Coastal Fishing Reports

Coastal Mid-Atlantic Fishing Report, May 23 Update:

The flounder bite in Ocean City this spring has been one of the best we have seen in a long time. Anglers are catching the flatties in the Bay, but there has been an excellent bite just outside the Inlet. The word has gotten out, and it has been crowded at times but still yielding good results. The recent rain and wind has made it difficult to get out, but last weekend the fishing was better. Lucky Break Charters was out in the fleet and boxed seven keeper flounder and a bonus grey trout. Another boat had a four-man limit of flounder caught on Deadly Tackle Deadly Doubles and Gulp! baits. Flounder fishing has also been good down the coast in Virginia. The Frederick Saltwater Anglers hosted their annual Etzler Flounder Frenzy Tournament out of Chincoteague and had an excellent weekend flounder fishing. 20 boats checked in their four fish for the tournament and the winning bag totaled 16.28 pounds. The big fish was caught by Cathy Linetty with a whopping 6.96-pound flattie and helped their boat win the tournament.

Bluefish have moved into the Ocean City area and are being caught at the inlet rock jetties and Route 50 Bridge. Rockfish have also been present in these areas. Roy rigs and jigs have been working well to pull them from the bridge pilings. In the surf, black drum, red drum, and striped bass are still being caught on chunks of mullet, peeler crab, and sand fleas. Red drum are becoming more numerous as the black drum and striped bass run start to wind down. A few sharks have also been caught from the beach recently. Black sea bass season opened on May 16, and there have been a lot of fish out at the offshore wrecks and reefs. Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star was back out on the ocean chasing these tasty bottom feeders and has found keeper fish on each of his recent trips. Several of his anglers caught double-digit numbers of keepers and Monty reports that the bass have been taking the jig well. The sea bass fishing down in Virginia Beach has been off to a hot start as well. Wreck dawg Sport Fishing has been putting a beatdown on them and has found a good class of knot heads. Over the weekend, their crew boxed a boat limit of 90 fish up to five pounds. You know it is good fishing when you are catching a class of fish you don’t need to measure before putting them on ice. Hopefully, good fishing continues for the remainder of the season.

Coastal Mid-Atlantic Fishing Report, May 15 Update:

It has been an action-packed month for coastal fishing, and bites are still going strong this week. Striped bass are migrating up the coast after their spawn in the Chesapeake Bay. Anglers fishing Assateague Island are catching them in the surf using chunks of bunker, peeler crabs, and sand fleas. A few slot fish have been caught which have fallen within the 28” to 31” limit, but a lot of these fish are over slot. The stripers are also being caught at the Ocean City inlet near the jetties. Black drum are also still being caught in the surf, but their run is starting to slow down on the southern beaches. These drum have reached the northern beaches, and a reader fishing Broadkill reported an awesome day with five fish caught. Sand fleas were the hot bait. Red drum and bluefish have started showing up on the Virginia beaches, and they should show up in better numbers over the coming weeks.  

FishTalk contributor Adam Greenberg spent some time in Ocean City last week and tried for a few different species. He reports that he and a few buddies from Anglers Sport Center fished last Wednesday and Thursday. They ended up catching three keeper flounder (including a 25”, nearly 6-pounder), one short flounder, a dozen or so short tautog, and a ten or so under (ocean) slot rockfish. Flounder fishing was a grind, and they did not find a consistent pattern for bait or depth, but the slightly better bite was on the outgoing tide. They caught flounder on Gulp!, squid, and minnows. Tautog fishing wasn’t much better, but a few fish were willing to bite on a slack tide. Shrimp did the trick. Finally, they visited the Route 50 bridge and Route 611 bridge, where rockfish were caught using deep diving plugs and jigs. Readers who hit the jetty in OC report catching a fair amount of tautog last weekend, but as is often the case, fish meeting the minimum size were exceptionally rare. Scott Lenox from Fish In OC reports that several anglers, including himself, were on a hot flounder bite last week before the rain this week. At the beginning of the week, Scott and his co-angler reached their limit and another 25 throwbacks in a few hours of fishing. They had another report of a boat fishing outside the jetties who caught a 16 fish limit using Deadly Doubles paired with Gulp!. Once the water settles, the bite should pick back up. The next two weeks will be a good time to get on the water for flounder around Ocean City, because once Memorial Day weekend arrives, the water is going to be very crowded.

Coastal Mid-Atlantic Fishing Report, May 9 Update:

The ocean has been providing plenty of bounties this spring with several bites going strong along the coast. FishTalk’s Zach Ditmars spent a breezy afternoon on the back bay of OC recently and said that despite tough conditions, he found a 24” rockfish by the Rt. 50 bridge and saw a couple of bridge anglers reel up tautog. In the Thoroughfare he caught a keeper flounder, and said the other boats seemed to be making slow but steady catches. A few anglers fishing out of Chincoteague in the middle of the week reported catching five keeper flounder and five throwbacks that were just under legal size. They said the water was murky thanks to overnight storms and strong winds, but the flounder were still willing to bite. Flounder fishing has been excellent this spring and the flatties are still providing good action up and down the costal bays from the mouth of the Bay up to Ocean City. The best action is still during the outgoing tide where flounder rigs tipped with minnows are getting bites.

Fish In OC reports that stripers are being caught at the Route 50 Bridge, consistently and they had multiple local anglers check in after catching schoolies along with a few slot fish this week. Bluefish have also started to show up at the bridge, and we should see their numbers continue to increase this month. Tautog are also still present at the OC inlet, where most fish are undersized, but some keepers have been caught. Dave Moore from Shark Whisperers checked in after having a productive day in the surf at Assateague. Dave reports that he managed to catch five striped bass, but he had to move to three different spots while trying to avoid the onslaught of skates. His first spot produced 17 skates in 30 minutes along with two stripers. His second fish produced three skates, but no other fish. Finally, his third stop of the day produced two more stripers. Several other anglers have reported catching stripers in the surf and sand fleas appear to be working well. It has been hard to find a fish in the slot, but a few between 28” and 31” have been caught. The coastal season for stripers is open year-round. Black drum are still running, but their catches have slightly decreased as the run is starting to slow down. Sand fleas and Fishbites on hi-lo rigs have been the ticket to catch drum in the surf.

Coastal Mid-Atlantic Fishing Report, May 2 Update:

It is an exciting time of year for coastal anglers as there are several bites kicking off. The surf has been very productive this spring and Dave Moore of Shark Whisperers reports an improving bite at the beaches, with multiple trips out on Assateague producing a mix of black drum and big stripers. The ratio of rockfish to drum seems to be on the increase, with both species hitting sand fleas. He also noted that some tautog are hitting at the inlet in OC. Another angler fishing the beaches at Assateague reported a great midweek bite, catching four black drum and three striped bass on sand fleas. The bluefish are running up the coast from the Carolinas, and we are starting to get reports of them being caught on the Virginia Beach oceanfront. Snapper blues in the 20-inch range are being caught at the coastal piers and in the local inlets. These fish should start to show up in the surf north of Virginia Beach and around the Ocean City inlet this month.

The tautog bite at the OC inlet was good again this week with several boats boxing keeper-sized fish from the rock jetties. There are more undersized fish than keepers, but with enough bait, you can weed through the smaller fish to get some for the dinner table. Flounder fishing has also improved in the back bays and Fish In OC reports that there has been good action in the thoroughfare. Scott Lenox was out this week and said he caught several undersized flatties on chartreuse Deadly Double rigs while his co-anglers were able to box a few keepers. Further down along the coast, flounder anglers are reporting good success around Chincoteague, Wachapreague, and Folly Creek. Captain Steve’s Bait and Tackle let us know that they have had several anglers this week check in with limits. One angler checked in with fish up to 24 inches caught in the Assateague Channel. The early spring pattern has still been that the best bite is during the outgoing tide when water temperatures are the warmest. Clean water has also been key, so if you are finding dirty water, it may be best to move and search out other areas.