Article by Capt. BJ Pietryak
This week brought cooler weather and great fishing. Sea trout and flounder are your most abundant species at the moment. The crowds are gone, kids are back in school and the coast is clear. Now is the time to take yourself out fishing! Lower fishing pressure and an abundance of different fish to catch is the time of the year many locals wait for.
Back Bays & Surf
The back bays have been alive with fish. The wall leading into the Delaware Bay is alive with spanish mackerel as well as triggerfish, tog, and flounder. Pitching your baits to the wall and icebreakers leading up to a high tide has produced the best results. The shoals leading into the bay have also been holding some big flounder. Drifting live spot as well as large Gulp baits have resulted in some trophy flounder coming over the rails. Albert Bitici caught a few nice sized spanish mackerel. Leslie Raffensperger from Angola caught a nice 4 lb. flounder on minnows.
Looking towards the Indian River Inlet, George Magaw hooked a huge 26” 6.9 lb. flattie... a trophy fish by any standard! Shawn Croney got a limit of flounder with the biggest being 25” and a nice 5.5 lbs. Steve Sipe caught a 21” flounder near the Coast Guard Bulkhead. Further back in the bay the VFW channel was also a prime stop this week again with Timothy Goodman catching some nice flounder up to 20” on a double rig tipped with minnow.
The channel out front of the VFW has been most productive on an incoming tide with the best location being at the opening closest to the inlet mouth. Big Gulp baits have been the most widely used however those using live minnows have been getting a better quality of fish. Nick Garcia and crew were at it again this week catching some really nice flounder up to 23”. Nick also reports they caught tons of spot and croaker in the back bays. Seems he has the bay fishing dialed in and is always posting nice catches weekly on social media.
Further up the bay small blues and redfish can be found near the Indian River Power plant however an oil spill in the area this week had slowed fishing in the area. The back channels leading into the creeks off Indian River are a great location to target this time of the year. The fish will target the bait fish in the cooler creek openings.
This week I did not receive any reports of tarpon tailing in the back bays, however I'm sure with the water temps still high there are still a few around. Along the inlet rocks, weakfish and spadefish can be found by casting a shrimp towards the rocks and allowing it to settle towards the bottom. Looking to the beaches most catches have been small blues and rockfish in the evening and night hours. During the day pompano have been caught at 3R’s with Ingrid Bennett catching a big 15' on a Maws rig and sand fleas. Andrew Hansen also got some pompano fishing in this week. He stated that the pompano fishing has been very good this week with late afternoon being the best time to target these fish. Ellis Gaulden took his kids out for a last fishing trip before school began and was rewarded with a nice rockfish. Although not a keeper, this is still a great catch in the surf . Way to go guys.
The bay has also been producing some big crabs. The pots have been averaging about 10-14 keepers per pot with many being jumbo male crabs. Deeper water in the 5-7 ft. account for the bigger crabs.
Near Shore Coral, Wrecks & Artificial Reefs
The near shore fishing has been extremely good this past week with the main catch being flounder. Ray Messick got a nice limit of flounder this week with a few big sea bass thrown in for good measure. Daryl Mergenthaler and crew ended up with limits of flounder before 9:30am. Joseph Nicholas and Fred Robinson were fishing on the “Katydid” and reported that the captain made quick work of putting them on the fish resulting in catches of some big flounder.
Along with the big flounder many sea bass are still being caught. Penny Sarro was fishing the wrecks with floating sea bass rigs. The group caught several keeper sea bass as well as some nice flounder. Charlie Donohue and Ben Samiatin reported they had tons of throwbacks but did manage a few nice flounder up to 19” as well as sea bass to 14”. Weslie Gray was fishing with the boys and caught some sea bass and flounder as well as a nice 11 lb. mahi near A Buoy. Weslie reports they caught many other peanut mahi in this area. Strip squid baits cast to the passing fish were the right bait to trick them into biting.
The mahi bite has been a little slower this week, however, searching the areas near A Buoy and casting or trolling small plugs near the sea bass pot balls has been producing the best results.
The area of the Fenwick Shoals is still very good for both spanish mackerel and triggerfish. Trolling a small Clark spoon at around 5-6 mph will trick the mackerel into biting. When you have your fill of catching the mackerel target the wrecks and drop small pieces of squid or sand fleas down to the bottom to catch a few triggerfish. The drop off on the south side of the Fenwick Shoal has also produced some nice flounder.
Small bluefish are starting to show up at the shoals also as well as a few cobia. Chumming with small live eels has been the most productive for cobia.
Until next week...
Tight lines and fins up §
