Article by Larry Jock
To say it was a nasty weekend along the Delmarva coast would be an understatement. Steady 20 to 30 mph wind combined with rain kept almost everyone at the dock and at home.
Before the blow, Bert Adams at the Hook’em & Cook’em Tackle Shop in the Indian River Marina and Hook’em & Cook’em Outfitters in South Bethany reported a lot of bluefish in the 8 to 12-inch range were being caught by anglers fishing off the rocks in the Indian River Inlet. A few flounder were also caught by boat along the Coast Guard Wall, highlighted by Brugh Moore’s 9 pounder that he fooled with a live mullet. Incredibly, Bert said that this was the first flounder Brugh had ever caught. The kid is spoiled for life!
A few striped bass are quietly being caught at night by fishermen throwing 5-inch blue herring colored swim shads off the rocks at the Inlet and there were also a few bonitas caught last week by anglers casting spoons in the Inlet.
In the back bay, Bert reported decent size spot being caught and small black drum in the 8 to 10-inch range.
In the surf near Indian River, bluefish are starting to show up in better numbers and kingfish are still hanging on. At night it continues to be the standard line-up of sharks, rays and skates.
On lumps and structure close to shore, anglers are still finding cobia cruising under schools of bunker. Although only a single 18 pounder was caught last week out of Indian River, several were caught a short distance south towards Ocean City.
Fenwick Shoal, a popular location for boats fishing out of Indian River, is seeing an invasion of bluefish measuring 10 to 12-inches and anglers are still catching the occasional Spanish mackerel while trolling spoons. Bert said that mackerel seem to like gold-color spoons while bluefish prefer the silver ones.
Headboats out of Indian River obviously didn’t venture out over the weekend, but they continued to peck away at flounder throughout the week, although the bite has slowed down in 60 to 80-feet of water. Bert said the flatties are starting to move further off the coast and preparing to spawn which they are start to see evidence of when they filleted recent catches. It looks like you need to get out into 100 to 120-feet of water for better flounder action. Site 11, the Lightship and the Radford reef site both producing better catches of flounder.
If you fish in 60-feet of water, you will find all the 8 to 12-inch croaker you want along with some small bluefish mixed in.
Offshore, Indian River boats headed to the Poor Man’s Canyon to get in on the good white and blue marlin bite. Dolphin are everywhere, but most are small and we saw a couple of mahi caught deeper in the canyons and also at Massey’s.
Capt. Mike at Rick’s Bait & Tackle said that his customers are finding croakers and flounder in the Lewes Canal but the bite isn’t exactly red hot. In the back bays and at Massey’s Ditch, flounder are being caught, but the throwback ratio is extremely high. Hardheads are also being captured in the bay and just outside the Indian River Inlet.
Mike’s customers who are fishing in the surf are finding an increase in snapper bluefish and a surprising number of pompano. One of Mike’s customers was fishing near The Point and ended up with 8 pompano in a single day.
At the Cape Henlopen Pier, a lot of spot are being caught on small pieces of cut bait and Fishbites.
Inshore, most of the flounder Mike saw before the blow were caught around “A” and “B” Buoys where anglers also found some mahi interested in their baited top-and-bottom rigs. The closest mahi that was caught came in from Fenwick Shoal by an angler trolling Clark spoons for Spanish mackerel.
At the Walls in the Delaware Bay, Mike said that triggerfish and small black drum, measuring up to 20-inches, are interested in offerings of sand fleas.
Finally, at Lewes Harbour Marina, Admiral Tommy said that the waters around the Cape Henlopen Pier are producing spot, croaker, bluefish and a variety of “strange” species like bar jacks and lizard fish.
Action in the Lewes Canal has been slow and I’m sure that the run of bad weather we are having, and will continue to have for another week, will only create dirty water conditions and put a damper on an already slow bite. Tommy said that those who have been drifting the Canal found spot, croaker, some flounder and small bluefish.
At the end of the week, some anglers fishing the mouth of the Delaware Bay found flounder in the 18 to 20-inch range.
At the Walls, Tommy said that in addition to the triggerfish mentioned earlier, anglers are also catching a few sheepshead as well while using sand fleas for bait.
One of the bright spots last week, at least for Tommy, was deep dropping in the Baltimore Canyon where he and some buddies caught golden tilefish, blackbelly rosefish, weighing up to 3 lbs., and ling cod, weighing up to 4 lbs. They also caught some mahi around some lobster balls.
Until next week, tight lines!
