Article by Sue Foster
“I’m a vacationer here at the end of summer. I want to go fishing. What should I do? Where should I go?”
A lot depends on what kind of rods and reels you brought with you. If you have light tackle and kids, the Northside Park at 125th Street is a good place to go. In fact, it’s the only place to go in North Ocean City on the bayside! Take bloodworms or night crawlers and size #6 or #8 hooks on a high/low rig and fish for spot, croaker and sand perch. Crabbing is good there too. And very important, go on high tide. Not much action on low tide.
Other places you can go with light tackle (5 ½ to 6 ½ foot freshwater rod with a small spinning reel filled with 6 to 10-pound test) would be the Isle of Wight Park in the middle of the Route 90 Bridge and the bulkhead behind Convention Hall at 41st Street.
If you have medium weight equipment, like a 6 ½ to 7-foot, light to medium action rod with a medium-sized reel filled with 12 to 14 pound test, you can try fishing off the 9th Street Pier. The current runs a little harder here, but not so hard that you can’t have fun. It’s also deep enough and close enough to the Ocean City Inlet to catch flounder, larger croaker, snapper blues with shiners and squid. Use a flounder rig and a 2-ounce bank sinker. You can still catch little fish with bloodworms or Fishbite bloodworms if you use small hooks, but just don’t cast out too far.
A medium-weight outfit will work well from the Oceanic Pier since it’s not far off the water. It’s a pay pier but you do not need a fishing license to fish there since they have a license that covers all their anglers. Anglers catch a variety of fish there including spot, flounder, croaker, trout, tautog, bluefish, short stripers and shad. It’s a great place to go if you want to go fishing at night beneath the lights.
Even though it’s high off the water, the Ocean Pier off the boardwalk is not a bad place to go with medium weight tackle. This is another place you can fish without having to buy a fishing license. You just have to pay to fish on the pier. Fish near the pilings with bloodworms or Fishbites and small hooks for spot, kingfish, croaker and snapper blues. Now if you want to target bigger sharks, you need to bring some heavier fishing tackle. But if you want to fish for the good eating, small to medium-sized panfish that are abundant from the pier, a medium weight outfit is fine. I like to fish with a little piece of worm or Fishbites combined with a little strip of squid on the same hook. I fish a kingfish rig, a small bluefish rig or a simple high/low rig with size #6 or #4 hooks.
There’s plenty of room to swing a rod at the Ocean Pier, so you can fish with a short rod OR you can bring your 8 to 12 foot surf gear, and do just fine. The Ocean Pier is a good alternative for the surf angler if the ocean is too rough to hold bottom!
The Route 50 Bridge is another place you can go with either medium-weight or heavy tackle. You can fish for smaller species, OR you can fish with heavier tackle for larger fish. Anglers use a medium to medium-heavy rod with a reel wrapped with 14 to 20 pound test. A lot of the heavier weight line is needed to get the fish out of the water. A big flounder or striper cries for heavier tackle. You can also purchase a bridge net, which is a big hoop with a rope you can lower into the water to net your catch. I always take a pair of gloves out with me when I fish a high place like the Route 50 Bridge or Ocean Pier so I can hand line a larger fish up. (I use Power Pro line that will cut your hands otherwise!)
The Route 50 Bridge is also a great place to fish at night because the lights are bright and they attract baitfish to the bridge pilings. Anglers use Gotcha Plugs, Swim Shad lures or soft bodies tipped on 1/2 oz. to 1 oz. lead heads.
You can fish off the wall on the north side of the Ocean City Inlet, but boy, plan to lose a lot of tackle. Anglers fish close to the rocks for tautog, triggerfish and sheepshead with sand fleas. Otherwise, you can cast out for flounder during the slacking tides with a bottom rig baited with shiners, minnows, squid or Gulp!. You can also catch bluefish on the bottom with bait but you might try casting lures. Medium to medium-heavy equipment is necessary at the Ocean City Inlet. You can take your heavier surf gear for sure. It’s really not a good place to take little kids. It’s too frustrating around the rocks!
“What about that bulkhead at 2nd thru 4th Street?”
The bulkhead is a Free Fishing Zone, meaning you do not need to buy a fishing license. It’s a good place to fish if you fish it correctly. There’s a lot of rocks and rip-rap down below, tight to the bulkhead which creates lots of snags, so carry lots of tackle. The trick to fishing the bulkhead is to fish straight down when the tide is running hard. Tell the kids to put the rig on the bottom and not move it. (Well, that’s hard for a kid to do sometimes!) There are all kinds of little black sea bass, spot and croaker if you fish straight down with little hooks baited with small pieces of squid and/or bloodworms and Fishbites. There’s also tautog if you fish straight down with sand fleas or other kinds of crabs.
When the tide gets slacking, you can cast into the channel for flounder with shiners or minnows. This doesn’t last long, but some nice ones are caught here! We have also seen some really nice flounder, including one that was 13 lbs., caught by an angler fishing with live spot, straight down off 2nd Street.
If you brought some surf gear, or something remotely close to surf gear like a 7 to 9 foot rod spun with 14 to 20 pound test, you can surf from the beach. No matter what you use, try not to get your reel in the sand! Buy a sand spike. Cast out with a kingfish rig baited with bloodworms and a little piece of squid. You can also fish with a chunk of finger mullet or bunker for bluefish or sharks! Anglers are allowed to fish off the beach before 10:00 AM and after 5:30 PM when the lifeguards go off duty.
There’s plenty places to fish around Ocean City, so go get em’.
Good fishing…
Sue Foster is an outdoor writer and co-owner of Oyster Bay Tackle in Ocean City, MD and Fenwick Tackle in Fenwick, DE.
