Oc (4/30/2022)

[Jman]

Fished the inlet at OC on Saturday with my dad for most of the day. We caught the end of the incoming tide and fished until about the end of the outgoing tide. The tidal coefficient was really strong which made it tough to fish some spots. We brought gear for tog, striper, and bluefish. The tog bit more on the outgoing tide, but they were all less than <16 - definitely not a stellar bite. Most of the others fishing in the area were in the same predicament. We caught a bunch of striper and two bluefish up to 19" casting soft plastics on a 1/4oz jig head. The bite was almost exclusively on the incoming tide for about an hour or so.

Hope this is helpful if anyone's thinking of headed down that way! We had trouble finding a bait shop open early, although we did find one called "Buck's" which was open earlier. They didn't have crabs, but they had fresh clams, minnows, and frozen baits. Next time, we will go to H-Mart to get shrimp for a better price the day before.

[ILV2F5H]

Jake, thanks for the report. Glad you were able to get on the water and get some pullage. Perfect size blues too.

[Slobber Bob]

Thanks for the report! I fished for tog there the week prior to you (4/22). I found that the tog bite was terrible for 4+ hours during the outgoing tide. But I waited the tide out and during the incoming tide the bite turned on phenomenally and I reached a limit, with lots of shorts, in less than 2 hours. I don't know what triggers them to bite, but it can go from cold to hot, and vise versa there sometimes.

Bucks mostly caters to the surf fishing crowd headed to Assateague. All tackle, Atlantic Tackle, Sunset Marina, or the Oceanic Pier usually all carry some sort of bait for tog. If you can't find an open bait shop though, you can usually dig sand fleas over in the surf at Assateague if you beach your kayak by the south jetty. Or flip rocks anywhere in the inlet area to look for crabs if the tide is low enough.

[Jman]

Thanks, that’s interesting about the tide! It’s amazing how much it can change the fishing between trips.

Great tip on digging for sand fleas, we definitely could have done that when we were resting over there.