Article by Larry Jock
At the Hook’em & Cook’em Tackle Shop in the Indian River Marina, Capt. Bert Adams reported a decent croaker bite in the Indian River Inlet for anglers soaking clam-flavored Fishbites and squid. Hardheads in the 12 to 14-inch range have been caught in the back bays by Holt’s Landing and right outside the Inlet. Flounder have been scarce in the Inlet with only a couple being weighed in last week. Striped bass are being caught at night, but not on sand fleas.
Best results are coming from those fishing lures, specifically Bass Assassins in the Opening Night and Hammertime colors. Bert also mentioned that the tog bite is very slow off the rocks.
Those fishing ocean structure are finding good catches of flounder, especially on coral bottom near the Old Grounds. The bite has been very steady, but you need a good drift speed to get the best results. How good has the bite been? On Saturday, the full-day headboat, “Capt. Bob II” had 80 keeper flounder and the half-day headboat, “Judy V” had 37 keepers during their afternoon trip. Just as this report was being written on Monday morning, anglers on the “Judy V” had 20 keepers with fish weighing up to 4.5 and 4.9 lbs.
Offshore, the yellowfin bite has been pretty slow but anglers are making up for it with catches of wahoo and marlin. Wahoo have been found around the 19 Fathom Lump and along the 30 fathoms line. Black and purple and black and red lures are always top producers. White marlin seem to be scattered up and down the line.
In the surf, kingfish and croakers are the main species being caught during the day with big sharks and skates dominating action at night. Bert said that there have been a lot of sharks being hooked at night including bull sharks and sand tigers.
Joe Morris at Lewes Harbour Marina said summertime flounder action has been good. Anglers reported catching numerous fish on Delaware Bay and ocean structure, however, a lot of fish have been short of the 16-inch minimum. That being said, Joe said he had also seen several of this season’s biggest fluke over the past week. Jim Davidson decked a dandy 9.25 pound doormat, while drifting cut bait over Delaware Bay structure Saturday aboard the “Grizzly”.
John Yoder used a 6-inch Nuclear Chicken Gulp! to tempt his personal best 8.64 pound fluke from ocean bottom on Saturday aboard the Capt. Bob II. Mike Eastman managed a 7.5 pound citation earner on Saturday at the Old Grounds. Steve Price used squid and minnows on a B2 Squid rig to hook the 6.84 pound flatfish he pulled from a wreck outside the mouth of the Delaware Bay. John Schnaitman scored a 6.64 pounder over reef rubble at Site 10. George Durant decked a 6.25 pound flattie on the Old Grounds.
Captain Brent’s flukers on the “Katydid” enjoyed fine fishing all week. Mike Surowiec and the Monday regulars limited out with 32 keepers. The every Wednesday crew returned with 39 fluke, topped off by Ron Mistretta’s 5.65 pounder. Captain Brent hosted a group of junior anglers on Thursday afternoon and they did a great job, returning with 13 keeper fluke. A gang of flounder poundin’ locals fished on Friday and put together their 32 flatfish limit. Pat Irelan had big fish honors with his 6.25 pounder. Ken Seltzer and his crew had a great Saturday, bringing back a boxful of flatfish. Sunday’s morning flukers returned with a limit of 24 keepers, and the afternoon group took home 27. Dave Walker, Matt Shoup, Bill Wiest and Kyle Fagowski worked Bay rubble on Thursday for their limit of 16 stout fluke. Wayne DeMarco, Joe Pergeorelis and Doug Mickowski bucktailed Site 11 Tuesday for their limit of a dozen flatties. Wayne, Doug, Harry Hudson, Daryl Mergenthaler and Doug Mickowski did Site 11 again on Friday for their limit of 16 keepers. Bob Bryant and Michelle and John Schnaitman jigged up 10 keepers to 6.6 pounds at Site 10 Tuesday.
Bottom bouncers seeking panfish in the Delaware Bay found croakers, kingfish and blowfish at Reef Site 8. Some of the biggest hardheads continued to come from the Lewes Canal. Jason Miller had a 1.46 pound croaker in the Canal that he hooked on a small bucktail with a piece of Fishbites on Sunday.
It seems all the big black drum hadn’t dropped out of the Bay yet. A couple anglers tangled unexpectedly with boomers while trying for other species. Brad Sokso was fishing for croakers at the Ice Breakers with a small piece of Fishbites on a size 4 hook when a big fish grabbed his rig. The boomer broke his light rod during the battle, and busted his net at boatside, but Brad finally landed the 35 pounder. Dillon Talley was working a bucktail tipped with Gulp! near the Ice Breakers on Friday when he had a heavy hit. After quite a tussle, Dillon decked what turned out to be a 49 pound drum.
Slot sized striped bass were active in the Lewes Canal and the Broadkill River. Drifting eels near the bridges or casting plugs and soft plastics along marsh banks produced keepers. Rich Kline Sr. and Rich Kline, Jr. fished the Canal all week, and had limits most days by deploying eels. Brayden Coverdale used a Gulp! to get his first Canal keeper striper.
Offshore boaters chunked up small yellowfins at the 19 Fathom Lump, but had to contend with swarms of bluefish that invaded the area. Best bites were early in the day, and often, anglers had to use light fluorocarbon leaders to get tuna to eat a hook bait. Trollers working between the 19 Fathom Lump, Masseys Canyon, Chicken Bone, Hambone and Hot Dog connected with dolphin and wahoo. Ted Garman landed a 60 pound wahoo while trolling ballyhoo at the Hambone on Saturday.
Billfish action was decent in 100 fathoms of the Baltimore Canyon, with whites and blues reported. Canyon deep dropping was productive. Adam Lovenguth celebrated his 30th birthday by dropping in the Wilmington Canyon on Saturday with Matt Baker, Chip Graves and Jeff Drury aboard the “Sea Tiger” for 10 golden tilefish and 50 big blackbelly rosefish. With nice conditions on Saturday, John Schneider ran his “Patient Lady” to the Norfolk Canyon for some tilefishing. That’s where Jesse Kegley landed a potential new Delaware State Record Blueline Tilefish. The big Gray weighed in at a whopping 21.8 pounds. Bill Fintel boated the current 19.7 pound blueline in the Baltimore just two months ago.
Until next week, tight lines.
