Article by Larry Jock
Every week we hold out hope that this spring will get better and the bad weather is behind us, but so far it hasn’t materialized. Last weekend was a 99% washout with the sun not peaking through until mid-day on Sunday. People are going stir crazy!
Last Friday, over 200 anglers did brave the dreary conditions and fish in the Joe Morris Memorial Canal Flounder Tournament. With that many anglers fishing, some flatties were bound to be weighed. Steve Friend took top honors in the tournament with a 3.91 pounder and second place was won by Jeff Semans with a 3.77 lb. flounder. Keith Stevenson rounded out the top three with a 3.03 pounder. The real winner of the tournament was the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network that will receive a donation for over $4,500.
Tommy at Lewes Harbour Marina reported good size bluefish, in the 30-inch range, being caught by anglers fishing at the Cape Henlopen Pier. They also saw several black drum come in from the Coral Beds. Jessica Healy caught her very first black drum, a 61 pounder, while fishing with clams last Tuesday.
At Hook’em & Cook’em, Deanna said that the rockfish bite was good over the weekend and into Monday morning. Anglers fishing the south side of the Indian River Inlet during the overnight incoming tide caught several nice linesiders with a 32 pounder coming into the tackle shop on Monday morning. Anglers striper fishing in the Indian River Inlet this spring have had good luck tossing black and purple Daiwa Salt Pro Minnows.
A few nice size stripers were caught by surfcasters soaking bunker in the suds last week including this weeks cover shot of the 39 1/2-incher caught and released by Roger Wilson while surf fishing off Fenwick Island. Remember, we still have the striper regs in effect that only permit fish between 28 and 37-inches and/or 44-inches and above to be kept.
The black sea bass season opened up on the 15th and headboats returned with some nice catches of knotheads from the DelJerseyLand reef and the Dry Docks. A few boats also had good luck while fishing at the San Gil wreck and out at the Jackspot.
Tautog season is closed right now until July 16th.
Not much happened for flounder fishermen in the Indian River Inlet or back bays with dirty water conditions making it tough to get a bite.
The only other notable action near Indian River came from anglers fishing in the surf off Conquest Road where several black drum were hooked on clams.
Capt. Mike Behney at Rick’s Bait & Tackle in Long Neck said that the black drum bite is improving at the Coral Beds in the Delaware Bay with the better bite coming in from the New Jersey side. There were also some boomers caught by surfcasters fishing at Broadkill Beach with clams last week. Mike’s customers reported that schoolie-size striped bass were in the Indian River Inlet last week and a few bluefish, slightly larger than a snapper, were hooked around the Seaside Pier in Pots Net. Fresh bunker was the bait of choice.
With the minimum size of mako sharks increasing from 54-inches to 83-inches, it is unlikely we will see many, if any, makos hit the scale this season, but the first one was released on May 17th by Zach Rhoad at the Sausages.
Offshore, the ocean was angry on many days, keeping boats at the dock. At least one headboat that I know of headed out on Sunday and decided to turn around. The other problem has been that the bad weather on weekends has prevented folks from being able to work on their boats.
Rumblings over the weekend had reports of some good offshore water down off the Norfolk Canyon and folks were hoping that it was moving north and going to be in good position for boats this coming weekend.
Until next week (when we hope to see a dramatic improvement in the weather and fishing), have fun and tight lines!
