Captain
Tony Battista
Member since July 2018
Ocean City, United States
- Background
- I started fishing with my grandfather at age 9. As a child, I grew up fishing on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay and off of the Rt. 50 Bridge in Ocean City, MD. In the early days it was all about Perch (both Yellow and White) and small rockfish. In Ocean City, it was all Flounder. My grandfather loved to catch Flounder. In my early teens I was introduced to trolling. Mostly for Striped Bass and Bluefish on the Chesapeake. These fish would range from 5 to 20 pounds with an occasional fish over 25. It was on one of these trolling trips that I got to experience light tackle fishing for the first time. Late in the afternoon, a school of 10-12 pound Stripers started breaking on the surface. The captain had the mate pull all of the trolling gear in and then handed everyone a spinning rod with a red and white bucktail on it. For the next 2 hours, we made cast after cast hooking up every time. I was hooked! I couldn't get enough of fishing, it's all I wanted to do during my summer breaks!
- Techniques
- As far as I'm concerned, light tackle is the only way to go. Whether casting, jigging, trolling or just drifting, light tackle allows you to fight the fish and not the tackle. In Ocean City, we have so many options and species to target. Our season can start in mid-April and run well into December. Even in January some years, the migrating Striper fishing can be incredible. In late April/ early May, its Tog and Flounder. Then in mid-May, the sea Bass season opens as well as the Tilefish (my second favorite). May is also Shark month with Mako's and Thresher's being caught. Then late May to early June, we usually have a decent tuna run offshore. The rest of June is more Flounder, Sea Bass and Tilefish. June is also the month we start to see the first billfish and Mahi Mahi (my favorite species to target) being caught. July through early October is pretty much the peak with everything being caught including wahoo. Also at the top of my list is fishing for stripers at night.
Hey, I'm Captain Tony Battista
Ocean City, United States
- Background
- I started fishing with my grandfather at age 9. As a child, I grew up fishing on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay and off of the Rt. 50 Bridge in Ocean City, MD. In the early days it was all about Perch (both Yellow and White) and small rockfish. In Ocean City, it was all Flounder. My grandfather loved to catch Flounder. In my early teens I was introduced to trolling. Mostly for Striped Bass and Bluefish on the Chesapeake. These fish would range from 5 to 20 pounds with an occasional fish over 25. It was on one of these trolling trips that I got to experience light tackle fishing for the first time. Late in the afternoon, a school of 10-12 pound Stripers started breaking on the surface. The captain had the mate pull all of the trolling gear in and then handed everyone a spinning rod with a red and white bucktail on it. For the next 2 hours, we made cast after cast hooking up every time. I was hooked! I couldn't get enough of fishing, it's all I wanted to do during my summer breaks!
- Techniques
- As far as I'm concerned, light tackle is the only way to go. Whether casting, jigging, trolling or just drifting, light tackle allows you to fight the fish and not the tackle. In Ocean City, we have so many options and species to target. Our season can start in mid-April and run well into December. Even in January some years, the migrating Striper fishing can be incredible. In late April/ early May, its Tog and Flounder. Then in mid-May, the sea Bass season opens as well as the Tilefish (my second favorite). May is also Shark month with Mako's and Thresher's being caught. Then late May to early June, we usually have a decent tuna run offshore. The rest of June is more Flounder, Sea Bass and Tilefish. June is also the month we start to see the first billfish and Mahi Mahi (my favorite species to target) being caught. July through early October is pretty much the peak with everything being caught including wahoo. Also at the top of my list is fishing for stripers at night.
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