Yellowfin Tuna

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.

**** EXCELLENT*** GOOD** FAIR* POORSalt waterOCEAN Inshore *** 1/2 Plenty of spot taking bloodworms in the back bays HTC and in the surf at Assateague and North Ocean City, but flounder fishing has been off a little. Bluefish to 10 pounds have taken live spot in the Ocean City Inlet, where there also are some large sea trout. Kingfish, snapper blues, sea trout and flounder also are being taken in the surf. Try bloodworms for kingfish or spot, cut spot for blues and sea trout, and minnows or squid for flounder.

A number of marlin -- white and blue -- were released offshore last week.One of the best days was reported by the Elixir with Capt. Pat Kelly. The party -- Bill Brown, Bill Brown III and Cheryl Brown of Ocean Pines -- had three white marlin on lines at the same time. They released them and then caught and released two more the same day, while fishing northeast of the Hot Dog Lump in 30 fathoms of water.The charter boat Natural with Capt. Scott Walker from the Fishing Center had two blue marlin releases in two days.

Ocean City's famous White Marlin Open Tournament was followed by even more good offshore fishing. Though chunking for bluefin tuna was sporadic there were some good catches.Scott Stine of York, Pa., picked up a 92-pound bluefin tuna while chunking approximately five miles east of the Jack Spot with butterfish. He was fishing aboard the private boat Daddy's Toy. A 128 1/2 -bluefin tuna was taken by Greg Anderson of Edgewood while fishing aboard the Dollar Bill out of the Fishing Center. He was also chunking southeast of the Jack Spot.

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.

As summer winds down, some of the most pleasant days of the year will settle over the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.Already, there are signs of the good fishing that should be available in Maryland waters.Bluefish, although rarely weighing more than 3 pounds, have moved into the bay in good numbers, with catches reported as far north as Worton Point; sea trout have moved as far north as the mouth of the Choptank, and Spanish mackerel are threatening to move north of Smith Point in formidable numbers.

It has been Mobtown and Crabtown and Charm City. And, for a while, Baltimore was Nickel City. This was early in the 20th century, when a nickel actually bought something: a sandwich, a beer, a taxi dance or a trolley ride. When the buffalo nickel was introduced in 1913, Baltimoreans used more of them than anyone else in the country.This history lesson comes courtesy of the new Nickel City Grill in Harborplace. The owner and chef are Sunbelters, but their place pays tribute to our town's history; the deco design, which uses lots of dark wood and features sleek booths that resemble railroad dining cars, recalls Baltimore's former reputation as an industrial and transportation center, and the menu updates the region's famed seafood, chicken and ribs.

Hot August nights bring anglers to the beach, where they throw their lines into the water in a search for something bigger than a Norfolk spot or snapper bluefish -- and that something is usually the dusky shark.The sharks, with lengths up to 12 feet, do not bother swimmers and are rarely caught during daylight hours. At night, however, they cruise closer to shore to feed on small fish.They have a long, pointed snout and are bluish to leaden gray with a white belly and resemble a sand shark except they have teeth and the sand shark doesn't -- something to keep in mind when extracting the hook from the fish.

Many people have no taste for slices of plain raw fish. But they do enjoy fish cooked rare like steak. Sesame seared tuna sashimi was made for them.I sampled it at the Sound of the Falls, a resort hotel on Kaanapali Beach in Maui, Hawaii. Executive chef James Reaux, who conducts cooking lessons for guests, taught me how to make it.A little like sashimi, sushi and tempura in one, seared sashimi combines the best features of some traditional Japanesefavorites: fish, seaweed and batter-coated, deep-fried foods.

There were no lead changes in either of the billfish divisions of the White Marlin Open yesterday, but officials of the Ocean City tournament have determined that John Brown of Broad Run, Va., stands to win a world-record payoff.On Monday, the first day of the tournament, Brown caught a 73 1/2 -pound white marlin, whch has held up as the leader in its division through three days of the five-day competition.According to tournament organizer Chuck Motsko, if Brown's catch holds up through the end of fishing tomorrow, it will be worth $414,000, "the highest cash award for any fish ever caught in the world."