I will NEVER attempt.....

[hollywood9s]

to fish Ocean City during the summer months again.

Got down about 2pm today, with the intent to fish for some flounder for awhile, then have dinner at FishTales around 4-5 pm, and finish up the evening trying for some blues and stripers around the route 50 bridge.
NOT HAPPENING!!
There were boats everywhere, and jet-ski's by the thousands. I couldn't even anchor up in the bay behing Assateague because there were so many boats creating wakes that the boat would have been swamped if someone wasn't manning the wheel at all times.

Finally had enough after about 2 hrs and headed back for the marina. Got there to find about a dozen boats waiting to load ahead of me.
What an absolute cluster $&*!

Maybe it's not as bad early in the morning or through the week, but i'm done with that place until after Labor day.
Sorry, i had to rant, what a wasted day!! :mad:

[rocksteady]

I feel your pain . Leave it alone on weekends unless you want to deal with all the tourons .:yes: or get on the water at the crack of dawn.

[rich daiker]

No doubt....I was heading back in on Sunday from offshore only to find a few fine members of the PA navy SWIMMING in the channel just out from Purnells Island...I was last in a row of 4 boats that tried to go around them, only to run aground doing so...Mashed up both wheels and prolly gonna cost me a grand.....next time they are CHUM!

[Russ D]

Damn Rich that sux.

[hollywood9s]

No doubt....I was heading back in on Sunday from offshore only to find a few fine members of the PA navy SWIMMING in the channel just out from Purnells Island...I was last in a row of 4 boats that tried to go around them, only to run aground doing so...Mashed up both wheels and prolly gonna cost me a grand.....next time they are CHUM!

:eek::eek: And i thought i had a bad day!! Sorry to hear that Rich, that is just rediculous.

[rich daiker]

Yup..it sux for sure.....gotta love the PA Navy in OC:nono:

[DAndrews]

We headed north from the Chincotaegue bay and were commenting on how many boats were out yesterday. The most I've seen all year. You really had to have your head on a swivel. That's a huge bummer about your props. Alot of skinny water around and I usually won't go beyond Harbor Island because the channel gets so narrow and alot of boaters don't know what side of the channel to stay on.

[FinchDude]

A'Hoy Matee !!!!!! Proud Member of ! :52: Some people are just always looking for someone or something to blame all their problems on. The SHEET gets old.

[rich daiker]

Naaaaa. Just stating the facts.

[JimB]

Whew. Good weekend to stay home. Even if I did had to pay for my daughter's wedding.

Rich- what wheels do you need?? I have a couple in the shed new in the box. I know there are no counters but I might have the right hand one. I know I have a 17 aluminum and a 19 steel and I'm pretty sure both are universal hubs. You'd at least be half way there.

It's a zoo this summer for some reason. I know a lot of it is New Jersey money buying up places in Bayside in Delaware. You should see the bunch with the matching jet skis a couple of slips down from me. They took off on July 4th for Seacrets and I gave them 0% chance of making it alive. They eventually got it out of reverse and were able to do something besides backwards circles.

I've got a real bad felling the NJ Navy is going to be worse than the PA Navy on the north end real soon.

You guys are right, for the last 10 summers I've been able to go down to the 611 Bridge and anchor and not be bothered in July and August. Only have to fight my way home through the inlet. Not so this year. It's a circus. I and 3 other boats were drifting the 611 bridge in early July when a boat load of frat boys shows up in a custom inboard center console, anchors in the middle of the drift, cracks a keg and proceeds to go swimming. Another half mile down the bay and nobody would have even known they were there. Amazing. Just amazing.

Oh well, only 7 more weeks until Labor Day.

[rich daiker]

Thanks for the offer, but I am running bronze / brass wheels on the new boat....I will be down all next week and should be back up and running by then....if not I will run the Maycraft to the bone and chunk a few up...I am done with the inside during the day till first frost

[JimB]

Didn't know it was the Alby. No wonder it's that expensive. What a crappy way to spend money.

I hope your "PA" plumbing rates are higher than your Maryland rates. Although I've seen some PA plumbing (friends in Gettysburg), not sure I'd want to work on that or not.

[rich daiker]

Actually it was the new boat...the Luhrs..Albe has been retired

[hollywood9s]

Rich, how is it after dark, are most of the boats off the water then? If so, how is the fishig after dark, any good for croaker, flounder, rock , blues, etc...? If so, i might consider doing some night fishing.

[rich daiker]

Most are gone after dark....fishing can be pretty good, but you need to know the area fairly well...I do quite a bit of fishing at night and have taken some nice stripers and trout (when they were around)....give it a shot

[skonka]

What you are experiencing seems to be what I see up in IR and Rehoboth bays as well. After a 20 year boating hiatus, I'm on the water again. The crowds are bad and the operators are worse. Pontoon boats crossing the channel to get another drift feel they take precedence over a 25 or 28 foot boat navigating the channel buoys. No wake zones have become "no planing" zones. Quite a re-education. I blame the authorities for a lot of this, they're letting it happen.

[JimB]

skona I hear ya but there's only so much they can do.

I fish the Rt 90 bridge a bunch and I see DNR there every weekend writing tickets to jet skis as fast as they can write. You'd figure every jet ski in OC has had a least one ticket for not idling under the bridge by now.

There are way more boats and idiots than the DNR can take care of. For all the bodies the Coast Guard has on site, I don't think they do as much. Unless you shoot at them or have an out of date fire extinguisher, they aren't going to do much. Homeland security is priority one, safety is somewhere down the line and rules enforcement is way down at the bottom. Thank you al-Qaida.

I agree there's a huge problem with no wake zones. To be honest, they aren't really many legitimate no wake zones. When somebody puts a sign up on their dock, it has no legal justification other than the normal you are responsible for any damage your wake causes. Most of the restrictions are 6 knot zones. And there's the problem. Most boats plow like crazy at 6 knots and throw up a 4 foot wake. Of course it's made even worse by people who don't have a clue how to trim the boat to reduce the wake and lower the bow so they can see. That jungle between 32nd Street and Harbor Island is terrible. People slow down because the water is rough, plow with the nose up and make the water even rougher.

I think this is my last year. I'm going back the Chesapeake next year. As long as you stay away from Annapolis, Middle River and the Inner Harbor, the crowds aren't nearly as bad.

Even if you buy a big boat like Rich has and run to the ocean, you still have to get in and out of the bay. And look what happened to him. He's got more experience traveling that route than anybody in town and somebody still runs him out of the channel. That's just plain scary.

You know, I would have thought after the jokers smacked the Rt 90 bridge last year there would have been a pretty heavy crackdown. I guess the money is just not there to do it. You'd also think that the economy would have cut down on the boat traffic. I sure don't see that. I think that's because OC and Rehoboth are pulling in money from
further and further away. We're seeing a lot more people from Pittsburgh, New Jersey and New York than ever. If you've got the money to drive to OC every weekend from Pittsburgh in your 13MPG Escalade, you sure have enough money to buy a pontoon boat to go with the condo.

Oh well, enough soap box. Time to drive down and see how dirty the boat is after 3 weeks.

[rich daiker]

I have NEVER seen the DNR or the Coast Guard turn away from a law breaker...they just cant get them all. Those guys down there are spread thin and work very hard...I have personaly seen the DNR on the water 24/7 and always on the look out but its hard to patrol the entire PA navy and all the other knuckle heads on the water---If I did not love fishing in OC as much as I do, I would move to South Dakota:yes:

[Metzger25]

Any chance of a kayak being able to fish in the boat traffic behind the airport? I plan to try during the week when traffic is less in the early AM for fluke.

[rich daiker]

Good luck...

[scott w]

welcome to OC...the land of water idiots!:boat:

[wicomicofishaholic]

I call them SeaBillys

[DAndrews]

Any chance of a kayak being able to fish in the boat traffic behind the airport? I plan to try during the week when traffic is less in the early AM for fluke.

If you get in tight to land a little south of the runway you should be okay but watch the current, if can rip pretty good through there. You get out to far and you will be in alot of boat traffic.

[carjunkie]

No doubt....I was heading back in on Sunday from offshore only to find a few fine members of the PA navy SWIMMING in the channel just out from Purnells Island...I was last in a row of 4 boats that tried to go around them, only to run aground doing so...Mashed up both wheels and prolly gonna cost me a grand.....next time they are CHUM!

I rescued a member of the PA Navy last week. We were going to do a little scouting of the bottom near the 90 and 50 bridges when we see a small bowrider with people waving. Wife is on phone with CG and husband is under the the engine cover. The motor quit, another boater helped them get started and it quit again. Five people on board but I didn't see any PFDs, they asked for a tow and since it was getting dark with no operating lights on board I agreed to tow them across the bay to their canal. I asked for their line and all he had was a 20' section of 1/2 inch twisted nylon. I asked if he had an anchor line and he said no. We tied them on and idled in. I noticed during the tug that their nav lights flickered and then stayed on. I suspect they had a bad connection to the battery or faulty ignition switch at this point but figured get them in before they get in more trouble. When we got near the canal I told them we'd have to bring them along side to be able to control them in tight quarters of the canal unless the motor would start, surprise it did. We watched them idle into their canal and noticed PA on the side of the hull.

OC is scary, too many inexperienced boaters and jet skiers from all over. We witnessed one pontoon boat with three on board go between waders and the shoreline way out of the channel, yep he grounded. We also witnessed a small, less then 25', blow boat get in trouble in front of the 50 bridge, lots of traffic, incoming tide and strong wind with the sails up waiting for the bridge got them into trouble it would appear. It's crazy down there.

[worldwidecharterfishing]

OC has become very crowded. I get beat up in our 21 ft more in the bay then in 2-4' in the ocean. To say the least i prefer the ocean. midweek can be ok. The sad part is i dont pay attention to tides anymore for fishing in the bay. I just go out at 5 or 6 am and hope for the best before the crowds get there. I depend on when the crowds show up. I enjoy sitting and watching some of those morons run a ground. We are near the 86th street public ramp and the channel is real tight people will not pay attention and go right into the ground. Sad part is most people will wor there motor to death trying to get out when they could lift the motor and get out and push and be off again far faster then pushing through the mudd.

[carjunkie]

I think that is where I put in, $10 bucks to launch with a ticket for one retrieval, Carribean st or something like that. Private nav aids until you get out a bit. Very shallow all around, I was real nervous about running aground. We did drift up on a bar but it was easy to get out and push off.

[worldwidecharterfishing]

If you looked back to the end of the cove about 100ft thats were our house is. the boat with a hard top on the lift is ours.

[Russ D]

You should spend a few hours watching the public ramp. Last weekend it was in arare form. At one time we had 4-5 running issues to watch and laugh about. How noone dies there on a daily basis in the summer is beyond me.

[worldwidecharterfishing]

Russ D,

It is amazing. I saw a guy from PA pulling a 24 proline out of the water with a dodge intrepid. One of the funniest things i have ever seen. Not a steep ramp at all but he worked those tired to death. nothing better then a front wheel drive car pulling a good size boat. Everytime someone asked about towing on here it makes me think about that guy. We had some A$$ in a jet boat ripping through our little cove cuz he was pissed that the ramp closed. He backed his trailer into the gate over and over and then the next morning came to ask the people in the area where he could get his trailer fix cuz he broke one of his bunkers. What an A$$. Just little of the trash that roll in to OC.

[Russ D]

I saw 3 guys do things that could have killed themselves in the matter of 5 min. Them one guy was yelling at his wife because he was too stupid to realize he had no idea what the correct thing to tell her. He was giving her ridiculous instructions and then berating her when they didn't work. This guy was a real Bobbit candidate. Then some old guy fell directly under a boat being towed. Luckily he got out of the way right before the trailer smushed his head. All this in the few minutes it took us to get pulled out.

[fredhead]

I ain't much better down here in VaBeach. Couple of years ago some a-hole was heading out Lynnhaven Inlet throwing up a big wake (right in front of the Pilot boats) and caused my 23 footer to rock so bad that my daughter was thrown down and almost overboard.

I jumped on the VHF (without thinking) and yelled at them (using the name on the stern of their boat) to slow the hell down!!!!

Next thing I see is a VBPD boat hop up out of the water and go shooting like hell through the inlet.

Few minutes later (while we were at a nearby restaurant) in comes the a-hole's boat, driven by a VB cop and escorted by the police boat.:clap:

[HenryL]

Hello!
I think that's what's called poetic justice.
Thankfully your daughter was unhurt.
There're too many a******s out there with more boat than brains.
How many times have you seen
-someone steering their boat in on a pod of fish, instead of fishing it properly?
-totally disregarding the speed limits posted on buoys?
-pulling up alongside the North OC Inlet, say 15 yards off?
-Oh, yeah, let me not forget the same for the Indian River Inlet!
or countless other acts of selfishness, stupidity, and ignorance?
I really think that boaters should have licences as car drivers do, and show proficiency to keep the licence. This would certainly separate the wheat from the chaff!
My 2 cents.

God bless and right lines.