Article by Larry Jock
Welcome to the Delaware Fishing report. I am very sad to report that right before Christmas the fishing community lost Rick Willman, owner of Rick’s Bait & Tackle in Long Neck, DE. Rick also took time out to write the weekly Delaware Fishing Report for the Coastal Fisherman over the last several years. Rick was an absolutely great guy who I enjoyed seeing each week when I dropped off the newspaper at his tackle shop. He always had a smile on his face and an upbeat attitude that I will miss greatly. I wish his wife, Deb continued success in running the tackle shop.
Sharks
Joe Morris mentioned that researcher Dewayne Fox came by Lewes Harbour Marina to tell of several big thresher sharks he and his crew encountered while netting for sturgeon. He said over the last week they’ve seen threshers to over 400 pounds while working south of Indian River. Sport sharkers should hook their first threshers soon.
Flounder
The best flounder bite last week was in the Lewes Canal, Roosevelt Inlet and to a lesser extent, in the Indian River where only a couple of flatties were landed before the water cooled off and shut down the bite.
Joe Morris at Lewes Harbour Marina reported that Lewes Canal boaters have been picking away at flounder, but the catching hasn’t busted wide open yet. Young Dylan Churchill had a good initiation into the flounder fishing fraternity by capturing his first keeper flatties measuring 18 and 24 inches while drifting the Canal using a shiner tipped orange jig on Saturday. The Broadkill River also gave up a few flatfish during the week. Folks at the rails of Cape Henlopen Pier had some flounder, but most were shorts. Using small tandem rigged jigs tipped with shiners or Gulp! was an effective presentation. Don’t forget the annual Lewes Harbour Canal Flounder Tournament on Friday, May 18th.
Striped Bass
We are coming up on the anniversary of the epic striper bite in the Indian River Inlet that started around May 1st last year and continued strong for the next 3 weeks. Every night, it was all the fish you wanted with some very big lunkers thrown in. Many anglers said that it was the best striper bite they had ever seen. Nobody quite knew what caused it. Some thought it was the lights from the Indian River Bridge construction luring bunker into the inlet. Who knows?
Bert Adams at Hook’em & Cook’em at the Indian River Inlet reported a good night time striper bite in the Indian River Inlet on Wednesday and Thursday beginning around 1:30 in the morning. Fish were weighed between 25 lbs. and 45 lbs. The bite slacked off on Friday night, and Saturday night produced only a decent bite at the end of the Indian River Jetty. There were also a couple of linesiders caught during the day in the Inlet. Most successful anglers are tossing swim shad lures and long-leadered flies. Colors of choice for the swim shads were chartreuse, bunker and sea trout.
According to Bert, stripers were also caught from the surf in North Ocean City up to 3R’s Road in southern Delaware. Most are being caught on cut bunker.
Bill at Bill’s Sport Shop said that he really didn’t see much striper activity in the southern end of the Delaware Bay with most reports coming in about fish still being caught further north in the Bay.
Joe Morris at Lewes Harbour Marina said that surfcasters came across the occasional striper at Herring Point. Dave McGirk stopped by with an 18 lb. linesider that grabbed a chunk of bunker in the suds. On Sunday, Steve Fisher beached a 19.5 lb. rockfish and Jamie Kosiek landed a 22.1 pounder while soaking bunker at Cape Henlopen. Roger Guderian got a 13 lb. striped bass from Broadkill Beach with a bloodworm. Schools of stripers made appearances in the Indian River Inlet. Guys tossing Bombers, MirrOLures, and Storm Shads from the jetties at night connected with good sized bass.
Bluefish
Although there was a decent bluefish bite in the Indian River Inlet in March, we really haven’t seen many choppers since. A few have been caught by anglers off the beach, but really nothing to crow about and some were caught in the Inlet on Sunday morning. Coming off a very poor fall/winter run, anglers are starting to wonder what happened to the choppers we’ve religiously seen off our coast every year.
Tautog
Inshore anglers have had good luck catching tautog on ocean wrecks and reefs. Green and white crab have been doing the trick. In the Delaware Bay, Bill’s Sport Shop reports that the Outer Wall produced good catches with fish averaging in the 6 lb. range, with the largest reportedly tipping the scale at 9.4 lbs. Anglers tossing bucktails tipped with green crab had the best results.
Joe Morris at Lewes Harbour Marina said tog fishing was decent on days when the wind didn’t blow and the water was clean. On Wednesday, the crew aboard “Katy Did” had a nice catch. It was topped off by a pair of bruiser blackfish weighing 9.41 and 9.62 pounds that Chris Van hooked on two consecutive drops.
Tautog sharpie Alex Levantovsky landed a 12.4 pound lunker on the “Grizzly”. Bert Long checked in a 7.63 pound tog he took off the Inner Wall on Saturday. Some first time toggers brought in good fish over the weekend. Anna Neely nailed a 9.5 pounder on the “Katy Did” Saturday. Justin Martin muscled in a 7.5 pounder at the Ice Breakers. Bay water cleaned up and conditions were much better Sunday. Toggers along the Outer Wall had a good bite. Captain Pete on “Top Fin” told of fast action, returning with a limit of nice tautog. Anglers aboard “Katy Did” limited out as well. Their boxful included five citations. Sam Scott scored a 9.15 pounder. Bob Murphy managed a 9.07 pound white chin. Bill Wiest wound in a 7.55 pounder. Steve Kiibler caught a 7.4, and Ben Strahl stuck a 7.24 pound tautog. Tog should cooperate through the end of the spring season.
Black Drum & Weakfish
A few black drum have been caught from surfcasters tossing from the beach in northern Ocean City up to 3R’s Road. Sand fleas have done the trick.
Joe Morris reported that commercial netters continue to report increasing numbers of black drum and weakfish in Delaware Bay. The sea trout have been of varied sizes, indicative of more than one-year class, which seems encouraging. Hook and line catches of both trout and drum should pick up soon. Joe said the store will carry surf clams for drum, but he suggests reserving baits early in the week.
