Article by Larry Jock
This Week Last Year
•small bluefish, kingfish and stripers were caught along DE?coastline.
•Lewes Canal flounder bite picked up.
•improved black drum bite at the Coral Beds.
•much improved striper fishing at night along Indian River Inlet rocks.
•water temperature in the Indian River Inlet was 60-64 degrees.
•Sites 10 & 11 were good for tautog fishing.
It wasn’t the greatest week weather-wise for fishing and Sunday was a washout, but there were plenty of opportunities for anglers to get out on the water.
At Lewes Harbour Marina, Tommy reported spotty flounder fishing in the Lewes Canal, primarily due to dirty water conditions. Fish were caught all week, especially in the shallower water by the Lewes Yacht Club and they even saw one close to 5 lbs. hit the scale. Most of the flatties are being caught on flashy rigs tipped with minnows, Gulp or strip baits. Some flounder were also caught by the Cape Henlopen Pier.
Some small bluefish and stripers were also caught in the Canal. Like in Ocean City, smaller bluefish are all over but Tommy said that they began to see larger ones over the weekend. Stripers have been mostly found by the Drawbridge.
The larger bluefish were caught at Cape Henlopen and off Herring Point by anglers fishing with spoons, whole mullet or bunker.
In the Delaware Bay, the black drum bite is definitely getting better with fish caught during both day and night off Broadkill Beach in only 6-feet of water. Larger ones, in the 20 to 40 lb. range were caught at night on crabs, sand fleas and clams. The Coral Bed bite is quietly getting better with boats hitting the area at night and finding boomers there interested in their offerings.
Small tautog have been caught around the Walls, but the throwback ratio is insanely high. Tautog season closes in Delaware from May 16th through June 30th.
In the surf, striped bass, bluefish and small black drum were caught off Cape Henlopen.
Capt. Bert Adams at Hook’em & Cook’em Tackle Shop said that anglers found short stripers in the Indian River Inlet, with most in the 16 to 20-inch range. There were bluefish caught in the Inlet over the weekend by anglers tossing shiny lures.
The surf outside Indian River saw anglers catch a few keeper sized stripers and some bluefish up to 30-inches while soaking bunker and mullet in the suds.
Headboats on Saturday, the only weekend window due to the weather, saw a good tog bite when the tide was moving in the morning, but as soon as the tide switched the bite slowed down. They also reported anglers needing to weed through a lot of throwbacks to get their keeper. Unfortunately, the sea bass bite was good but that season doesn’t open up until May 15th. Bert said that the bite they had on Saturday was better than they saw at this time last year.
At Rick’s Bait & Tackle, Capt. Mike said that his customers found black drum biting at night at the Coral Beds on Saturday night while using clams for bait.
Like everyone else, Mike is mostly seeing catches of bluefish that are all over, from the surf to the back bays and from Fenwick up to Cape Henlopen.
Mike said that his customers are hooking flounder in the Lewes Canal and also in the Indian River Inlet by the VFW Slough. A few also came in from Massey’s Ditch. Minnows, shiners and Gulp did the trick.
Mike also turned me on to a new artificial bait coming out from a company called All Pro. Their new rubber artificial bait is called All American Stink and supposedly looks and acts just like the popular Gulp baits, BUT they are much more durable. Not Z-Man durable, but supposedly better than Gulp. I’ll be checking them out in the coming weeks and you might want to do the same. I always said that if someone would come out with a more durable rubber curl tail that is impregnated with stink, they will eat Gulps lunch. Maybe this is that product.
Capt. Matt at Fenwick Bait & Tackle reported a few keeper size stripers being caught off the beach from Fenwick up to Indian River. Drew Henninger caught a beautiful 43 1/2-incher off 3R’s Road. Surfcasters are still finding plenty of puffers interested in squid or Fishbite Bloodworms. And of course, bluefish are roaming the shallow surf waters and the bite was pretty steady. Matt said that there are plenty of schools of bunker right out front off the Delaware coastline.
Small stripers continue to be pecked at in The Ditch.
Offshore, nobody reported any of their boats heading to the Baltimore Canyon on Saturday where a couple of Ocean City boats were able to get onto bluefin tuna, returning with their limit of 2 fish between 27 and 47-inches and 1 between 47 and 73-inches.
Upcoming Tournament
The Joe Morris Memorial Canal Flounder Tournament is set for this Friday, May 17th. For more info, call 302-645-6227.
In other tournament news, Pier Point Marina has decided to cancel their multi-week flounder tournament this season. They hope to resurrect it in 2020.
Until next week, tight lines!
