. Sight casters slinging eels and bucktails dressed with six-inch plastics are doing best. Spanish mackerel are also around on the shoals, as are the ribbonfish, though this bite does appear to be waning as fall begins. Trolling small spoons and plugs is taking both. Bluefish are also around in big numbers, though many are small snappers that are more annoying than anything else as they chomp off plastics and eliminate the tail-end of live baits.
Offshore, the lobster pots are still holding solid numbers – very solid numbers – of mahi-mahi for the bailers. Most are smallish but there are a few gaffers in the mix. Coastal Correspondent John Unkart reported that in some cases bailers are filling their fish boxes until they’re overflowing. The fish are eager to take cut squid chunks and ballyhoo. Boats returning from the canyons have often been flying both tuna and marlin flags this week, with an up-tick in the yellowfin action in the southern canyons. More impressive, some boats from both OC and Virginia Beach seem to have figured out this daytime swordfish thing. We’re getting a couple-few reports every week now, from anglers dropping strip baits in 1500 to 1700 feet of water outside Poor Mans, Washington, or Norfolk. By now most have heard about Marli’s 424-pounder last week, and a boat came in from Virginia Beach with a sword over 300 pounds plus a bigeye this week. Some wahoo have also been popping up from the Washington south.
What about surf fishing? We didn’t receive any solid reports from surf anglers this past week, but kingfish on bloodworms has been a steady bet up until now and that should hold true through the fall.
Coastal Fishing Report, September 19, 2019 Update:
Fall is here, people, and the stellar action that awaits those who watch for an offshore weather-window has arrived. True, the billfish still aren’t around in the numbers we’d hope for (we’d expect and hope for a significant boost in the next week or two), but trollers focused on whites the past week saw an average of a half-dozen or so pop up through the course of the day and a few blues have been reported as well. Tuna are scattered and mostly just popping up in onsies and twosies, though meat fishermen hitting the balls and flotsam have been filling the coolers to the point of overflow while bailing for mahi. The big news, however, came from the decks of the Marli this week. A daytime sword drop down to about 1,500 feet produced a mammoth fish, which tipped the scales at 424 pounds - just 22 pounds under the new Virginia state record fish caught barely a month ago.
Closer to home, the inshore wreck and reef sites off Delaware and Maryland have continued to produce a good sea bass bite, with plenty of flounder in the mix. Flounder fishing seems to get better as you head north, with more anglers focused on the flatfish off the Delaware coast than from MD south. Triggerfish are also in the mix for those dropping baits and hooks small enough to get ‘em. Inshore anglers in Virginia’s waters remain more focused on the trolling bite for the most part, with the epic mackerel attack continuing and plenty of ribbonfish still in the area. Virginia’s waters are also still riddled with cobia, though the cobia bite along the coast in Delaware and Maryland was a bit tougher the past week. By all reports, an influx of countless snapper blues with a healthy smattering of sharks along the shoals has made sight fishing for ‘em the only effective game, as live or chummed baits are often quickly shredded.
In the bays, the falling temps have triggered the start of the mullet run. Old Inlet reported decent flounder fishing in the bay at Indian River and now that the mullet have begun moving, drifting live mullet in and around the inlet should start producing some larger fish. We didn’t hear the same of the mullet from Ocean City, but it can’t be far behind and this is when some of the biggest flatties of the year get caught in the bay. (Read Fall Flounder Fishing at the Coast, for details). Meanwhile, there are good numbers of (throwback) stripers and some blues in OC by the Route 50 bridge. There are snapper blues in the VA inlets as well, though the real temptation in Rudee and Lynnhaven right now is the speckled trout. A decent fall run seems to be slowly building, and casting four- to six-inch white, pink, and chartreuse plastics on jig heads is the ticket.
In the surf, much of the recent past would best be described as often difficult thanks to weather and strong surf. However, when the waves aren’t pounding too hard to hold bottom there’s been a solid bite up and down the coast. Kingfish still provide the strongest numbers, with spot and a handful of pompano in the mix for those casting bloodworms. Cut bait on doodlebug rigs is the ticket for bluefish. Coastal Correspondent John Unkart spent a few days this week on the Assateague beaches and when the wind wasn’t “blowing so hard the sand stunk your legs” he enjoyed a good bite on bluefish and even had (throwback) flounder and sea trout as well.
Coastal Fishing Report, September 13, 2019 Update:
Fortunately for all of us along the Mid-Atlantic region, the hurricane’s impact was limited and the farther north you went, the less of an impact it made. Offshore there are decent numbers of marlin being caught at all the canyons but the fall run of insane catching really hasn’t kicked in just yet. Tuna, meanwhile, have been rather difficult to locate in any good numbers since the storm passed through. Mahi have been a target of meat-fishermen and bailers hitting the floats can put a decent load into the cooler on weekdays, but we’ve heard from several readers that recently these fish have become skittish by late morning on crowded days due to fishing pressure. Daytime sword-dropping has also been an option, with most boats getting at least a bite or two if they work at it. We also talked to an angler who returned from the Baltimore yesterday and reported slow action, with a white raised but not hooked, one yellowfin, and a dolphin in the box.
Inshore anglers were quite happy this week off both Delaware and Maryland, where the sea bass bite was extremely good (squid chunks did the trick) on the wrecks and reefs and anglers drifting between structure caught solid numbers of flounder as well. Captain Monty on the Morning Star reported many anglers reaching into the double-digits or hitting the legal limit. The Spanish mackerel bite inshore has been good as well, on shoals close in for boats trolling small Clark and small Drones, though many anglers in this area are looking for cobia. Mass schools of large bunker are all over the place, often shadowed by these fish. Angler in Chief Lenny Rudow suggests casting with lures for them. After taking a shot at the shoals off Ocean City with live spot he said he discover that there are also hordes of snapper blues around these menhaden – and they’re perfectly happy to chomp off a live spot’s aft end moments after you send it into the water. A bit farther down the coast off Virginia, kings are added into this mix and near Virginia Beach big ribbonfish are still chewing as well.
In the surf, small bluefish, croaker, and kingfish are present up and down the coast. The blues are tempted by metal lures or spoons, and although many have been small, the occasional dinner-worthy fish is popping up. The croaker and kingfish will take bloodworms on a bottom rig, and croaker are prone to eating squid, as well. A few anglers throwing squid in the surf also reported scattered flounder catches, although nothing to write home about. We didn’t hear about any verifiable pompano from Delaware nor Virginia this week but a few were surely caught, and as this report was being compiled our Coastal Correspondent John Unkart texted in a pic of one he pulled up out of the Assateague suds on bloodworm-flavored Fishbites.
Back-bay action was slowed a bit by dirtied water from the storm, but as of early this week had returned to form. A few blues and stripers are being caught in Indian River, with some (mostly small) flounder caught on minnow or Gulp! in the inlet and the Ditches. Flounder fishing is pretty much the same in Ocean City with most of the action in the Thoroughfare and the channel between Third and Ninth Streets, although there they’ve also been enjoying a nice bite on (throwback) rockfish along the Rt. 50 bridge with a few bluefish mixed in. We bumped into legendary local OC angler Big Bird Cropper last weekend and he reported getting into the stripers in a big way, late in the afternoon. We didn’t get any real-time intel from the VA inlets this week and Oceans East didn’t bring them up when we talked with them, but with the storm well past and cooler temperatures on the way, it’s a fair bet the speckled trout bite that kicked in a few weeks ago and then picked up will continue to gain momentum. Fingers are crossed…
Coastal Fishing Report, September 6, 2019 Update:
Make sure you check the weather before heading offshore – although the fishing is temptingly good, the area is expected to feel some impact from Hurricane Dorian. Offshore, this week saw plenty of yellowfin tuna hitting the docks as boats returned from the canyons. Many also had mahi in their fish boxes, and flew multiple white marlin flags. FishTalk team member Zach Ditmars reported an active bite in the Washington after an overnight foray aboard Tony Bonacci's Gone Phishin', and although there were lots of yellowfin under the legal size limit they also scored larger tuna, mahi, and a hammerhead just to make things interesting. In the Norfolk, reports of improving numbers of both white and blue marlin have been coming in – some boats logged catches of 10-plus billfish over the past week.
Inshore, sea bass are finnicky as ever on the wrecks. Although the fishing hasn’t been “bad” this week, it has been largely unreliable. Mixed in with the sea bass have been a fair amount of flounder, however, more than in recent weeks. They’re not doormats by any means, but the bite is picking up and Captain Monty on the Morning Star reported one day out of Ocean City that included some limits swinging over the rails. Still, the better flounder fishing has been had a bit farther north off the Delaware coast. They’ve been tempted by squid chunks drifted near bottom. There are also good numbers of mahi inshore, mostly being caught around the bass pots off the Delaware and Maryland coasts, though the incoming weather could shake that up a bit. A bit farther down the line, Virginia inshore anglers continue to be entertained by mackerel – both Spanish and kings. Trolling spoons is the ticket, with the Spanish close to home and the kings on the shoals.
In the inlets and back bays, reports were a bit better this week from points north with Indian River producing better numbers of flounder plus some blues. In Ocean City plenty of flounder are being caught, but a low percentage are keepers. This should change as the crowds thin and the water cools off in the next few weeks. In the Virginia Beach inlets the target is mostly flounder on white and chartreuse Gulp!, but some specks are being caught these days, too.
Surf fishing has held steady with kingfish chomping on bloodworms up and down the coast, some croaker and spot in the mix, and an occasional flounder now and then. Anglers tossing cut mullet or spot on Doodlebugs are also picking up snapper bluefish. The best reports have come from the VA beaches, where all of the above plus a few pompano have also been caught on sand fleas.