Article by Larry Jock
It turned out to be a beautiful weekend on Delmarva, allowing anglers to spend the day chasing their favorite species in the bay, inshore lumps and out in the canyons.
At Lewes Harbour Marina, Matt reported that they are starting to see more croaker show up in the Lewes Canal, although most are too small to keep. Hardheads are really thick around the Cape Henlopen Pier.
Flounder fishing in the Lewes Canal continues to be steady, but not on fire by any means. Matt said a 7.6 pounder was caught on Saturday by an angler drifting minnows and squid. Flounder are also being caught on Delaware Bay structure, but you really need to be zeroed in on them because they are not spread out at all. Capt. Brent on the charter boat, “Katydid” put his anglers on the meat last week while fishing in the Bay and ended up with 15 keepers in the box. Site 8 has been a good spot for flatties.
A few stripers are being caught each day in the Lewes Canal by anglers fishing either in the early morning or right before dark. Eels, clams and bucktails tipped with curly tails are doing the trick.
The tautog season opened back up in Delaware on Sunday and Matt said that they saw 1 keeper come into the shop. There was a 14.6 lb. sheepshead caught at the Outer Wall by Joseph Crowley while using sand fleas for bait.
Weakfish, just over the legal size limit, are being hooked around the Walls, Site 5 and at Brown Shoal.
Kingfish and croaker have been found at Brown Shoal and at Sites 5 and 8.
Boats venturing outside the inlet found a much better flounder bite on ocean structure. The Old Grounds continue to be a prime location for ocean flatties. Moving current has been the key for anglers fishing squid, Gulp!, cut bait, mahi belly and flounder belly.
Those looking for sea bass have really had to weed through small fish to get their keeper. Matt didn’t see anything come in from Sites 10 or 11, but those fishing smaller, less used wrecks seem to be having better luck.
After that MD state record cobia was caught a couple of weeks ago, more boats are heading just off the coastline looking for the “man in the brown suit” cruising the surface. Anglers on the charter boat, “Grizzly” boated a pair last Friday.
The vast majority of offshore boats headed to Massey’s Canyon over the weekend to get in on the great chunking bite. The bite definitely slowed over the weekend, but that isn’t uncommon given the fact that there were in the neighborhood of 150 boats there each day. The tuna being caught at Massey’s have bellies full of sand fleas, so anglers who are getting to the bottom with jigs are also having good results.
In the surf, from Cape Henlopen down to Fenwick Island are finding kingfish and small sharks, especially for those with kayaks who are able to get baits dropped outside the breakers. Matt said that he hasn’t seen any croakers come in from the surf.
At the Hook’em & Cook’em Tackle Shop in the Indian River Marina, Capt. Bert Adams said that they are starting to see some croakers show up in the back bay by Holt’s Landing for anglers fishing with Fishbites clams and squid.
In the Indian River Inlet, a few flounder are being caught, mostly on Gulp! and minnows along with rocks on the north and south side, with most fish in the 16 to 18-inch range. When the current is running good, anglers are having to weed through a lot of short fish to get their keeper.
Stripers and bluefish are also being caught in the Inlet, mostly at night during the incoming tide by anglers tossing lures.
Inshore, headboats struggled to find keeper flounder and sea bass last week. Heavy winds created tough drift conditions. When the conditions were right, anglers got into some good catches at the Old Grounds.
Fenwick Shoal continues to produce bluefin and Spanish mackerel for boats trolling spoons and anglers also found triggerfish and weakfish, in the 15 to 16-inch range, on the wreck.
From the beach, surfcasters got into kingfish during early morning and late evening trips while soaking Fishbite sand fleas. At night, anglers fishing with cut bait at night are mainly dealing with sharks and skates.
Offshore, boats continued to pound the area around Massey’s Landing, chunking butterfish for both bluefin tuna and yellowfin tuna. Those that didn’t want to deal with the 200 boats in Massey’s headed to the Baltimore Canyon for yellowfins and dolphin.
Interestingly, Capt. Roger on the “Capt. Bob II” headboat reported seeing bluefins busting the surface around the Washingtonian wreck on Sunday. Capt. Roger said that the bluefins looked to be 40 to 60 lb. class fish.
Deepdroppers headed to the Baltimore Canyon over the weekend to look for hook-ups of tilefish while dropping squid. Bert said that one group, during an overnight trip, caught a snowy grouper in the Baltimore.
The marlin bite was strong in the Norfolk Canyon, but Bert said that not many Indian River boats headed that far last weekend.
Until next week, tight lines!
