Daily Report

Another busy day on the docks as Day 1 of the Ocean City Marlin Clubs Heel & Reels Tournament kicked off with weigh ins over at Atlantic Tackle!  We had both boats fishing that tournament along with fun fishing to get their team ready for Monday.  The good news is that marlin fishing right now is fantastic and the bite is even moving closer off the coast of Ocean City!  The good piece of water was up over 100 miles away a couple days ago and is now up on the tip of the Wilmington Canyon which is roughly 75-80 miles away!  Fishing the Heels & Reels Tournament was the “Osprey” who released 6 white marlin in the Spencer and the “Brenda Lou” caught 9 white marlin in the Wilmington!  Most of the boats marlin fishing today had between 5-8 releases and we saw up to 15 releases!  I cannot remember when the marlin bite was this good leading into the White Marlin Open so it should make for a record tournament if fishing stays this good!  If you plan on being in the area this coming week make Harbor Island and Sunset Marina a must stop for all the tournament action!

Things are in full swing around the marina as our White Marlin Open boats slowly start to roll in and we are getting that tournament feel around the docks!  As a lot of the boats make their final preparations for next week, we are still having our regular charter boats head out with success.  “White Lightning” fished in the Baltimore and picked up 3 nice yellowfin and 4 dolphin.  In the Massey’s the “Marli” put 3 yellowfin and 1 dolphin in the box with the “Boss Hogg” matching those numbers!  “My Cin” fished in the Poormans and put his charter on a box full of sea bass and tilefish.  If you are looking to put some meat in the box there is still some tunas out there to be caught with us seeing us a nice class of 50lb fish hitting the docks today!

As many of you probably know the marlin fishing up north is still red hot!  We had multiple boats tough out the 100 mile ride up in-between the Spencer and Lindekohl Canyons for multiple releases.  “Reel Chaos” had a great day releasing 8 white marlin, “Billfisher” released 8 white marlin and 1 blue marlin, “Makara” released 10 white marlin as well.  “Reel Joy” stopped in the Spencer Canyon and released 3 white marlin, and caught 1 yellowfin and 2 dolphin!  “Pumpin Hard” was just above the Wilmington and released 6 white marlin today.  It is a hike to get to these fish but this time of year you cannot pass up on this kind of marlin fishing!  It looks like with the calmer weather tomorrow a lot of our tournament boats are going to get some trial runs in so we should see more flags flying!

With the hot white marlin bite up north in the Lindenkohl Canyon we had a couple boats head back up there in search of double digit releases!  “Game On” returned with 10 white marlin releases and reported 17 bites!    “Pumpin Hard” went down to the Wilmington and had 6 white marlin releases!  With the weather looking better tomorrow it looks like more boats will head up that way even though it is a long boat ride.  Charter fishing today was the “White Lighting” who fished in the Hambone and they landed 1 wahoo, 2 dolphin and 1 yellowfin!  “Marli” was also out there today and they caught 4 dolphin and 2 yellowfin.

Our White Marlin Open boats are slowly starting to trickle in to do last minute oil changes, rigging and preparations for the big show next week.  We have some really pretty boats in here from boat builders all up and down the coast so if you are in the area make sure you take a stroll down the docks and check them out!

Despite rough weather in the harbor today, boats offshore reported excellent catches offshore!

‘Reel Chaos’ fished the Washington, returning with 16 Sea Bass, 44 Tilefish, and 14 Dolphin. The ‘Rhonda’s Osprey’ fished the Massey’s and returned with 6 Yellowfin Tuna. The ‘Boss Hogg’ bounced around a few different areas of the ocean today returning with 34 Tilefish, 5 Seabass, and 1 Dolphin.

The most exciting news of our day was from the ‘Trasea Ann’, who reported 12 White Marlin releases! The crew chose not to say where they fished, and we can only wonder why with what’s coming in 7 days!

As July is wrapping up we move onto August where it seems to be tournament central out of Ocean City, Maryland!  The Huk Big Fish Classic concludes today and we will start to migrate into the marlin tournaments with the White Marlin Open starting Monday, August 8th.  That soon will be followed by the Poor Girls Tournament the 18th-20th and then the Mid-Atlantic which starts the 22nd.  Mark your calendars because these will be action packed tournaments with lots of pretty boats!

As far as fishing goes it is not at its peak but still some steady action offshore.  Our boats who fished overnight last night had mixes of billfish releases, tuna and dolphin.  White and blue marlins are being caught here and there but the push from down south still hasn’t made its way up here.  Tunas are also starting to be few and far in between with the water temps being so hot but if you stick it out you can get some meat in the box.  The “Osprey” put a couple yellowfin and dolphin in the box while fishing the Hambone the past couple days.  “Reel Chaos” deep dropped in between the Washington and the Poormans snd picked up 10 dolphin, 15 tilefish and 10 seabass.  “Blood Money” fished the Poormans and released 2 white marlin and 1 blue marlin!

With Day 2 of the Big Fish Classic underway today we had a lot of our boats take advantage of the better weather and head out to fish their 32 hour timeslot.  Tomorrows report should be a good one when these boats will return and should have some mixes of fish in the box!  Boats who were normal charter fishing were the “My Cin” who released 1 sailfish and caught 30 tilefish / seabass in the Poormans!  We had technical difficulty the other night and we weren’t able to log in and post reports from July 28th.  On that date, Capt. Dave with the “My Cin” returned from an overnighter with 1 blue marlin release, 2 white marlin releases also fishing in the Poormans!  Fishing in the Massey’ s today was the “Boss Hogg” who put 2 yellowfin in the box and the “Espadon” went to the old 50 grounds and released 1 white marlin and caught 2 dolphin.

The word around the docks was that the boats fishing this tournament were heading to the bigeye hole to try and hook into a nice bigeye along with heading even further south into the Norfolk Canyon to catch a qualifying blue marlin.  Checking on the Big Fish Classic website earlier there was a blue marlin boated so make sure you check out their website at http://www.bigfishclassic.com/ for all the up to date tournament results!

With the start of the Huk Big Fish Classic today we had a couple boats head out overnight to fish their 32 hour span while others fished the day and returned back to port!  “C-Boys” fished the Poormans and returned with 23 dolphin in the fish box!  “Reel Chaos” went to the Baltimore and caught 5 dolphin and 6 tilefish.  It was a busy day on the docks with fueling and lots of ice deliveries for the boats who did not fish!  Tomorrow looks like there will be a lot of action in the afternoon with boats returning from fun fishing along with some boats returning from their overnight trips.

If you are looking for a spot to be either Saturday and Sunday night make Talbot Street Pier a priority!  They will have lots of actions at the scales and plenty of good drinks and live music!  If you don’t want to ride into town you can always stop on in at the marina and grab a drink up at Teasers where you can see the days catches!

It was a slow day of fishing today at the Sunset Marina docks. Only two boats fished, both of which fished the Massey’s. The ‘Marli’ returned with 4 Yellowfin, and the ‘Boss Hogg’ returned with just 1 Yellowfin. With many boats expected to fish the upcoming White Marlin Open, there is much action on the docks as boats prepare for Ocean City’s biggest tournament!

We had a slight break in the heat today but the Massey’s is still the hot spot if you are in search for yellowfin tuna!  “Marli” chunked this honey hole and loaded the box with 17 yellowfin!  “Reel Chaos” brought back 1 yellowfin and 1 dolphin.  “My Cin” with Capt. Dave Black ventured out to the Baltimore and got into some dolphin bringing back 4 and also caught a wahoo!  Fishing south of the Baltimore was the “Theresa Jean” who released 2 white marlin and a blue marlin!  “Brenda Lou” was fishing the same spot and released a blue marlin!

With the wind laying down overnight we had a couple boats head out to the deep today!  It looked like a hit and miss kind of day for tunas but the “Osprey” got into them in the Chicken Bone bringing home 14 yellowfin!  “My Cin” chunked in the Massey’s and put 8 yellowfins in the box.  “Reel Chaos” fished the Lumpy Bottom and hit the docks with 7 yellowfin!  “Boss Hogg” went down to the Washington and got a mix of 1 yellowfin, 1 dolphin, 39 sea bass and 63 tilefish!

It looks like it will be a busy day out on the water tomorrow with a lot of boats gearing up to go fishing.  Make sure you check out the fishing report tomorrow night to see where the hot spots are!

Before the wind could pick up and blow out the weekend we had the “Marli” return from an overnighter catching 7 yellowfin in the Massey’s, 40 tilefish and 1 golden tile in the Baltimore!  “Reel Chaos” also returned from and overnighter fishing all over and came back with 2 white marlin releases, 21 tilefish, 2 dolphin and 3 streamer bass.  Chunking in the Massey’s was the “Osprey” returning with 2 yellowfin,  “C-Boys” put 7 yellowfin and 1 dolphin in the box and  “Zipper” came back with 4 yellowfin.  Fishing in the Baltimore was the “Billfisher” who released a white marlin.  The following boats fished in the Washington,  “Boss Hogg” caught 4 dolphin, 6 tilefish and 30 sea bass.  “No Quarter” returned to the docks with 1 Bluefin and 1 yellowfin.

With all the major marlin tournaments coming up in August the transition from tuna fishing to marlin fishing will start to take effect.  For the tail end of July, marlin fishing has been pretty good with boats being able to pick up multiple releases of both white marlins and blue marlins!  This was the case for the “Espadon” who fished a little bit everywhere out in the canyons and was able to go 2/2 on white marlins and 1/2 on blue marlins!  “DA Sea” stayed overnight in the Baltimore and went 4/6 on white marlins over the course of the two days and also put a couple tuna and mahi in the box for dinner!  The yellowfins still seem to be hiding in the Massey’s where Capt. Luke of the “C-Boys” kept his charter busy bringing home 13 yellowfins!  It looks like the weather for the weekend doesn’t look promising so hopefully tomorrow the fleet can have another successful day on the water!