Today’s Theme: Take a kid or grandfather (or both) fishing.
Capt. J.W. Powell and his crew experienced another productive day of bottom fishing on the Ocean City artificial reef system.
The group today included our friend Wayne Hartman from Ocean City, his step-father Lefty “Hotlips” Merling (86) of Baltimore, and his brother In-law John Stewart from Ocean View, DE. The weather was beautiful early in the day, but the gang started late as Capt. J.W. was ironing out some performance problems on the recently re-powered 261 Mako.
By the time the trip departed Sunset Marina after Lunch, there was a stiff (and somewhat cool) SE breeze. Although the conditions were a little more “adverse” than the forecast, the trip was comfortable and the Mako ran great!
We began fishing at the Bass Grounds Reef and worked some of the concrete and rubble structures for Sea Bass; we had tons of bites, mostly from smaller fish. We managed a few keepers and moved to the cable mounds with better luck, Wayne landed a nice Black Bass at “17″ and over 3lbs, however, Wayne’s Dad, “Hotlips Merling” had the hot stick and caught more and bigger Sea Bass than anyone else on the boat.
Capt. J.W. wanted to see some bigger fish and went into “Tautog mode” late in the afternoon. We made some attempts at fishing numerous “Barge” wrecks at the Bass Grounds Reef, only to find a few small SeaBass and that was all!
The sea conditions were favorable for a run so we headed to Russell’s Reef where the Toggin’ has been hot!
We immediately anchored at one of our favorite spots where there is nice structure and scattered wrecks in the vicinity. After some jockeying around we started fishing, and BAMM!! The Tog were scarfing our bait like a tourist eating Saltwater Taffies! Once again, “Hotlips” Merling was on Fire. He landed a nice 21 inch, almost 7lb “tagged” Tog. Twenty minutes later, he caught another that could have been a twin to that previous fish. We’ll send in the tag and report the information when we receive it.
The largest fish of the day was a fat “21.5″ Tog that weighed in at 7lb7oz caught by brother-in law John Stewart. All in all… the group caught 23 Seabass, keeping 12. 31 Tautog, keeping 14. NOTE: of the 17 Tautog released only 6 were below legal size, 11 were over legal size and/or full of roe.
Check out the pictures and Call Capt. Skip 410-430-5436 to book your trip today!
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