Article by Capt. BJ Pietryak
Last week in Delaware we saw warmer weather, a few storms, and some excellent fish caught. The beach areas are alive with over slot rockfish as well as big black drum. The last week of tog has produced good sized fish and many anglers are seeing tons of sea bass on their hooks off the wrecks. Sea bass season begins on the 15th with a size limit of 13 inches and a creek of 15 fish per angler.
Surf Fishing, Rockfish & Drum
Charles Ritter, along with Mildred Reyes-Ritter, fished for 2.5 hours and picked up a pair of fish at 42” and another at 37”. Gary Harmison had a great morning landing an impressive 6 rock and breaking off another two. Quite a good morning by any standard. Mike Keller caught and released a 39” fish while fishing sand fleas just north of the Indian River Inlet. Steven Dalphon was at Herring Point fishing with bunker when he scored a striper from the surf. “Bad Wind Charters” was at it again on the beaches of Delaware and went 10 for 12 on stripers. Josh Barfielf fished an early morning bite and was rewarded with a 42” rockfish on a kingfish rig with size 1 hooks, two more schoolies and a pair of gray trout. Catches like that make it worth setting the alarm on your day off. Another lucky angler, Joe Eberhard caught 4 stripers measuring 38”, 40”, 46” and 47.5”. Several reports have come in that when you find one fish there are usually a few more ready to bite soon after. Joe Pruitt pulled a hog of a striper measuring 50.5 inches. Jesse Weic got his biggest surf caught striper this past week.
Although not measured, the fish looked close to 50 inches. Lewes Harbour Marina said that the clams Dustin Lloyd bought from them worked out as he caught a 5” fish off of Broadkill beach. Lewes Harbour also reported that the crew of the “Grizzly” was shocked when out tog fishing. Hugh Wissinger hooked and landed a 48 lb. striper on a tog rig tipped with a crab. While fishing the surf a few overslot red drum have also been caught. Gary Harmison pulled in 3 big bull reds while fishing for black drum. Besan Khamis also pulled in an over slot red that opted to dine on his sand fleas. I'm really happy to see the big reds making their way north to us again this year. Looking to black drum, fish are being caught both in the surf as well as the Delaware Bay. Captain Rich Harpel was fishing the beds off of Broadkill Beach using a high low rig with a 4 oz. weight and fresh clam when he pulled in a huge black drum. Tower Shores was where Bob Morris caught a few tog using Fishbites clam. Steven Maddox said it took awhile, but finally ended up with a black to bring home for dinner while fishing the beach Tuesday morning. Alex Hudson got a drum on Broadkill Beds. Lewes Icehouse Bait & Tackle was the check in station for this fish. Surf clam was this fish’s bait of choice to eat. David Michulka bought clams from Lewes Harbour Marina and the results were 3 bites at the same time with all three fish landed. I think I need to get to Lewes Harbour because it seems that everyone buying clams from them is catching some big fish!
Back Bay Flounder & Bluefish
The Joe Morris Memorial Canal Flounder Tournament is next Friday, May 19th. This is a great tournament for any class of angler and benefits pancreatic cancer, so stop by and fish, or just watch the weigh-ins for a fun day and great cause. Jeff Purdy, Lea Layfield and Ticen Willey caught a load of flounder while tuning up for the Memorial Canal tourney next Friday. They caught all their fish on the Nick Rigs, available at Lewes Harbour Marina. Alex Neiss couldn't keep bait on the water at Cape Pier and landed a limit of flat fish. Clint Bradley also pulled a few nice fish out of the canal warming up for the upcoming tourney. Destiny Hastings was out for the first time and managed to pull in a nice 19” flounder on minnows. The Lewes Canal really seems to be heating up. Roosevelt Ronald got his first saltwater keeper, a 20” fluke.
Tog & Near Shore Wrecks
It appears we have a new Delaware state record tog. “No Limits Sportfishing' had angler James Milano out this past week and pulled in a huge 22.9 lb. tog. The fish measured 34” with a girth of 24”. The bait used to catch this record was white legged crab. The fish was weighed in at Indian River Marina, at Hook’em and Cook’em Tackle. That is one huge fish! Great job to both the anglers and crew for a fantastic catch. Kelly Kellz had a 12.5 lb. fish as well Lewes Tog Club had a stellar day with 21 keepers after catching close to 100 fish. Billy Mister went to the wall with his father and snagged a few nice keepers last week. Matt Maggs brought in a nice 8.44 lb. fish he caught on green crab. Daryl Merganthaler got a nice 7.44 lb. tog. Chris Huk had a great day on the water releasing 3 blackfish over 10 lbs. The crew used jigs to entice the fish to bite. Tony Walls got an 18 inch tog on sand fleas while fishing the rocks at Indian River. Keven Flaherty got his personal best tog on Tuesday while fishing with “Get The Gaff Charters'. The “Katydid” crew pulled in tog up to 14 lbs. while fishing ocean structure. Four anglers received citations for fish over 7 lbs. Great job anglers! Jim Osborn had a good ending with 6 keepers. He reportedly caught all fish on sand fleas as everywhere he went was out of crabs.
Crabbing and clamming are steadily improving, but crabs are still mostly small along with tons of pregnant females. Clams are still deep in the mud and not easy to find. Hopefully as the water warms with higher temps, the clams and crabs will cooperate better.
Until next week...
Tight lines and fins up §
