Article by Larry Jock
This Week Last Year
• Fishing off to a slow start. Very windy & rainy.
•IR Inlet water temp in high 40’s to low 50’s.
•Short stripers, bluefish and flounder in IR Inlet.
•Good size black drum, kingfish, bluefish and short stripers in the surf.
•Good size tautog on ocean structure.
•A few flounder were caught in the Lewes Canal
Well, here we go. Another season of fishing is upon us and it looks like the bite may be slightly ahead of what we saw last season, but that shouldn’t be much of a surprise since last years spring season was plagued with many days of wind and rain.
At Rick’s Bait & Tackle, Capt. Mike Behney reported that flounder are being picked at in the Lewes Canal with the best bite some in the water closer to the Roosevelt Inlet. Flatties are also being hooked around the Cape Henlopen Pier and in front of Pot Nets Seaside.
Small stripers and an occasional keeper were hooked by surfcasters tossing rigs off of Broadkill Beach. Anglers also got into black drum while fishing off Broadkill. No reports came in from the Coral Beds, but it is still early. Mike said it usually doesn’t heat up until mid-May.
When anglers could find a good enough day to get off the beach, tautog were plentiful at Site 10, but the throwback ratio was extremely high. Mike said that one of his customers ventured out there and had 5 keepers out of 50 hooked. There were a lot of 15-inch fish.
Tommy at Lewes Harbour Marina said the bluefish bite at the Cape Henlopen Pier is sporadic. He also reported his customers coming in with catches of black drum after fishing off of Broadkill Beach.
Seemingly much earlier than last season, flounder were coming in from the Lewes Canal. Tommy said that a 23-incher was caught on Sunday and anglers are finding success using flashy top and bottom rigs partnered with bunker and mackerel. Anglers are also finding short stripers interested in their offerings.
At Hook’em & Cook’em, Capt. Lauren Adams reported a few bluefish in the 2 to 3 lb. range being caught last week in the Indian River Inlet by anglers tossing poppers. This is always an exciting way to catch these aggressive fish.
Short stripers are also being caught in the Inlet with a few keeper sized fish thrown in to make it interesting.
Lauren also said that a few keeper flounder were caught around the VFW?Slough.
Indian River headboats tried to get out on Saturday, but the strong winds kept them at the dock. Outside of Site 10, private boats out of Indian River are traveling over 20 miles to get on a decent tautog bite.
Capt. Matt Shoup at Fenwick Bait & Tackle said that his customers are catching bluefish off the beach from Fenwick down to North Ocean City. Most are finding success soaking cut mullet on bucktails or whole mullet on mullet rigs. Matt also said that Roy Rigs have become very popular and anglers are finding success tossing them to bluefish and stripers from the shoreline and in the bay.
A few black drum have been caught off the beaches in Fenwick but the spring striped bass run has yet to materialize. Historically, it should be heating up right now and it is especially puzzling since anglers in New Jersey are already reported an epic bite from South Jersey up to Central Jersey. They said that you can’t escape them with fish out front and in the rivers.
Surfcasters are also finding short stripers and a good number of pufferfish in the surf. Short linesiders have also been hooked in the Fenwick Ditch.
Until next week, tight lines!