Article by Larry Jock
This Week Last Year
• small stripers and bluefish off the Indian River North Jetty
• a few flounder in the VFW?Slough and in Massey’s Ditch
• black drum off 3R’s Road, Conquest Road, Herring Point and Broadkill Beach
• flounder were snapping in the Lewes Canal. Water temp in the upper 50’s
Fishing is definitely improving with a good variety of fish caught throughout the week. We had some nice warm weather, but ol’ Mother Nature sures likes throwing the wind at us this spring, making things a little tough on certain days.
At Rick’s Bait & Tackle, Capt. Mike said that flounder fishing in the Lewes Canal was very good last week and he also saw some brought in from the VFW Slough, but anglers had to weed through a lot of shorts in the Slough to find one for the cooler.
Thankfully, there are a lot of bluefish around that are keeping anglers busy replacing the tails on their rubber shads. Most of the blues are snappers, but a decent number were caught that were a little larger. The heaviest one to come into Rick’s last week was a 10.5 lb.
chopper caught by Chuck McKenzie while surfcasting at Cape Henlopen. In addition to the big one, Mike said that he saw several other nice size bluefish in Chuck’s cooler. All were caught on cut mullet. There were also bluefish caught in both the Indian River and Rehoboth Bays.
Tog fishing last week was tough with anglers dealing with a good number of short fish, especially at Site 10.
The black drum bite is heating up for anglers fishing off Broadkill Beach and out on the Coral Beds in the Delaware Bay
Tommy at Lewes Harbour Marina also reported good flounder fishing in the Lewes Canal, even going so far as to say that he has seen more caught in the last 3 weeks than he did in the last 3 years. The flatties were mainly hooked on Gulp artificial baits, minnows and squid. The best bite was between the Lewes Yacht Club and in front of Lewes Harbour Marina.
Anglers also found bluefish and short stripers in the Canal and bluefish and flounder by the Cape Henlopen Pier. Bryan Messick caught a 10 lb. 12 oz. chopper at the Pier while fishing with bunker during the outgoing tide last week.
Tommy also said that black drum were snapping for surfcasters fishing off Broadkill Beach for anglers using clams and sandfleas for bait. There were a few big stripers landed there as well.
They didn’t see much coming in from The Walls last week, but Tommy was pretty sure that anglers were hooking into some tog, although most of them were too short to keep. The tog bite was better at Site 11 in deeper water.
At Hook’em & Cook’em, Capt. Bert Adams said that the bluefish bite in the Indian River Inlet was strong up until Friday, but slowed when the colder weather rolled in. There were some keeper striped bass, in the 28 to 29-inch range, caught on Saturday night off the inlet rocks.
Bluefish were landed in good numbers off the beach, but Bert said that the bite looked to be moving north. Black drum were also hooked in the suds at 3R’s Road and in front of Savages Ditch. There were even some kingfish caught off Broadkill as well.
According to Bert, flounder were in the VFW?Slough before the bluefish rolled in. Water temperatures were around 53-degrees during the incoming tide and 57-degrees at the end of the outgoing.
Bert said that tog fishing was slow over the weekend for his customers, but Site 11 had been good along with some offshore wrecks in deeper water.
At Fenwick Bait & Tackle, Capt. Matt said that his customers reported bluefish all along the beach with a good bite found from North Ocean City up to 3R’s Road. Most were having great luck with whole mullet rigs. A few stripers were caught off the beach over the weekend on cut bunker. The best surf bite continued to be with black drum. One of Matt’s anglers caught 3 in one trip.
Schoolie stripers are in the Fenwick Ditch feeding on good size schools of bunker with smaller ones being caught around the Rt. 90 Bridge. Shad have been found all over the bay and small tautog were hooked along the rocks in the Ocean City Inlet.
Upcoming Tournament
The Joe Morris Memorial Canal Flounder Tournament is set for May 17th. For information call 302-645-6227
Until next week, tight lines!
