Maryland Inshore Fishing Reports Aug 11 - Aug 17

[Steve]

The usual summer visitors have finally shown up.
A mixed bag of species being taken at the OC Inlet and nice toothy critters in the surf. Water temps are holding in the mid 70's and the weather holds no big storms this week.
However, there are three storms cooking in the eastern Atlantic which may have an impact in a couple of weeks.

Get out there and enjoy the water while the gettin's good!
As usual, let us know how your time went, catch or no catch.

[erik_e]

Hey guys....I have been dreaming of moving to the shore for many years...and finally made it.I am out of NVa and moved to Ocean Pines...I'm totally thrilled to be here!
I went out to the beach yesterday after the storm and got a couple KF....
the very big news, though, is that I saw a real nice 5.5' Spinner Shark caught!
O BABY!
I am going to try for Sharks in the evenings this week...hope to see some of you guys out there.
Black Dodge pu with roof rack..

[ocsnapper]

Hey guys....I have been dreaming of moving to the shore for many years...and finally made it.I am out of NVa and moved to Ocean Pines...I'm totally thrilled to be here!
I went out to the beach yesterday after the storm and got a couple KF....
the very big news, though, is that I saw a real nice 5.5' Spinner Shark caught!
O BABY!
I am going to try for Sharks in the evenings this week...hope to see some of you guys out there.
Black Dodge pu with roof rack..

Welcome to the shore.......... now life will really begin

[Coop]

Welcome Erik...I just left the pines...nice area...cya on the beach.

[Sam]

Erik, that is great news man! Congrats on the spinner, they are great fighters.

[Steve]

Arrived at the island about 3 am. The beach was littered with the "surf cliffs" AND CIGARETTE BUTTS!! I found a flat spot with a beautiful cut. This happened to be right up against the north end. Air temp was 55* and surf at 67*. Started chucking for bait, managed a Skate, and a couple of Kings. Fished 8 poles.

Sun came up and started warming things up. Surf temp climbed to 73*. The surf was smooth and quiet. Surf break one foot or less with no other waves, beautiful!!!! Launched the yak and unwrapped the big reels (Penn 115) out to a point where my truck was a speck on the horizon. Man, what a paddle....
Put the two small reels (Penn 309) in the first and second trough. Put the TICAs in the trough and the bait lines in the trough and just barely in the water.

Later in the day, Fishbites Bloodworm "flavored" seem to be what the Spot wanted. They ate some Berkeley Gulp green worms too.

I had several pick-ups on the big lines throughout the day, used Whole Bunker, Kings and Skate. Topped the Skate-baited hook with a small piece of Spot. The Spot was taken but the slab of Skate was untouched.
I landed one Chark about 3' at slack tide mid-day. There was no fight whatsoever or feel of it being there, it slowly swam to me, bummer.... Only shook her once at the surf break and for her it was too late. The break tossed it on the beach.

Picked up some interesting critters too, seemed to get into a large crowd of them. Pic attached..

Yeah, it was a west wind. Only landed one Green Head, it paid with it's life. I was talking to a couple of seasonal employees at the moment, they had been doing a plover count and skeeter gathering. So I placed the critter in her lap for "study".
I figure I had about 13,286 good hard bites, no not fish, Black Flies. Nothing deterred them, OFF Deep Woods, clothing, shotgun (haha) and got in the water. They even followed me out on the yak. No more west wind for me....

As I packed up, tired (up for 36 hrs), hungry and bit up, the sun was setting. The water looked purrrrrfect, zero waves and about a 6 inch surf break. I had to go, wanted to get home soon so as not to fall asleep on the drive. Fought the remaining flies and cleaned myself up before leaving the beach, man, did that ever feel good!! Got out to air up and the skeeters were so bad I couldn't open my mouth. I contemplated spraying myself down, didn't though.

All in all, it's good out there. Plenty of bait fish to catch and the toothy critters ARE there. Wished I could have stayed into the evening....

Ok, so someone ID this critter in the first 2 pics.....
The "ladies" that I wanted to come see the Chark didn't, bummer... However, the rest of the beach did (as usual).
Oh man, is that a Shark? Did you catch that out here????
ROTFLMAO!!!!

[ffemtreed]

Cusk Eel in the first pic and the shark looks like a small dusky!

[erik_e]

I went out this afternoon(Wed)...very nice conditions with only a few flies.Water was super clear. Fishing was pretty slow for a while, but I started to get into some really nice, big KF later in the afternoon.All of the big ones were loaded with roe.Bite was real good for an hour or so.
No Spot...no Croakers..Kept a shark rod out no hits on a fresh KF head.
I waved down a blue DOI/FWS vehicle as it was coming out of the closure area.The young ladies inside told me that the last plover chick was up and around but not flying yet.They thought that the closure fence would be removed in "a couple days".
That will be nice.I have been wondering if we would ever see the SL fence again.The biggest part of the osv zone has been serving as a nursery for rare birds for a long time!
Anyway...the skeeters got really thick at sunset and I hit the road

[bluegilltobluemarlin]

Fished yesterday afternoon at Terrapin Sands. Caught 28 croaker, 2 spot, 9 kingfish, 7 bluefish, 1 weakfish, and 2 HUGE cow nose rays. Fish ate peeler crab, squid, cut spot, fishbites just about anything we threw down. Looking forward to heading back out Saturday and Sunday if I can put together a crew.

[Leemo24]

We have been fishing the O.C. pier for sharks and have caught quite a few 4-6 foot range, sand bars and a few black tip and then the son caught this 46" sand tiger. we have fished the pier almost every night since they opened this years. Still catching spot and kingfish and seen a small showing of croakers and blues over the last few days

[sandcaster]

Fished the beach with bunker. Had a cow nose ray on for 45 min. I got him to the shock leader, the line broke. We saw him, about the size of the hood on my truck. When they hunker down there is not much you can do with them. Any one have any tricks to get them to move? I guess I am just as happy that he broke the line, because I did not have to deal with him on the beach and get him back into the water.

[Steve]

It is very difficult to unstick them from the bottom. I'll wait for them to move then start working them again. So far, this has always worked for me (except next time, haha). For those big ones, you just plain simply need heavier line to slow them down on the run. Other ppl have other methods, they'll chime in.

[bluegilltobluemarlin]

Rough seas and NW wind 15-20 made fishing difficult today. Fished several areas of Terrapin Sands and managed to catch one throwback flounder and one cow nose ray. Watched a couple of charter boats fishing nearby and didnt see any fish caught on either boat. Crabbing was good back at the marina and the beer was cold at the Tiki Bar so all was not lost.

[ocsnapper]

In about a month it's going to be time the hit the beach George.....

[Pier_man0909]

Any one have any tricks to get them to move?

sometimes theyll run again if you pluck your line like a guitar and also if you take all the pressure off of them they sometimes start to swim off.