Ocean City Bay and Inshore Fishing Update

It’s that time of year again, and I have made my annual migration to Ocean City, MD for a summer of fishing trips on the Maryland coast.  Each year we fish for a variety of species along in the coastal bays and inshore waters of the Atlantic Ocean.  Some of our common target species are stripers , bluefish, sea trout, flounder, tautog, and sea bass among others.

We began fishing over the weekend with hopes to catch some stripers, blues, and shad on the fly.  These fish are common fly rod targets in the back bays  each spring. But, as is fishing, the weather put a damper on those plans as we were dealt 20 to 30 kt winds which have continued blowing all week.   We adapted our techiniques an went fishing for flounder in the South Bay for flounder where we the water remained clear and fishable despite the wind.  We managed to land some nice flounder fishing jigs and fishfinder rigs along channel edges.  The flounder fishing has continued to be pretty good all week.

 

The weather is set to improve as the week moves on into the holiday weekend as should he fishing conditions.  The tautog bite has been great on the near shore wrecks and I hope to take advantage of this on some of the next few trips.  Cleaner water and less wind will offer some fly rod fishing also.  I’ll keep you posted.

Gunpowder River Fly Fishing Update

Finally, we have some good water flows in the Gunpowder due to spillover at the Prettyboy Reservoir Dam.  And imagine that, the trout fishing has been awesome.  We have seen good hatches of caddis for the last week along the river.  The fish have been anxious to take the bugs, most of which are olive bodied in a size 16.  They work on the dead drift or on the skitter.  Here are a few shots of some fish we took on Friday while fishing caddis near the dam.

 

Sulfurs have started hatching also and offered even more good dry fly fishing.  Look for both the sulfurs and caddis in and near the riffles throughout the stream.  Pick up some of our favorite local fly patterns at the Backwater Angler fly shop in Monkton, MD.

Get out there and fish!  Now is the time. Leave work and worry behind for the day.  I fished the my last 2 trips on the Gunpowder above Falls Rd. during the week her in May.  We caught fish steady both days and never saw another angler.  Thats nuts!  Stream flows are at 120 as of today, perfect for fishing.

Susquehanna Flats Fishing Update

The catch and release fishing season on the Susquehanna Flats comes to a close today.  The week long season extension was well worth it as we saw some really good fishing early in the week.  We had a good fly rod bite over the weekend catching some teenage size fish on the east end of flats.  Gray/white and Chartreuse /white half and halfs worked good fished on sinking lines in 7 to 10 feet of water. We caught a good number of teenage size fish to 26 inches with an occasional big fish bite.

A great topwater bite turned on Monday on top of the flats, and we had some of the best fishing of the season early in the week.  We caught some beautiful stripers fishing fly rod poppers and big plugs on the spinning rods.  We landed numerous fish in the 20 to 30 lb range and several over 30 our best weighing in at 34 lbs. Of course there are always those that got away,  and I watched a few truly huge fish manage to shake the hook this week.

The Susquehanna Flats is an unpredicatable fishery by nature, one day you burn them,  the next you struggle for a bite.  Water conditions and varying early Spring weather always makes the fishing an adventure.  For those of you who have caught it at it’s best the reward of a 30lb+ striper exploding on a topwater fly or lure in 3 feet of water is a reward worth fishing for.

Thanks to everyone who gave it a shot this Spring.  Look forward to seeing you again next year.