Article by Larry Jock
This Week Last Year
•The weekend was a washout.
•Good flounder and croaker fishing in the Indian River Inlet.
•Fenwick and Isle of Wight Shoals produced good catches of Spanish mackerel and bluefish.
•Ocean flounder bite was good 8-12 miles offshore.
•Good marlin bite in the Washington Canyon in addition to increased number of mahi.
•Surfcasters found kingfish, sharks, rays and snapper bluefish in the suds.
•Stripers in the Fenwick Ditch caught on eels.
•Good number of flounder caught in the Lewes Canal. High throwback ratio.
•Croakers, flounder and snapper bluefish were caught around the Cape Henlopen Pier.
If you could stand the hot weather, then it was a beautiful week to get out on the water.
Capt. Mike Behney at Rick’s Bait & Tackle in Long Neck, DE said that he hasn’t heard of much coming from the Lewes Canal, but around the Cape Henlopen Pier anglers are finding an incredible number of spot right now. A few flounder and some small kingfish were caught there as well. Anglers fishing from kayaks around the Pier did well catching flounder while using Gulp for bait.
In the Delaware Bay, anglers are catching kingfish and weakfish on bay structure, especially at the Star Site. Triggerfish have been found around the Ice Breakers, Haystacks and at the Walls. Weakfish have also been caught by anglers fishing with squid at the Walls.
Mike said that his customers who fished in the Indian River Inlet last week found croakers snapping on the south side along with small bluefish and schoolie striped bass. Not much was heard coming from the back bays over the holiday. With water temperatures on the rise, anglers are finding that the deeper holes are more productive. The best day Mike heard of last week was one boat having 8 keepers while flounder fishing in the Rehoboth Bay.
Those looking to catch some black sea bass are finding life difficult. Some are still venturing out to the DelJerseyLand Reef and finding some knotheads interesting in their offerings of clams and squid. Anglers are also picking up some ling there as well.
Ocean flounder fishing is off to a slow start, but it might be misleading. The incredibly warm weather makes it easy to forget that it is only the beginning of July. Last year at this time, anglers were heading 8 to 12 miles offshore to get onto good flattie action. In past issues, we have seen a few boats head to the Old Grounds and return with good catches, but the bite is inconsistent. The cover of this weeks issue shows Sunny Crowell with the largest flounder of the season, a 10 lb. 10 oz. flattie that he hooked on a live spot at Site 10. Keep the faith! The ocean flounder bite should get rolling and the bad start will be forgotten.
Those who have been venturing off the coast have mainly hit spots at the Old Grounds and Site 11. Although Sunny caught his whopper at Site 10, we really haven’t heard of much coming from that spot so far this season.
Anglers fishing at Fenwick Shoal are still finding Spanish mackerel and snapper bluefish hitting trolled spoons. Those fishing structure around Fenwick Shoal are also catching some triggerfish.
At Fenwick Bait & Tackle, Matt reported an incredible variety of fish in the surf. One of his customers caught 7 different species in one day. He hooked a small cobia, pompano, spot, kingfish, bluefish, a shark and a ray. Some anglers are also catching a few Spanish mackerel in the suds off Fenwick Island.
Fishing in the Fenwick Ditch has been slow, but one angler did catch a Spanish mackerel there last week and others continue to hook into small stripers.
At Hook’em & Cook’em, Capt. Bert said that there are a lot of flounder in the Indian River Inlet right now and anglers are having good success fooling them on Gulp Pink Shine artificial baits. The best spots for flatties have been at the Indian River Marina entrance, in front of the Red House, the Coast Guard Wall and the Handicap Pier. Striped bass are being caught at night with larger fish getting hooked along the rocks. Several keepers in the 32 to 37-inch range were caught on Saturday night.
Anglers last week were surprised when Spanish mackerel showed up in the Inlet on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. They also battled big bluefish on Saturday night with fish measuring up to 38-inches.
On July 4th, a 372 lb. thresher shark was brought in to the Indian River Marina by anglers fishing around “B” Buoy.
Offshore, instead of taking the long trip to the canyons, many boats opted for the shorter ride out to the 19 Fathom Lump, the 12 Fathom Lump and Massey’s Canyon where they found bluefins hitting on the troll. They also found good size bluefish mixed in at those locations that were fun on light tackle.
Those who decided to head out to the Baltimore and Poor Man’s Canyons found yellowfins snapping better during the week than on the weekend. After seeing a lot of smaller yellowfins a couple of weeks ago, last week the average size looked to be on the rise. Most of the action came in 200 fathoms where anglers also found white marlin interested in their trolled ballyhoo and spreader bars. We also saw several blue marlin hooked in anywhere from 60 to 500 fathoms. Bigeye tuna were also found in packs roaming the Baltimore Canyon in 200 fathoms.
Dolphin continue to be caught in good numbers by anglers targeting tuna and marlin. We are seeing larger fish, on average, arrive at the scale. Down in Ocean City, anglers on the “Makenzie Rae” boated a monster, 52.4 pounder after it hit a spreader bar in 30 fathoms in the Washington Canyon.
Upcoming Tournament
The Paradise Bay Flounder Tournament is set for July 20th and 21st with weigh-ins at Paradise Grill in Long Neck, DE. There will be over $30,000 in prize money and they have added a daily calcutta to make things even more interesting and lucrative.
Until next week, have fun and tight lines.
