Article by Larry Jock
After an incredible Memorial Day weekend of fishing, south/southwest wind put a damper on plans last week, keeping anglers at the dock on most days.
At the Hook’em & Cook’em Tackle Shop at the Indian River Marina, Capt. Bert Adams reported small bluefish in the 5 to 8 lb. range being caught from the rocks and by boat in the Indian River Inlet. Anglers did land a few striped bass in the Inlet while tossing rubber shads at night or Bomber lures from the rocks early in the morning. Unfortunately, very few flounder have been caught in the Inlet where Capt. Bert reported water temperatures still under 60-degrees during the incoming tide.
Sea bass fishing on headboats was also slow last week with anglers catching just a couple of sea bass and a few flounder on ocean structure. Bert said that Site 11 got pounded pretty hard by boats out of New Jersey and Lewes, DE, so what’s left is mainly smaller fish. Those catching fish are using clams, squid or Gulp! Alive Swimming Mullets.
Boats heading offshore found mako sharks, yellowfin tuna, mahi, tilefish and the first white marlin of the season. The 1st white was released on Saturday in the Baltimore Canyon by an angler on the “Not Right”.
Boats out of Indian River are still pecking away at yellowfins from the Baltimore Canyon down to the Washington Canyon and tilefish are being pulled out of the deep in the Baltimore Canyon as well. We are now also seeing mahi mixed in with the tuna. On Sunday, junior angler Matthew Gessler caught the largest one so far this year, a 16.4 pounder hooked on a naked ballyhoo in the Washington Canyon.
Further inshore, a few mako sharks showed up at the scale, notably a 193 pounder caught on Sunday in 30 fathoms inside the Baltimore aboard the “Capt. Ike II”. Earlier, on the same boat, a 157.2 pounder was caught on a whole bluefish at the Fingers.
Joe Morris at Lewes Harbour Marina said bottom fishing in general was pretty good last week. Water quality improved in the Lewes Canal and flounder catches were better as a result. Donnie Nauman checked in with a limit of flatties measuring up to 21-inches he took from the Canal with shark belly and Gulp! artificial baits. Cheryl Davis decked a 21-inch fluke while drifting minnows in the Canal. Matt Mitchell, Spencer Brooks and Zach Belcher had three flounder and some chopper blues while working Gulp! in the Canal near the Roosevelt Inlet. Shea Lindale and Terry Algier used minnows, shiners and Gulp! for a nice catch of flatfish from the Canal. Ed Yingling and Dave and Bobbi Jo Lorah drifted Nick’s Rigs with minnows for a half dozen plump keepers on Friday. Matt Purnell pulled in a 23-inch flounder by jigging a Gulp! at the base of the Roosevelt Inlet.
Bottom bouncers in the Delaware Bay reported better action with panfish. More croakers have shown up, along with kingfish and blowfish. Boats drifting or anchored at Site 5 in the Broadkill Slough or Reef 8, the Star Site, hooked a tasty assortment of bottom feeders using clams, bloodworms and Fishbites.
Roberto Campitelli and Mark Maggs were using croaker rigs on light tackle at the Star Site aboard the “Katydid” on Sunday and tangled with black drum weighing 30 and 40 pounds that grabbed small pieces of clam meant for hardheads.
Big bluefish continued to hang out inside Cape Henlopen and could be found feeding on bunkers most days between the Fishing Pier and Cape Henlopen Point. Captain Pete on the “Top Fin” had a group of Canadians in town for the Nascar race who wanted to squeeze in a little fishing. He took them to shallow water inside the Cape where they had a blast tangling with slammers weighing up to 13 pounds while casting bucktails. Blues have remained in the area for over a month, and it’s unusual to have a spring run like we’ve experienced this year. Perhaps they’ll stay all summer, and at least, we’ll hope for a return of choppers next season.
Striped bass have been active in the Lewes Canal. Most were shorts, ranging from 18 to 25 inches. They’ll eat clams fished on the bottom or a variety of artificial baits. Casting bucktails or Storm Shads around the Drawbridge results in rockfish bites. Live eels drifted around the pilings usually get the attention of larger bass. Tossing topwater lures to the marsh banks is a fun and productive way to fish Canal stripers. Zara Spooks, Chug Bugs and Rebel Pop-Rs are popular and effective offerings. Casting plugs at the Outer Wall during low light at dawn and dusk produced some keeper linesiders. Sommer Falgowski scored a 14.4 pound striper by swimming a Mother of Pearl Bomber along the Wall.
A few rockfish roamed the surf as well. Drew Stuchlik got up extra early Thursday to get in some surf casting before work. He walked the beach at Herring Point tossing a white bucktail and connected with a 14.7 pound bass. In addition, the bucktail produced three quality flounder to 5.5 pounds. Drew was back at the cleaning table by 7am, and still made it to his job on time. Other surf anglers had success too. Bluefish of varying sizes were hooked using cut bunker or mullet along the Ocean beach. Andy Lano landed several kingfish, blowfish and burrfish using bits of clam in the suds near Gordon’s Pond on Friday.
Black drum continued to come from Delaware Bay. Boomers were located on the Coral Beds inside Broadkill Slough and near the submerged piles off Fowler Beach. However, it seemed there were more fish found in the Brandywine area, between 14 Buoy and the Pin Top.
Drummers on the “Grizzly” caught 16 fish there on Friday night. Six were iced down in the box, and the other 10 released. Kylie Hinch and Tom Maracle had come to the area to take in the race at Dover, and decided to get in some drum fishing on the “Miss Kirstin” on Friday. They returned with a pair of nice boomers weighing 30.5 and 39.2 pounds. Nathan Gemberling got a 61 pound drum earlier in the week on the “Miss Kirstin” and Brian Hafer boated a 61 pounder on the “Pirate King”. Kyle Moore muscled in a 71 pounder aboard the “Lil’ Angler II”.
Ocean bottom bouncers reported plenty of short sea bass, but noted that keeper sea bass were thinning out over wrecks and reef structure. However, persistent crews that made multiple stops during the day ended up with decent numbers to take home. Anglers have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of codfish in the area this spring and adding a few of them to the cooler really rounds out a catch of sea bass. Some cod have been quite sizable. On Friday, Jomarr Hatten boated the biggest brought in so far. He had a 30 pounder while fishing over the Subway Cars aboard the “Katydid”. That same trip produced a dozen other cod for the box, pollack, ling and 86 keeper sea bass. On Monday, anglers with Captain Brent kept 3 cod, some ling and about a hundred sea bass. Thursday’s group on the “Katydid” had 8 cod, along with several big ling and a limit of sea bass. On Saturday, regulars aboard the “Katydid” captured 10 cod, a bunch of big ling and a boxful of quality bass. Mike Surowiec managed a 3.14 pound citation size knothead during that outing.
Offshore bottom droppers encountered tilefish in the deep. Jon Bixlers crew on the “Bix” drifted in the Poor Man’s for seven pretty goldens. Corey Crout caught the heaviest tile, a 32.1 pounder that ate a jig worked on the sea floor. Some anglers traveled south to try for cobia at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. Butch Warrington heard the bite was on at Cape Charles, and headed for Latimer Shoal. He returned with a 50 pound cobia he caught there while baiting with clams.
Until next week, tight lines!