Coastal Fishing Reports

Coastal Mid-Atlantic Fishing Report, July 10 Update:

Offshore fishing continues to improve, with yellowfin tuna, bigeye tuna, billfish, mahi, sea bass, and flounder all providing excellent action from the canyons to the offshore wrecks. Closer to shore, anglers are catching Spanish mackerel, bluefish, striped bass, flounder, tautog, and sheepshead around Ocean City, Assateague, and the inlet bridges. Surf anglers are also connecting with bull red drum and flounder, making for excellent summertime fishing along the coast.

A solid slug of yellowfin showed up along the edges of the Mid-Atlantic shelf last week, punctuated with a bigeye bite and bigeye sweeping the top three spots on the leaderboard in the Canyon Kickoff last weekend. The Baltimore canyon was reported as the hottest zone for finding them. Far more boats have been encountering yellowfin than bigeye, (but we did hear that one boat got an amazing haul of five in a single day). Most of the bigeye have been running over 100 pounds and the yellowfin have been in the 40- to 70-pound class. A good number of billfish have also appeared off our coast and the two top boats in the Kickoff had five with one boat catching two blue marlin. Mahi reports are also getting better, and July is historically a good month to find them hanging around the lobster buoys and other floating cover on the way to the canyons. Closer inshore outside the inlets along the oceanfront, anglers are catching a mix of bluefish and Spanish mackerel while trolling drone and clark spoons. It is also possible to encounter some cobia around the inshore waters.

A reader fishing the inshore waters just off the southern tip of Assateague reported finding some huge redfish last week, managing to reel three of the beasts up to the boat plus a big shark. Out on the bass fishing grounds, Capt. Monty from the Morning Star reports that while limits aren’t common, most days some of his anglers are into double digits and there are also some flounder aboard. He also anticipates mahi-mahi will start showing any day now. Down off the coast of Virginia Beach, the sea bass fishing has been good, and the flounder bite is going strong too. Wreck Dawg Sport Fishing reports that the bottom fishing bite has been excellent. Their crews have been on a great run lately, with several trips producing limits of flounder up to six pounds and limits of sea bass. A reader hitting the surf at Assateague reported a flounder bite that was on fire this week, though for mostly small fish. He landed seven one morning fishing a rising tide, while casting bucktails trimmed with four-inch Gulps!. The next morning, he caught five, ranging in size from 12" to 16".

Inside the Ocean City Inlet, anglers are catching a mix of striped bass and bluefish near the Route 50 and Route 90 bridges. Soft plastics on jigs heavy enough to get baits down in the current are effective. There are also plenty of tautog around rock jetties and docks, but most of the tog are undersized. There have been some reports from Indian River Inlet in Delaware that tautog and some sheepshead are hanging around the rock jetties. Fiddler crabs and sand fleas on bottom sweeper jigs or octopus hooks are the best baits to catch these elusive bait stealers. The sheepshead along the coastal areas appears to be a good class of fish ranging from 16” to 23”.

Coastal Mid-Atlantic Fishing Report, July 2 Update:

Offshore anglers are finding yellowfin, bigeye tuna, white marlin, sea bass, and flounder, while the wrecks and reefs continue to produce outstanding catches of keeper flounder. Inshore, the back bays and Ocean City bridges are providing action for flounder, striped bass, bluefish, sheepshead, and tautog, while surf anglers continue to tangle with bull red drum, sharks, spot, and kingfish. Water conditions remain a key factor for success, but overall fishing opportunities continue to improve as summer progresses.

Many anglers hitting the offshore grounds in search of tuna are coming up blank, but we did hear from a couple of readers who found them this week. One encountered a bigeye topping 100 pounds while trolling at the canyons, and another found a half-dozen yellowfin after making a rather ambitious run all the way out to 1000 fathoms. He mentioned that there was no obvious indication of where the fish were, so finding them could be exceptionally tough. Fish In OC reported that the crew of the Boss Hogg had a great day offshore, catching two white marlin and seven yellowfin tuna. They also had a report from the Spring Mix II that their crew boxed nine yellowfin tuna.

There are some keeper flounder being caught in the back bays up and down the coast of the Eastern Shore, but with a 17.5” minimum size in effect, there are more throwbacks being caught than keepers. There was a report from one boat fishing Assateague Bay that boxed three keepers up to 21”. A subscriber fishing out of Chincoteague hit the wrecks and reefs for flounder with some pretty epic success this week, scoring a total of 18 keepers including a seven-pound doormat. Down off the coast of Virginia Beach, the flounder bite has been very good at offshore reef sites. Boats hitting the sea bass grounds are getting a good mix of sea bass and flounder on their trips. Wreck Dawg Sport Fishing had a trip this week and returned to dock with a full boat limit of 24 flounder and 90 sea bass. That is about as good as it gets for this time of year.

Surf fishing expert Dave Moore of Shark Whisperers guided trips checked in with us last weekend and reports that he has managed to keep his drum streak going and this week had a fish hitting 52". His previous six trips had produced at least one bull red per trip. He did mention that on Thursday of last week, the bite was tough with eagle rays biting relentlessly from midafternoon until sunset. He caught nine before dark, another buddy caught six, and another caught four. After dark, they stopped biting and that’s when he hooked two bull reds at once, landing one. Rays and sharks were still plentiful this week, but not quite so overbearing. The  midday bite has been on and off in the surf, with some flounder hitting bucktails trimmed with Gulp! but most of the fish under 16". On an overcast day, switching to dark tails produced. Kingfish and spot have been slower this week, but Fishbites bloodworms have still triggered a bite or two. We had a reader check in after a trip to Assateague last weekend who spent some time surf fishing in the nearshore troughs. They caught a mix of spot, croaker, and kingfish and said that shrimp was the best bait.

Inside the Ocean City Inlet, striped bass, bluefish, and flounder are being caught around the Route 90 Bridge. At the inlet jetties, some sheepshead, tautog, and bluefish are making up most of the catch. The rockfish bite has been best at night near the bridges, but some daytime catches have also been reported. The tautog and sheepshead are hanging around rock jetties and deeper docks from the mouth of the inlet to up behind the island. These fish can also be caught inside the inlet at Chincoteague and other seaside inlets where hard bottom structure is available.

Premium Access Bonus Video for Subscribers Only

Want more intel on summer dock fishing for species like striped bass, red drum, and white perch? See the first in our new series of in-depth how-to videos for FishTalk subscribers only: How to Fish Docks for Striped Bass, Slot Reds, and White Perch.