Article by Capt. BJ Pietryak
Well we have reached August. The heat and humidity have eased up a bit this week, but the inshore fishing is still going strong. Flounder remains the main catch and are found almost everywhere. Croaker is really heating up both in the inlet as well as near shore humps and structure. With the White Marlin Open underway this week, we have tons of boat traffic on our waters. Even with all this traffic, anglers that put in the time came home with some nice fish.
Flounder, Croaker & Redfish
Flounder this season has been great with the back bays giving up some big fish. The area of Massey Ditch is a key location during the week. On the weekends the sandbars are really getting crowded and are making fishing near them rather tough. Fishing the main ditch area near the ramp is a great place to target fish. Minnow and live minnows are a great bait for this area however many anglers are reporting good success with Gulp curly tails. Drew Sparks got a couple nice flounder from Indian River Inlet. He was drifting the incoming tide. Otto Evans and Frank Tucker each got a limit of flounder between 17-22” on Tuesday. 4 ¾ yr old John Emerson Wik from Davis, West Virginia caught a 2.5lb 18 ½” flounder from Lewes canal. John caught this great catch on Gulp and was weighed in at Lewes Harbour Marina. What a great example of taking a kid fishing. Tom DiCampli was about 15 miles outside of Indian River and ended up with a double limit for his fellow angler as well as himself. Fish were up to 21”. Great job Tom. Richard Hanna was near the red #20 buoy got a nice 18.5” and a 20.5” flounder. Zach and Ethan Farmer were at Conquest Beach surf fishing and caught some huge doormat flounder. Pink Gulp accounted for these fine fish. Zach also reports he and his son caught bluefish and kingfish as well. Great job guys. In other fish news Adam Miller was able to put a solid bend on his 10 wt. fly rod with an impressive 22” weakfish. Adam used a bead head pattern fly that he hand tied himself that morning. A great catch on a spinning rod but on a fly rod, what a trophy. Many anglers don't realize Delaware has a big club and following for fly fishermen and those wanting to learn. Saltwater Fly Anglers of Delaware fly fishing club meets once a week in Rehoboth and is always looking for new members. Fly fishing in the back bays as well as the inlet can be very productive and is a great place for a novice angler to try his hand at this side of the angling sport. If you are interested, info can be found at sfaod.com. Inshore has also been producing some really nice spanish mackerel as well as small bonitos when trolling small spoons. The end of the incoming tide is reported by Ted Proseus as the best time with Fenwick Shoals as one of the best areas. Ted posts catches of these fish regularly on his Facebook page and seems to be real dialed in to catching them every week.
Seabass, Triggerfish & Cobia
Sea bass remains daily good but the warm weather has really slowed the keeper ratio. Quite often you have to wade through dozens of small fish to find a keeper. Deeper wrecks in the 100 ft and greater areas are your best chance to bring home a few fish. While sea bass has slowed because of the heat, the triggerfish are on fire. Many wrecks are loaded with these tasty treats and anglers are finding them ready to bite a small hook with some squid. Site 11 is reported as giving up several of these fish from its wrecks this week. Remember to keep one on the hook in the water to see if others follow it to the surface. On these same wrecks many anglers are reporting a few sea trout as well as small peanut mahi. The mahi are reported as very small but eager to bite a hook. Pieces of cut bait or squid on a circle hook freelined out behind the boat is a great way to catch these fish which will come by while you are anchored on the wrecks fishing. The past few years have seen many of these pelagic fish coming into the areas of the B buoy and A buoy coral grounds. So keep a rod ready with a circle hook on it and you might get a chance to catch a pelagic fish, almost always caught some 60-100 miles offshore. Many anglers in the past few years have started trolling small squid or chugger lures behind the boat just to target these fish. 4-6 mph is a good speed for this. Cobia is really starting to get productive but we still are not seeing the big fish we saw in the past few years. Live eels remain the bait of choice but bucktails and plastic worm or eel type baits will work if live eels are not available.
Crabs & Clams
Clamming is really doing good this year, however the main known areas are fish out of the smaller clams that many like to eat steamed. The larger clams which are still all over the clamming grounds are still great for soup or making stuffed clams and clam balls. Clam balls are very much like conch fritters or crab balls and made much the same way. Clam balls also freeze very well and are great when the cold of winter rolls in and you're looking for that seafood fix. Crabbing has been hit or miss the past week with most crab pots yielding 10-12 keepers per pot. However if your pots are in shallow water the low oxygen levels seem to be producing more like 5-8 crabs per pot. I have found that 6 ft or more of water is yielding the best and biggest crabs.
Until next week...
Tight lines and fins up
