Article by Rick Willman
Hi folks! I hope everyone made it through the storm safely. Fishing before the storm was still okay but not great. The Indian River Inlet continued to give up some stripers, flounder and bluefish. Live spot or live eels are the ticket for the stripers. Live spot, minnows, squid or shiners will catch you a flattie. Most fish will not measure up to the legal standards, but you will still get some action on the end of the line.
Chris Saxton of Elsmere, DE used a live spot to catch a 30-inch, 9 lb. striper. John Justison of New Castle, DE used shiners to fool his 4.2 lb. flounder. Chip Illian and his crew fished in the Delaware Bay and had a blast boating one gray trout after another. All of the fish were small, but fun to catch and nice to see. Capt. Boyd Lord on the “Capt. Snooze” had the “PA Gang” out for a pretty good day on the water. They trolled up some dolphin and took a few nice sea bass in the deeper water. Let’s hope the wrath of Irene turns the fishing on hot and heavy!
Capt. Bill Baker of Bill’s Sport Shop told us that if you go southwest and southeast of the “B” Buoy, you will find flounder, ling cod and sea bass. Croakers and spot can be caught at the pier, and croakers are also found at the inner wall. The middle of the Delaware Bay is providing a nice flounder bite, along with croakers and bluefish.
On the surf, you will find croakers and kingfish with bloodworms, and you can also catch bluefish on fresh mullet. The Indian River Bay has croakers, flounder, spot and small sea bass along with blues. The Old Grounds are giving up flounder, sea bass and mahi mahi. For those venturing offshore, you will find bigeye tuna and bull dolphin, along with both white and blue marlin in the Baltimore Canyon.
Walt & Sharon Donaldson of the "No Rulez" caught 16 flounder including 2 keepers, and ten black sea bass with two over 16-inches, while fishing at site #11. On another trip, they caught keeper flounder in the area of “B” Buoy, and then went offshore to Massey's Canyon, where they had several knockdowns and boated many dolphin. The largest of the dolphin weighed in at 8.6 lbs. and measured 32-inches in length. Dave Konick sent Bill’s Sport Shop an email that read, "This was on Saturday all in less than two hours fishing up in the Indian River Bay, S-SE of the “19” can across from Massey's Landing: a 19-inch flounder and loads of croaker! The 19-inch flounder bit a strip of dolphin tipped with squid that I got out of the stomach of one of the dolphin caught on Tuesday. How's that for recycling?”
Cassie O'Neill, age 5 of Millsboro, caught her first keeper flounder in the Lewes Canal on squid and shiners. Captain Mike Rivera of the “On Delivery Charters” had an inshore shark trip and caught and released 4 large sharks at “A” Buoy. One was an estimated 600 lb. great white, and they also released two duskies and a hammerhead. Fishing at 3R's Road provided a lot of small bluefish for Chris and Don Parret from PA, and Jim and Chuck Nagel and Bill Weiss of DE. Whole mullet rigs were the ticket for the blues. A 4.5-foot thresher shark was caught on mullet chunks. On Friday at Site 10, Capt Bob Marsilio, Dave Jordan and Mark Sugalski of Malvern, PA were on the fish. Capt Bob & Dave used Gulp! and minnows with top-and-bottom and spec rigs to catch shorts, ling and skates. Mark used big bait, a whole squid, to land a 24- and 26-inch flounder. Capt. Bob was so excited that he had trouble netting the second big flounder and had to have Mark land the big fish himself. Capt. Bob then wanted Mark's rigs for his own use.
Jeffery Woleslagle had a great week fishing off of the Pier, and in a kayak around the Pier. He caught two keeper flounder (as well as plenty of shorts), stripers, snapper blues, oyster crackers, sea robins, sand perch, weakfish, pinfish, kingfish, puppy drum, black sea bass, needle fish, puffer fish, rays and loads of croakers and spot. Jack Brzoska of Angola was fishing in the Indian River Inlet with minnows and caught 3 keeper flounder up to 5.95 lbs. and 24 ¾-inches.
Capt. Joe Morris at Lewes Harbour Marina said he wasn’t sure what the effects of Hurricane Irene would be, but before the blow, the ocean flounder bite was good. Boats working structure changes and live bottom along the edges of the shipping lane from “DB” Buoy to “DA” Buoy had success with nice flatties. The artificial reef rubble of sites 9, 10 and 11 was productive as well. On Sunday, flukers aboard the “Katy Did” rounded up 15 keepers while drifting several pieces of bottom. Captain Brent Wiest wound in a 6.44 pounder, and Lou Panella put a 5.63 pounder in the box. Captain Charlie’s anglers on the “Tranquila” had a great trip this past Wednesday. They caught over 70 flounder while drifting west of “DA” Buoy, and put 15 keepers weighing up to 5 lbs. on ice. They also had nice seabass and ling. Ling have been plentiful this season, even in the Delaware Bay, perhaps because bottom water temperatures have remained cool, even though the surface was warmer than usual. Wes Olson checked in an 8.77 lb. doormat that he decked while fishing southeast of “DB” Buoy on Wednesday. Flounder bit hard on Friday, just before the hurricane. Fishermen on the “Katy Did” caught more than 70 flounder south of the “DB”?Buoy. They ended up with 8 keepers, including trophies of 8.09 and 7.47 lbs. for angler Jeremy Armolt.
Croaker action continued in the Delaware Bay. Hardheads were captured at Reef Sites 5, 6, 7 and 8 by bottom bouncers soaking clam, bloodworms and FishBites baits. Croakers hung out along the Ferry Jetty and the Inner and Outer Walls as well. It seemed like the larger fish favored those fishing spots. Patrons on the “Angler” and the “Pirate King” had good catches of croakers on Thursday and Friday, just ahead of the approaching storm. Bay fishermen also encountered spot, kingfish, snapper blues, blowfish, porgies and sea bass. The “Lil’ Angler” had good catching on Friday at the Brown Shoal reefs, with the storm on the way. The take included a 6 lb. flounder for Mike Bayshore, plus 4 other keepers. In addition, the guys had over 20 puffers and a bunch of hardheads. Those who fished the end of the slot striper season did well while using clams and eels in the Lewes Canal near the drawbridge.
‘Till next week, have fun and be safe!
Rick and his wife Deb are owners of Rick’s Bait & Tackle in Long Neck, DE.
