Article by Larry Jock
With big striped bass in the surf and inlets, sea bass season finally opened and yellowfins in the canyons, our 2015 fishing season is getting in to full swing.
Joe Morris at Lewes Harbour Marina said this year’s Canal Flounder Tournament generated the largest turnout so far. More than 400 flattie aficionados fished the event. Weather was much better than last year’s scheduled date, when hurricane-like conditions forced postponement until the following day. Although Canal water was murky from wind during preceeding days, flukers picked away at fish during most of the outgoing tide. The largest specimens were landed in the afternoon, near the end of the ebb. There didn’t seem to be a concentration of flatfish in any single location, and catches were reported from several different spots. Avid flounder pounder Mickey Payne was the big winner. His 6.2 pound flattie inhaled a Nuclear Chicken colored grub at the Roosevelt Inlet, and earned him top prize and major bragging rights. Defending Champ Chad Mitchell scored 2nd Place with a 5.29 pounder caught on a custom, white jig head rig and shiner combo while drifting past Gordon’s Pond ditch. Brian Beebe boated the 3rd Place 4.3 pound flounder near the drawbridge, using a chartreuse teaser with a shiner.
More than $2,000 of entry money will be donated to Camp Awareness. Joe and Amanda at Lewes Harbour Marina, and the Dewey Beach Lions Club extended congratulations to the winners, and many thanks to all who participated to make the day fun, and a great success.
The black drum bite came on strong on the New Jersey side of Delaware Bay, following the new moon. There was a big fleet anchored up in the Bayshore Channel, above the Canal entrance on Saturday evening, where many big boomers were landed. Don Zeiset decked a 60.6 pounder, and Vernon Zeiset got one weighing 55.8 pounds. Captain Brian’s crew on the “Lil’ Angler II” kept five drum, the largest was a 55.7 pound fish fought by Mike Hojda. Kevin Martzal’s group on the “Pirate King II” brought back 11 drum, including a 53 pounder landed by Leon Martzal.
Scattered reports of drum came from the Delaware side. Jack Ostroski had a 63.2 pound boomer and Mason Newsham nailed a 34.3 pounder while fishing with clams on the Coral Beds. Drum action should hold up through the full moon at the beginning of June. Joe said the shop will be carrying surf clams, but he suggested calling ahead, early in the week, to reserve baits.
The opening of sea bass season resulted in good catches. Boats that ran to 20 fathom structure did okay with sea bass, but had surprising numbers of cod. It actually seemed like sea bass catches were better inshore, at Site 11. Captain Brent’s Saturday group on the “Katydid” had their limit of 120 quality bass, including Luis Mispireta’s 3.71 pound knothead. Dr. Mike Junck and his gang had a nice mess of bass and cod on their wreck trip aboard the “Top Fin”. Mike managed a 3.92 pound bass on that outing.
Offshore bottom bouncers did well in deep water. Matt Baker, Jeff Drury and Chip Graves dropped in the Wilmington Canyon on Friday for 21 beautiful Golden Tilefish weighing up to 27 pounds.
A few more stripers showed up last week. Harry Doherty checked in a 32-incher he beached using bunker in the surf at Faithful Steward Crossing. Because of new slot size regulations, Dave McGirk released a 40-inch linesider he hooked using clams at Herring Point.
Boaters and jetty jocks at the Indian River Inlet had stripers during evening incoming tides on bucktails and Storm Shads.
The bluefish run in the Indian River was ridiculous last week, with slammers terrorizing schools of bunker in a feeding frenzy. Guys casting from the rocks or drifting in boats hammered the choppers with bucktails and metals. Wes Grove, Kevin Grove and Todd Macentee were drifting for flounder in the inlet when big blues attacked their minnows. After landing several choppers, they did boat a 4.64 pound flatfish. Blues thinned out inside Cape Henlopen at the end of the week, but some remained in the Broadkill River.
At Hook’em &?Cook’em Tackle Shop in the Indian River Marina, Capt. Bert Adams said that bluefish are still abundant in the Indian River Inlet, but the fish are definitely getting smaller. “Smaller” is a relative term, with bluefish still around that we would be happy with in any other year, but this year, with more choppers in the 10 to 15 lb. range, smaller fish will still give you a good fight. Capt. Bert said that they did receive a shot of big stripers late in the week, but the bite was short. Some linesiders are being caught in 58-degree water under schools of stripers. Anglers have to remember that Delaware now has a slot limit is place where stripers need to be 28 to 37-inches or greater than 44-inches to keep.
Bert also reported a few flounder being caught by the VFW?Slough.
Inshore, the opening of sea bass season sent many boats to ocean structure, either natural coral bottom or artificial reefs. The Great Eastern Reef saw some good action on Friday and Saturday with anglers hooking sea bass and cod. The headboat, “Judy V”, with Capt. Bert at the helm, ventured 6 to 8 miles off the beach and caught 20 to 25 sea bass and 5 flounder on coral bottom. Bert said that they threw back as many sea bass as they caught, so the action was pretty good. Another angler headed out near the Washingtonian wreck on Friday morning and got back early after catching his limit of sea bass and 4 cod. With big bluefish starting to leave the bay, Bert anticipates tangling with the gators very shortly as they head to the ocean.
Offshore, the crew on the “Relentless” headed to the Wilmington Canyon on Friday and returned with 12 yellowfins caught in 300 feet of water. Excited anglers, hearing the news, hit the Wilmington Canyon on Saturday, but the bite was non-existent.
Until next week, tight lines!
