Article by Larry Jock
At Rick’s Bait & Tackle, Capt. Mike Behney reported that he hasn’t heard much about the flounder action in the Lewes Canal, but there are some really nice fish coming in off spots in the ocean. The bite right now is a bit inconsistent with most of the better action coming from locations in 100-feet or deeper water. Site 11 and the Old Grounds seem to be the top spots right now and not much is being heard from anglers who fished Site 10.
The charter boat, “Katydid” returned with some nice catches of flatties throughout the week, with fish weighing just over 7 lbs.
Sea bass fishing is tough. Most boats heading to ocean reefs and wrecks have flipped over to flounder fishing, but those still looking for knotheads found some larger fish and some big ling that were interested in their offerings of squid and clams at the DelJerseyLand Reef.
The tautog season in both Delaware and Maryland reopened on July 1st after being closed for the last 45 days. The minimum size is 16-inches and anglers can keep 4 fish per trip/per day.
At Fenwick Shoal, Mike said that small bluefish are being caught while drifting and trolling. Spanish mackerel have shown up for those who are trolling spoons. Anglers are also catching some triggerfish on sand fleas.
In the Delaware Bay, anglers fishing at the Ice Breakers are finding triggerfish biting on sand fleas and most of the reef sites seem to be holding some weakfish and kingfish. They are being caught while anglers are flounder fishing so strips of squid or bucktails are the ticket.
Around the Cape Henlopen Pier, spot and kingfish are dominating the action and the spot aren’t small.
Matt at Fenwick Bait & Tackle was really surprised by the number of reports of cobia being caught off the beach from North Ocean City up to Bethany Beach. Although we have seen them caught in past year, this season they just seem to be more plentiful and have arrived earlier. Anglers are finding luck catching pompano while using both Fishbite bloodworms and real bloodworms. Kingfish are still roaming the suds in good numbers and the usual 3 to 4-foot sharks are keeping surfcasters happy at night.
Matt’s customers who are fishing around the Rt. 90 Bridge are finding spot with a few short stripers mixed in. Spot are also being caught in the canals in North Ocean City and Fenwick Island.
In the Fenwick Ditch, small stripers in the 20-inch range are being hooked on artificial lures along with Gulp and Z-Man soft plastics.
At the Hook’em & Cook’em Tackle Shop in the Indian River Marina and Hook’em & Cook’em Outfitters in Bethany Beach, Capt. Bert Adams reported that the flounder bite in the Indian River Inlet looks to be getting better. Water temperature has increased up to 75 to 76-degrees. On Sunday, he had one customer come into the shop after catching 25 fish on Gulp New Penny Shrimp. Flatties are also being caught around the Handicap Pier, by the Coast Guard Wall and on the south side by the big houses. At night in the Inlet, anglers are catching small stripers, but they are also seeing more keeper size fish as well.
Bert said that a good number of Spanish mackerel arrived in the Indian River Inlet on Sunday night and anglers were able to hook them while tossing Gotcha plugs and spoons off the rocks. Also along the rocks, anglers are finding a few triggerfish as well.
With the opening of tautog season on July 1st, Bert said that anglers who hit the deeper holes with the cooler water around the rocks should be able to find a few tautog interested in their offering of sand fleas or crabs.
The headboats, “Judy V” and “Capt. Bob II” running out of Indian River have mostly flipped over to flounder fishing and have found flatties on sites 7 to 12 miles off the beach, but anglers have had to weed through a high percentage of throwbacks to get their keeper.
If you are looking for black sea bass, Bert said that he heard of a pretty good bite by some customers who headed to structure 36-miles from the inlet.
Off the beach outside of Indian River, Bert said that surfcasters are catching a real mixed bag of fish including pompano, kingfish, small weakfish, 10 to 12-inch bluefish and a couple of flounder. At night, sharks and rays are dominating the action with 4 to 6-foot duskys and sand bars leading the charge.
Offshore, boats headed to Massey’s Canyon in search of bluefin tuna, but found the bite slow on both days. Yellowfin action was also slow over the weekend for boats in the Poor Man’s and Washington Canyons. Some yellowfins and bigeyes were caught in the lower Spencer Canyon. Mahi are mixed in and we are definitely seeing an increase in size.
A pending Delaware state record for false albacore tuna was set when Jonathan Buchanan caught a 12 lb. 8 oz. fish while trolling in Massey’s Canyon. The previous record was 20 lbs. 8 oz. set back in 2016.
Until next week, have fun and tight lines.
