September is white marlin month in Ocean City, and the canyon fleet has been releasing good numbers of fish all week. Inshore, the back bays are still full of flounder, the surf is picking up with kingfish and bluefish, and the inshore lumps are holding a few sea bass and triggerfish. The summer crowds are gone and the fishing is as good as it gets.
What’s Hitting
What’s hitting this week starts offshore: white marlin are in the Baltimore, Poor Man’s, and Washington canyons in the numbers the town is famous for, with a few blue marlin and sailfish in the spread. Yellowfin tuna are on the 30- to 50-fathom lumps and in the canyons, and bigeye are hitting at dawn and dusk on the deep edges. Mahi are on the lobster pot balls and the weedlines. Inshore, flounder are on the channel edges and the Route 50 bridge area in the back bay, sea bass are on the inshore wrecks, and kingfish, croaker, and bluefish are in the surf.
Where to Find Them
The canyon fleet has been concentrating from the Baltimore Canyon down to the Washington, with the best white marlin action on the temperature breaks along the 100-fathom edge. The Hot Dog and the Jackspot are producing yellowfin and a few kings. In the back bay, the Thorofare, the Route 50 bridge, and the East Channel edges are holding flounder. The surf at Assateague and the inlet jetties have kingfish and blues.
Tides & Conditions
Offshore temps are in the upper 70s at the canyons with good blue water and defined breaks. Inshore water is in the mid-70s. The flounder bite is best on the moving tides, especially the outgoing, and the clearer the water, the better. Seas have been manageable most days; a distant tropical system can raise a long-period swell and close the inlet to smaller boats, so check the marine forecast.
Tackle & Tactics
White marlin want small naked or skirted ballyhoo on circle hooks on 20- to 30-pound tackle, with dredges and teasers to raise fish. Yellowfin take skirted ballyhoo, cedar plugs, and spreader bars; chunk butterfish if you find them on the lumps. Flounder take a strip of squid or a live minnow on a bucktail or a fluke rig drifted along the channel edges. Surf anglers want small hooks and bloodworms or Fishbites for kingfish.
Local Intel This Week
Public ramps: the Ocean City Commercial Harbor ramp in West Ocean City, the Gum Point Road ramp, the Assateague State Park ramp, and the Bahia Marina area launches. Fish are concentrating in the canyons for billfish and along the back-bay channel edges for flounder. Check current Maryland DNR regulations and federal HMS permit requirements before keeping tuna or fishing for billfish — billfish are catch-and-release for most anglers and require a federal permit.
This Week’s Tip
On a white marlin bite, the fish will often bat at the bait before eating it. Drop the bait back on a free spool the instant you see the fish light up, count to five, and then ease the drag up — pulling the bait away from the fish is the most common mistake in the canyons.
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