Anglers Fishing

Anglers hoping for a warm Easter weekend filled with fish-catching possibilities were disappointed. Though Good Friday was a beautiful day, the fog rolled in on Saturday and kept the water temperature down. A cool breeze from the northeast made a jacket mandatory for most on the water.Because of the weather, Ocean City flounder have been off to a slow start. Although many anglers venturing out on their own came up empty-handed, the bay party boat Tortuga out of Bahia Marina at 22nd Street caught some.

Ocean City has seen its first flounder. Bob Coolick, from Ocean Pines, picked up three flounder up to 16 inches in the Thorofare area last week. He was drifting in his boat with strips of mackerel. Another man had a catch of four the same day.Barbara Glinka of Bahia Marina was surprised when a rental boat came in with three "keeper" flounder on Saturday. The anglers were drifting outside the commercial harbor with shiners.The first flounder of the season are always caught in the deeper water.

It's not the most popular fish around and it certainly isn't the easiest to catch. In fact, the tautog is downright ugly and slimy, but it's wonderful to eat and certainly gives the angler an excellent fight.The tautog, also called a blackfish, is a member of the wrasse family. Though it somewhat resembles a sea bass, they are not related.With the cooling water temperatures, the tautog are moving from offshore waters into the inlet areas. The Ocean City Inlet and the Indian River Inlet are the best places to find this crafty, hard-fighting fish.

Labor Day doesn't mean the end of fishing. Some of the best offshore fishing is happening now. Anyone watching the overnight boats come into port will see there are plenty of yellowfin tuna and dolphin.We recently watched the Mud Bucket II arrive at the Talbot Street Pier with six tuna in the 40- to 60-pound range and 30 dolphin.Later we saw the Full House come in at Bahia Marina with 21 yellowfin tuna and a couple of dolphin.Anglers with smaller boats shouldn't feel left out. There is plenty of action closer in. About 5 miles off the beach, Spanish mackerel are hitting on small spoons, and the first and second lumps of the Bassgrounds are seeing false albacore, king mackerel, Spanish mackerel and even bonito.

Flounder fishing in Ocean City was excellent again. The ratio of keeper flounder to throwback flounder (fish under the legal size limit of 13 inches) is discouraging to some anglers, but most fishermen are pleased with the action. Some boats may go out rTC fishing and keep three out of 15 fish, while other boats boast keeping six to 15 fish.Max Angel of Paul's Tackle Shop says there are plenty of flounder being caught on the U.S. 50 bridge and also on the docks near the bridge. "We caught three legal flounder out of 20 Sunday, fishing from the Talbot Street dock.

Despite last weekend's inclement weather, flounder fishing has remained good. Though Friday and Sunday were "wipeouts" due to the pouring rain, anglers caught flounder on Saturday, and then again on Monday, the day after the weather cleared, proving that the rain deterred the fishermen, but not the fish.Roy, Brian and Jeff Newman of Clarksville showed that the flounder were there last Saturday. They hugged the bulkhead at 33rd Street and came up with 21 keeper flounder up to 3 1/2 pounds.

There may be lots of "throwback" flounders in Ocean City, but there are also lots of keepers.The throwbacks under the legal limit size of 13 inches aractually a good sign, though, because it means flounder are spawning and are coming into the bays.BAlong with these smaller fish are good-sized flounder in the 2- to 2 1/2 -pound range. Barbara Glinka of Bahia Marina reported seeing some of these larger fish taken on the bay-going party boat Tortuga. She said live minnows have been the preferred bait.

ANNAPOLIS -- Maryland's fall recreational rockfish anglers are virtually guaranteed a longer season in October, with a more equitable distribution of stripers than last October, thanks to a tag system that would limit them to two fish for the entire season.The Striped Bass Advisory Board last night unanimously recommended a proposal that would offer fishermen a 17-day season -- including three weekends -- during which anglers could use both their tags.The season would start Oct. 11 and close Oct. 27. If they do not catch their still undecided quota during that time, two weeks later the fishery would be reopened to allow all anglers to catch the remainder of the quota under a traditional no-permit system.