Maryland Inshore Fishing Reports Aug 18 - Aug 24

[Steve]

The surf zone has seen a mixed bag of smaller species such as Kings, Croaker, and Spot. Larger critters such as Rays and the toothy gentlemen and ladies in the gray suits have made their presence known and await you.

The Inlet is seeing bursts of Tog, Striper and a few other species. The Rt 50 bridge continues to see the normal summer visitors with Flounder in the Bays.

The Chessie has plenty of Spot and Croaker with some smaller Stripers in the deeper areas.

It's nice and warm and the water is great, come on in!
As usual, let us know how you did on your trip.

[fish-aholic]

NeckRoll, a buddy of ours and Me fished out of Buzz's Creek Marina yesterday. We went not sure what we were going to do. Ended up going out to Point No Point and tried drifting by the lighthouse there with not so much as a nibble. Blues were breaking the surface every few minutes all around us. I threw metal and a crystal minnow with no love. With all the breaking fish and not able to tempt them in, we turned our focus to trolling. The bite was instant. We were using #2 Planers and clark spoons. (30# Flouro to the spoon). I've never fished this technique before and CAN'T WAIT to try it again. It was on fire. At Dead low and about the first half of the incoming the fish were in about 20-25' of water. After that we couldn't find them. We headed out and found a nice break from 32-40' that we trolled along, and there were the fish again. Watching the finder was incredible. Large Bait balls everywhere and fish suspended outside the balls. We Left here around 6am, drove to the marina and had the boat in the water before 9am. We fished hard until about 7pm. We need to get a couple more rod holders for neckroll's boat, the position of the rod holders currently installed only allowed us to run 2 lines at a time. All in all we managed to Catch 4 Spanish Macks 16-20" We Kept 19 Blues, 13-20" (for bait next week in corolla), we threw back probably 5 or 6 smaller ones toward the end of the day. And our suprise of the day was a 17 1/2" striper that nailed one of the spoons. Color didn't seem to matter, both Silver and Gold spoons were working just the same. Speed was a factor. if we dropped below 6mph nothing was biting, and when we got above 7 1/2mph the bite would slow down. If we Kept it between 6 1/2 and 7 1/2mph we were nailing fish. So if you're close and have access to a boat, I'd suggest getting out there...fishing is hot and those spanish are gonna fry up very nicely.

[Dave]

Went out this eve, that was my first mistake! Anyway let me explain, got out to AI around 530 and setup near the entrance, flies were the worst I have ever seen or felt. not much to report until dusk. Then all hell broke loose, fighting mosquitoes my shark rod starts screamin, I set the hook and the fight was on, (well it only lasted about two minutes) then I ran out of line. Whatever I had on spooled me in about two minutes at lightning speed. So I re spool my line then my bait rod broke two eyes. not sure how but it happened. So I put out my spare and think things cant get any worse. I was wrong. about an hour after dark My other shark rods doubles over, I set the hook and felt a little tug then line starts peeling off again at lightning speed, this time afraid I would get spooled again i tightened the drag, line kept peeling off, no stopping this one again. I got down to about 10 turns of line left on my spool and then SNAP. lost another one and so far roughly 800 yards of line and two rigs!! Now i am gettin p.o. So I re spool one last time because I am outta line and cast out again, half hour later my buddies line start slowly goin out, he sets the hook and and fish on, in the mean time my middle shark rod goes off again. ( the one that got spooled the first time) I set the hook and I have a fish on, got it just to the surf break and seen it was around 6.5 feet sandbar or dusky then the shark got rolled by a wave and tangled in my shock leader when it snapped, So now I am up to three huge lost critters and the first two must have been imense because the reel spun faster than anything I have ever seen or felt. So I am really ticked by now throwing sand spikes ,etc, I go over to help my buddy (now about an hour later) and I go into the wash and pull in his catch, a 47 inch wide butterfly ray. The biggest thing he ever caught. So he is all stoked and excited as my shark rod goes for a fourth time, determined to catch whatever it is this time, i ease the fish being careful not to screw this one up as we are gettin eating alive by my favorite blood suckers, get it into the surf and my buddy grabs my line and starts to drag whatever it was in ( of course the line snapped). so now I have lost four shark, with one rod still in the water I start to pack up. Just to ticked off to stay any longer and I wanted to smash all my equipment anyway, my last run on the night starts to take off, my buddy yells to get my attention, and as I get to my rod which is bent in half, I start to grab for it and line snaps before I even get to touch the rod. after that I literally threw my crap in the truck and went home. I did manage to land a but load of croaker which were used for bait but had one of the worst days I have ever had on the beach, and for a moment I actually wished I was at work. I am now going to strip all my line off all my rods(which isnt much now) and start over. Almost dont want to go fishin again till drum season. Anyway, sorry about the long rant , just had to let some steam off.

[ffemtreed]

i have had days like that! Just makes me more determined next time I am out.


Check your guides on the rod with a cotton ball to make sure you don't have any knicks in the guide that is destroying your line.

[Charkbait]

I think it was two years ago...almost to the day in fact that the croakers were in so thick the sharks were just about beaching themselves trying to get them...many shark caught that night by many many fishers...history repeats itself...

congrats on the big biters even though they won, sure beats swatting skeeters all night with no clickers singing.

[outcast]

Someone I work with asked what I thought this fish might be and we all came up with something different. I want to say croaker. Can anyone help? The spots are confusing us.

[Flatfish]

That's a kingfish. Good eats!

[ffemtreed]

Someone I work with asked what I thought this fish might be and we all came up with something different. I want to say croaker. Can anyone help? The spots are confusing us.Attachment 4274

Yep its a Kingfish, more specifically I am pretty sure its a southern Kingfish. Makes GREAT shark bait!!!!

[Steve]

Dave, I saw you down there, red/black pick up???
Lady in a white bikini?
We worked a SB Chark and a BF Ray down to you.
I posted in the Join Me forum, I was at the top in the blue F-250.

There were a lot of Dolphin out there all day and into the evening. I had a hook up on my Penn 115 and that reel was heard 'round the world, you prolly heard it too. I got it surfaced one time and it created a big swirl and moderate splash. I didn't see what it was, betting it was a Dolphin. When it slowed down, I threw the lever on the Penn and got about 15 seconds of viciousness before it snapped. This was 100 lb test too....
Sounds like you had a Dolphin too Dave. You aren't going to stop one of those....

One of the big kicks for me was letting the young ones "help" hold the rod and do the cranking on the toothies. They loved it. We had the Chark beached and let them touch it while 2 of us held it down. Showed them the teeth and talked about what they eat, talked about their denticles and a list of other Q&A's. Was fun with the kids (about 20 of them) and adults. All Charks were walked out and held until they were ready to swim off. Except the 6 footer, that was a fighter even into the release but we got it out ok. Had to basically drag that one out and shove it. We didn't allow the tourists near this one...

The Croaker were thick, always catching doubles. Lots of Butterfly Rays, smallest about 4', biggest estimated at 6'. My new fishin' bud, Ron, was into the Rays all day, I have now changed his name to Ray, LOL! The Sandbar Chark were in thick too, lots of hits and runs. Some hook-ups had no fight, it just swam in. Smallest Chark (Sandbar) was 4', largest estimated at 6'. I had something in the surf break (at night) that looked to be larger, unknown species of Chark. That one gave me the most vicious fight I've had there, lots of head shaking and several runs straight out. That one spat the J hook out in close. The 8 oz pyramid came screaming in and hit me square in the chest and left a mark and it's still sore. The weight hitting me knocked me off my feet backwards. Man, talk about lucky.... Another 6" and it would have been a throat shot.

All told, between Ron and I, about 50 hits, 20 hook-ups, 15 in the surf and 11 beached (7 SB Chark and BF 4 Rays).
Starting bait was Bunker, heads, bodies, it didn't matter. Live Croak, bodies and they loved the slabs of Stingray.

Early am winds S-SW, no bugs, then flies with the west, NW brought Green Heads, back to west, then north at night with some skeeters.

Got too tired about midnight and left with the Charks still hitting.
(sidenote: Looks like I've been cutting off the top of the pics, gotta' get better with this fancy camera...)

[sbm111]

Dave,
I've been there before......Not that many knock downs in 1 night, but I've been spooled a couple times on one ocassion.......frustrating as hell......and the mosquito's make me insane.....I feel for you man.......
Stan

[Dixie719]

Seeing the picture with everyone standing around looking at the shark got me thinking.....man could you have some fun with those people.

One good scream, ketchup packets in your hand and someone filming, too funny!

Don't know why I thought of it, but man I would be rolling??

[Dave]

alright after a lot of beer and a good days rest, I was really tempted to go out again today. But I respooled all my reels and inspected my rods for any damage. I am ready for revenge! I still cant believe I got spooled twice within an hour and then line snap after line snap, the two that spooled me, ran like nothing I felt before, just pure strength straight out to deep water, not like your typical shark with a few head shakes and running up and down the beach. Steve I was just north of the osv entrance I seen one guy with a yak about half a mile south of me. think it was you. Sorry I didnt see your post, I hadnt had time to check in here much this week. But I am going out again monday and tuesday this coming week if your available, be glad to have some company. I am still really sore over how bad of a night I had. I have never ever been through such a rough night fishin, and the bugs didnt make matters much better. Here is a pic of my buddies butterfly ray, it is the first large critter he has ever caught from the surf.

[Mighty Quinn]

Fished AI yesterday. Managed to hook two sharks but both bit me off. One was in the wash and appeared to be 4-5 ft. Was an awesome fight that lasted maybe 15 mins. I think I must have hooked him in the corner of his mouth because my #8 circle was snelled with 60# flouro that held up until I got him near the beach. I think I screwed up when I kept my rod tip up as I was trying to get him on the beach. I have a feeling that by keeping the tip up I ran the line against his top set of teeth thus ending the fight with an easy release but before we could get a pic. I haven't had anything peel line off like that since I hooked a red drum a couple years ago.

I assume everyone that is targeting sharks or cobia is using wire? If so what kind of wire do you use? Do you snell or crimp? As usual it was a beautiful day at the beach but the green heads seem to be immune to an east wind.

Oh yeah...one other question....the shark mentioned above seemed to hug the bottom the whole time, never came to the surface. Is there a particular species with this trait? I couldn't really get a good enough look to tell what kind it was.

[Steve]

I've had several species not surface, hard to say. I always use a 5' length of Malin wire (#9 - #15, whatever is available) to the hook and maybe 5'of 250# mono with the FF.

If I had to make a guess on the Chark you had, I'd say a ST, they are good for those runs.

[ocsnapper]

for everyone that has had time to get out and fish Thanks for the reports. This time of year is hard for me, well still going to be hard for the next 3 1\2 to 4 weeks and right about now I am itching to get out most likely the next time out will be to judge in the Harbor Tackle Red Drum Turny near the end of Sep... so till then keep the reports coming in.