I would like to start this report with a plea for everyone to start getting involved in the fishery issues and regulations. I always hear people talk about the days of old and how the fishing was awesome and how much they would catch and kill. I rarely hear people say it was our fault we caught and killed too many fish. Though some do admit to this possibility, I honestly believe that the past fishing practices is the reason as well as other factors, responsible for today’s not so hot fishing. I remember those days of old as well, when I fished with my grandfather and his friends and they would speak of the days before then. We need to break this cycle of reducing our fishery to the point it is unfishable.
This week has shot by real fast, I spent a few days helping the weakfish tagging project researchers and it has been a great experience. Yesterday they managed to catch and tag a couple of weakfish in the Delaware Bay, and today they caught a couple of weakies for tagging with the seine net at Broadkill beach. The amount of fish off broadkill beach is unreal. We caught puppy drum, pompano, butterfish, bunker, summer flounder, windowpanes, weakfish both adult and juvenile, sand perch, calico crabs (lady crabs), croaker, burr fish, pin fish, blue claw crabs and white perch. Yesterday Jacob Krause the head researcher caught a thirty-four inch red drum in the Delaware Bay, a slot striped bass, bluefish, as well as a couple of weakfish he was able to tag. Now at this point you are wondering what baits to use and honestly I would just try everything. Not many of these different fish have been caught on Braodkill beach, but they are certainly there. The puppy drum averaged eleven inches, the weakies are upwards of fourteen inches and the croakers are huge. In the Delaware bay squid, clam and fishbites are working well on top and bottom rigs. Jigging with two ounce bucktails and soft plastics is working good for flounder, bluefish, weakfish, and that red drum Jacob caught. Spoons and bucktails will do very well if you find a school of bluefish.
The surf on the southern beaches has been decent fishing again during the mornings and evenings. Small striped bass, puppy drum, bluefish, and some red fish near the Indian River Inlet. Pompano, spot, croaker, kingfish, and sand perch are hitting fishbites on Diamond State Tackle top and bottom rigs. Fresh mullet on rigs or chunked has been the best baits for bluefish, redfish, croaker, and kingfish. Clam and squid are working well on DST top and bottom rigs. There are schools of bunker moving up and down the beaches, look for large fish below them, having a spoon or plug at the ready on a good casting rod is a must int he surf at any time. Make sure the lure is heavy enough to cast a long distance. Casting across cuts can produce fish as well on lures. flounder are just beyond that first drop off right in the edge of the surf. You can jig for them or use a flounder rig for drifting and just cast it into that area with a sand flea, strip of croaker, or squid. The bait choices are always a variety in the surf, you never know what you will catch. Using a variety will increase hook ups and give you a better idea what is working that day. If you want to save on money and amount of bait needed, use fishbites and dig for sand fleas. Squid is very versatile too, and there is always cut bait from caught spot and croaker. Make sure the croaker is of legal size before you strip it out.
The inland bays are loaded with northern puffers you just have to find them and get to catching. Croaker are hot at Masseys landing and some flounder action. the odd grouper are still showing up there and pigfish and pin fish. It is that time of year for the gulf stream oddities. The temperatures have been fluctuating between seventy-six and eighty degrees, but the last two days the temps have dropped to topping out at seventy-eight degrees and dropping to almost seventy-four degrees. Fall is certainly on its way and the cool nights are proof of that. Looking forward to catching schooling striped bass, now that is some fun action. Non stop catching, cast catch a fish, cast catch a fish. They are hardly ever any keepers but your arm will feel like Jello after three hours of this action.
I just received this from Dominic Prestipino, very interesting information … “Caught an 18 inch flounder in the Rehoboth -Lewes canal over the weekend and found a pink parasitic worm in the flounder’s flesh (the fillets) while cleaning it. I’ve never encountered a parasite in a flounder before, so I placed the worm in a glass jar and contacted University of Delaware’s marine science center. They informed me it was a nematode (round worm) and the flounder’s meat was still 100% edible as long as I first froze the meat then cooked it thoroughly. This is because the life span of a roundworm consists of the parasite laying eggs in the host’s flesh. By freezing the meat, then cooking it, you denature and destroy any nematode eggs that might be lying dormant in the flounder’s flesh.” Big thanks to Dominic for letting everyone know about his find. I wouldn’t get too worried about these in every flounder but it is a good thing to keep an eye out for since parasites do exist in our waters and all waters. The flounder action in the Lewes canal and inland bays has been decent but not as heavy as the off shore such as the old grounds. many of the off shore reefs,wreck sites, and shoals are holding big flounder. The Delaware Bay has seen some decent action all on structure.
We have decent weather for the weekend and the temperatures will be perfect for fishing. Little chilly in the evening for any of you overnight anglers, but the action has been good at the Indian river inlet so that will help keep you warm. Catching bluefish, flounder, striped bass, and shad have been decent all over the IRI, just look for the birds. Roosevelt inlet has seen a lot of croaker and decent flounder action. I heard a few charter captains are worried the Roosevelt inlet has been filling in unusually fast with sand this year. That could become an issue very soon for the UD boats and the coast guard. The Broadkill beach replenishment is coming along nicely, I saw that first hand this week, and a few aerial shots were sent to us by Jason Steagall. The crews have about seven thousand feet to go on the south side according to one of the ACOE guys I spoke with a few days ago. They did find some ordinance recently and disposed of that properly, always weird to see an air force explosives truck pull up in the parking lot.
The tides this weekend will be high early morning on Saturday around 8:30 AM at Indian River Inlet and low tide around 2:20 PM. Keep in mind these are from the tide charts and they are not always that accurate. The water temperatures are averaging seventy-eight degrees off shore, about seventy-four degrees in the surf. The Delaware Bay is still in the low eighties up north near Delaware City and averaging seventy-six degrees in the lower Delaware bay, this all depends on the tides of course. It is that time of year for the temperatures to drop but not quickly so we will still see a variety of fish into September. Tropical storm Rika is threatening the lower east coast (Florida), if anything happens we should not see the effects of that until midweek or by next weekend. I know the surfers are very excited. Clamming and crabbing have been decent. Have a great weekend and we will see you in the sand box.
Fish On!!
Rich King