Article by Rick Willman
Hi folks!!!! Fishing in the back bays seems to be improving a bit compared to the last few weeks. Flounder are being caught on both the incoming and outgoing tides. A few more fish are being found in some of the deeper holes throughout the bays. Massey’s Ditch has been a pretty good producer the past week or so.
Wyatt Smith used a minnow to trick a 20-inch flattie that weighed in at 2 lbs. 10 oz. Seven-year-old Jamie Scott gave the big guys a lesson when he landed his 4 fish limit while fishing aboard the “I Have Fishuses” with Capt. Tom Scott. The largest of Jamie’s keepers was 20-inches, and he also used minnows.
Michele Lombardo landed a 2 lb. 2 oz. flattie, and Charline Logan caught a 3 lb. 5 oz. flounder. Rick Melvin fooled two flounder, weighing 3 lbs. 15 oz. and 2 lbs. 12 oz. Don Ruth scored a 4 lb. 3 oz. fish, and Phyllis Dinger fooled both a 3 lb. and a 4 lb. 6 oz. flattie.
George Wilder leads the way in the Rehoboth Shores Tournament with a 7 lb. 9 oz. flounder. Bob Jones caught a 2 lb. 4 oz. fish to get on the score sheet. Richard Dinger caught a 2 lb. 8 oz. fish for his score.
Offshore action has been good for those making the long haul. Gill Waddington and his sons Cory and Dan have been putting their friends on the fish. Their boat, ”Another Bill”, has been scoring yellowfin, bluefin, dolphin and white marlin.
Capt. John King of Lititz, PA took Dave Tkatch and his sons Chris and Colin to the Hambone aboard the “Dolci Vita”. The boys released 2 dusky sharks in the 150 lb. range and 1 dusky over 200 lbs. They also released 2 bluefin tuna.
Hook’em & Cook’em reported a 9 lb. 3 oz. flounder that was weighed in by angler Mike Esham last Friday. Mike hooked the doormat while drifting live shiners in the Indian River Inlet.
The news from Bill’s Sport Shop was that Skip Mosiej called to report a Sunday trip offshore to Massey's Canyon where they caught 6 bluefish, 2 false albacore, released one bluefin tuna and kept one weighing 50 lbs. All were caught trolling ballyhoo and lures. Stu Moore of Harrisburg, PA sent us an email that read, “Guys, thanks for the shark gear, we were out in the nice blue water for 30 minutes and came tight on a mako for the grill. We had the second one hit 30 minutes later; it was a big fish, but we had our one fish. Good bite, but the water is getting warm fast.”
Tom Wise stopped in with 3 keeper flounder up to 4 lbs. caught in the Rehoboth Bay. “High Hook Charters” out of the Indian River Marina reported: “We fished this weekend west of the Wilmington and went 12 for 15 on yellowfin, keeping 9 fish in the 30-45 lb. range, then came inside and landed an 88 lb. bluefin.”
Steve, Cody and Austin Shirk from Grantville, PA spent the night on the south side of the Indian River Inlet and came away with 5 stripers up to 21.65 lbs. and 39-inches on Calcutta Flash Foils. Bill Weiss and his neighbor, Joe, fished the north beach with fresh bunker and wound up with a nice king and 9 throwback croakers. Bucktail Bob, a contestant in Bill's Sport Shop flounder tournament, brought in his limit of flounder. They weighed 6.7 and 6.3 lbs., which would have beat the winners. Unfortunately, he did not weigh them in until 7 pm, well after the close of the tournament.
Stanley Mumford of Millsboro, DE caught a 17.95 lb., 39-inch striper in the Inlet on a Gulp! eel. Bill Baker Jr. caught a keeper flounder at Massey’s Ditch with a chartreuse Gulp! on a spec rig. Captain Chris Thurmon of “Skipjack Charters” reported a flounder trip to “B” buoy, catching lots of flounder with 5 keepers. On another trip, he went to the Canyons where he boated 8 yellowfin and one mako. Bill Vernon fished on the “Four Play” on Sunday in the Wilmington. They caught three yellowfin, the biggest weighing 86 lbs., and they lost a blue marlin after a short fight. All fish were caught on ballyhoo in 70 fathoms.
Joe Morris at Lewes Harbour Marina said offshore tuna action was very good, with crews reporting nice catches of both yellowfins and bluefins. Jim Short and the guys aboard the “Knot Right” arrived at the 100-fathom line between the Baltimore and Wilmington Canyons at sunrise on Saturday and found packs of hungry tuna feeding aggressively. They put out a mixed spread of ballyhoo and artificials, and it wasn’t long before they were into a series of multiple hookups. The bite continued through the morning, and before long, the fishermen were on their way back to the dock with a limit of 18 yellowfins ranging up to 60 lbs. Ed Sigda and the boys on the “Snow Goose” got into the tuna on Saturday also. They scored 5 yellowfins between the Baltimore and Wilmington Canyons.
Several boats had good catches in that area during the week. The “Skipjack” overnighted in the Wilmington and returned with a mako and 8 yellowfins. Bill Swords and his buddies on the “Swords Fish” mixed it up on Wednesday by putting 3 yellowfins and 3 gaffer dolphin in the box, then topping it off with a nice batch of tilefish. Numbers of billfish have been present in warm water in the Canyons as well. Angelo Delapo on the “Spoiled III” told of going two for five on white marlin while working 81-degree water in 250 fathoms below the tip of the Wilmington. The whites pounced on green machines and spreader bars being pulled for tuna. Andy and Chuck Shelton released a pair of whites in the Wilmington Saturday. Bluefins were hanging out in twenty fathoms. The Hambone was productive for trollers towing cedar plugs and spreader bars.
On the inshore scene, bottom bouncers found fluke on the Old Grounds between “DB” and “DA” Buoys. With favorable drift conditions, anglers using bucktail jigs tipped with strip baits caught good numbers of flatties. Flukers on the “Katy Did” had 9 keepers and many just short, drifting southeast of “DB” on Saturday. In the Delaware Bay, flounder catches were pretty good before the full moon, but fell considerably off with strong currents and dirty water following the lunar phase. Last Sunday, anglers on the “Katy Did” fished Reef Site 5 in Broadkill Slough and ended up with 10 keepers out of 57 caught. Mark Adams got the season’s first sheepshead on that trip, a 5.45 pounder.
Flounder continue to come from the Lewes Canal. John Davis checked in a 4.75 lb. flatfish he fooled with a white Gulp!. Folks at the rails of the Cape Henlopen Pier caught a few keeper fluke, along with some spot and small croakers. Boaters drifting along the Outer Wall and Ice Breakers in the evenings and after dark hooked into stripers. Casting bucktails, Storm Shads, Bombers, Rat-L-Traps or eels was effective. Small boat fishermen had fun in the Lewes Canal tossing topwater poppers for stripers. The marsh banks between the Freeman Highway Bridge and Gordon’s Pond yielded plenty of strikes. Rick Bortz was in on the last hoorah for black drum this spring. He and a buddy had four from 25 to 40 lbs. at the end of flood tide, while anchored and baiting with clams on the Coral Beds Tuesday night.
‘Til next week, have fun and be safe!
Rick and his wife Deb are owners of Rick’s Bait & Tackle in Long Neck, DE.
