Maryland Coastal Mid-Atlantic Fishing Report – August 2021

Surf fishing was a bit slower than usual this week. As in the Bay, fish in the oceanic surf were shutting down post-morning. With that being said, the morning and evening bites this week were still productive, with the Ocean City Fishing Center reporting that they heard of some of kingfish, bluefish, croaker, and the occasional shark out of the surf. The beaches at Assateague were also packed, with tons of anglers hoping to score throughout the day before the summer ends. Cut spot and FishBites, or bloodworms when they’ve been unavailable, are surf favorites. Soft sandfleas will also bring in an interesting fish medley. Farther south in Virginia Beach the same mix is available with some pompano also in the catch.

Inshore anglers are finding plenty of opportunities to hook up on sea bass. The wrecks are packed, and the Fishing Center mentioned that the wrecks produced a doormat flounder early in the week. This week we also have more mahi in the inshore reports, and finally, they’ve started to pop up with more reasonable frequency offshore as well. Multiple boats returning through the inlet were spotted flying the mahi flag high. In general, the Fishing Center reported that the offshore bite is just so-so. They didn’t have any great tuna reports this week. Virginia boats are also having a tougher time finding tunas recently, though the billfish bite should be on the bounce for the coming weeks.

Special congrats to Billy Gerlach from Jupiter, FL and the crew of the Billfisher for catching the new Maryland record blue marlin! Billy hooked up on the big one trolling a Joe Yee Super Plunger near Washington Canyon, about 70 miles offshore. His blue was a whopping 1,135-pounds, truly the fish of a lifetime, and brought in some serious cha-ching in the MidAtlantic tournament.

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