Bluefish

The first large bluefish in months was caught off the Assateague surf last weekend, with Matt Esterson of Seaford, Del., managing to take the 13-pound, 2-ounce bluefish using spot. Mary Brown of Buck's Place on Assateague, where the fish was weighed in, said there also had been smaller blues, some sea trout and a couple of flounder.Summer surf-fishing generally produces catches of smaller fish such as Norfolk spot, kingish, spike sea trout and some flounder. As the seasonprogresses, the fish get bigger and the action heats up. Larger flounder, "keeper" sea trout and migrating bluefish ranging from 3 to 20 pounds will be common in months to come.

Sunday evening at dusk, the calm edge of the tide rip at Tolly Point was a busy place. Gulls rose and fell and screeched. Panicked baitfish cleared the surface, herded into the shallow water atop the bar by larger fish feeding eagerly.A few fishing boats idled beneath the birds on the edges of the frenzy, and some fishermen cast and caught while others simply watched.For more than a week each evening the scene had been repeated.The fishermen, surrounded by acres of rockfish, are faced with a dilemma: Should one cast hoping to catch a bluefish and risk mortally injuring a rockfish, or should one move on and pass up the certainty of catching some kind of fish?

"Have you ever noticed that you don't really catch a bluefish," I gasped as my rod bent under the pressure of a 3-pounder, "but rather that they catch you?"Tom Campbell, however, was too busy attempting to tame his own finned wildcat to answer back under the heat of last Sunday's sun while we fished aboard Capt. Eddie Davis' Edith Rose. In fact, Capt. Eddie was the only one on board who didn't have his hands full of bucking rod and that was because he was too busy helping us unhook the gunmetal blue savages so that we could get a lure back into action.

Oysterback, Maryland.--Deputy Johnny Ray:When he didn't come in by seven o'clock, his girlfriend called us. She was scared; we could hear the kids crying in the background. Chief Briscoe called the fire company and the Coast Guard. The DNR boys, they come on in off their radio when one of the boys from Oysterback called in he'd found Devlin Dean's boat adrift off Log Cabin Point.There was no sign of Devy, just everything the way you'd have it patent tonging, and his boat was out of gas. That was a bad sign right there.

THE FISHING REPORT**** EXCELLENT*** GOOD** FAIR* POOR .. .. .. .. .. SALT WATER .. .. .. .. .. .. .. OceanInshore *** 1/2 In Ocean City, the route 50 bridge, the flats behind the Thoroughfare and the Throughfare have been very good for flounder three to five pounds. Live minnows and squid have been best baits. Surf action has been off somewhat with lesser numbers of bluefish from two to five pounds being taken on cut mullet or mackerel at Assateague and North Ocean City.Offshore *** The Southeast Lumps have been producing bluefish up to 10 pounds and the Jackspot has turned up a few bonito.

Anglers in Ocean City are happy to see schools of bluefish working the waters off the beach. Fishermen have been grabbing their fishing gear and heading to the surf, the inlets, the U.S. 50 Bridge and the Ocean Pier to catch these 3- to 12-pound fish. The blues, which showed up two weeks ago, will probably be with us for a couple more weeks before heading offshore or farther north.Pat Townsend of the Ocean Pier said that anglers were hooking as many as 20 bluefish in a span of an hour and a half on Springfest weekend.

Wayne Hizer's 52-inch striped bass was the winning catch in the eighth annual Chesapeake House Inn and Restaurant Pro-Am Fishing Tournament on Tuesday.Hizer, a businessman from Pittsburgh, landed the fish from the ++ deck of Captain John Motovidlak's Retriever II charter based out of Tilghman Island. The 45-pound rockfish hit a trolled 9/0 green Crippled Alewive near the C&R Buoy.The trophy fish already had spawned -- she was empty of her eggs -- when she lost the battle to Hizer.I have been fortunate to be an invited pro at this tourney since its inception.

Wayne Hizer's 52-inch striped bass was the winning catch in the eighth annual Chesapeake House Inn and Restaurant Pro-Am Fishing Tournament on Tuesday.Hizer, a businessman from Pittsburgh, landed the fish from the ++ deck of Captain John Motovidlak's Retriever II charter based out of Tilghman Island. The 45-pound rockfish hit a trolled 9/0 green Crippled Alewive near the C&R Buoy.The trophy fish already had spawned -- she was empty of her eggs -- when she lost the battle to Hizer.I have been fortunate to be an invited pro at this tourney since its inception.