I just got back from the secret bunker somewhere between Cape May, NJ and Ocean City, MD where I was super busy this evening hosting the live broadcast of the MidAtlantic Tournament.  Over 140 boats fished today and there was a lot of excitement as lots of fish were weighed including some very big blue marlin.  We had wahoo, dolphin, tuna, blue marlin and white marlin hit the scales, and even though the GOAT Michael Jordan wasn’t present, his crew was and weighed the first place white marlin on board his Catch 23.  Here’s who’s leading after three days of fishing.  Thanks to Sunset Marina and the MidAtlantic for the pics!

2nd Place     Max Bet     65 Lbs

1st Place     Kilo Charlie     607 Lbs

2nd Place     No Quarter     539 Lbs

3rd Place     Random Chaos     490 Lbs

1st Place     The Right Place     193 Lbs

2nd Place     The Right Place     152 Lbs

3rd Place     Random Chaos     80 Lbs

1st Place     Lovin’ Life     39 Lbs

2nd Place     Under Taker     24 lbs

3rd Place     Under Taker     21 Lbs

3rd Place     It Just Takes Time     23 Lbs

Outside of the tournament Blake Gunther and his crew are doing some red drum fishing on the Eastern Shore of Virginia and are into the fish.  This jumbo was caught and released just a short time ago.

Captain Marc Spagnola of Dusk to Dawn Bowfishing had two good trips recently that produces rays during the day and snakeheads and gar at night.

Back bay flounder fishing has improved and these anglers got to take advantage of it on the Tortuga out of Bahia Marina.

Captain Chris Mizurak of the Angler reported a slow start today, but it picked up nicely by the end of the day with plenty of nice fish.

Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star had a great mixed bag of fish today that included flounder, sea bass, tautog and mahi.

Got a text about 9 last night that our latest major reef donation, a 50 foot   tug, was 8.5 miles offshore & would be moored until daylight by the towing co –   then Tow Boat Rob would take over. 

My crew and I had spent the better part of two days getting the mooring markers in position. Even gave up on a 150lb Navy anchor in exchange for a hundred pound Danforth. It’s plenty hard enough to work with these big anchors made fast to one inch nylon; to have a big anchor fail twice makes it a yard ornament. Maybe I’ll put it in our annual Benelli & Park Place Jewler’s Reef Raffle as a weekly prize. 

She hit bottom about ten after 8 on 8/24/22; our new 55’ tug we sank as reef substrate, that is. We were building at Capt. Bob Gowar’s Memorial Reef. It’s in fairly shallow water – great for fishing but also newer scuba divers. The mooring needed to be perfect so that scuba divers can go from a block & cement pipe pile, to this new tug, then to a small barge we sank a few years ago. 

Just to the north is Michael McGowen’s Memorial Reef. It’s comprised of a section of the old trawler New Hope and many of our reef pyramids. 

Maryland doesn’t have a marine reef building program. What the Ocean City Reef Foundation can gather in donations goes back into reef building. Charts our donors receive today are packed with reefs built by previous donations—even to before the State dropped the program in 1997. The reef I would most like to build would cost millions (but we could get a dern fine start for a couple hundred $K..) Bundles of cement pipe cabled together and overlain with large cobble and armor stone. The habitat complexity would be beyond anything ever built before. Built along several stretches of hard sea floor in the 4sq mile Bass Grounds Reef Site, it would restore reef lost in the late 1960s & 70s to the commercial surf clam fishery. (Those fellows are incredibly tightly controlled nowadays and fish shoal tops almost exclusively. No more damage can occur where it’s all been lost. We’re putting it back as best we’re able..)  

We’ll soon have our annual raffle up. For   over a decade Benelli has contributed a fine sporting shotgun each year and have again. This year Park Place Jewlers have also contributed a nice men’s watch and a gold Hawaiian style jeweled gold hook necklace – these grand prizes will anchor the raffle for a Jan 1st, 2023 drawing. However, it’s not simply a one day event! There are many weekly prizes. St. Croix rods donated a nice stick, AllTackle too. Lenny Rudow at Fish Talk just sent a fine collection of gear and autographed books; long time friend of Reef Building, Acie, contributed a super-cooler, my boat is contributing 5 sweet sticks & two top of the line conventional reels; Nick Denny some Great Wall pics and a a special “water’s view” photo shoot of your boat.. Gerald from over in Salisbury donated a custom made rod and shimano reel too along with some earrings he secured in Afghanistan — There’s more, plenty more! Watch for the raffle to begin soon..

Check out our tour of Atlantic Tackle in West Ocean City! With 156 boats fishing day 4 of the MidAtlantic Tournament today we had a feeling that it was going to be another busy day of… READ MORE

Flounder Stuffed with Crab Imperial Ingredients: 4-6 Flounder Fillets 1 Lb Crabmeat 3/4 tsp Worcestershire Sauce 4 TBSP mayo 1/4 tsp salt 1 egg dash hot sauce pinch thyme, oregano, dry ground mustard, Old Bay, Parsley… READ MORE

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