Fishing Industry

Fishing Industry. . Both commercial and recreational fishing have played an important part in the development and growth of Ocean City, Maryland., The year 1897 marked the beginning of the commercial fishing industry when members of the Ludlam family brought a crew of fishermen from Cape May, New Jersey and began pound fishing off the coast of Ocean City. Fish pounds were huge traps made of nets located a half mile to over a mile offshore. The nets were secured by hickory poles, some as long as 60 feet, driven into the ocean floor in depths ranging from 32 to 44 feet deep. After hauling in their catch, the crew would have their boat pulled ashore by a draft horse. The fish were sorted and taken by horse drawn carts to the railroad platform where they were weighed and packed in ice for market. Prices ranged from two to twelve cents per pound wholesale., Captain Charles R. Bunting is credited with building a dock on this location at the foot of Talbot Street in 1918. He rented rowboats and sailboats to anglers wishing to fish the brackish Sinepuxent Bay. Captain Levin Bunting, Ward Gray, Turner F. Cropper, and Harry Bunting were some of the local men who guided fishing parties on the bay in that era., Recreational fishing took hold in Ocean City. A popular form of fishing is the party boat or "head boat" (so called because there is a flat charge per angler or "per head"). The larger boats go out on the ocean and bottom fish near wrecks and artificial reefs while smaller boats drift fish on the bay. The charter fleet has provided countless opportunities for fishermen from all over to catch a "big one.", [Captions:] , Sport fishing, or recreational fishing, has always been a sportsman's paradise in Ocean City., Captain Charles R. Bunting rented boats for 50 cents a day., In 1938, there had been 781 white marlin reported caught off-shore. In 1939, a total of 1,259 with no record of any release. By the early 1950s, a "catch and release" program had been encouraged and true sports fishermen began conserving the marlin population for future generations., Captain Josh Bunting offered both deep sea charters and bay fishing from the Dorchester Street docks in the 1950s.