Article by Larry Budd
While there was great action in the canyons last week, it was overshadowed as the Ocean City fishing community lost another icon. Capt. Frank Pettolina passed away last week. He was a long-time fixture in the fishing community and the owner and senior captain on the legendary “Last Call”. It was also hard when we lost his son Franky in 2021, and sorrow again a year later when the boat sank in the inlet after a fire aboard. There is some solace that he and Franky are together again. Our heart and condolences go out to his wife Madelyn.
The billfish action in the canyons last week was strong and was some of the best we have seen in years. As I covered in last week’s edition, Sunday the 25th saw record releases and the bite continued through the week, but not as strong. Last Tuesday Brad Fry headed out of the Indian River Marina on the “Pier Pressure”. He caught his first white marlin between the Hot Dog and the Poor Mans Canyon, nice to find this mud marlin so close! It measured 68”. The “Boy’s Toy”, also out of the Indian River Marina, had a busy day in the Wilmington Canyon. They caught and released 19 white marlin!
It seems the white marlin like weekends lately as the bite cooled for the latter part of last week. Saturday however was a different story, with the Baltimore being the place to be. The “Sea Hag” fished there, going 10 for 13 on whites and the charter boat “Pumpin’ Hard” returned to Sunset Marina from there with 5 white marlin release flags flying.
The Ocean City Marlin Club held a Labor Day billfish release tournament over the weekend. It was an ‘invitational’, meaning that club members had to meet one of two qualifications. Those who reported catching 30 marlin in 2023 were on the list and boats with 25 marlin releases for the season to date were also extended an invitation. Ten boats entered, creating a $50,000 purse and $20,000 in the daily calcuttas. As a release only tournament there were no scales, but we have included the results below. Congratulations to the “Billfisher” for taking the top spot with 700 points or 7 releases and to the top Lady Angler Judith Duffie and top Jr. Angler Elizabeth Ashwell.
Tuna are still very much missing in action. Several of the captains I have talked to share that they are not even marking tuna. This is a contrast to earlier in the season when they were marking yellowfins and seeing them jumping out of the water. However, they still didn’t bite then! There is no clear consensus as to why the yellowfin have been so scarce and hard to hook this year. At least the bigeye bite was about normal for their season.
Outside of billfish, we had four fish running hot recently. The cobia bite has been improving over the past few weeks, and was red hot last week. We have the crew of the “Hot Lick” on this week’s cover from their trip to the Winter Quarter Shoals. They caught a total of 53 cobia, caught mainly with Squidnation Otter Tail Jig Tails. That was convenient as Squidnation founder Bill Pino was on the boat! Ocean City anglers Jason Stokes, Christian Phillips and Michael Hauh dove on some inshore wrecks and nabbed a few keepers while spearfishing. Others were found in the shallows inshore as well as off the beach. The latter however were all undersized, but still a thrill to catch a man in the brown suit from the sand!
Wahoo have also arrived at the docks in good numbers and sizes. From our reports there was not a specific area for the bite. Early in the week the “Even Keeleigh” caught a 47 lb. speedster with a 20” girth at the Hot Dog notch. They hooked their Delaware Citation fish on a Black Bart Pelagic Breakfast plug on 20 lb. gear. That must have made for a fun fight. The crew on the “Prospector” found their wahoo further south and east in the Washington Canyon when it hit on an Ilander with a ballyhoo. The “Restless Lady II” out of the Talbot Street Pier hooked a big speedster in 40 fathoms of the Baltimore Canyon. They also reeled up a 5 man limit of tilefish.
Speaking of tilefish, we saw a number of goldens caught last week and several limit catches of bluelines like the “Restless Lady II”. The charter boat “Michael D” out of the Indian River Marina had a frenzy of action on one trip last week. They caught several large golden tilefish as well as blueline tilefish, over 50 in a little over an hour. That is a lot of work, given they were probably reeling in from depths of 600 – 800 feet, even with electric reels. John Coffey and crew on the “Sea N Double” found blueline and some sizable blackbelly rosefish in the Poor Mans Canyon. Kevin Legates headed to the Baltimore Canyon for some deep drops. He and his crew had limit catches of both golden and bluelines as well as some rosies. They even snagged an angry mako shark as they were reeling in one of their deep drop rigs.
Mahi were a common catch as captains targeted the tasty fish. Most were small peanut dolphin found under and around the sea bass and lobster trap buoys inshore and off. Limit catches of 10 per angler or boat limits of 54 were not uncommon. Others found more interesting catch locations. The charter boat “Boss Hogg” caught a mess of mahi after they saw an old traffic cone floating in the Poor Mans! The charter boat “Wrecker” was in the Baltimore Canyon marlin fishing and ended up with over 30 dolphin in addition to their 2 white marlin releases. The good news is that they are out there, from the inshore lumps to the canyons, so if you like this fish, now is a good time to head out, charter a boat or jump on one of the mahi trips offered by headboats!
As I write this Labor Day Monday most boats are tucked into their slips due to a strong north wind, however after that it looks like a nice string of weather and warmer water. So keep sharing what your catching by email or text to [email protected]. §
