Article by Capt. BJ Pietryak
The kids are back from college, local schools finished their last week and the towns gather and prepare for the next 8 weeks of heavy tourist traffic. The fishing this week in Delaware was nothing short of fantastic. Lots of big flounder, tons of black drum, keeper rockfish and even a few croaker thrown in for good measure.
Sea Bass & Flounder
Sea bass, although definitely slowing, are still producing some quality fish. For those fishing the near shore wrecks or coral ground near A Buoy or B Buoy, many undersized fish must be sorted through to produce a keeper. Graf Eggers stated that he caught over 60 fish out at site 11. He managed to find only 5 keepers out of the 60 fish but stated the action was non stop. Jason Ruditys had a good day on nearby wrecks bringing home several nice flounder and a few nice sea bass as a bonus. Capt Mike Faust brought the Matt Mcconnold group back to the dock with several quality sea bass and even a stray triggerfish. The group used clam, squid, and jigs to provide the unrelenting action they saw all day. The fish were weighed in at Lewes Harbour Marina. Captain Ike charters had a group of young kids on board who brought in a nice stringer of healthy sea bass. Fresh clam is still your best bait but sea bass are also taking sand fleas and squid. From what I've heard, the jig bite has dropped off significantly. Those venturing off to the deeper water near the NJ/DE Reef were getting a better quality of fish, but as the water warms the larger trophy fish are heading even deeper. Finding a piece of structure that has not been targeted by 100 anglers is also becoming harder to find. With that said, many anglers are changing over to flounder fishing on the coral grounds.
The flounder have really begun to move in shore and are being caught throughout the areas of coral near A&B Buoy. Big Gulp baits are producing the best with long strips of squid as a close second. Scott Harmon took his first trip of the year ending in a limit with his biggest fish being 4 lbs. Daryl Mergenthaller Jr. was also out for flounder and captured some really big fish. Alexia Lento was out at Site 10 and managed a nice 23” flounder on a deadly combo. The fish were weighed in at Rick's Bait and Tackle. John Gudneck was out on the “Katydid” and returned with a limit of flounder including a trophy 6.35 lb. flattie. The new rig last year was the floating jig heads, and this year Mike Smith was using his floating jig head to hook a couple of real nice flounder. Mike said any color will work as long as it's pink. I tried a few of these style rigs last year and had very good success. The small floats on these rigs also help to keep the rig from snagging the bottom. Andrea Monetti was fishing this week and using her girl power returned to Lewes Harbour with a huge trophy flounder. John Spence also had a good day on the water catching 4 keepers up to 22” as well as a nice trout. Horace Hockenstien also returned with limits of flounder this week. The fish were brought into Indian River Marina’s Hook ‘em and Cook ‘em Tackle. Alex Artese managed to get a few casts in after work and brought home a nice flounder for dinner. This is a great style of fishing for taking small children to introduce them to fishing. Speaking of children, don't forget that the Kids Catch All tournament is coming to Indian River Marina on June 24-26. If you have never attended this function you really should. It's a great way to introduce kids to fishing and a great event put on by Indian River Marina. Family fun and activities are available with Hook ‘em and Cook ‘em providing insightful expertise as well as a shop with some of the best crab cakes you will find in the area. Up in the Lewes Canal, Peter Didden fished and pulled in some quality flounder on Gulp baits. Fish ranged from 2.5 lbs. to 3.2 lbs. Mike Slaughter, Mark Harris, and Jarad Hitchens also fished the Lewes Canal and brought home keeper flounder and sea trout while fishing with minnows. Further north, the Delaware Bay has also been on fire with nice flounder and even some sea trout. Many of the trout were over 12”. Minnows and swim baits accounted for the trout.
Surf Fishing
Surf fishing, although hit and miss, was very steady last week with flounder, cobia and blues coming in. In the area of Indian River Inlet, Joey Kokoska caught a beautiful striper on an Ultra Minnow bucktail. Tim Morris got 2 short flounder and a few nice bluefish. Weakfish were plentiful at Broadkill Beach last week. Travis Frey said no keepers but in 2 hrs they caught 15 of them. Lowell Salzman pulled a few kings, a couple of blues, 1 ray and even a shark off the beach on his outing. That's quite a plethora of fish with a big variety. I need days like that out surf fishing, great job! Bryan Winker reported his dad caught a beautiful 39” cobia off 3 R’s beach. Cobia are not often caught in the surf, but I got reports from both Delaware as well as Maryland of cobia being caught. Stacey Poe caught a couple short stripers off the beach on cut bait. Michael Deller got 2 bluefish and a couple short rockfish out of the same hole near Indian River Inlet. Nate Spencer hooked a great 24” 6lb trout. DS Custom Tackle reported the kingfish action was hot this week on Fishbites. They were catching them 2 at a time as soon as the baits hit the water.
Crabbing remains good with fat, heavy crabs. The average is around 8 keepers per pot. Holts Landing is the crabbing hot spot of the week.
Until next week...
Tight lines and fins up §
