Article by Larry Jock
It was a nice weekend along the coast and there were certainly plenty of boats on the water with anglers chasing their favorite species in the bay, off the piers, on the wrecks and in the canyons.
At Rick’s Bait & Tackle, Mike Behney said that anglers fishing in the Lewes Canal are catching A?LOT of flounder but the throwback-to-keeper ratio is off the charts. Most are having to weed through 15 throwbacks to find their keeper and Mike said one group came into the shop and said they had 40 throwbacks and 1 keeper. A lot of action though, so it must have been fun. Most anglers are finding success using Gulp! artificial baits and/or live minnows.
Those looking for the best flounder action continue to head to the Old Grounds where anglers are catching both more and larger flatties. Dropping bucktails tipped with squid or bellies has worked well, along with the larger Gulp! artificial baits.
Those fishing in the Lewes Canal are also getting into slot stripers. The slot season for stripers in Delaware opened on July 1st and runs until August 31st. Fish must be between 20 and 25-inches in the Delaware River, Delaware Bay or it’s tributaries.
Reef sites in the Delaware Bay are holding good numbers of kingfish, especially around Site 8, and anglers are also finding flounder and small weakfish interested in their offerings.
A few spot are being caught in the Indian River Bay and the Rehoboth Bay and croaker have finally showed up in decent numbers. Fishbite bloodworms, squid or clams are always the best baits to use for hardheads.
In Massey’s Ditch, where the slot striper season is not in effect, anglers are catching flounder off the Pier along with croakers and short stripers at night.
Mike said that his customers looking for tuna didn’t have to travel far earlier last week with a good bluefin bite only 27-miles from the Indian River Inlet at the 12 Fathom Lump near the Delaware Light Ship. Bluefins were also caught around the Hot Dog and Sausages throughout the week with some yellowfins thrown in as well.
Capt. Bert Adams at Hook’em & Cook’em in the Indian River Marina told me that anglers fishing off the Indian River Jetty caught a couple of sheepshead last week while fishing with sand fleas. They also hooked into some shad, a few weakfish and small stripers as well.
The flounder bite in the Inlet is still sporadic but definitely improving as water temperatures continue to rise. Bert said that he saw a couple of bigger flounder, in the 4 to 5 lb. range, come in on Sunday. Like elsewhere, Gulp! and minnows seems to be the ticket right now.
Out on Fenwick Shoal and now around “B” Buoy, trolling Clark spoons will get you some bluefish.
Anglers fishing on the “Judy V” and the “Capt. Bob II” are seeing an improvement in the flounder bite, but just like inside, the throwback ratio is high. The best sea bass bite is at the Del-Jersey-Land reef site for anglers fishing with clams.
As you can see on the preceeding page, a cobia was caught last week at the “Reliance”. It will be interesting to see how this bite develops throughout the season since last year we saw a much improved bite.
He also had anglers on a private boat catch a 417 lb. thresher shark on Friday out around “B” Buoy. They fought the fish for 45-minutes, but couldn’t get it into their Grady White, so they had to tow it back to the marina which turned into a 2-hour trip.
Offshore anglers out of Indian River spent most of their time trolling, and now chunking, in Massey’s Canyon and around the Hot Dog and Sausages. Most of the tuna coming into the marina were bluefins with a couple of yellowfins in the mix. Green machines, naked ballyhoo and bally’s dressed up with blue and white Ilanders or Joe Shutes did the trick.
Bert said he heard reports of boats getting into white marlin in the Wilmington Canyon over the weekend but hadn’t verified this information as of press time.
At Fenwick Tackle, Matt reported that most of his anglers fishing in the surf are seeing a good kingfish bite right now while fishing with Fishbites, bloodworms or squid. Croaker are also becoming more commonplace during early morning outings for surfcasters soaking squid. Those fishing at night are getting into the usually selection of sharks and rays. Getting your baits a little further off the beach could give you a shot at hooking a sand tiger.
The Ditch is producing small flounder with an extremely rare keeper thrown in.
Tournament
This weekend is the Paradise Bay Flounder Tournament on Saturday, July 15th. It’s a one day tournament, rain or shine with a $50 entry fee for adults and $40 for children. Check-in is from 7 to 9 AM the day of the tournament and lines have to be out of the water by 5 PM. Weigh-ins are at Paradise Grill starting at 4:00 PM. For more information, go to the Paradise Grill Facebook page.
