Article by Larry Jock
It was a rough week for fishing all over Delmarva. Nasty windy weather kept anglers off the water until Thursday when some anglers couldn’t take it anymore but even then it wasn’t great.
At the Hook’em & Cook’em Tackle Shop in the Indian River Marina and Hook’em &?Cook’em Outfitters in South Bethany, Capt. Bert Adams reported Indian River Inlet anglers getting into croakers, flounder and short stripers last week. Croakers were found all along the rocks on both the north and south sides of the Inlet. Anglers using Fishbite artificial baits in either the clam or sand flea flavor. A few flounder were caught in the Inlet, primarily around the wall by the Coast Guard Station for anglers fishing with Gulp Swimming Mullets, minnows or strip baits. Bert said that he also heard of some flatties being hooked in Massey’s Ditch. Stripers are also being caught in the Inlet, but the fish are small, usually in the 16 to 18-inch range.
Off the beach near Indian River, a few kingfish are being caught on Fishbite bloodworms and anglers are still finding snapper bluefish interested in everything they have to offer. During the day, surfcasters are finding a lot of little dusky sharks during the day and sandbar sharks at night.
Boats venturing out to Fenwick Shoal are still finding king mackerel, Spanish mackerel and bluefish biting trolled spoons. The wrecks near Fenwick Shoal have been producing good numbers of triggerfish and a few spadefish as well. The triggers are being caught mainly on sand fleas, but clams have also been used with success. A couple of spadefish, weighing up to 4 lbs., were caught on Sunday.
Headboats out of Indian River didn’t get out until Thursday afternoon and found good triggerfish action on ocean wrecks. On Saturday, anglers got on to a fantastic flounder bite, but the throwback ratio was close to 10 to 1. A lot of the fish were around 16-inches. On Sunday, headboat anglers had another good day of flounder fishing with more keepers biting on bucktails tipped with Gulp artificial baits, belly strips and squid. Most of the headboat action has been around 12 miles off the beach.
A few cobia are starting to be caught not far from the shoreline. Tyler Delaney caught a 42-incher that weighed 26 lbs. while fishing with live spot a mile outside the Indian River Inlet.
Capt. Tommy at Lewes Harbour Marina said that the flounder bite in the Lewes Canal continues to be steady, with most fish in the 16 1/2 to 22-inch range being caught on a variety of baits including minnows, squid, strip baits and glow-in-the-dark Gulp artificials. Spot have increased in both numbers and size with fish in the 8 to 9-inch range primarily going for Fishbite bloodworms. Croaker fishing in the Canal has been fair according to Tommy and the slot striper season continues to be a good one for anglers fishing with eels around the Drawbridge.
Reef sites in the Delaware Bay are producing flounder, triggerfish, sea bass and weakfish. Triggers and spadefish are being found at the walls.
At Fenwick Bait & Tackle, Capt. Matt said that the Fenwick surf is still producing kingfish and snapper bluefish bites, but it has been sporadic. Kingfish are hitting Fishbite bloodworms while the snapper bluefish are loving cut mullet. Those fishing in the suds at night are finding the typical selection of sharks and rays.
In the Fenwick Ditch, short stripers are being caught on eels. Anglers who historically had good results throwing plugs are, for some reason, finding the stripers not interesting in these artificial offerings this season.
Matt’s anglers looking for flounder had decent results drifting in the Thorofare last week but had to contend with a lot of throwbacks.
Inshore, Matt said that he took some time off and headed to Russell’s Reef on Sunday where he caught his limit of flounder, measuring between 18 and 29-inches. He also caught 3 triggerfish that beat the flounder to the squid and shiners he was soaking.
Offshore, the bite was very slow with most boats staying inside at Massey’s Canyon and the 12 Fathom Lump where they have found both yellowfins and bluefins caught on the troll and chunk.
Until next week, have fun and tight lines!
