Drifting Easy By Sue Foster 4/26/06

It Spring once again, and anglers ask. “What should I fish for?”

The month of May can be one of the best months of the year to go fishing. 
Water temperatures reach that magic 50 degree mark and we see bluefish, 
tautog, flounder and stripers.  You don’t have an abundance of little fish 
in May like you do in July and August, but the fish that you catch will be 
quality, drag pulling, scale worthy specimens.

After a long winter of no fishing, some anglers just can’t decide what kind 
of fishing to do first!  A look at the weather and tides can help you decide 
whether to spend the day on the beach surf fishing or to launch the skiff 
into the bay and try flounder fishing.

First of all, let’s talk about flounder. Flounder like clean, warm water in 
the spring. So if it’s been blowing for three days straight, or the weather 
has been drizzly and cloudy with little sunshine, give the flounder a rest 
and go for blues, stripers, or tautog. On the other hand, if the sun has 
been shining and you cross over the Route 50 or Route 90 Bridge and the 
water looks clear, grab the minnow bucket and head to your favorite tackle 
store for a “fill up.”

The whole secret of springtime fishing when water temperatures are on the 
“edge” is the sun and outgoing water. Cooler water comes into the bay from 
the ocean on an incoming tide, goes way up into the shallows of the bay and 
into the St. Martin’s River in North Ocean City, or way into the creeks past 
South Point in the bay behind Assateague. The sun warms the water in the 
“shallows.” As the tide turns and goes out, this warmer water passes through 
the bay. The areas around the Route 90 Bridge and just North of the 
Thorofare can turn 10 degrees warmer on this outgoing tide. If the water is 
clean and clear, the flounder will bite!  (The same is true for the bay 
behind Assateague.)  This is why anglers in boats tend to catch flounder 
before the anglers standing on the Piers or the Route 50 Bridge.  They can 
go further up into the bays where the water gets warmer.

So in the early spring, the tides you want to fish are slightly different 
than the tides you fish in the heat of summer. In the spring, you always 
want to catch some kind of outgoing tide. High tide, just starting out will 
usually give you the cleanest water. The last of the outgoing tide (the ebb 
tide) can be quite good in the spring as well. This is when the tide is 
still going out, but slowing down and getting close to a dead low tide.

Don’t try to catch these tides perfectly or you may accidentally miss the 
tide. Or the fish might trick you and bite on the incoming if the water 
temperatures are up enough.  We always try to get out to the fishing grounds 
a couple hours before we think the fish are going to bite. Catch the last of 
the incoming and high slack. But if nothing happens, please don’t go home! 
Wait for the tide to start going out! Warmer water awaits you…

“How about tautog in the spring?”
Same thing applies to the tautog. If the water temperatures are on the 
 “edge” they may bite on those same time frames of outgoing tide-- the 
beginning of the outgoing and the last of the outgoing. But, as we all know, 
sometimes these “perfect” tides do not last long, so go early and go ahead 
and try the last of the incoming.  It’s all about water temperature, so if 
the temperatures are not too chilly, the fish will bite on these incoming 
tides as well. Just don’t quit if they don’t bite. Stay and fish the first 
part of the outgoing before tossing in the towel.

Tautog prefer clean water, but they will still bite when the water is dirty 
or the wind is blowing. They will also bite on a cooler water temperature 
than flounder. Tautog bite along the bulkhead at 2nd through 4th Streets, 
the pilings near the Route 50 Bridge, the jetties or at the end of the 
Oceanic Pier. If it’s too windy to go out in a boat, tautog fishing is 
always an option.  (Just make sure you take some kind of crab or clam to go 
tautog fishing- green crabs and sand fleas are the most popular. They rarely 
take anything else.)

If you are an avid surf fisherman but also like tautog fishing and are 
undecided which direction to go in, look at the wind. If you like to fish 
the bulkhead between 2nd and 4th Streets, or one of the dead end streets 
like 5th or 6th Streets, it is always a more pleasant place to be when the 
wind is at your back.

If it is blowing 25 miles an hour from an Easterly direction, you may not be 
able to hold bottom in the surf with a cinder block, yet it might be nice 
and toasty sitting on the boardwalk at 3rd Street.  On the other hand, if 
the wind is blowing 25 miles per hour from the west, if might be totally 
unpleasant at the 3rd Street boardwalk. Your rigs might blow right back into 
snags with waves lapping over the boardwalk.  If you add a little North wind 
to your westerly direction, it might be cold as well. On the beach, with the 
condos blocking the wind, it could be very pleasant. A westerly wind will 
flatten the surf close to shore, and casting with the wind behind you can 
sail your rig way out into the ocean.

“How about tides in the surf?”

Tides are not as important in the surf as they are in the bay. So if the bay 
tides are off, try the surf. Surf tides are two hours earlier than bay tides 
as well. So you can surf fish for a couple hours, then hit the tide change 
in the bay. Time of day is also very important when surf fishing. Surf 
fishing is usually always good early in the morning between daybreak and 10 
A.M. and from 4 P.M. until dark no matter what the tide. Stripers and sharks 
tend to also feed after dark. So plan your “time of day” as well as your 
“tides.”

Surf fishing is best on a light easterly breeze. This brings fish close to 
shore. So keep that in mind when deciding where to go fishing.  Even though 
you can fish the surf anytime with good results, if you would ask me when 
the best tide to surf fish is, I would say three hours before high tide, and 
two hours after high tide.  If you are on a beach with a good drop off such 
as Assateague or 3-R’s Road, dead low tide and the first two hours of the 
incoming tide is also good.

“I want to catch stripers!”

The surf, early in the morning and again towards dusk and after dark is a 
good time to go. Fish the inlets with lures during these same time frames if 
it coordinates with a change of tide. Fish the Route 50 Bridge at night with 
lures or live eels on the last three hours of the incoming tide and the 
first hour or two of the outgoing tide.  If you want to catch blues, shad, 
and maybe some stripers, do the same tide at night from the Oceanic Pier or 
the inlet. Easterly breezes seem to do well from the inlets and pier as 
well.

Springtime fishing can give you all kinds of fishing experiences.  Sunny 
“not so windy” days are best for flounder. Those dizzily overcast days can 
be great for a bluefish blitz on the beach, bay or inlet.   Nighttime is the 
time for bigger stripers. And tautog will bite just about anytime during the 
day as long as you are fishing with crab on a rocky bottom.

Spring fishing! It’s great!

Good fishing….

 
 
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