Article by Capt. BJ Pietryak
The summer warmth is finally arriving here in Delaware. With many days in the high 70’s and low 80’s, the water has warmed up and near shore temps are now in the upper 60’s. As a result of the warmer sea temps, flounder has really turned on. Sea bass remains very hit or miss with lots of small fish to wade through before getting a keeper. The back bays remain good with small blues blitzing the rocks at the inlet to larger flounder in the back bay areas.
Nearshore Wrecks & Coral
The nearshore wrecks and coral grounds have really started to produce some decent fish in the past week. Every day seems to bring larger fish along with more limits being brought in by anglers. The key areas to target remain the outside(east) coral north of A Buoy and Site 11. Gulp bait has turned on as well as squid and live minnow combos. Finding deeper structure and remaining close to the bottom is producing the best fish. Bottom fishing for sea bass has been a little slow compared to previous years with a ratio of about ten undersize fish to every keeper. El Jibaro was out this past week and brought home several nice knothead bass. Fresh clam is working the best and a squid style jig really helps with acquiring larger fish. My favorite daughter Samantha and I fished the NJ/DE Reef and caught over 100 fish between us, however only brought back 15 large keepers. We did throw back several fish that would have made the size limit, however, a 13 inch fish does not provide very much meat. Ocean Arsenal fished their Squid Rigs lures on the “Jay Sea 2” sportfishing boat and caught near limits of the tasty black fish on various wrecks and coral grounds. Ted Proseus said they also caught several nice flounder, many in the high 4 pound range. Brad Stauch fished with them last Friday and got his personal best at just over 6 pounds. Both he and his son Matt were limited out by 8:30 am including two at 4.5 pounds and one at 5.5 pounds. Florin and his crew went with Captain Kith on The “Surface Tension” catching several large sea bass as well as some nice flatties. The crew used Nomad Jigs and teasers. Olga was the high hook of the trip and caught the biggest fish which was just under the citation size. Way to go Olga... Girl Power!!
Connor Soh stopped into Hook’Em and Cook’Em Bait & Tackle with a monster 7 pound flounder measuring 25.5 inches. Bert Adams, owner of Hook’Em & Cook’Em Bait & Tackle, told me the trips on the head boats out of Indian River Marina are returning with great catches of flounder and even some big sea bass. The tackle shop offers a great fillet service at a really competitive price. Most of the time despite working on a head boat most of my life, I still bring my fish in to let the boys do it. You can't beat the price or skill they have. The “Angler” out of Lewes Harbour Marina had several great trips last week. They reported that even though sea bass started out slow it got better as the day progressed with many anglers bringing home a nice cooler of fish for dinner. Sea bass are still there for their clients; you just have to fish hard and wade through a lot of throw-backs. “Bad Wind Charters” reported the bass were very picky for them last week and despite marking huge pods of fish they were quite often not ready to bite. Regardless, these conditions managed to still bring home several coolers of tasty fish for their clients. The “Katydid” had a great trip out of Lewes Harbour Marina last week loading the cleaning table with a limit of very nice sized flounder. Mike, Tony ,Rich, Tom, Chris, and Paul all ended up with limits.
Bay & Inlet Fishing
Larry Karawczyk caught a 9.4 pound, 22 inch sheepshead off the rocks at Indian River Inlet. The monster was caught using sand fleas. Larry also landed another one weighing 3 pounds. Buddy Bragg got a humongous 7.3 pound 26” fluke in the Rehoboth Bay using live minnows. Archer Morgan reported the inlet was on fire last Friday morning and they caught big bluefish as they blitzed the inlet. As fast as you unhooked one, another one was ready to bite the hook. Tom Passwaters fished the Lewes Canal and returned to the marina with a limit of flat fish. Charlie Reed checked into Rick’s Bait and Tackle with a 26 inch 7.2 pound citation flounder. Fenwick Bait & Tackle’s Joshua Travers reported several large bluefish were taken in the Indian River Inlet on multiple days. Joshua stated, “it seems like everyday someone is bringing in another big blue to show off.” Taylor Parisi caught his biggest flounder of the year, a 24 inch along with 4 more over 20”. Archer Morgan caught several small rockfish at the inlet with many coming very close to the new small slot limit. Bill Santana got in on the bluefish run at the inlet last week. He said pound for pound they are one of the hardest fighting fish around. Lamar Meekins and Tim Morris got their limit of fluke in the backwaters of Indian River stating all they needed were some fried potatoes and cornbread to make their meal complete. Penn Rick was on the south side of the inlet and got a nice bluefish with a spoon. Nick Garcia stated despite several shorts he did manage to bring home one keeper fluke at 19”. This is a rare day for Nick because usually he is featured in my reports with large limits. We will have to see what next week.
Up at Bowers Beach the nice sea trout are being caught. On the beach, surf fishing brings in small bluefish as well as kingfish which have begun to show up. Logan Taylor got a nice kingfish last week using a small top and bottom rig with squid. Sea trout were caught on the beach last week with Richard Henry getting a nice sized one early Friday morning. Using small kingfish rigs with either sand fleas or squid is a great way to enjoy a day on the drive on beaches of DE and maybe even bring home dinner. All the local tackle shops carry these rigs as well as many of their own custom surf style rigs.
Until next week...
Tight lines and fins up §
