Article by Rick Willman
Hi folks! The summer fishing season in the back bays has really been good and now the inshore fishing seems to be heating up. The DB Buoy and DA Buoy areas, along with the Old Grounds and Reef Site # 10, are starting to turn on. Some very nice flatties are coming off the bottom in these areas and the sea bass action is also improving a bit.
When fishing for the flounder be sure you have enough weight to hold bottom. There are some really nice sized flounder starting to feed in these areas and a large bait will make your line more appealing. A large strip of squid or large minnow and squid combo will work just fine. The Berkley Gulp! is also tricking the flounder and sea bass.
Jim Musumeci of Elizabethtown, PA fished the Old Grounds to score a 9 lb. flattie that measured 28 ½-inches. Preston Miller of Mohnton, PA had his wife Kathy, Sue Lilly and Tracey Lilly to Reef Site # 10 for a ‘girl’s day out’. They had a great day and brought home 10 flatties weighing up to 5 lbs. 1 oz. and a few sea bass. Jamie Scott and Kyle Riley from Wilmington fished aboard “I Have Fissues” using minnows and brought home a couple of 3 lb. flounder from Site # 10. Thirteen-year-old Mat McKaskill of Millsboro used white Gulp! at Site # 10 to score a 6 lb. 12 oz. flounder while fishing aboard “3 Catches” with Capt. Scott DiGardi. Rose Hobbs of Reading, PA fished DB Buoy aboard the “Heather Lynn” using Berkley Gulp! and boated a 5 lb. 2 oz. flattie. Capt. Chuck Cook of “First Light Charters” took Bruce, Sherry, and Ian McClay to the Indian River Inlet for a fun-filled fishing trip. The McClay crew could have sunk the boat with all the fish they caught. Capt. Chuck took Roger and Chris Hone fly-fishing, where Roger scored a 30-inch striper, which is his personal best on a fly.
Offshore action this past week produced some wahoo for local fishermen. Capt. Paul Taylor on the “Nurse Catch It” trolled ballyhoo at the Hot Dog to score a 43 lb., 57-inch wahoo. Capt. Tony Dambro on the “FreeBird” took Kevin Burdett to the Hambone and trolled ballyhoo to boat a 26 lb. 2 oz. wahoo. Gil Waddington, Cory Waddington, Tom Strang, and Doug trolled the Baltimore Canyon to score a 50 lb. yellowfin, a 35 lb. wahoo and 10 dolphin. Capt Mark Hess on the “Predator” trolled ballyhoo along the 40-line and provided Brett Thompson of Exeter, PA with a white marlin release. Capt. Bobby Haas aboard the “Deep Passion” trolled a blue and white Ilander skirted ballyhoo to score a 70 lb. yellowfin.
Bill’s Sport Shop in Lewes reported that Lee and Joanie Lovette fished just outside of Massey's Landing and caught about 30 croakers up to 11-inches. They used strips of mullet, spot and bluefish. On another trip, they slammed into more croakers and plenty of spot using FishBites. Reports are coming in of puffer fish biting on the Rehoboth Bay side of Massey's Landing using clams. Bill's Sport Shop is having a "Trash Fish Tournament" which will run from Sept. 1st until the 30th. There will be four categories: Skate, oyster crackers, sea robins and dogfish. The entry fee is $5.00 per category and all weigh-ins will be at Bill's.
Eric at Rattle & Reel Sporting Center reported plenty of croaker at Buoy #20 in the Indian River. Bloodworms, FishBites, or night crawlers will fool the croakers. There are plenty of flounder in the back bays, but many of them are throwbacks. Minnows, squid, or Berkley Gulp! have been the baits of choice for flounder. Stripers are being taken at night in Massey’s Ditch and the Indian River Inlet using live spot or live eels. Bluefish are showing up in the inlet on the incoming tide, and anything shiny will get their attention.
Capt. Joe Morris of Lewes Harbour Marina said flounder action improved this past week. Reef sites 6 and 7 near the Brown Shoal gave up decent numbers of flatties, but the best bites occurred around tide changes, when the current was slower. Fish hung tight to structure.
When the current ran hard, some crews did well by anchoring ahead of rubble and walking baits back through the junk. Bucktail jigs tipped with strip baits or Gulp! were effective when used in that situation. On Thursday, Captain Vince’s guys on the “Miss Kirstin” returned from Site 6 with 6 keepers weighing up to 4.5 lbs. Joe Walker and his friends had 7 legal flatties on site 6 this past Friday. The influence of tidal currents wasn’t as strong in the ocean as it has been in the bay, and flatfish cooperated at Reef Site 10, and on rough bottom of the Old Grounds.
Three generations of flounder fishermen teamed up for a good catch on the Old Grounds on Friday. Andrew, Wade and John Bondrowski put 10 flounder to 6.33 lbs. in the box, along with 9 sea bass. Larry Burkins checked in a 7.04 lb. citation fluke from site 10, part of a 7 fish bag he and his buddy had while using Gulp! and squid. Tony Vansant, Larry Pleasenton, Louie and Tugboat Dan worked Site 10 on Friday for 9 quality keepers. Captain Chet’s group had a great trip on Saturday aboard the “Lil’ Angler”. They brought back 13 chunky flounder from Site 10. Captain Pete’s fishermen on the “Top Fin” ended up with 9 keepers on Saturday at Site 10. On Sunday, Captain Brent’s patrons on the “Katy Did” had an awesome catch of 18 big keeper fluke while rubble bouncing. Joe McNeal scored a pair of doormats weighing 7.56 and 6.92 pounds.
Croakers continue to be spread out along the ocean beachfront and in the Delaware Bay. Spots that yielded croakers in the bay included the Star Site, the eastern edge of the Anchorage and the Lower Middle. Captain Ted on the “Indian” reported a red-hot hardhead bite on the drop-off outside the Outer Wall at the end of Sunday morning’s flood tide. Clams, bloodworms, shrimp and FishBites were favored offerings for the feisty panfish. Anglers also encountered blowfish, kingfish, snapper blues and spot mixed in with croakers. Anglers on the rails at the Cape Henlopen Pier had lots of hand-sized spot while baiting with bloodworms and FishBites. Spot were also plentiful in the Lewes Canal and Broadkill River. Nice white perch were caught in the Canal as well. Leon Deshields checked in a plump citation perch weighing 1.1 lbs. Stripers came from the Canal too. Guys casting RatLTraps to the marsh banks had rock within the 20 to 26-inch slot size limit. The slot season closes August 31.
Offshore fishermen told of good billfish bites in the deep of the Baltimore Canyon. Both white and blue marlin were working bait in 1000 to 1500 fathoms. Yellowfin tuna action was spotty. Captain Tom Cornell on the “High Hook” had a yellowfin and a wahoo while trolling in 35 fathoms east of the Tea Cup. Boaters running to the Washington Canyon reported longfins between 55 and 100 fathoms along the 760 line. Deep-water bottom fishing in the Baltimore was productive. Captain Carey and the boys on the “Grizzly” had a great catch on Saturday. They had a mix of 18 golden and blueline tilefish. Tom Foltz boated a 35 lb. golden, and Dave Moncrief had the unexpected bonus of a 44.5 lb. snowy grouper.
At Hook’em & Cook’em Bait & Tackle in North Shore Marina, Bert informed us of good flounder action in the Indian River Inlet. Flounder to 8.9 lbs. were brought to the scales this past week. Plenty of blues, striper, black drum and croakers to 14-inches were also being taken. The flounder and croaker were found throughout the back bays. In the surf, there were lots of spot, croaker and blues. Big sharks were also being taken from the surf at night.
On the head boats “Capt. Bob” and “Judy V.”, flounder and sea bass action has been improving. Offshore activity has consisted mainly of dolphin, dolphin and more dolphin. And after all that, they caught some more dolphin! Along with the dolphin, a few wahoo have been caught trolling around the Hot Dog and Tea Cup areas.
White marlin action has been pretty good at the Poor Man’s Canyon.
Until next week, have fun and be safe!
Rick and his wife Deb are owners of Rick’s Bait & Tackle in Long Neck, DE.
