Article by Larry Jock
Well, the weekend turned out better then predicted. Heading into Thursday, NOAA had a bad forecast right through Sunday, but the wind didn’t start puffing up until Friday afternoon and lasted right though Saturday. Sunday turned out to be nice and there were a ton of boats on the water.
Capt. Mike at Rick’s Bait & Tackle reported a much improved flounder bite after a very slow start this spring. The Old Grounds, always a hot flounder spot, has turned on with both good numbers of fish being caught and quality fish at that. Fish up to 9 lbs. hit the scale this week for anglers fishing bucktails tipped with Gulp!, cut bait or squid strips but the real hot bait right now is the good ole’ fashion minnow. As you saw on this weeks cover, David Burgess caught a 28-inch, 9 lb. flounder at the Old Grounds while fishing with a bucktail tipped with a Gulp! artificial bait.
Flounder fishing in the Lewes Canal continues to be hit-or-miss with Mike receiving reports from customers of a lot of throwbacks and not many keepers. Good reports of flatties did come in from anglers fishing in the Indian River Inlet/Bay, near the Red Roof House, especially on Sunday.
A few weakfish in the 22-inch range were caught in the surf off Sea Colony last week.
Inshore, the bluefish bite around Fenwick Shoal seemed to have died down, but Mike said that they tend to be there all summer, so perhaps they have just moved off the hump right now but should be showing up again. Triggerfish are starting to arrive on inshore structure off the coast of Delaware. Site 10 could be a good spot to try for a trigger.
In the Delaware Bay, kingfish and short weakfish have been found on structure and it looks like the black drum bite is over. Anglers jigging around the Inner Wall are finding some flounder interested in their offerings.
Fishing in the surf off Delaware has been slow, but better reports of kingfish came in from surfcasters last week. A few spot are showing up and surf fishermen fishing at night continue to have sharks dominate the action.
At Fenwick Tackle, Matt Shoup said that the tautog bite around the South Jetty in Ocean City is going strong. Matt was actually boating a few as he was giving me his report on Monday. They were looking for sheepshead, but tog were the only fish interested in their sand fleas.
If you are looking for a sheepshead, it is easy to confuse them with black drum. One actually slipped through last week in the Coastal Fisherman. The easiest way to tell them apart is that sheepshead have a forked tail and black drum have a flat, paddle tail. Black drum also have short barbels (whiskers) on their nose, but I find it easiest to just look at the tail.
It looks like a new batch of big, chopper bluefish have entered the bay and Matt’s customers are finding them as north as The Ditch. A few flounder are mixed in there as well. Fishing around the Rt. 90 Bridge has only resulted in small stripers for most anglers recently. Spot are showing up in the canals.
At Hook’em & Cook’em Tackle Shop in the Indian River Marina, Capt. Bert Adams reported a slow flounder bite for most anglers drifting in the Indian River Inlet and Bay. Jay Lightner did catch a 9 pounder while floating minnows on the south side of the Inlet last week. There are a few weakfish around and a few shad. Anglers fishing around the Red Roof House caught a few flounder before the windy weather arrived on Friday, but Bert wasn’t as high on the flounder bite in that area as Mike at Rick’s Bait & Tackle.
Anglers fishing off the rocks at the Inlet are starting to see more triggerfish and sheepshead interested in sand fleas and a couple of weakies, in the 18 to 19-inch range, are just beginning to show up. Ken German caught a 22-inch, 8 lb. 2 oz. sheepshead from the rocks while fishing with sand fleas.
Indian River headboats are finding that the sea bass bite has slowed down, even out to 130-feet of water, but anglers are hooking into more and better size flounder. Big sea robins are also finding their way into coolers as Bert’s customers are discovering that they taste a lot better than they thought.
After the wind died down, boats that headed out on Sunday found a lot of throwback sea bass and flounder while fishing on ocean structure. Anglers on the full-day, “Capt. Bob II” had good flounder action with 12 keepers and over 50 throwbacks of fish measuring between 16 and 17-inches. The best baits for flounder have been Gulp! artificial baits or cut bluefish and sea robin.
Offshore, the tuna bite in the Baltimore and Poor Man’s Canyon was strong through Friday morning, but the wind puffed up keeping everyone at the dock on Saturday. A lot of boats ventured out to those locations on Sunday, but the tuna bite was slow with most boats either coming back skunked or with only a couple of yellowfins in the box. There were some white marlin hooked in the Poor Man’s on Sunday and a couple of blue marlin were released as well. There have been rumors of bluefins and yellowfins around the Hot Dog, but nothing has been seen back at the dock recently. Bert said that he heard of a 108 lb. bluefin caught in Massey’s Canyon last week.
Finally, congratulations to the Indian River Marina for their 3rd Annual Kids Tournament held last weekend. They had 70 kids competing, which is a wonderful turnout with the bad weather forecast. Everyone looked like they had a great time and hopefully they will have a good forecast next year and the dock will be loaded with junior anglers.
Until next week, keep those lines tight and have some fun! That’s what it’s all about.
