Article by Larry Jock
As the summer season comes to a close and folks head back to work and school, the fishing scene is definitely not as good as anglers would hope for. Quite honestly, it is pretty dismal.
Capt. Mike Behney at Rick’s Bait & Tackle reported that he still doesn’t hear much coming from the Lewes Canal. Anglers are mainly finding short flounder and an occasional keeper caught while drifting Gulp, squid, minnows or belly meat.
The good news is that the flounder bite in the ocean has definitely picked-up and I heard this from numerous anglers throughout the week. Sites 9, 10 and 11 and the areas around the Old Grounds are currently the best spots for bigger fish but I also saw fish coming from further south near the African Queen. Don’t get me wrong, anglers fishing ocean structures are still needing to weed through a lot of small fish to get their keeper, but there are plenty of fish to be caught and the average size of the flounder is on the upswing.
Last weekend was the now famous, Paradise Grill Flounder Pounder Open, with anglers on 327 boats competing for some big money. Readers of the Coastal Fisherman should be very familiar with Capt. Brent Wiest and his charter boat, “Katydid”. Well, Capt. Brent captured a 30-inch, 11.4 pounder to take the top prize of $100,000. At presstime on Monday morning, I hadn’t been able to nail down the location of the catch, but I heard it was around Site 9 or 10. It would be tough to find a better flounder fisherman than Brent, so I’m not surprised he caught the big one. Second place went to Robert Karpovich with a 9.8 pounder, also caught on ocean structure from what I’ve been told. Robert took home $40,000 for his catch. Randy Swain’s 9.5-incher won third place, worth $20,000.
Anglers trolling spoons and feathers are finding Spanish mackerel interested in their offerings between “A” Buoy and the Delaware Lightship. If you want to move a little south you will find a load of snapper bluefish on Fenwick Shoal that will eat almost anything, but a trolled Clark spoon is always deadly.
Croakers are thick at Site 10, but they are small. You will also find plenty of hardheads in the Indian River Bay, but they aren’t very large there either, usually measuring 8 to 10-inches. Those can be caught on Fishbite bloodworms or clams.
Both the Inner and Outer Walls in the Delaware Bay are still holding some triggerfish and sheepshead for anglers fishing with sand fleas or clams. Those who are jigging Gulp artificial baits along with rocks are finding some flounder for their cooler.
Mike did report that on Sunday, Paul Ferenczi was fishing with a Gulp artificial bait in the Indian River Inlet and hooked into a 32-inch, 10 lb. 13 oz. cobia. After last years excellent summer cobia bite, hopes were high for another season, but so far has been a disappointment. Effective September 5th, NOAA will open Federal waters back up to cobia fishing. The fish must be 36-inches (fork length) and the creel limit will be 1 per person/per day or 6 per boat/per day, whichever is more restrictive.
At the Hook’em &?Cook’em Tackle Shop in the Indian River Marina, Capt. Bert Adams also said that most of his customers are reporting “feast or famine” when it comes to flounder fishing. It’s horrible fishing in the inlet and bays, but good flounder action is being found for his customers at the Old Grounds and it is only getting better. Bert’s customers have been saying that there are a lot of 16 1/2-inch fish in the ocean right now, which shouldn’t be surprising since reports all season have been about the short fish in our bays, so those fish are either staging for their move to the ocean or have already made the trip. Bert said that the tide has been ripping inshore, requiring anglers to fish with as much as 10 oz. of weight while dropping strips of belly meat or 6-inch Gulp artificial baits.
Larger flounder coming into Indian River Marina are being caught in deeper water with structures closer to shore holding a ton of smaller fish.
The croaker bite in the Indian River Inlet continues to be slow, but some small hardheads have been found on the back side of Burton’s Island.
Off the beach, the kingfish bite has slowed down and Bert said that it looks like the average size of sharks being caught at night has decreased. Anglers are still hooking into sandbars and duskys when the sun goes down, but Bert said he hasn’t heard of many rays or skates.
Sea bass fishing is decent with nice fish being caught over the weekend at the Del/Jersey/Land reefsite, 26-miles from the Indian River Inlet. Headboat anglers fishing closer to the beach are finding a lot of sea bass, but most are in the 10-inch range.
With the big money payout in the Paradise Grill Flounder Tournament, many anglers who would typically head to the canyons decided to try their hand at catching flatties at the Old Grounds, which was a smart move since the offshore bite right now is horrible if you are looking to put numbers up on the board. However, tuna fishermen continue to be pleased with the size of the fish this season. Yellowfins in the 50 lb. range haven’t been uncommon and lately, we have seen a few even reach into the high-70’s. Most of the yellowfins we are seeing came from the Washington Canyon last week.
Speaking of the Washington Canyon, it looks like those captains who were predicting this season to be on the downside of a cyclical bigeye tuna bite have been correct. We have some time left for a possible flurry, but after the early season bite of smaller fish, the bigeyes have been non-existent.
With the tuna bite being slow, quite a few boats have gone to “Plan B” and save the day with some tilefishing. Captains with good numbers have been able to scratch out good days catching blueline and golden tilefish in the Washington and Baltimore Canyons.
Good numbers of dolphin were caught while either trolling or bailing in the Washington Canyon over the weekend. The fish were small but plentiful.
There isn’t much to report for marlin fishing. The top boat in last weekends Poor Girls Open had 8 releases on Friday, the same day the second place finisher had 5 releases. Both came from the Washington Canyon. Other than that, there were a few with 4 releases and several with a couple, mainly in the Washington where water temperatures reached into the upper 70’s.
Until next week, tight lines!