Drifting Easy by Sue Foster

“It’s August and it’s hot! The water temperatures are up and the fish seem 
to be slowing down. Where and when should I go fishing? “

August fishing can be very good or very bad. All depends on how you go about 
it! When the water temperatures heat up to near 80-degrees you need to 
change your tactics just a little. “The early bird gets the worm,” often 
rings true for the angler in August. The anglers that are out there on their 
boats or casting from the shore at the “crack of dawn” (or an hour or two 
before) are often the ones that are weighing in those fish!

In a boat, you have the best advantages early because the water temperatures 
are cooler.   There is also the advantage of little boat traffic first thing 
in the morning. No matter what the tide is, by 10 A.M. you’ll notice a load 
of boats and jet skies going here and there, to and fro, stirring up the 
water. This can be especially important if you are fishing the Inlets for 
stripers or trout. These fish like to feed at first light in the heat of the 
summer and will quit biting as soon as the boat traffic gets heavy. There 
are many local anglers that “work the rocks” from 5 A.M. until 7 or 8 A.M. 
then call it a day. Most people are just getting started by 8 A.M.!

“How do you fish the Inlet for these stripers and trout?”

If you are in a boat, you want one of four baits if you want to use live 
bait. You want to buy or catch live eels, spot, bunker, or finger mullet. 
You can usually buy live eels at most tackle stores. Live spot is harder to 
buy and also expensive. You can catch your own with small hooks and pieces 
of bloodworm or artificial FishBite bloodworm. Live bunkers or finger mullet 
usually need to be cast netted and thrown in your live well. Eels will keep 
in a cooler with no water as long as you keep them cool and damp. All the 
other baits need to be kept in an aerator bucket or live well or they will 
die in short time.

“How do you rig these live baits?”

            First of all, you need a fairly large hook.  An Octopus or Kahle 
styled hook in the 3/0 to 4/0 size is good. Any pre-made “eel rig” for 
stripers will work for all the other baitfish. If you want to make your own 
rig you can do this either of two ways. Tie a good-sized hook to the end of 
a 30to 36-inch piece of 30 to 40 pound test monofilament or Fluorocarbon 
leader. At the end of the leader tie a black barrel swivel. Now you can 
either set this up on a fish finder rig, or make an egg-sinker rig.

            To make an egg-sinker rig tie a barrel swivel to the end of your 
line and then tie a piece of 30 or 40 pound test leader about 8-inches long 
to the barrel swivel. Slip on an egg sinker in the 1 ½ to 3-ounce size 
range. Then tie your barrel swivel attached to your long leadered hook to 
the end of that line. The egg sinker will slide back and forth between the 
two barrel swivels.

            Hook the eel, spot, bunker or finger mullet through the upper 
lip, eyes, or just behind the mouth.

            The larger the baitfish, the longer you need to let the fish eat 
before setting the hook. I count to 10, feel for the weight of the fish as I 
raise my rod tip, cross my fingers, and set the hook hard!

There are two ways to fish for stripers and trout in the inlet. Drift 
through the inlet with whatever sinker weight it takes to hold the bottom 
for one tactic. The other tactic is to use just a little weight (or no 
weight when the water is slack) and cast towards the churning water at the 
tip of the South Jetty. Yes, where all those other boats are throwing! On 
calm days, anglers go to the south side of the south jetty and drift or cast 
to the deep hole near the end of the south jetty. Others drift over the deep 
hole just offshore of the North Jetty.

“What about flounder fishing? It seems to be falling off? Even the croaker 
didn’t bite around the Rt. 90 Bridge the other day!”

Again, when the water temperatures get hot, adjust your fishing time to 
early in the morning and fish again late in the afternoon towards evening. 
Cloudy days are often good days to go as well, as the sun does not heat the 
water up so quickly. Rt. 90 Bridge for spot and croaker may be dead on a 
90-degree hot day, but might be great on a cloudy, slightly drizzly day. It 
may also turn on later in the day when the sun starts to go down!

Water temperatures are cooler in deeper holes. Try to fish the deepest holes 
you can find. The deep holes of the Thorofare, the main east channel between 
14th Street and the draw of the Route 50 Bridge, and the area between the 
draw of the Route 50 Bridge and the Inlet. The bay behind Assateague near 
the Airport often holds some nice fish in the summer. Fish the higher tide 
as the water is deeper. Two or three hours before high tide and two hours 
after high tide is the best tide in the summer. If you can coordinate that 
with an early or late “time frame,” your chances to catch fish are even 
greater.

Flounder bite offshore in August. If you can run your boat a ways out of the 
inlet and fish any of the “shoals” outside of Ocean City you will likely 
catch some flounder. Make your drift so you work the edges and the top of 
the shoals. Use a long leadered hook and use shiner and squid combination, 
or any kind of cut bait like fresh spot fillet or bluefish fillet. The reef 
offshore of 28th Street is good. Little Gull Shoal, Big Gull Shoal, any of 
the lumps and bumps just offshore of Assateague Island is good. You may also 
run into croakers out there!

Wreck fishing can produce flounder as well as sea bass in the heat of the 
summer, though sea bass fishing can be slow. If the current is not running 
too hard, drift all around the wreck areas with your long leadered flounder 
rigs. I like to use an egg sinker or fish finder rig offshore rather than a 
3-way swivel. When you fish in deeper water the 3-way with sinker snap can 
get twisted.

“I don’t have a boat and I’m not catching any fish!”

Again, try fishing early, early in the morning and then again at dusk and 
after dark in the heat of the summer. Surf fishing is best between 5 A.M. 
and 10 A.M. and again between 4 P.M. and dark. After dark often produces 
good catches of croaker, trout, stripers, sharks, and bluefish. Middle of 
the day fishing on a hot scorching day can leave you fishless.

The same is true when casting lures from the Jetties, Route 50 Bridge, and 
Oceanic Pier. When daytime fishing, try to do early in the morning, late in 
the day or night, or pick those cloudy drizzly days.  Some of the best and 
biggest croakers are caught at night.   Most of the stripers and trout are 
caught at night or first thing in the morning. If you can get an incoming 
tide after dark, you’re likely to have luck. Add a light east wind and you 
are in!

Good fishing…




 
 
Need rigs and sinkers? Visit our  Online Mall!



  Fill your Tackle Box Shop on Line