Article by Larry Jock
Last week was blazing hot, and the seas over the weekend were a little sporty, so a lot of anglers decided to stay at the dock, but those that got out on the water found some nice fish for their coolers.
At Lewes Harbour Marina, Matt reported that the spot and croaker bite has been steady in the Lewes Canal. The fish are small but the bite is pretty consistent. Anglers are having good luck fishing with bloodworms and Fishbites at the Public Dock and in the Roosevelt Inlet.
Flounder fishing in the Canal is still slow and anglers are having to really weed through small, throwback flatties to get their keeper.
The slot season for stripers continues until the end of the month and have been primarily an early morning bite for those fishing by the Freemont Bridge (Rt. 9) and in the Roosevelt Inlet. Matt said that they are seeing around 2 to 3 linesiders come in each morning with fish up to 24-inches, but most are in the 20-inch range. Anglers are having the best luck by drifting clams and eels or throwing plugs and swim shads.
Bluefish haven’t shown up in the Canal since July, but there are plenty of them roaming the Delaware Bay pushing schools of shiners and peanut bunker. The snappers are in the 10 to 12-inch range and are a ton of fun on light tackle. If you have an opportunity to take a kid fishing, casting for bluefish is one of the best ways to get the child hooked on fishing. The action can be tremendous and the fight those little guys give you on light tackle can really make it exciting.
There are still some weakfish roaming the Delaware Bay waters with 3 coming in to the Lewes Harbour Marina scale on Sunday. Some are being caught around the Walls with others being caught in the Broadkill Slough and at the Star Site Reef.
Even though we were surprised with a couple of black drum during the last few weeks, none showed up last week and Matt said they didn’t see any stripers coming in from the Bay either.
Croakers are being caught in the Bay around Sites 5 and 8 in addition to the Broadkill Slough. The fish are small and the throwback ratio is running around 10 to 1. Most are being caught on bloodworms, Fishbites and clams.
Flounder fishing in the Bay was very good last week, especially in the middle of the week for anglers fishing with squid, shiners and Gulp! artificial baits. Most boats were returning with 4 to 8 flatties per trip, but anglers had to really work for them, hitting several locations around the Bay.
Inshore, flounder fishing continued to run hot with boats returning to Lewes with their limits, especially if they were fishing around Sites 9 and 10. The Old Grounds continues to be a prime spot for flatties with fish up to 8 lbs. hitting the dock last week. In the deeper water, anglers are having luck with heavy bucktails tipped with Gulp! artificial baits underneath a Gulp! tipped hook with a teaser in front. Dropping squid and shiners also worked well but flounder belly, mahi belly and strips of sea robin really drive flounder wild.
Interestingly, Matt also heard reports of good numbers of cobia roaming the waters outside the Indian River Inlet, working schools of bunker.
Those that decided to hit various ocean spots on Sunday had better luck catching sea bass. Site 11 was a good spot for some local anglers. Don’t get me wrong, you will not fill your cooler with knotheads, but you may pick up a half dozen while also fishing for flounder.
Offshore, the week was dominated by the White Marlin Open where 329 boats competed for over $4,400,000 in prize money. The tournament broke a record with 1,445 billfish hooked throughout the week and 98 % (1,420) of them released. The billfish bite started in the Spencer and Wilmington Canyons early in the week and moved south each day into the Baltimore and Poor Man’s as the week progressed. We continue to see some really nice size dolphin being caught in the Baltimore and Poor Man’s Canyons and we are starting to see more wahoo being hooked in the Poor Man’s and by the Rockpile.
Although most would say that the tuna bite is absolutely dismal right now, a few yellowfin are still being caught around the Hambone by anglers chunking with butterfish. There were two bigeye tuna caught during the White Marlin Open. The winning 236.5 pounder was caught in the Wilmington Canyon on Wednesday and a 233 pounder was hooked at the Bigeye Hole in the Washington Canyon on opening day of the tournament. The “American Lady” tied for 3rd place in the Tuna Division with a 71.5 pounder caught in 500 fathoms in the Poor Man’s. They tied the anglers on the “Fish Whistle”, who sail out of the Indian River Marina. They captured their yellowfin while trolling in the Baltimore Canyon.
Upcoming Tournament
This weekend is the big Paradise Marina Flounder Tournament sponsored by Short’s Marine. For some reason, they cut off registration last Sunday, so if you didn’t sign-up by the time you are reading this, you are out of luck. Still, it should be hopping at the scale and with over $100,000 in prize money, anglers are going to be fishing hard, looking for the big one.
Until next week, tight lines!
