Article by Capt. BJ Pietryak
This week in Delaware the crowds have started to subside from the holiday weekend and fishing is returning to normal. Sea bass is still plentiful but you must be willing to travel the 30 miles out to deeper water if you want limits. Black drum in the bay is on fire. Big bluefish are crashing the surf and inlets.
Black Drum
The Delaware Bay is thick with black drum now that the spawn is in full swing. Lighthouse shoals as well as the shallower shoals are the hot spot with fish up to 80 lbs. being caught. Fresh big clams are the best bait, however, many anglers are having great luck with sand fleas run around a circle hook. Richard Harpel caught and released a huge black drum. He estimated the weight at around 80-85 lbs. Most anglers will release a fish this big both due to the fact that it is a major breeder as well as the odds of it having parasitic worms is very high. Worms in the meat of these fish are a common parasite and are always present in the fish, but when the fish gets over 50 lbs. they become large enough to be visible. They’re not very appealing looking as the fish is filleted and the worms squirm all over the cutting board! They are harmless to humans and can be eaten along with the fillets, although most anglers are often ready to throw the fish back once they see the worms. Branden Moyer caught a nice 77 lb. black drum while fishing the “Skipjack” charter boat. Fuentes Rivas Lucio got a nice drum off the bottom out at the coral beds near B Buoy last week. The “Surface Tension” charter boat did a quick trip and were rewarded with a few nice eating size fish, all caught on fresh clam. Daniel Korup had a successful night on the drum shoals and brought in a nice black to Lewes Harbour Marina. The fish weighed 25 lbs. which is a perfect eating size…no worms!
Bluefish & Rockfish
Bluefish blitzes were common last week both at the beach and inlet /bay openings. Steve Bieler got in on the action catching a nice 25” bluefish along the Indian River Inlet. Lighthouse Bait and Tackle reported a nice mix of small to slammer bluefish last week as well as some nice flounder and even a few croaker. Rich King of Delaware Surf Fishing said he saw some nice blues coming on the beach. He stated they are the perfect eating size and are great smoked, broiled or fried. George Frigm was fishing Fenwick Beach and caught a couple of nice blues and even managed a slot rockfish. Mark Pena was surf fishing at Broadkill Beach and was rewarded with a nice slammer blue. Although he says it's beginner's luck, catching a nice bluefish like that is often more natural skill than it is luck. Tony Dipietro is no amateur and found a nice 28” blue on his outings. Tony is a name that graces these pages many times each summer. Brooke Yarnall reported a nice 31” blue off of 3R’s this past week. Most of the bluefish reported were caught on mullet rigs. Several local rig makes can be found if you want to support local rigs as opposed to the mass produced factory ones. Delaware Surf Fishing has a unique one with a fish hook at the head to prevent bait from sliding down the hook as it often does on the surf. As we turn to rockfish, Chad Wilkerson got a nice striper off the inlet jetty. Jacob Gilliar, who was mentioned last week for a rockfish in the surf, was at it again pulling a few more out of the surf on cut bait. For a new surf fishing guy he is racking up the catches... way to go Jacob! Lewes Harbour Marina reported that Seth Morgan caught a beautiful 43” striper on an incoming tide. The fish was over slot and returned to the water to be caught another day. Not bad for a 14 yr. old young man. I'm sure he will be one we will hear from in coming years.
Sea Bass & Flounder
Sea bass is still very hot but most of the limits are coming from NJ/DE reef 30 miles out. I ran out this week with Daryl and Steve Norman on their new boat. We got to the reef a little late and were met with about 200 boats fishing the area. We started out with a daily slow bite, but as the afternoon drifted by and more boats headed in the fishing picked up and we soon had our limit throwing many smaller keepers back and only the bigger knotheads. The “Capt Ike II” from the Indian River Marina came in with some nice sea bass this week including some citation fish. Brad Clark was also on the bass out at NJ/DE and came home with a happy crew and limits for all. The “Rusty Reel” out of Indian River was also scoring it big with the sea bass before changing up shortly and going out to the deep for tuna. Fred Robinson and Daryl Merenthaler had a good day on the water bringing several fish back to the marina. I spoke with the boys filleting fish at Hook ‘em and Cook ‘em who told me most boats that went the distance to NJ/DE came home with limits or near limits, and those that stayed near the coral grounds got a few keepers but not limits.
Mike Smith pulled a few nice flounder out of Rehoboth Bay. This is the best report I’ve received from that bay so it's good to hear the fish are there now. Rehoboth Bay is often overlooked but holds a nice flounder population in the summer months. Brian Marine was fishing Indian River and luck struck again for his co angler when she pulled a nice 21.5” flounder onto the boat. Flounder have been caught in Indian River and Rehoboth bays on squid and shiners and a few on Gulp baits.
As far as crabs go, the count has dropped a little with approximately 8-10 keepers per pot. Jay Middleton reports lots of big pregnant females in the pots last week.
Until next week...
Tight lines and fins up §
