Article by Larry Jock
Fishing mellowed a bit this past week, but some nice fish were still caught.
In the Indian River Inlet, Capt. Bert at Hook’em & Cook’em reported a spotty flounder bite with mostly smaller fish being caught. There were a few good days, with some larger flatties being hooked, but overall it was pretty slow. Most anglers catching ones large enough for the cooler used live spot for bait.
On the south side of the Inlet, croaker fishing was so good that guys were getting tired of catching them. Most fish were in the 10 to 12-inch range but there were some larger, 14 to 16-inch fish mixed in. Fishbite bloodworms were the bait of choice for hardhead fishing.
Bluefish up to 3 to 4 lbs. were caught during the day or night by anglers tossing Gotcha plugs, Hopkins lures and poppers.
A few small black puppy drum were landed on clams and sand fleas (if you could get them). The average puppy drum measured between 17 and 18-inches.
Stripers are showing up in the Inlet, mainly at night, for anglers fishing with live spot or flies. Most need to be thrown back, averaging 26-inches in length.
The “Judy V.”, running half-day trips out of Indian River, switched to croaker and sea bass fishing last week, since it seemed like the flounder were too far offshore to reach in a timely fashion on the shorter day trips. Anglers hooked into all the croaker they wanted with a few bluefish and weakfish mixed in.
The full-day head boat, “Capt. Bob II”, had a great week of flounder fishing at ocean structure with fish up to 6 lbs. Many fish were caught that weighed over 4 lbs. Strips of squid or bucktails tipped with cut bait were the ticket.
Further north out of Lewes, DE, Capt. Joe Morris at Lewes Harbour Marina said that bottom fishing remained good with plenty of croakers, of varying sizes, being caught around the Inner and Outer Walls in the Delaware Bay. Clams, squid, bloodworms, shrimp and Fishbites were favored, however, those who preferred to cast lures did well by bouncing a jighead tipped with a Gulp! Swimming Mullet. Croakers, along with kingfish, spot, puffers and triggerfish also came from the artificial structure of Reef Site 8, along with increased numbers of weakfish.
Joe also mentioned that there seems to be more red drum around this year. After only receiving a handful of reports during the last several seasons, he’s heard of numerous puppy redfish, between 12 and 20-inches, being caught from Lewes Beach, in the Lewes Canal, the Rehoboth Bay and Indian River.
In addition to croaker around the Outer Wall, small snapper bluefish were also pouncing on metal jigs like Kastmasters, Gators and Gotcha plugs. Trolling Clark spoons and Tony Acettas on light gear was also very effective.
Flounder fishing in the Delaware Bay and on ocean structure was not as good as it has been for Delaware boats, likely due to strong tidal currents from the recent blue moon. There were some decent catches from Reefs 6 and 7 in the Delaware Bay and at Sites 9, 10 and 11 in the ocean. Joe Walker had the honor of catching the 750th keeper flounder caught on the “Katydid” this season. On Saturday, the Old Grounds produced 9 keepers for anglers on the “High Hook” and on Sunday, Dianna Healy decked a 6 lb. 8 oz. flattie at Site 11.
Joe also reported good size croakers were scattered along the edge of the buoy line. Capt. Ricky Yakimowicz told of good action with croakers up to 17-inches being caught a couple of miles, northwest of “DB” Bouy during the middle of last week.
The striped bass slot season came to a close on September 1st, so everyone is back to 2 fish per day, 28-inches and larger. Keeper stripers were hooked around the Lewes Canal Drawbridge by anglers fishing with eels or clams. Linesiders were also caught at the mouth of Canary Creek where they were found feeding on schools of mullet. The infamous, Mac McNaught had several short stripers while flyfishing at night in the lights at the Roosevelt Inlet Coast Guard Station.
With Cape Henlopen Point open again, surfcasters are mainly catching snapper bluefish on fresh cut mullet.
Off the beaches in Fenwick and Dewey, surf fishermen are still hooking into Norfolk spot, bluefish, croaker, throwback flounder and kingfish during the day and sharks and rays at night. The sharks don’t seem to be as large lately, according to Bert Adams, but are there for the fight.
Offshore, the tuna bite continued to be almost non-existent with bluewater anglers staying busy releasing white and blue marlin in 60 to 100 fathoms in the Poor Man’s and Washington Canyons. They are also bringing some dolphin back to the dock, hooked in these same areas. Dillon Filepas boated a 70 lb. swordfish during an overnight trip to 500 fathoms in the Poor Man’s. Dillon was fishing on “Candy’s Choice” and spent the next day deep dropping for golden tilefish, where Dave Filepas boated a 41.7 pounder. The “Tranquila” overnighted in the Baltimore Canyon where they released a hammerhead shark, estimated at 300 lbs.
Upcoming Tournaments
Make your plans now for the two big Delaware striper tournaments. The Lewes Harbour Marina Striper Tournament will be held from October 20th to November 20th and Bill’s Sport Shop Striper Tournament begins on October 26th and runs to December 7th. Both are fantastic tournaments, so give each of the tackle shops a call for more information.
Until next week, tight lines!
