Article by Joey Marowski
Hello everyone!
It is with great excitement to bring you the first offshore fishing report of the 2025 season, even if there is not much to speak of off of Ocean City quite yet. As this is the first report of the year it is also my first time as the reporter, so I would like to introduce myself to everyone. My name is Joey Marowski and I was blessed enough to grow up in the Ocean City fishing community, being born into a family of avid fisherman with roots in the local charter scene. I grew up with a deep passion for every type of hunting and fishing our local waters have to offer. From catching spot in the marinas as a young child, to sneaking into golf course ponds after bass, chasing flounder and bluefish in the bays, and then finally, the seemingly inevitable offshore bug finally got to me. Working my way up from headboats and inshore charters until an opportunity finally arose to be a mate on an offshore charter, my current job is in the cockpit of the RoShamBo out of the Ocean City Fishing Center. I am fortunate enough to be on the water just about every day of the season. Although summer may seem like a far-off object, more signs of its return are frequently showing now. With longer days and rises in both air and water temps, it won’t be long before local boats are headed east after the first tunas of the season. Those lucky enough to take advantage of the amazing bluefin tuna bite we saw this fall and winter all the way through the New Year, have their eyes on the ocean temps off our beaches in hopes of a spring bite as these fish return north. A few hours and couple hundred nautical miles south of us, the fishing out of Oregon Inlet in North Carolina has been nothing short of spectacular, with catches of giant bluefins giving way to an influx of warmer water, and with it limits of yellowfins, bigeyes, blackfins and gaffer dolphins for their local charter fleets. Sliding even further south, the first blue marlins of the season were caught off of Hatteras and Moorehead City as those fish continue to move into their spring range and begin to slide up the line. What does this mean for us here in Ocean City? Well, it’s hard to say just yet, but if our fishing from the winter here and the bite going on now down below us is any indication, it’s time to dust off the rods and tackle, wash the leaves out of your boat and keep an eye on the eddies of warm water that are creeping into range. Or, if that all sounds like a lot of work, give one of our local marinas a call and book a charter on one of the many great boats ready to give you a memorable day! With conditions changing daily and whispers of exploratory bluefin missions in the near future, I hope to return next time with news of fresh reports as our season quickly approaches!
