Article by Rick Willman
Hi folks! No need for a big boat this time of year! All of the action is in the back bays.
Putting a bend in your rod should not be a problem if you are baiting up with bloodworms, minnows, squid, or FishBites. The croakers are still a bit on the small side, but that should change very soon. The neat part is there are plenty of fish, and there is no better way to recruit a new fishing buddy than to put them on a school of croakers. It doesn’t matter whether they are young or old, there is plenty of fun to be had!
For those of you not getting in on the fun, try this and you will understand what I am talking about. Take someone who is not real keen on fishing and put your boat near Buoy #20 in the Indian River. Rig up with #6 or #8 hooks and a 1 or 1 ½ oz. weight. On your hooks, put a small piece of bloodworm or a small piece of squid and let the fun begin. Not only will you hook some croakers, but that non-fisher adult or child will be hooked on fishing!
There are plenty of flounder in the back bays, but you will have to weed through a number of throwbacks to get a keeper. Minnows, squid or Berkley Gulp! are the tickets for some flounder action. The Indian River Inlet is giving up some flounder, bluefish and stripers. In the inlet, your best baits would be live spot, eels or bucktails. Berkley Gulp! also works quite well in that area. Ryan Grogg of Spring Grove, PA fished along the south shore using live spot to score a 6 lb. 1 oz. flattie that measured 25-inches.
Massey’s Ditch is giving up a few flounder, some blues, and a few short stripers. Sandy Hufnal of Clayton, DE was fishing Massey’s and caught a very nice 7 lb. 3 oz. tog. Capt. Chuck Cook of “First Light Charters” was fishing the Outer Wall at Lewes and scored flounder weighing up to 7 lbs. 10 oz. using his homemade floating bucktails.
Offshore action has been slow. A lack of tuna and abundance of rough seas does not make for good fishing. It was rough going for those involved in the 3rd Annual Rick’s Bait & Tackle/Sea Side Gas & Grill Offshore Tournament. There were no tuna brought to the scale and only a few dolphin. Rough sea conditions made it tough for all, and impossible for some. Money winning boats included Mike Eddinger and his crew aboard the “SeaDuction” at the top with a 28 lb. dolphin. Scott Fluharty and crew aboard the “Sea Side Slammer” took second and third place.
Bernie from Rattle & Reel Sporting Center on Long Neck Rd. told us that there are plenty of flounder in the Indian River Inlet. Minnows, squid and Berkley Gulp! are the baits of choice for the flatties. Bloodworms or FishBites artificial bloodworms are the best baits to fool the croakers in the back bays. The stripers in the Indian River Inlet are taking a liking to live spot.
Bill’s Sport Shop in Lewes gave us the following report: Dave Tkatch and James Forsyth fished the Old Grounds and Site 11, using shiners and Gulp! to boat 5 sea bass and 2 keeper flounder over 21-inches. Croaker fishing is also good and consistently getting better. Blowfish have also been a big hit on many of his recent trips. The crew had some good catch-and-release action with inshore sharks. Spot and croaker are being pulled over the rails at the pier. Surf fishermen are reporting spot, croaker and kingfish in the suds. Bluefish are being caught at the Indian River Inlet on the incoming tide.
At Hook’em & Cook’em Bait & Tackle in the Indian River Marina, Deanna told us the surf report is pretty normal for this time of year with some kingfish, some spot and croaker being caught with the good old standard FishBites Bloodworm or the real deal. There has been a lot of talk about all those big sharks being brought in at night from the South Bethany area. If you want to give that a try, you need to get yourself some tuna belly or fish carcasses. Mahi and blue fish work the best. Or, you can also use whole bluefish for bait. This type of fishing is best done by taking your whole rigged baits and kayaking them off the shore about 50-100 yards. Then, just sit back and wait for the action to happen.
The inshore report has been getting better everyday, with more and more keeper sized black sea bass and flounder showing up. These fish have been caught anywhere from Site 10, the A-Buoy, and down to the Washingtonian. Some flounder have been coming in from the Old Grounds as well as the B-Buoy. Bruce Nowakowski of Nassau, DE caught a 7.3 lb. flounder while fishing out at Site 10 with green squid and a white teaser. Sean Leiby of Philadelphia, PA caught 4 keeper flounder while fishing on the "Horizon" out at the Old Grounds with a squid and minnow combo. If the water gets too rough for you, you could stay a little closer in and try your hand at fishing at the Pipe Line down off Bethany for triggerfish and maybe you will get some croaker or kingfish as well.
The half-day trip on the “Judy V.”, as well as the full day trip on the “Capt Bob II” are picking up more and more keepers everyday. Thomas Palm of Baltimore, MD, who went fishing on the full day trip on the Capt. Bob II with Capt. Roger Meekins, came back with a 4.6 lb. black sea bass and other keeper-size bass as well. Captain Roger Meekins also brought back a 5.3 lb. black sea bass, his largest ever.
The offshore report has been a little slower on the action as of late. There have been a few boats that have tried their hand at it over the past couple of weeks, and most brought in mahi with just a few yellowfin showing up. A few wahoo have also come to the dock. The first was from the boat "Unbelievable", with a 52-pounder that was caught out near the Triple Wrecks, east of the Tea Cup. This was the largest of the season at the Indian River until the “Fish Whistle” went out fishing last Tuesday and brought in one to top that weight. This one weighed in at 62 lbs. and was caught by Johnny Horning while fishing out at the Baltimore Canyon. The only tuna that were seen in any large numbers were from the gang on the “Chain Reaction”. They brought in 5 yellowfin, all ranging between 50 to 60 lbs. after trolling around the Washington Canyon.
In the Inlet, the striper fishing has slowed down with the warmer water temperature, but you will still find an occasional keeper mostly at night and primarily with live spot or eels. Flounder are still coming in, with a lot of large ones in the mix. Steve Sheets of Quarryville, PA brought in one that weighed 8 lbs. and was caught using live mullet. He was fishing on the South side of the Indian River Inlet. Joseph and William Thieme of Catasauqua, PA caught three flounder while fishing in the Indian River Inlet using live spot. The heaviest fish weighed in at 7.7 lbs. AJ Sinibaldi of Newark, DE was fishing in the Indian River Inlet with his parents and hooked up with a 9.4 lb. flounder while using minnows and squid. Christopher Adams was asked to go fishing with Mike Esham and his friend in the Inlet, and they were just one fish away from landing their limit on live spot. Bluefish continue to bite on both the incoming and outgoing tides. The “Gale Force” has been bringing in some stripers, flounder, a few croakers and some larger bluefish for their charters.
Joe Morris at Lewes Harbour Marina said croaker fishing was real good in the Delaware Bay. Hardheads have been plentiful around the artificial structure of Reef Sites 6 and 8, and the fish have also been a little larger on average. Although the majority of croakers came from the reefs, fish were also found on open bottom. Edges outside the Outer Wall and between “F” and “G” Buoy in the Anchorage held hardheads. Clams, bloodworms and FishBites were the baits of choice. Anglers lining the rails at Cape Henlopen Pier caught lots of big spot up to 10 inches using bloodworms and Fishbites. Good numbers of spot were also pulled from the Lewes Canal. Tidal currents around the new moon ran hard, making for tough drift
conditions, so flounder action was spotty. But, a few fluke came in during the week. Captain Chet’s Sunday group on the “Lil’ Angler” had a half dozen chunky keepers to 24 inches while anchored on Site 6.
Billfish trollers saw some good action in the deep. There were numerous white and blue marlin in 500 to 1,000 fathoms in both the Poor Man’s and Baltimore Canyons. Dolphin have been hanging out on floating stuff offshore. Bill Swords and his buddies worked lobster gear balls in the Baltimore Wednesday for 44 dolphin to 15 pounds. They switched to bottom dropping, and finished off the trip with 10 golden tile to 25 pounds. Anglers aboard the “Tranquila” boated 16 nice dolphin on Sunday in the Baltimore.
Until next week, have fun and be safe!
Rick and his wife Deb are owners of Rick’s Bait & Tackle in Long Neck, DE.
