Ocean City Maryland Saltwater Fishing
Ocean City is famous for saltwater fishing. Inshore fish may include flounder, bluefish, red and black drum, striped bass, trout, croaker, spot, kingfish, small sharks and others. Ocean City offshore fishing includes species such as bluefish, tuna, white marlin, mahi mahi, sharks and other deep sea fish.
Flounder Fishing
Ocean City has excellent flounder fishing opportunities. Many vacationers try their hand at the sport and some anglers even visit Ocean City specifically to fish for flounder. Anglers may target flounder only at certain times or choose to fish the entire season. Fishing varies with the weather, tides, time of year, location and water quality.
Flounder fishing is done by drifting Ocean City inlet and the bays behind Assateague Island and Ocean City. The first flounder arrive in late April, with the main spring run usually coming from the end of April and into May. Mixed in with flounder are bluefish, gray trout, kingfish, rockfish, black drum and red drum.
Striped Bass
Ocean City has a resident population of striped bass or "rockfish" as well as an influx of migrating fish in the late fall and winter. These beautiful fish are caught by casting lures around the jetty and other areas, and by fishing lives baits such as spot, eels, and other fish.
Cooks have a variety of favorites for cooking rockfish. Whole fillets of school sized fish or steaks of larger fish are delicious fried. Other choices for cooking striped bass include grilling, broiling, fish cakes and more. For top quality striped bass or "rockfish" as table fare, it's important to take care of the fish prior to cooking. The fish should be chilled on ice and laid out flat until cleaned. Once the fish is home, it can be rinsed thoroughly and filleted. Several cleaning methods exist and each angler learns their favorite style.
The fish can be scaled and the skin left on, filleted and then skinned or the skin can be cut around the perimeter of the fish and pulled off with pliers. The skin-on version is nice when baking or grilling smaller fish. Skinning the fish before filleting has some advantages, the most important being speed. Filleting the fish and then cutting the skin off removes the most dark meat and leaves the highest quality portion, although some fish is lost in the process.
Black Sea Bass
Black sea bass are another Ocean City saltwater fish. They are caught in the deeper channels and around rocks and other structure. Sea bass are excellent table fare. The meat is firm, white and delicious. Sea Bass are superb fried, grilled, baked or broiled. Sea Bass are easily skinned and filleted. Black sea bass are also caught in the open ocean around wrecks and reefs. They are best fresh and are not well suited to freeze.
Tautog
Tautog are caught in Ocean City in the Spring and Fall. Like sea bass, these fish favor rocky areas near the inlet and bulkheads. Tautog are caught with baits such as crabs, clams and other shellfish. They are known to be very hard to hook and are experts at bait stealing.
The fish are incredibly slippery! It is best to rinse them thoroughly and lay them out on a rough surface. A sharp fillet knife is needed to cut around the outline of the fish, making the front cut behind the head and pectoral fin. Then the skin can easily be peeled off by using pliers and peeling from the head to tail. Once the skin is off the fish can be filleted normally. There are a few rib bones which can be cut out after filleting. The meat is firm, white and mild flavored. Rinse the fillets and immediately store on ice or refrigerate them. Tautog is delicious fried, baked or grilled.