Article by Capt. BJ Pietryak
White Marlin week is in the books, the Poor Girls is over, next week is the start of many colleges and schools, football and band begins and we are at the beach entering our fall season. This means less crowds and usually much more productive fishing. The heat remained the big story again this week. With the heat came many opportunities for fish we haven't seen much this year or at all. Ribbonfish are on most of the near shore wrecks, croaker are everywhere and flounder has shown to be the best we’ve seen in years.
Flounder, Redfish, & Weakfish
Flounder in the back bays has been very good again this week with most anglers catching at least a few fish to take home for dinner. The main channel in front of the Coast Guard station is the hot spot this week with some big fish coming to the boat on both Gulp as well as the traditional squid and minnow combos. Old Inlet Tackle reports that daytime fishing is producing some nice flounder in the inlet area. They further report that sea trout and Spanish mackerel have also been caught in the inlet. Adam Aguado caught a nice 24” flounder on Monday. Fish Frenzi also got a nice load of flounder on Monday, Pete Renzi reported they had to fish hard but managed to bring home some quality fish. Frank Tucker caught 12 flatties Tuesday and took home 8 keepers up to 20.5” for his group. Surface Tension reported a slow bite however they managed to put a few nice fish in the box. Nick Garcia was out with his cousin Serina for her last fishing trip before she returned to college and wound up with 7 keeper flounder up to 21”. Nick reports he fished the back area of Rehoboth Bay. They started off with a slow bite in the morning but fishing continued to get better as the day went on. George Heesh had some good fishing in the bay on Thursday getting a few nice keepers for dinner. Tim Mooris reports he took a buddy out and fished the Lewes Canal and ended up with a limit of flounder from 17” up to an impressive 21”. On the near shore wrecks the Old Grounds are still producing the best fish with A buoy and south being a close second. Gulp and live spot are accounting for many of these fish.
Savanna Lynn had a nice mixed bag of flounder, sea bass and mahi this week. Mark Steelman reports that there are a lot of mahi on the lobster balls inshore as well as cruising the coral grounds. Keeping a rod rigged with a chunk bait on a circle hook is a good idea this time of year because when these fish come by they don't stay very long. Cory Tocchetti got a nice slot rockfish this week along with his father Mike Tocchetti who also managed a nice slot striper. The fish were caught out of Lewes. Old Inlet Tackle reports Indian River has been producing some stripers with most being undersized at night. They report that you should be prepared to spend the entire incoming tide fishing in order to have a chance at a few fish passing by. Tons of croaker have been caught in the inlet this week. Many of these fish are the nicer size that we usually see this time of the year. Fishbites are the number one bait for them, however, squid chunks will work well. The sewer pipe in front of Bethany is also a hot spot for croaker especially at night. The croaker have been throughout the bay but the area in front of Indian River Marina as well as the area just outside the inlet are your two best locations. Several weakfish are being caught both in the inlet areas mostly at night as well as the near shore wrecks. Throwing a paddle tail or bucktail is a great way to search for these fish. A twitch-twitch-pause cadence is the retrieve that brings the most bites. The area behind the power plant is also a great location for weakfish, sea trout and redfish. I spoke to a few local anglers that stated the redfish have really turned on in the morning hours but as soon as the sun gets high the bite turns off. Roy rigs as well as shrimp imitations are a great bait if you want to target these puppy drum. Casting to the high grass along the shoreline is the location you want to target. Redfish will pick up a shrimp from off the bottom while trout will look up for bait swimming by.
Surf Fishing
Surf fishing has gotten good with tons of kingfish in the surf. As our crowds get lighter this week and less fishing pressure on the beach target the deeper troughs and rips along the beach. Pompano are also in the surf and can be caught on kingfish rigs with sand fleas or bloodworms. Delaware Surf Fishing reports Kevin Leadbeater caught a nice 15” kingfish on the DE/MD line. Bloodworm Fishbites on a D&S rig brought the fish to the angler. Rich King reports some nice flounder as well as bluefish have been caught this week in the surf. Old Inlet reported that spanish mackerel and cobia can be found at the Fenwick Shoals. Trolling small metal spoons remains the best for the mackerel and chumming with live eels for the cobia. Russ Treas from Frankford weighed in a nice 3.5 lb. trout this week and stated he saw another one caught that looked to be around 5 lbs.
Crabbing & Clamming
Crabbing remains decent however there are a lot of throwbacks. Pots are averaging 7-10 keepers per pot with mostly big males for keepers. Clamming in both Rehoboth as well as Indian River is very good. Many of the spots have been picked over pretty well leaving mostly larger clams.
Till next week...
Tight lines and fins up
