Article by Larry Jock
As the summer season winds down, we have definitely been blessed with nice weather, allowing many anglers to get out on the water.
This past weekend, the 3rd Annual Paradise Grill Flounder Pounder was held. This has really turned out to be a big flounder tournament with some incredible payouts. This years tournament was won by Peter Hesson with a 24.8-inch, 5.8 lb. flattie that paid 12,550 in award money. Second place was won by Christian Andersen with a 24.5-incher that weighed 5.6 lbs. Joe DiBart took 3rd place honors with a 23.5-inch flounder that tipped the scales 5.6 lbs. Congratulations to all the winners!
According to Capt. Bert Adams at the Hook’em & Cook’em Tackle Shop in the Indian River Marina, action in the Indian River Marina is kind of slow right now. Water temperature is hovering around the 71-72 degree mark. They have seen the arrival of more croakers, just like in the Ocean City Inlet, and the average size fish is on the increase. Anglers are having the best luck fishing with squid, clams or Fishbite clam flavored artificial bait.
Striper action is still very spotty with only a couple being caught at night from the rocks. Bluefish have disappeared.
Flounder fishing in the Inlet consists of mostly short fish with only a few legal size flatties caught during the entire week. Luckily, the flounder bite in the ocean continues its torrid pace. Last week, the bite on natural coral bottom outproduced artificial reefs and wrecks. Anglers found good bites from Site 10, only 5 miles off the beach, out to the Old Grounds, 12 miles from land. The half-day headboat, “Judy V” saw many anglers catch their limit of quality flounder with fish to spare. Fishing with top and bottom rigs tipped with fresh, cut bait such as bluefish and sea robin worked extremely well. Those that had strips of flounder belly or mahi belly also saw good results.
Offshore anglers fishing out of the Indian River Marina returned with good catches of mahi from both the Washington and Baltimore Canyons. Small bailer dolphin were plentiful, but a good number of gaffers hit the docks as well. A number of boats returned from 55-fathoms in the Baltimore with white marlin flags flying. Yellowfins remain scarce and the fish that are caught are on the small side, weighing around 25 lbs.
Bert said that surf fishing is in the typical summer mode, but if you cast way out with strips of mullet, you have a decent chance of landing some kingfish. Other than that, surfcasters are finding a few croakers but are mainly battling sharks and rays at night.
Joe Morris at Lewes Harbour Marina said flounder action continued to capture the attention of Delaware Bay and ocean anglers. Reef Site 11 had yielded numerous flounder in previous weeks, but boaters found better catching recently on natural bottom between “DB” and “DA” Buoys. Inshore Sites 9 and 10 also produced flatties as well. Flukers relied on the usual arsenal of offerings to get the job done. Rigs sporting hair teasers in white, green or orange sweetened with a small whole squid, strip of squid, cut bluefish, robin or croaker, smelt or shiners, or any combination of these were popular. Bucktailers did well using 3 to 6 oz. jigs with a teaser of a lighter bucktail, vinyl squid or hair skirt tied to a dropper up the leader in front of the main lure. The addition of Gulp! greatly increased effectiveness. Many times, those using the revolutionary soft artificial with it’s powerful scent outfished others employing natural baits by a wide margin. Old Grounds anglers preferred 5 and 6-inch sizes, in colors such as pearl, chartreuse, pink shine, new penny, glow, and the super popular nuclear chicken.
Flounder pounders on the “Katydid” enjoyed another good stretch. Monday’s morning group gathered a boat limit of flatties. Bill and Charlotte Hughes and Steve Thompson joined Captain Brent in the afternoon for another limit, including Charlotte’s 6.25 pounder. Terry Euston and his crew captured a 40 flatfish limit on Tuesday. Bully Bob and the every Wednesday gang did it again, returning with another limit of 40 flatties. It was pretty windy on Thursday, but Frank Felbaum and his gang persevered to put 20 keepers in the box aboard the “Katydid”.
Paul Jackson and his party put together a catch of 10 nice keepers despite Friday’s questionable weather. Paul boated his personal best fluke, a hefty 6.5 pounder. On Sunday, Randy and his friends took home their limit of 20 keepers off ocean structure from their trip on the “Katydid”. Captain Carey’s anglers on the “Grizzly” also got into flounder. His Wednesday group brought back 32 fish. Flukers on the “Indian” had 13 nice flatties on Wednesday. Joe Walker, Bill Wiest, Tony Vansant and Tom Coyle took their limit of 16 flounder Tuesday near “DB” Buoy. Mike Thompson checked in a chunky 5.14 pound flatfish he caught Tuesday at the Old Grounds. Joe and Dave Walker and their buddies limited out on Wednesday while working the bottom near “DB” Buoy with Joe scoring a 5.75 pounder. Evan Falgowski and his family fished Site 9 on Sunday morning for a couple hours and put a dozen keepers in the box. Young Kale Falgowski celebrated his birthday by decking a 4.5 pounder during the outing. Aaron Brommer brought in a 4.85 pounder he caught with squid and shiners at the Old Grounds aboard the “Thelma Dale IV” on Sunday.
In the Delaware Bay, flounder were still hanging around Sites 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, but the best window for a bite happened during the last hour of flood tide, or first of the ebb. Joe Walker, Bob Murphy and Dan McGeady hit the reef circuit on Monday for 10 stout keeper fluke. Other bottom bouncers trying around the artificial reefs found croakers, kingfish, blowfish, triggerfish, trout, porgies and snapper blues. It blew hard northeast Saturday, but slacked off in the afternoon, and Tony Little, Jason Rutt and Maverick Rutt fished Site 8 for a couple hours aboard the “Fish Hawk” to capture 60 croakers.
Bluefish have also been feeding around the rocks of the Ice Breakers and Outer Wall, and would respond to a bucktail tipped with a squid strip or shiner.
Slot stripers remain in season until August 31st, and those seeking stripers in the Lewes Canal and Broadkill River had success drifting eels around the Drawbridge and Train Bridge. Casting surface and swimming plugs and soft plastic artificials along the marsh banks at dawn and dusk also produced rockfish.
Canal anglers also caught spot and croakers while using bits of bloodworm on small hooks.
Ocean surfcasters at Herring Point had a few kingfish, small blues and spike trout with bloodworms and Fishbites. The white marlin bite is starting to shape up offshore. Billfish were reported in decent numbers near the Triple Zeros near the South Poor Man’s. Dolphin have been plentiful around floating debris in the Baltimore Canyon. Matt Wright muscled in a 20.2 pound mahi while trolling in the Baltimore aboard the “Lil’ Angler II”. Rob Jarboe and his crew aboard the “Ella Belle” spent a rough Saturday night in the Baltimore Canyon, but were rewarded with a nice swordfish. Scott Hicks handled the 93 pounder after it ate a live croaker in 1,800 feet of water. The guys also released a pair of white marlin trolled up in the daylight.
Until next week, tight lines.
