Article by Larry Jock
Overall last week, you couldn’t ask for nicer weather topped off by absolutely spectacular conditions over the weekend, allowing a lot of boats the chance to head out into the ocean.
At the Hook’em & Cook’em Tackle Shop in the Indian River Marina, Capt. Bert Adams reported only a few croaker and flounder being caught in the Indian River Inlet. Anglers are having better luck with striped bass with a lot of short fish providing action for anglers in boats and those fishing from the rocks. A few keeper size stripers were caught last week, with most coming in at night, although Sunday saw some keeper size linesiders landed during the day. Anglers drifting the Inlet are having success with live spot, but Tsunami Blue Back Herring Heavy’s and Electric Shad Bass Assassin’s on jig heads are really working well. Anglers are also finding some small, 1 lb. snapper bluefish mixed in with the stripers.
Croakers are being caught 2 miles off the coast of Indian River and also by Site 10. Most of the fish are running 10 to 12-inches.
Flounder fishing on ocean reefs and wrecks is excellent right now. Anglers are finding a lot of throwbacks, but large flatties are being caught every day. Headboats are having good luck. Customers on the “Judy V” had 40 keepers on their Sunday afternoon trip. The Old Grounds, African Queen and the Bass Grounds all produced excellent catches last week.
Sea bass fishing hasn’t been that great. Better catches are further offshore and Bert noted that the “Radford” wreck has been producing some decent catches.
Offshore, wahoo have everyone excited with fish being caught up and down the 30 fathom line. During a Friday/Saturday overnight trip, anglers on the “Cindy Sue” boxed 3 nice wahoo up to 60.1 lbs. while trolling just outside the Hot Dog. Also over the weekend, the “JoJo” boxed a 64 pounder in the Baltimore Canyon.
Dolphin are all over the ocean with a definite improvement in the size of the fish being brought back to the dock. In addition to the usual haunts in the Canyons, anglers also got into mahi as close to shore as the Old Grounds.
The marlin bite over the weekend was very good with the Baltimore Canyon being the hot spot for billfish. A few blue marlin were also hooked in addition to swordfish in the Washington Canyon.
The bigeye bite is like the Eveready Bunny... it just keeps going and going and going. The Washington Canyon continues to be the best spot to capture an eyeball, but bigeyes were also caught in the Baltimore Canyon as well. On Thursday night, the “Fish Whistle” captured a pair of bigeye tuna and a swordfish in the Baltimore Canyon.
The yellowfin bite seemed to show some life with small tuna caught while trolling and greensticking in the Washington Canyon.
When anglers were having any luck with tuna or billfish, deep dropping in the Baltimore and Washington Canyon produced golden tilefish and blackbelly rose fish in addition to blueline tilefish higher in the water column.
Joe Morris at Lewes Harbour Marina said local boaters reported better offshore action at week’s end. Billfish, tuna and mahi came from the Baltimore and Washington Canyons. Ian Binnersley brought in a 26.3 pound bull dolphin trolled up in the Baltimore aboard the “Griffin”. The crew iced several other mahi and also released 4 white marlin on Thursday.
Andrew Seipp scored a 54.2 pound wahoo while trolling ballyhoo through 70 fathoms, inshore of the Baltimore Canyon. Mike Fritz had his hands full on Friday when a bigeye grabbed the lightest rig in the spread, but all went well, and the 136 pound eyeball ended up in the bag. The crew also landed several dolphin, and topped off the take with blueline and golden tilefish by drifting bottom in the deep of the Baltimore aboard the “Snow Goose”. Joe Ruger reeled in a 27.8 pound mahi while trolling the Baltimore on Sunday on the “Port-A-Bella”. Shawn Gallagher and his crew aboard the “Free Spool” overnighted in the Washington, where they boated a dozen keeper yellowfins at night, drifting with sardines and jigs. Shawn said the sharks were terrible, and they lost several tuna to large toothy critters. The guys also trolled up a 25 pound wahoo. Rob Jarboe and his gang on “Ella Belle” ran to the Washington and had fun with tuna at night. The guys decked 6 yellowfins by livelining squids on light tackle. Wilkie Jarboe battled a nice swordfish that ate an eel on a spinning outfit for quite awhile before it finally got hung up in the running gear. The boys also had a white marlin, and jumped off a blue one, for a great offshore experience.
Back inshore, flounder continued to please ocean bottom bouncers at Sites 10 and 11, and on the Old Grounds. The Wednesday regulars aboard the “Katydid” made Captain Brent look good again, bringing back a boat limit of 40 flatties plus some bonus black bass. Thursday flukers on the “Katydid” had their limit of 40 fish by 10:30 am. Ken Seltzer and his crew captured 40 keepers on Friday on the “Katydid”. Deanna McGovern had big fish honors for her 5.87 pounder. Mate Chris Vann’s birthday trip on the “Katydid” produced a 44 flatfish limit for him and his buddies during their Saturday celebration. Ernie Stone had the hot hook that day, and bested everybody with his first citation fluke weighing 7.44 pounds, and another that went 6.92. On Friday, Bob Horton, Todd Mills, Jack Henriksen and Pastor Fred fished Site 11 for their limit of fine flounder. Bob boated the biggest, a 6.36 that ate a squid and smelt sandwich.
Brian Seglem boated his personal best flounder on Thursday at Site 11, weighing 5.64 pounds. On Sunday, Tony Vansant decked a doormat weighing just under 8 pounds while drifting an ocean reef.
In the Delaware Bay, flounder fans who were on Reef Sites 6, 7 and 8 at the beginning and end of the tides had decent fishing. On Monday, Joe and Michael Walker and Bob and Robert Karpovich made the reef route and assembled a catch of 13 keeper flounder, including a brace scaling 5 and 5.5 pounds. On Thursday, Bob Bryant just missed earning a citation with his 6.9 pounder from Reef Site 5. Bob was at it again Sunday when he and his crew on the “Nervous Wreck” had their limit of 20 keepers in just a couple hours, at the end of the flood on Upper Bay structure. John Schnaitman stuck a 5 pounder on that trip.
Until next week, tight lines.
