Article by Larry Jock
This Week Last Year
•Flounder fishing improving on ocean structure and especially at the Old Grounds, Site 10 and around “B” Buoy.
•Flounder fishing picked up in the Lewes Canal.
•Throwback ratio was high for sea bass. Had to go 30-miles offshore to find larger fish.
•Inshore flounder spots holding a lot of sea robins.
•Spot showed up in the Rehoboth Bay.
•Kingfish biting on Delaware Bay reef sites and in the surf off Fenwick.
•A few sheepshead were caught off the South Jetty at the Indian River Inlet.
•Tremendous tuna bite in the Baltimore and Poor Man’s Canyons with some flipping over to chunking.
•Short stripers in Fenwick Ditch.
Last weekend was the 5th Annual Kids Catch-All Tournament at the Indian River Marina and it was a fantastic tournament. This year they had 107 kids registered which was a big jump from last year when they had 68 kids entered. As always, there were a lot of croaker, spot, bluefish, some flounder, weakfish, triggerfish, tuna and even a 470.2 lb. thresher shark brought in by Thomas and Tanner Haugh that was caught near “B” Buoy on fresh bunker. Most importantly, there were a lot of smiling faces at the scales!
At Hook’em & Cook’em Tackle Shop in the Indian River Marina, Capt. Bert Adams reported a slow flounder bite in the Indian River Inlet with only a few limits coming in throughout the week. Bert said that the bite was better for anglers in boats than it was for those fishing off the shoreline. Gulp Pink Shine and Nuclear Chicken seemed to be the top producers and those drifting near the Coast Guard Wall were probably in the best location. Bert did say that some flounder were caught in the Indian River Bay last week near Holt’s Landing.
Also in the Inlet, a few weakfish were caught and a couple of sheepshead were hooked by anglers fishing off both jetties with sand fleas. Although keeper striped bass have been more scarce than people who use their turn signals, some small throwbacks have kept some anglers busy while fishing from the rocks at night.
In the surf off Indian River, surfcasters are finding snapper bluefish eating anything tossed their way. Most of the fish are in the 12-inch range. The kingfish bite is still rolling along. Anglers found them when they started casting further off the beach than normal while using Fishbites and bloodworms for bait. There was also a 40-inch cobia caught last week off the beach in South Bethany and a 28-incher was released closer to Indian River. Some Spanish mackerel were hooked on spoons 30 yards off the beach.
The “Judy V” out of Indian River found very good flounder fishing on Friday, 7 to 12 miles off the coast and anglers on the “Capt. Bob” had a good bite first thing in the morning on Sunday. In the first hour of fishing they had 18 keepers in the box and another 30 throwbacks.
Speaking of flounder, the ocean bite is really starting to pick up, especially at the Old Grounds and Sites 10 and 11. Bert had a 9 pounder come in last week from an angler who was fishing 7 miles off, outside of Site 10. If you like flounder fishing and have never ventured out to the ocean reefs and wrecks, you really should give it a try. The fishing can be excellent plus you don’t have to contend with the boat traffic as much.
Capt. Mike at Rick’s Bait & Tackle reported that he hasn’t heard of much coming from the Lewes Canal. Mike also said that the ocean is where you want to be for flounder fishing right now. He has also seen an improvement in that bite with several fish coming into the shop that weighed over 5 lbs.
Anglers are still picking at sea bass although most seem to have flipped over to flounder fishing. Anglers still seem to be heading to the DelJerseyLand site where they are finding some sea bass and flounder.
Weakfish were caught at the Star Site Reef and at both the Inner and Outer Walls.
The croaker bite is getting better and Mike said it is showing some consistency. His anglers are catching them on the south side of the Indian River Inlet on Fishbites, Gulp and squid.
Small bluefish are being caught at Fenwick Shoal and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few mackerel caught there as well.
At Fenwick Shoal, Capt. Matt said that he is seeing snapper bluefish and kingfish come in from surfcasters fishing off Fenwick Island. The bluefish are eating everything and the kingfish are being hooked on bloodworms and Fishbite sand fleas. As always, sharks, skates and rays are dominating the surf action at night.
Surprisingly, he also saw a 23-inch bluefish captured in the Fenwick Ditch.
Offshore, we saw tremendous yellowfin bites in the Poor Man’s and Washington Canyons, especially around the 800/800. We typically see this action taper off on the weekend when a thousand boats converge on the area and it was no different last weekend. The yellowfins definitely got smaller over the weekend with most in the 25 to 30 lb. range. Mahi were mixed in with the yellowfins and were usually in the 8 to 10 lb. class of fish. Bluefin tuna popped up again on inshore lumps around the Hot Dog, 8-Mile Lump and the Parking Lot.
We mentioned the thresher shark that was caught by “B” Buoy earlier in the column. There were also numerous makos hooked down in the Washington Canyon and tuna fishermen had to content with sharks attacking fish as they were being reeled in.
Until next week, have fun and tight lines.