Article by Larry Jock
With 182 boats participating in the Paradise Grill Flounder Pounder last weekend, it was busy around the docks. Tony Munoz from Wilmington, DE took the top prize with an 11.9 pounder that he caught on a minnow at the Old Grounds. You can see a picture of that whopper on page 17.
Capt. Bert at Hook’em & Cook’em in the Indian River Marina reported that bucktails were flying off the shelves with everyone searching for the winning flounder. In the Indian River Inlet, flounder fishing continues to be very sporadic. With the full moon, flounder fishing picked up on Friday with fish caught on Gulp! artificial baits and live spot. Anglers also had good luck catching small bluefish on spoons and bucktails and croakers on Fishbites. The best action for both was during the incoming tide.
Anglers drifting in the Inlet at night are finding short striped bass and some bluefish.
From the beach, the kingfish slowed last week for surfcasters tossing baits off 3R’s Road but better results came from off the coast of Bethany Beach.
The real action continues to be on ocean structure with the Old Grounds and Site 10 being the hot spot for big flatties. Bert said that the bite was so good on Friday that they had 4 fish cleaners slicing and dicing flounder for 3 straight hours. He estimated that they cleaned over 200 flounder.
Those venturing out to the DelJerseyLand reef are finding flounder, sea bass and even some ling.
If you are looking to get into some Spanish mackerel and small bluefish then Fenwick Shoal is the place to go. Anglers trolling spoons with a small inline sinker continue to tear them up.
Anglers fishing along the coastline are also seeing plenty of cobia cruising the surface. Bert said that he received some calls from anglers inquiring about cobia regulations, but he didn’t see any come to the scales. Down in Ocean City, a nice 65 pounder was caught on Sunday.
Offshore, there were some yellowfins caught at Massey’s Canyon and the Tea Cup during the middle of last week by anglers chunking with butterfish, but that bite died as the week came to a close. Most of the yellowfins caught were in the 30 to 40 lb. range. With 85-degree water it’s surprising we haven’t seen tuna caught even closer to shore. The closest one that Bert has heard about was a 30 pounder caught at the Delaware Lightship on Saturday.
Wahoo are starting to show up in better numbers. One boat arrived back at the Indian River Marina over the weekend with a pair of speedsters caught inshore of Massey’s Canyon.
Although the bigeye bite hasn’t been anywhere near as good as we have seen in recent years, a 210 pounder surprised Mason Coursey when he was trolling in 1,000 fathoms outside the Poor Man’s on Saturday. Anglers heading to the Bigeye Hole in the Washington Canyon are having trouble finding bigeyes, but small yellowfins are numerous. One was caught on Sunday during the Poor Girls Open by Karen Peet on the “No Quarter”. The bigeye hit a pink Joe Shute lure with a purple Slug-Go rubber worm. The captain said they marked quite a few bigeyes with the winning fish hitting the lure just as their boat went into a slight turn, allowing the lure to sink to the 30-foot kill zone. Water temperature was hovering around 83-degrees.
Out in the deep, white marlin, blue marlin, spearfish and sailfish were caught and released in 1,000 fathoms outside the Baltimore Canyon and the Poor Man’s Canyon. There was even a blue marlin, estimated at 150 lbs., caught and released between Massey’s Canyon and the Hambone on Sunday.
Until next week, tight lines!
