Article by Larry Jock
Unfortunately, Mother Nature threw us a curveball last weekend and kept offshore boats at the dock and inshore and bay anglers either idle or battling nasty conditions.
The Paradise Grill Flounder Pounder was held on Saturday and Sunday. Even with sub-par weather, 443 anglers competed in the event with the Indian River Inlet looking like a sea of green shirts (required apparel for tournament participants). Here are the final standings:
1st - Keith Stevenson - 4.3 lbs.
2nd - David Agner - 4.0 lbs.
3rd - L.P. Faucett - 4.0 lbs.
4th - Nathan Mitchell - 3.9 lbs.
5th - Andy Coates - 3.8 lbs.
The 1st place winner was a 16 year-old angler who had the choice of either a $10,000 cash prize or a 16-foot Bennington pontoon boat donated by Short’s Marine. He decided to take the boat.
Outside of the tournament, Capt. Mike at Rick’s Bait & Tackle in Long Neck said that some of his customers found good croaker fishing last week on the south side and just outside the Indian River Inlet. The fish aren’t huge with most in the 9-inch range. They are falling for Fishbites in either bloodworm or clam flavor. Snapper bluefish and were also caught on both sides of the Inlet for Mike’s customers. However, better flounder fishing is out on ocean structure such as Site #10 and even better on the Old Grounds, in the Shipping Channel and around “B” Buoy. Gulp Swimming Mullets and strips of belly meat were the top producers.
Mike’s customers in the Delaware Bay found weakfish, croakers and kingfish on a lot of reef sites and triggerfish at the Outer Wall and Ice Breakers.
Prior to the weekend’s blow, Mike said that there was good action on snapper bluefish, king mackerel and Spanish mackerel from anglers trolling spoons at Fenwick Shoal.
Capt. Tommy at Lewes Harbour Marina said that the flounder bite in the Lewes Canal has been steady but anglers are still needing to weed through a lot of throwbacks to find their keepers. The flatties are a good size and are being caught on minnows, Gulp Swimming Mullets and strip baits. The good news for those drifting the Canal are that croakers are starting to show-up. This is always a great fishery to take advantage of when introducing kids to fishing because the action can be steady and the fight isn’t too hard for young anglers. Also in the Canal, Tommy said that anglers are still taking advantage of the Delaware slot season with fish in the 20 to 25-inch range falling for plugs.
Tommy also reported his customers getting into weakfish, croakers and kingfish at Delaware Bay reef sites with triggerfish and just a couple of sheepshead caught at the Outer Wall and Ice Breakers.
Inshore, most LHM anglers are hitting the normal haunts around the Old Grounds for big flounder and finding the best results with strip baits. Action at the DelJerseyLand reef site has slowed dramatically with some boats hitting it on their way home to see if they can catch a few black sea bass for dinner.
At Fenwick Bait & Tackle, Capt. Matt reported that his customers are having a good time fishing for spot and croakers around the Rt. 90 Bridge. They are also finding snapper bluefish and pufferfish there as well, but spot and croaker are the main targeted species. Interestingly, Matt found out from observing some of the snipers who come into his shop that chartreuse Fishbites are significantly outfishing the typical red-colored Fishbite bloodworms. After seeing these anglers purchasing the chartreuse-color artificial bait, Matt questioned a couple of the guys and one reported a 10-1 advantage while the other angler reported an 8-1 advantage. Looks like chartreuse is the way to go!
At the Fenwick Ditch, anglers are finding 23 to 28-inch stripers mainly interested in their offering of eels. This is different from past years when the linesiders were mainly hitting plugs. Matt said that both natural and Gulp artificial eels have been effective.
Inshore, Matt said he had a group of anglers have good results at Russell’s Reef catching triggerfish. Those venturing out to Fenwick Shoal are mainly finding bluefish, triggers and mackerel.
Capt. Bert Adams at the Hook’em & Cook’em Tackle Shop in the Indian River Marina said that flounder fishing has been slow in the Indian River Inlet, but a lot of croakers were caught by his customers on the south side along the rocks. Those drifting at night are tangling with short stripers while using sand fleas for bait.
Offshore boats out of Delaware marinas mainly hit Massey’s Canyon, the Hot Dog, Hambone and Tea Cup last week and found yellowfin tuna with a few bluefins mixed in. The highlight was the 185.6 lb. bluefin caught in Massey’s Canyon by anglers on the “Blackout”. Bert also saw a few wahoo arrive at the scale by anglers trolling in the Washington Canyon.
Until next week, have fun and tight lines!
