Article by Larry Jock
Outside of flounder fishing on ocean structure, it was a fairly calm week. We can’t blame it on the weather, although water temperatures are too warm.
Joe Morris at Lewes Harbour Marina said strong currents around the recent “Blue Moon” were an issue for Delaware Bay fishermen, but ocean anglers fared well with flounder at Reef Sites 9, 10 and 11, and also on natural bottom of the Old Grounds between “DB” and “DA” Buoys.
The best bites seemed to occur during morning flood tides. Flukers reported success using squid and other fresh cut baits such as sea robin, bluefish and croaker, plus shiners and smelts. Gulp! Swimming Mullets and 6-inch Grubs, especially in Nuclear Chicken color, were quite effective, either on a bottom rig or a bucktail jig. Tandem rigged bucktails with Gulp! or cut baits worked well.
Flounder specialist Captain Brent on the “Katydid” was dialed in on flattie action last week. His Monday group had a limit of quality fish, including Jim Osborne’s 6.55 pounder. Tuesday’s gang got their limit of 28, with Bill York’s 5.5 pounder on top. The Wednesday regulars reeled in 22 keepers including Brent’s citation worthy 7.27 pounder. On Thursday, flukers from Harrisburg scored a limit of 36 chunky flatfish aboard the “Katydid” topped by Frank Felbaum’s 6.81 pounder. The flounder were chewin’ hard Friday morning, and patrons on the “Katydid” returned early with their limit of 40 flatfish. Kathy McClune broke in her new rod and reel with a pair weighing 3.8 and 3.9 pounds as part of her limit. Saturday saw another 36 keeper limit for “Katydid” anglers. Larry McDonald landed a 6.6 pounder for top honors. A 40 fish limit finished out the weekend on Sunday with fish up to 6 lbs..
Fluke fans fishing with Captain Carey on the “Grizzly” had nice catches during the week too. Friday’s group took home their limit of 24 flatties. Carey’s young son, Josh Evans is a real chip off the old block when it comes to flounder fishing, and put a brace of beauties weighing 5.5 and 6.25 pounds in the boat on Wednesday. Jason Beakes deployed a whole squid while drifting aboard the “Grizzly” on Saturday to tempt a 7 pound fluke. Bob Kauffman had an unusual flounder experience on Thursday while bouncing bottom off Bethany aboard the “Last Dollar”. He had a double header of fluke weighing 5.03 and 3.28 pounds on the same hook of a Capt. Joe’s Tinsel Rig. Not just the same rig, the same hook! Joe and Michael Walker, Bill Wiest and Robert Karpovich worked Site 10 for their limit of keepers Saturday. Robert reeled in his personal best flounder that trip, a 7.18 pound citation earner.
The Old Grounds yielded some impressive flatfish recently. Whopper of the week went to Billy Talbot for his awesome 10.2 pound doormat decked aboard the “Thelma Dale IV”. Despite hard running currents in the Delaware Bay, there were windows when fish bit. Bob and Buckwheat Bryant, Bobby Fleming and Al Riberio drifted Site 4 in the Upper Bay all by themselves on Tuesday for 14 chunky flatties. Flounder also came from Site 8 at the beginning and end of the tide. Joe Walker and Tony Vansant limited out there on Monday.
Croakers were a little finicky, but Captain Dave put together a catch of 45 nice hardheads for his group aboard the “Indian” on Saturday afternoon at the northeast corner of the Star Site. Croakers continued to come from the Lewes Canal, along with a few flounder and slot size stripers. Donna Muller was fishing the Canal for croakers when a 4.13 pound flounder pounced on the small piece of bloodworm she was using for bait.
More spot of varying sizes are starting to show in Lewes Canal. Good news for guys who like to catch and stockpile them for flounder and striper baits.
Further south at the Hook’em & Cook’em Tackle Shop in the Indian River Marina, Capt. Bert Adams reported that fishing in the Indian River Inlet is very slow right now. Spot have finally showed up at the Inlet and back in the creeks. Bert said that the spot, like minnows, have been very difficult to keep alive due to the extra warm water temperatures. Those catching minnows are finding their traps full of dead fish due to the warm water temperatures creating depleted oxygen levels.
Flounder fishing continues to be slow. A few barely keeper size striped bass, are being caught on live spot near the Coast Guard Station.
Croaker fishing has improved but hasn’t reached it’s peak yet. Fishbites or small chunks of cut bait seem to be the best baits to use at this time.
Some barely legal size striped bass are being caught in the Inlet, also on live spot, but the real rod bending action is at night, when it is all the small fish you want mixed in with 1 lb. bluefish.
Why is fishing so slow in the Inlet? Bert said that it could be the large numbers of sharks being spotted. Last week, a couple of thresher sharks were hooked by anglers in the Inlet, but black tips and bull sharks are also being spotted. If these creatures are roaming the Inlet than there is not doubt that it is spooking other fish into leaving the area.
Inshore, headboats continue to pound the flounder pretty hard, which is a good thing since sea bass fishing is pretty bad. Good numbers of big flounder are being pulled from the Old Grounds and off of various reefs and wrecks. Bert said that it all depends on your drift. If you can get your drift between .5 and 1.2 knots, than you have a good chance of getting good bites. Anglers dropping 3-5 oz. bucktails tipped with strips of flounder belly, mahi belly or strips of bluefish are having the best results.
Good numbers of bluefish continue to be caught by those trolling spoons at Fenwick Shoal. Anglers are also finding schools of croakers scattered within a couple of miles from the beach.
Offshore, tuna fishing continues to be slow, so anglers are looking for wahoo, primarily between the Hot Dog and the Hambone. Dolphin continue to dominate the action in the canyons but can also be found on shoals as close as 2 miles off the beach. Bigeye tuna are still being caught at the Bigeye Hole in the Washington Canyon where the “Boy’s Toy” caught 3 eyeballs on a Friday/Saturday overnight trip.
White marlin continue to be scattered and are being found in 50 to 1,000 fathoms up and down the coast. The “Knot Again” released 6 white marlin over the week, which is the most by a Delaware boat so far this season.
Until next week, tight lines.