Coastal Mid-Atlantic Fishing Report, January 25, 2019 Update:
High winds and cold temperatures made fishing off the coast downright dangerous most of this week – and as a result our Coastal reports are quite thin today. Our Delaware contacts reported spending their time on boat maintenance and down south Oceans East reported that very few boats ventured from the docks; those who did stayed in the back bays, but ultimately came home with empty or mostly empty coolers. The one exception: the Morning Star managed to venture out one day last weekend and actually had a phenomenal day including a 20-pound tautog coming over the rail. Capt. Monty reminds everyone, however, that tog success can vary quite a bit from one day to another. Beyond that we were unable to confirm any reports of fish this week, however in the next few days, winds are expected to die down providing the opportunity to venture back onto the water.
Coastal Mid-Atlantic Fishing Report, January 18, 2019 Update:
Fishing reports from the coast has been few and far between – tough weather coupled with dangerously low temperatures and an overall slow bite kept anglers off the water this week. Inshore, the wrecks haven’t been seeing much action, as tog have been difficult to locate and oftentimes finding them requires vast amount of effort for little reward. Capt. Monty on the Morning Star did report some success when he was able to get off the dock but also had a tough time scheduling trips, as the weather reports were rather erratic. We weren’t able to locate verifiable reports from anyone else who found fish along the coast this week, although there were some tog pics from Virginia floating around on Facebook – which we definitely can NOT verify! Sorry for the thin report, but we’re blaming the weatherman.
Coastal Mid-Atlantic Fishing Report, January 11, 2019 Update:
Moving into the second week of January, fishing has continued to be slow overall, with even the traditional cold-water fisheries (namely tog) producing sporadically with some good trips followed by tough ones and at overall levels probably a bit below average. Finding the fish has been a bit of a struggle for those who braved the water earlier this week, with some of the better reports coming from Delaware’s reef sites where the usual green crab, white-leggers, and peeler crab are all good bets when fished on a Snafu or top and bottom rig. A bit down the coast in OC, Captain Monty on the Morning Star is reporting that people are catching some but it’s “not great.” That said, a few guys have limited so there’s a shot at having a good day when a weather window appears. Interestingly, some good action has come on reefs close in to shore recently. It's on-again off-again on different wrecks and reefs up and down the coast so the best advice is to bounce from spot to spot until you find a site that's active.
Beyond togging the coastal report this week is thin, with few confirmed reports of any other species from anglers off the coast. The oceanic striper bite has been sparse with a few reports of trolled eels taking fish in the Cape Charles area, but just a few. High winds have kept many boats at the dock recently, and we didn’t get reports from anyone making it offshore to probe for tilefish or swords down south.
Coastal Mid-Atlantic Fishing Report, January 4:
Editor’s Note: We’d like to say a special thank-you to Parker Martin for compiling the fishing reports these past few months. Now he’s getting ready to study abroad, and starting this week the reports are being compiled – once again – by none other than Mollie Rudow. Parker, as we bid you adieu we rest assured in the knowledge that the FishTalk fishing reports will be in good hands moving forward!
With sea bass now closed, the Tog fishery is on everyone’s minds. Earlier reports of a slow-down have been confirmed, with Captain Monty on the Morning Star reporting that his latest trips were “hardly world class affairs,” but that people were catching and a few were catching a limit. One nifty catch: an angler aboard the boat reeled in a 36-inch monkfish this week. The togging sentiment was echoed by First Light Charters Captain Charles Cook, running in Delaware’s waters, where a slow bite required lots of cruising to find a few fish.
Bay anglers, meanwhile, have found that the inlets and back-bays of DelMarVa have grown pretty quiet. We heard of a couple small throwback stripers taken in the inlets and behind OC around the bridge, but that was it.
Reports from farther south down the beach into Virginia's waters were thin this week, perhaps because anglers in the area have been focused at getting in some last licks on those big stripers (which are now off-limits inside the Bay). There was some scuttlebutt of bluefin tuna being sighted in inshore waters by anglers targeting sea bass in the final days of the season, but nothing confirmed and no pics to back it up.