Ocean City Update, Great Flounder Bite

Paul Botzler sent this great picture he took as we left the commercial harbor in West Ocean City on a recent trip.

The last 2 weeks have seen continued good flounder fishing around the Maryland Coastal Bays. Loads of bait in the bays have had a good impact on the fishing.  Finger Mullet and Bunker are thick and the fish are eating good.  We caught some great fish up to 5 lbs the last few weeks while drifting live baits on fish finder rigs.  Near shore wrecks are also offering some great fishing for flounder and some of these fish are up to 7 +lbs.

It was good to have lots of young anglers on board the last week or so.   Hank and Max Bethel pictured above, each caught their first rockfish while fishing on the South Jetty using live bunker and mullet for bait.  Emily Rose Caplan and Julie Ann Lorndale, below caught some nice flounders while drifting live bunkers in the bay north of the Rt.50 bridge.

Ben Weaver caught some schoolie stripers and snapper blues on the fly rod today, and got this huge croaker on the fly too.

The fall striper fishing will be heating up before long, and we should be able to start targeting more and bigger fish on the fly in the Chesapeake, and on the coast.   Keep checking in for weekly pics and updates on the fishing.

Gunpowder River, Great Flows, Late Summer Fly Fishing

I have spent much of the last week fishing trips with folks on the Gunpowder.   We have been real lucky this August, and so far this month, to have great stream flow levels.  The moderate flows ranging from about 100 to 140cfs have been cause for some great trout fishing.  I have argued for years that if we only had these moderate stream flows all season, our already awesome trout fishery would become even better.  I have guided fisherman on the Gunpowder for 13 years, and can say for sure that the fish feed more actively, and the fishing is ten fold better during these periods.  We always seem to catch more and larger trout , and I don’t even mind flows up to 200.  That said, the fishing  has been great, when you fish early and late and stay away from traffic.  We saw great hatches of both tricos and caddis all of the last 2 weeks especially in the early morning hours.  For those naysayers who don’t think we have tricos on the Gunpowder, you obviously aren’t morning people.  We had swarms of tricos from 7:30 to 9:30 am all last week.  The caddis were hatching right in the mix, tans and olives in size 16.  The fish usually take the tricos in the slacker water, caddis in the riffles.

We caught lots of trout, browns from 6 to 16 inches, and lots of the newest stocked fingerling Kamloops rainbows while fishing above Falls Rd.  Our best flies were a size 16 x caddis in tan, and a 20 reverse hackle trico.  Mid day a pair of pheasant tail nymphs in a dropper rig worked fine.  Get out there and fish while it is good.  Go during the week, if you can’t, go early am on the weekends.