Article by Larry Jock
Fishing is very hit-or-miss right now. The fish are here, but conditions just haven’t been right on many days, leaving anglers very disappointed.
At Lewes Harbor Marina, Matt said that they saw a dramatic decrease in the flounder bite on ocean structure. Charter and headboat captains blamed it on the lack of current, with anglers able to hold bottom on some days with only 2 oz. of weight. Matt said that they are seeing ocean anglers returning with a couple of flatties, but he said that they haven’t seen any boat limits in a while.
Anglers fishing in the Lewes Canal are only seeing a few keeper flounder being caught, but they are bending the rod with a lot of short fish. Those who are hitting the water during the early morning and as the sun is setting are catching slot stripers on bunker, clams, bucktails and topwater lures.
Spot have finally shown up at the Cape Henlopen Pier and are being caught on bloodworms and Fishbites. Anglers at the Pier are also seeing a lot of short weakfish, in the 9 to 10-inch range. Matt said they aren’t seeing many weakies large enough to keep, but anglers are hooking into 5 to 10 short fish per trip while fishing with bloodworms and minnows. He did see 4 anglers come by the shop with their limit of 4 weakfish last Wednesday, caught at the Cape Shores Pier. The Inner and Outer Walls are also producing small trout.
Surfcasters are staying busy with kingfish and sand tigers. Kingfish are also being caught around the Delaware Bay and at the Cape Henlopen Pier.
Offshore action was dominated by bluefins caught by trollers and chunkers at Massey’s Canyon and down at the Lumpy Bottom.
At the Hook’em & Cook’em Tackle Shop in the Indian River Marina, Capt. Bert Adams reported a sporadic flounder bite in the Indian River Inlet. The bite is scattered on the south side and near the Coast Guard Station. Anglers in the Inlet are also finding short stripers and a few triggerfish and sheepshead off the rocks. Sand fleas are the bait of choice for these species.
Just like up in Lewes, boats out of Indian River looking for flounder on ocean structure reported a frustrating week with a lack of current keeping drifts to a minimum. One captain told Bert it took him a 1/2 hour to drift 10 feet. Rough seas over the weekend also made it difficult for anglers fishing reefs and wrecks.
Fenwick Shoal is a popular location for boats out of Indian River and anglers are finding bluefish and Spanish mackerel willing to go after their trolled spoons. Inshore of Fenwick Shoal, triggerfish were caught on nearby wrecks and kingfish got hooked on open bottom.
Offshore boats out of Indian River found a mix of yellowfins and bluefins at Massey’s Canyon, the Chicken Bone and in the Poor Man’s Canyon. Bluefins were caught primarily on the chunk while yellowfins ate on the troll.
Bert said that they haven’t seen many bigeye tuna recently, but a 179 pounder did arrive at the scale last week after anglers on the “Still Lucky” caught it on the troll in the Washington Canyon.
Deep droppers are finding both blueline and golden tilefish at select locations in the Baltimore Canyon.
On July 6th, anglers on a small private boat ventured out to “B” Buoy and hooked into a 364.5 lb. thresher shark. They fought the fish for 6 hours, finally boating it around 6:00 PM. Since they couldn’t get the fish into the boat, they had to drag it back to the Indian River Marina, arriving after 8:00 PM.
Until next week, tight lines!
