Article by Larry Jock
What a horrible week of weather. Rain, wind during the week and incorrect weather forecasts over the weekend really put a damper on fishing. The weekend was forecasted to be horrible, but ended up being much better than predicted.
At Hook’em & Cook’em Tackle Shop in the Indian River Marina, Capt. Bert Adams said that flounder are starting to show up in the Indian River Inlet. Short stripers with an occasional keeper are also being caught. Unfortunately, water temperatures are unseasonable cold, hovering around the 59-degree mark.
Anglers on the headboat, “Judy V” are catching a few flounder, but like everyone else, are finding sea bass hard to come by. Water temperatures on the bottom are frigid with reports of hooked fish coming up ice cold. Scott Ayers and Liz Short did catch a pair of twin 4.5 lb. flatties while drifting ocean structure on the “Judy V” last week.
Bluefish have vanished in the Indian River Inlet but small snappers are still being found in nets set in the back bays.
Capt. Bert said that there isn’t really anything to report from the surf due to bad weather and rough sea conditions for the better part of last week.
Joe Morris at Lewes Harbour Marina said crappy weather put a crimp in fishing activity most of the week. It was fishable in the Delaware Bay on Monday, and boats that ventured out found a mix of croakers, kingfish and blowfish in the Broadkill Slough. The best concentration of fish was found on Reef Site 5. Patrons aboard the “Angler” had good catches of hardheads on Monday, and then again when the weather let up on Saturday and Sunday.
Some flatfish activity has started in the Delaware Bay as well. Flukers aboard the “Martha Marie” returned with 7 keepers to 24 inches, after drifting Bay structure on Saturday. Small boats were able to fish in the Lewes Canal and Broadkill River despite the weather. Some flounder were pulled from the waterways at the end of flood tide and the first of ebb, when the water was clean. Nick’s Rigs tipped with shiners and minnows, or Gulp! on a jighead were popular offerings. John Mitchell stopped by Monday with his limit of 4 keeper Canal flatties taken with Nick’s Rigs. Joe Pergeorelis pulled a 5.7 pound fluke from the Canal on Friday.
Canal anglers also found some stripers around the bridges. Casting RatLTraps, Storm Shads or Zara Spooks at the top of flood tide generated rockfish bites. Bottom fishing with clams or cut bunker in the evenings also produced stripers. When striped bass aficionados made it to the Outer Wall at dawn or dusk, they connected with keeper and short rock by casting Bomber plugs.
Prior to all the wind, action with sea bass and cod was decent at Site 11. Some flounder have begun to bite on ocean bottom too.
Offshore bottom bouncers targeting tilefish should be aware of regulations changes that went into effect June 4th. MAFMC implemented an emergency measure to temporarily constrain fishing effort and reduce mortality on blueline tilefish, while a long term management plan is established. Through December 1, 2015 in waters north of the Virginia/North Carolina border, the possession limit for anglers on private or charter and party boats will be 7 blueline tilefish per person per trip. The possession limit for Golden Tilefish remains at eight per person per trip. Recreational fishermen returning to Delaware ports through State Waters may retain a limit of each species per trip. However, Maryland and Virginia may have different regulations regarding a combination of the two, so it would be best to check with enforcement agencies in those states before landing a catch.
Sharking has been pretty good. Herb Guest and the guys on “Port-A-Bella” drifted a depression near Site 11 on Saturday to tangle with a 212.5 lb. thresher during the Mako Mania Tournament. Captain Ted Moulinier’s sharkers aboard the “Indian” returned with the largest thresher seen in quite some time. Mark and Mitchell Butler, Dan McCoy and Michelle Ballance, Cameron Powell and Chris Huk teamed up to tame a 509.5 pound monster along the channel edge north of “DB” Buoy. The big whiptail ate a mackerel fillet and was brought to the boat an hour and a half later. It took awhile to get home since the shark had to be towed alongside, because the crew wasn’t able to muscle the massive critter over the rail and into the boat.
Until next week, tight lines!