Maryland Inshore Fishing Reports Aug 18 - Aug 24

[esoxangler]

Well I fished Friday night from dark till 2:00am or so. Same for Saturday. I was in town to work so it is tough to fish all night then work......

The ocean is VERY WARM!!!!!!! The only thing holding me back this weekend was the east wind. I feel like the sharkin is better when the surf is calm. At least that has been my experience. I landed one shark, not sure what kind. Not real big.



Anyway the surf was very choppy. Waves breaking on the outer bar even on high tide. Calmed a bit toward high/slack but still more wave action than I would like.

If any of you guys are gonna go sharkin I would hit it as soon as these east winds die and the surf calms. Betcha there will be some LARGE critters swimming around. I don't think I have ever felt the water as warm as it is now.....


So many people in the top of the orv and walkover it is tough going just to find a spot to setup. Never had this happen before. Can't wait for some cooler weather to thin out the crowds.....

[ocsnapper]

Nice job Phil.

[Mighty Quinn]

Steve....thanks for the reply. How do you attach the hook to the wire, crimp? Also, what size hook...I was thinking about moving up to #10/0 Gami and also using these hooks for drum in a few weeks ?

[Mighty Quinn]

esoxangler.....if you want to get away from the crowds head a few miles south of the bullpen. We were about 8.7 miles down the osv section and we had very little traffic all day saturday.

[Steve]

[daddychris]

We headed down for the weekend, staying in the state park campground. Caught this guy Friday nite bout midnite.
Had two others on, but they got off after a few minutes. He took
a bunker head casted from the beach. SandTiger shark ??
Was a great weekend, although the ocean was a little rough.
On a side note, I would like to try a conventional reel for a couple
of reasons. More line capacity, and I think further casting distance.
Can anyone recommend a reasonable (cheap) reel I could learn on?
I assume I want brakes, maybe level wind. I remember reading about
some chinese reels, maybe knockoffs of the abu's? Seeing as I've never thrown one before, I dont want to spend alot till I'm sure I like it.

Thanks,
Chris

[ffemtreed]

THat is a HUGE sand tiger.

For learning a conventional, I would get either a daiwa 30 or Penn Mag 525. The Daiwa's are about 110 bucks and the Penn 525mag are around $140

The Penn has a magentic braking system and the daiwa has a friction brake blocks. I persoanally like the Penn 525mag since you don't have to take the reel apart to adjust the mags and you can change on the fly as conditions change.

The daiwa has a nice clicker and holds slightly more line, but has a gear box thats really in a bad position.

If you are going to be surf casting stay away from the levelwind, they cause more problems then they are worth.

The Abu's are really nice reels but they are a tad more expensive unless you get the cheap models. Most of the people who use the ABU's usually replace the stock bearings and upgrade the drag system.

[Mighty Quinn]

That is a huge shark...more details please.....rod/reel set-up, hook size, length, how did beach it, did it survive?

[Mighty Quinn]

Thanks Steve.....I guess I was lucky to get him in the wash with 30# pp running to a 40# shock leader attached to a barrell swivel then 6in of 60# Seaguar on a #8 Gami. I was close to the leader and can't help think I could have completed the task had I kept my rod tip down. Oh well, maybe try again this weekend.

[daddychris]

OK,
the big sand tiger was caught about 200 yards south of the day beach at the north end of the island. We set up around 9:30 with 4 rods and bunker. This one took a bunker head on a 9/0 j hook attached to 18 inches of 45lb steel leader which was attached to about 15 ft of 80lb mono for a shock leader. Running line was 20lb mono. Casted on a 10 ft diawa something, an older surf rod with a diawa black gold spinning reel. Took about 30 min to get in (took a lot of line a few times). The girl in the pic did most of the reeling, my brother took over to get it in the surf and I waded out to get a rope on the tail. Pulled it onto the beach and snapped a few pics. Could not get the hook out with channel locks, so cut the leader about 2" from the hook. Drug it back in (which I did not like, being between shark and open ocean), pointed it east and it swam away. All in all a FUN nite.

Chris

[trowpa]

So many people in the top of the orv and walkover it is tough going just to find a spot to setup. Never had this happen before. Can't wait for some cooler weather to thin out the crowds.....

You aren't kidding phil. Last weekend I literally had a guy pull up and set up IN BETWEEN 2 of my rods!!!! When i questioned him about it he threatened to cut my lines if I didn't move. Un-frickin -believable! (you can ask Grossy about it - if i say much more my blood pressure will go out of control)

[fishin'girl422]

Steve's version of the story is actually pretty tame - here's a pic of the situation when the Ranger's showed up. I was very proud of Steve & Bob keeping their cool as much as possible LOL - the guy that set up in the middle of the rods was a total jerk - Although the Ranger did say we were taking up too much space and needed to move a few sand spikes so we moved four of them that were at the opposite end from Steve - the ranger said we did what she asked - all in all it was a good day and Steve got us a lot of bait for sharking that night.

[esoxangler]

daddychris,

That is a beast of a sandtiger!!!! Well done!


Steve and Amanda,

Well I have had trouble finding a spot to fish this summer. Actually I have NOT been going in the orv zone. Too many people for me to even get a spot in there. This past weekend there was nowhere to set up so I looked around and saw a couple of guys who had small rods and didn't have glowsticks.

I went up and struck up a conversation with them and asked how long they were gonna be. They were leaving shortly and I chatted with them about sharkin and took their spot when they left.

The 4wd guys are staying close to the entrance this year. I guess partly because of gas and partly because some may not know it is open down south. There is also some kind of campfire program at the walkover this year. LOTS of people in there......

[ffemtreed]

You aren't kidding phil. Last weekend I literally had a guy pull up and set up IN BETWEEN 2 of my rods!!!! When i questioned him about it he threatened to cut my lines if I didn't move. Un-frickin -believable! (you can ask Grossy about it - if i say much more my blood pressure will go out of control)

Snip Snip!!!

[erik_e]

We headed down for the weekend, staying in the state park campground. Caught this guy Friday nite bout midnite.
Had two others on, but they got off after a few minutes. He took
a bunker head casted from the beach. SandTiger shark ??
Was a great weekend, although the ocean was a little rough.
On a side note, I would like to try a conventional reel for a couple
of reasons. More line capacity, and I think further casting distance.
Can anyone recommend a reasonable (cheap) reel I could learn on?
I assume I want brakes, maybe level wind. I remember reading about
some chinese reels, maybe knockoffs of the abu's? Seeing as I've never thrown one before, I dont want to spend alot till I'm sure I like it.

Thanks,
Chris

Awesome pic....whoa!
Great job getting the huge Sandtiger on the beach in such a short time. Did you measure it? Looks to be about 8' and 200#....
Best reel to learn on/surf fish with may be a daiwa shv 30.Not too pricey....will give you years of enjoyment.