Article by Larry Jock
Fishing was pretty good throughout the week, but a bad weekend forecast put an abrupt halt to the action.
Unfortunately, the horrible weekend forecast forced the Indian River Marina staff to cancel their Kid’s Catch-All Tournament. The tournament will not be rescheduled, so we will just have to wait until next year to see the dock loaded with smiling junior anglers.
At the Hook’em & Cook’em Tackle Shop in the Indian River Marina, Capt. Bert Adams reported decent fishing in the Indian River Inlet through the middle of the week, but the action slowed down heading into the weekend. Flounder fishing was good right up through Thursday and stripers were caught off the rocks of the North Jetty at night and smaller linesiders were hooked under the lights by the Coast Guard Station. A few sheepshead were also caught along the rocks on the south side of the Inlet. Croakers were caught by the rocks on both sides of the Inlet, but the better catches came along the south side and by the handicap pier.
Headboats out of the Indian River Marina are still struggling, like all headboats, with a very slow sea bass bite this year. Flounder fishing, however, on ocean structure has been good when you can get your drift down to .7 to .9 knots. The action has been good, but anglers have also had to deal with a high throwback to keeper ratio hovering around 5:1.
Offshore, the highlight of the week was the “Fish Whistle” returning from an overnight trip on Thursday with 4 bigeyes and a 68.8 lb. yellowfin. The bigeyes tipped the scale at 140, 148, 226 and 230 lbs and were all caught between 6:00 PM and 10:00 PM at the Bigeye Hole in the Washington Canyon. The yellowfin was caught at the 800/800. They also jumped off a 400 lb. blue marlin during their trip.
Joe Morris at Lewes Harbour Marina said it seems like summertime flounder action is off to a good start. Flatties continued to come from the Lewes Canal and the Broadkill River. Art and Bill Inden fished a couple hours of the ebb tide on the Canal Monday afternoon, and returned with five nice keepers taken while drifting minnows. Chad Wentworth and Nick Psaroudakis, creator of the popular “Nick’s Rigs”, used that custom-tied gear to capture their eight Canal flounder limit in short order during the outgoing tide on Thursday. The rigs were tipped with minnows and shiners. Hudson Keller checked in early on Friday morning with a pair of flatfish, measuring up to 21 inches, he caught while kayaking in the Roosevelt Inlet. A Spro bucktail sweetened with Gulp! did the trick.
The Delaware Bay structure also yielded flounder. On Monday, Jack Henriksen, Ricky Mills and Bob and Greg Horton had 8 keeper fluke and a pile of croakers at Site 8. Greg had big fish honors with his 4.75 pounder. Air temperatures were hot Tuesday, and so was catching for flukers on the charter boat, “Katydid”, who brought back 22 from the Delaware Bay.
Panfish catches have been good for Delaware Bay bottom bouncers. Plenty of croakers were found around Reef Sites 5 and 8 with Kingfish and blowfish mixed in.
Croakers moved into the Lewes Canal in good numbers, and anglers fishing from the bank or the Town Dock hooked numerous hardheads while baiting with bloodworms or clams.
Ocean fluking has also been pretty decent. Captain Brent took his Wednesday regulars on the “Katydid” to the big pond for 27 keepers. Wayne Demarco, Joe Pergeorelis, Ray Ganc and Daryl Mergenthaler worked Site 11 for their limit of quality flounder. Daryl decked a 7.2 pound doormat during that excursion. Mike Davis drifted the Old Grounds with cut bait on Wednesday for his limit of nice flatties. Thursday flukers on the “Katydid” put 23 in the box. Levi Byler boated a 7.11 pound citation earner at the Old Grounds on Thursday.
Stripers roamed the Lewes Canal and could be caught by drifting eels around the drawbridge or casting a variety of artificials along the marsh banks. The summer striped bass slot size season is effective from July 1st through August 31st. During that time, anglers may retain two striped bass between 20 and 25 inches per day. The reduced size requirement applies only to Delaware Bay, Delaware River and it’s tributaries.
There was a good inshore tuna bite early in the week, with a mix of yellowfins and bluefins reported at the Hot Dog and Tea Cup. However, heavy boat traffic from trollers spread out the fish by week’s end and catches dwindled. Bill Swords and Bill Wiest boated a 45 pound bluefin and an 18.4 pound dolphin at the Hambone on Thursday. Herb Guest and the guys on “Port-A-Bella” got a pair of yellowfins near the Dog. Ed Sigda’s crew on the “Snow Goose” trolled up two yellowfins and 4 mahi in 20 fathoms. Shawn Gallagher used a Squidnation Flippy Floppy Thing to tempt the 44-inch dolphin he landed aboard the “Free Spool”.
Until next week, tight lines!
