Article by Larry Jock
This Week Last Year
•Flounder fishing improved in the Lewes Canal.
•Triggerfish showed up at Site 10 and Haystacks.
•Spanish mackerel, bluefish, sheepshead, weakfish, spadefish and triggerfish at Fenwick Shoal.
•Site 10 flounder bite picked up.
•Weakfish caught in the Roosevelt Inlet and DE?Bay reef sites.
•Kingfish caught off the Fenwick coast.
•Small stripers in the Fenwick Ditch caught on Rat-L-Traps.
•Croakers and flounder in the Indian River Inlet.
•Stripers and blues in the Inlet at night.
•Flounder caught on the backside of Burton’s Island.
•Ocean flounder bite was good in 80-feet of water. Water temp was 74-degrees
If the fishing was as hot as the air temperature we had last week, the Coastal Fisherman would have been 154 pages.
At Lewes Harbour Marina, Capt. Tommy said that anglers are still picking at flounder in the Lewes Canal, but it looks like most of the fish have moved out. Anglers are still finding decent numbers of slot stripers around the Drawbridge and close to the Broadkill River. Tommy said that anglers have to put their time in to get a keeper, but they are there and hitting on eels, jigs tipped with soft plastics and Tommy’s secret weapon for stripers... clams!
In the Delaware Bay, reef sites are holding a lot of kingfish in addition to snapper blues and a few sea bass. Croaker numbers are definitely looking better and there are a ton of weakfish all over the bay. Tommy believes that this is due to the lack of bluefish in the bay last spring. Others believe it is the decrease in the number of stripers that view weakfish as candy. Anglers who are fishing at the Haystacks or around the Outer Wall are finding triggerfish interested in their offerings of sand fleas or green crabs.
Right now, the water around the Cape Henlopen Pier is loaded with spot, but anglers are also finding keeper flounder, small stripers and snapper bluefish. Gulp, Fishbites and cut bait will do the trick.
Tommy said the reports he is getting from anglers ocean flounder fishing out of Lewes are disappointing. Anglers are very frustrated with the lack of fish right now and the inconsistent bite. We are still seeing some nice fish hit the scale, but it is nothing like it normally is. You can see in the “This Week Last Year” section of this report that right around now it started getting better, so don’t give up.
Capt. Mike Behney at Rick’s Bait & Tackle said that “there are a lot of fish around”, which is a good thing. The Indian River Bay and the Rehoboth Bay are full of decent size spot right now with some weakfish, up to 14-inches, mixed in. Anglers are also finding flounder snapping on Gulp artificial baits in addition to the standard squid, minnows and shiner combinations.
Mike said that he isn’t hearing much coming from the Lewes Canal, so that backs up what we also heard from Tommy at Lewes Harbour Marina.
At the Haystacks and Outer Wall, in addition to the triggerfish mentioned earlier, Mike’s anglers also got into some weakfish while using squid for bait.
Fenwick Shoal continued to give anglers a variety of fish to go after. Spanish mackerel, snapper bluefish, weakfish on top of the shoal and triggerfish are all taking up residence around the shoal on structure just off the shoal.
Mike said that in the suds, surfcasters are finding a lot of fish with kingfish leading the way and pompano continuing to surprise several surfcasters.
At the Hook’em & Cook’em Tackle Shop in the Indian River Marina and Hook’em & Cook’em Outfitters in Bethany Beach, Capt. Bert Adams reported some flounder being caught in the Indian River Inlet by the Coast Guard Wall and keeper stripers being hooked at night along the rocks on the south side jetty. Bert said that anglers were happy with an influx of big bluefish for a couple of days last week with stripers mixed in to make it interesting.
In the surf off Indian River, anglers are finding small bluefish, kingfish, spot and croaker during the day and sharks, rays and skates at night.
Headboats out of Indian River have flipped from sea bass fishing to flounder fishing. Those looking for decent size sea bass have had to travel over 30 miles offshore, just too far on most days. The headboats have been going 5 to 15 miles off the beach and hitting normal flounder hot spots, but the pickings have been slim. It should start heating up very soon based upon prior year reports.
Capt. Matt at Fenwick Bait & Tackle said that fishing is pretty good right now off the beach in Fenwick Island. Bluefish, kingfish and pompano have all been on the scorecard and there was even a thresher shark caught and released last weekend.
Small stripers continue to show up in the Fenwick Ditch and a fly fisherman was surprised when he hooked into a Spanish mackerel.
The offshore bite was slower last week. Anglers are still finding bluefins while trolling at the 19 Fathom Lump and in Massey’s Canyon. Good numbers of dolphin were also found at Massey’s Canyon with better results out in the Baltimore Canyon. Most boats headed to the Baltimore in search of yellowfins, but the better bite was down in the Norfolk Canyon and below. It was also the best week we have seen for wahoo with most coming in from the Baltimore. Down in Ocean City, anglers on the “Decision” boated a monster 109 pounder in 30 fathoms in the Poor Man’s Canyon last Friday and there were a few others hooked from just north of the Wilmington down to the Washington.
Upcoming Tournament
This Saturday and Sunday is the Paradise Bay Flounder Tournament with weigh-ins at Paradise Grill in Long Neck, DE. The event is rain or shine with over $30,000 in award money including lady angler and junior angler divisions. Registration for the event cut off on July 14th, but you can still head to Paradise Grill to see the action at the scale. Best of luck to all the anglers!
Until next week, have fun and tight lines.
