Article by Larry Jock
Mother nature threw a wrench into the fishing scene over the weekend. Anglers who were able to get out on Thursday found fish inshore and offshore from the Wilmington Canyon down to the Norfolk Canyon. Friday was decent until the afternoon, when things got chunky, and Saturday and Sunday were too gnarly to get anything accomplished.
Joe Morris at Lewes Harbour Marina said flounder catching remained pretty good for fishermen who figured out how to properly work Delaware Bay artificial reefs. Sites 6 and 7 at Brown Shoal were productive, as was Reef 8, the Star Site.
Flounder aficionado Joe Walker and his crew pulled 9 keeper flatties off Site 8 on Tuesday. Joe concentrated on Site 7 on Thursday for 8 more nice fluke. Captain Brent’s flukers aboard the “Katydid” captured 19 quality flatfish at Site 7 on Thursday. Brent set a good example for his patrons by boating a 7.1 pound doormat himself. The “Katydid” returned to Sites 6 and 7 on Saturday where the group on board put 26 fine fluke in the box.
Ocean bottom yielded flatfish last week too. Scott Ayars fished the Old Grounds with Captain Ricky Yakimowicz on Wednesday and said that despite strong winds and lumpy seas, the flounder were chompin’. Scott ended up with three keepers weighing up to 3.61 pounds. Wayne Demarco and fishing pals Paul, Joe and Doug beat up the bottom between “DB” Buoy and Site 11 on Friday. Their efforts resulted in a boat limit of 16 flatties. Wayne noted that a bucktail and smelt combo was the downfall of most of their fish.
Back in the Delaware Bay, croakers continue to please anglers of all skill levels. Hardheads were found just about anywhere in the Bay, in the Lewes Canal and Broadkill River, and along Broadkill and Lewes Beaches. Jack Thompson was winding in a small croaker he hooked from the Lewes Beach when it was inhaled by a 3.3 pound flounder. Saucer sized spot, puffers, spike trout and kingfish rounded out the panfish mix.
Sizeable kings continue to be recorded. Daryl Plotcher decked a 1.38 pounder aboard the “Angler”, and Reilly Burnett boated a 1.2 pound citation earner on the “Indian”.
A few black and red drum have also been caught. Jeff Drury got a 5.53 pound red using live killifish near the train bridge on the Lewes Canal.
After being absent most of the summer, schools of snapper bluefish showed up along the Outer Wall and Ice Breakers. Anglers encountered the scrappy snappers tearing through groups of silversides under diving gulls and terns. Tossing a small bucktail, Kastmaster or Gator Spoon into the melee resulted in plenty of action. Many casters use ultra light rods and reels for extra fun. Triggerfish, sheepshead and spadefish also roamed the rocks of the Outer Wall and would eat sandfleas, shrimp or clams. Triggers hung out on artificial reef structure too.
On the offshore scene, boaters told of whales, porpoises and baitfish in 30 fathoms between the Hot Dog and Tea Cup, but hooked only an occasional yellowfin or wahoo. Plenty of whales were reported in the Baltimore Canyon too, and trollers took a few tuna, billfish and mahi there pulling ballyhoo and plastics among the pods of finbacks, pilot whales and two tone porpoises. Whales were also abundant in the Washington Canyon, and that location seemed to hold the most yellowfins as well. Crews trolled among the feeding mammals, often in quite close proximity to other boats vying for a crack at tunas feeding below. The best tuna bite happened after dark when yellowfins fed actively on squid and tinker mackerel. Wes and Shane Olson ran to the Washington on Thursday night in their center console and set up on the east side near the tip. Within a couple hours they had chunked up their limit of 6 yellowfins and released a half dozen. Other crews also told of good overnighters, with limits of tuna caught on live squids and tinkers, butterfish, sardines and a variety of jigs. The majority of yellowfins have been in the 30 to 32 inch range, perfect for battling on spinning gear or lightweight jigging outfits. However, 50 pounders and some slob bigeyes mingled with BLTs to keep the mix interesting.
To the south, Capt. Bert Adams at Hook’em & Cook’em said that the report for the Indian River Inlet hasn’t changed much from the past few weeks. A few flounder are being caught, along with some stripers and rays. There was an 8 pounder caught over the weekend by an angler fishing with live bait. Just like in the Ocean City Inlet, flounder fishermen are dealing with a lot of short fish right now and the best location continues to be in the area around the Coast Guard Station. The end of the incoming tide has been the most productive and Bert said the window is actually narrower than that, like 10 to 15 minutes. The fish start snapping and then the bite is over. Very frustrating.
Those flounder fishermen heading outside the Inlet are finding luck at the Old Grounds in 85 to 95-feet of water.
When it comes to the best flounder bait right now, live spot or mullet is at the top of the list. Most of the spot are too large to use whole, so don’t be afraid to strip them up. Flounder love em! If you can find live mullet, than stock up on whatever you can. Live mullet has been hot. After that, Gulp! artificial baits and live minnows round out the top flounder baits.
Bert said that a few weakfish (trout) were caught in the Inlet last week, with emphasis on “few”. Artificials tossed at the end of the incoming tide snagged the few weakies. No speckled trout were caught last week.
Jetty jockies are kind of upset right now, because our wonderful government has closed down the north side jetty due to dredging. Nobody knows when it will reopen, but I guess it didn’t make any sense to just fence off the area around the jetty to let fishermen up on to the rocks during the popular summer months, because we all know the government is way smarter than us and always so considerate. Therefore, if you wanted to fish off the rocks, you had to go to the south side of the Inlet where anglers caught a few triggerfish, trout and stripers, although the vast majority of linesiders were too short to keep.
In the surf, the kingfish bite has slowed, with only a few being caught all week. Surfcasters are now limited to sand sharks, skates and rays.
The headboats running out of the Indian River Marina had good days on Thursday and Friday, before the bad weather moved in. Flounder fishing definitely improved with several anglers catching their limit last week.
Offshore boats out of Indian River Marina had good days up to Saturday when rough conditions kept most either closer to shore than desired or stuck at the dock. The Washington Canyon yielded some nice catches of bigeyes, with an occasional yellowfin and the Chicken Bone produced a 72 lb. whoo and some dolphin. Billfish were found scattered up and down the line from south of the Wilmington Canyon down into the Norfolk Canyon. We haven’t seen any concentration of billfish, but this week’s Mid-Atlantic $500,000 should get a good number of boats looking. Stay tuned!
Until next week, tight lines.
