OCEAN CITY- Lightning struck twice last week for a local sportfishing crew that caught a second rare opah off the coast of Ocean City in less than a month.
In mid-November, Captain Austin Ensor and the crew on the Primary Search out of Sunset Marina stunned the sportfishing community when it boated a rather rare opah about 60 miles off the coast of Ocean City in the Poor Man’s Canyon. Opah is a large, round tropical fish with bright orange and red colorings more associated with the warm tropical waters in the Pacific.
Despite the change in the calendar to December, sportfishing is alive and well off the Ocean City coast as evidenced by this massive 473-pound swordfish caught by the crew on the Goin In Deep last weekend.
Photo courtesy of Dave Messick/Hooked on OC
The rare opah caught by the Primary Search in November weighed in at just over 100 pounds. It is believed to be the first ever caught on a rod and reel off the coast of Ocean City and perhaps the first one ever off the resort’s coast, certainly creating a memorable fishing moment for Ensor and the Primary Search crew.
However, the fame and notoriety of the rare catch had barely worn off when the Primary Search caught a second opah that weighted just under 160 pounds last Saturday around 1 p.m. in roughly the same area as the first historic catch about three weeks ago. Ensor said the Primary Search crew caught the second opah in an area about two miles from the site of the first catch.
“It’s unreal,” he said this week. “We couldn’t believe what we were seeing. We thought we had a tuna.”
Last weekend’s rare opah catch in Ocean City was just part of a larger offshore fishing story off the resort’s coast in early December. Despite the date, some local sportfishing crews are still trying their luck in the still fairly warm ocean water temperatures with great success.
Last Saturday, the crew on the Goin In Deep with Captain Walt Harmstead landed a whopping 473-pound swordfish off the coast of Ocean City. Some will recall the Goin In Deep crew made a big splash at the Mid-Atlantic Tournament in August with a 680-pound blue marlin and a 194-pound yellowfin tuna, which earned the crew over $1 million in prize money.
