Delaware Fishing Report

Delaware fishing report for August 16th Water Temperatures Are On Point

The weather has been dicey the last couple of days. Flounder Pounder anglers have been out, but not in full force. That will change today into the weekend. Everyone fishes, or has to finish their set of three days. There are flounder about just have to find the big ones. Expect to see a lot of boats out on the water this weekend, more than usual.

The inland bays are producing the usual small flounder with a keeper in the mix after many many short flounder. Drifting minnows, or gulp has been the best bait. Live lining a spot or large mullet would be a great idea for bigger flounder. Mullet schools are all over the inland bays, with fish on them.

The striped bass action is great all over the inland bays. Short bass, but fun to catch, there is the occasional keeper at the Indian River Inlet. You can throw lures at the inlet for short bass or use sand fleas. The fleas work the best, and will work well at places like Masseys ditch along the grass lines on the moving tides. The outgoing tide seems to have the best action. Find a rip with good moving water and fish it for striped bass.

The spot action has been hot at the Cape Henlopen Fishing pier in Cape Henlopen State Park. Bloodworms have been the bait of choice, mostly because the entire area is out of Fishbites. There has been a huge run on Fishbites this year. I spoke with the company and they are diligently trying to get that issue fixed. Fishbites is now a DSF tournament sponsor as well. Great artificial baits, when they are available again, stock up.

The spot bite in the surf and surrounding waters has been great as well. If I were in the Flounder Pounder Open I would go to the pier or surf. Catch some of these bigger spot and live line for a doormat. A real doormat, not those placements people keep calling doormats. Those bigger spot are excellent table fare and the carcasses a good for the crap pots. All fish leftovers are great for the crab pot, or minnow trap.

The surf has been decent action for spot, weakfish, croaker, sand perch, flounder, short striped bass, bluefish and of course the dreaded jersey flounder, the skate. Rays and sharks for the given with cut bait. The other smaller fish are hitting top and bottom rigs with sand fleas, bloodworms, squid, or clam. If you have fishbites, they are working well. The surf temperature has been averaging about seventy-two degrees. It has been a little cooler than normal. Which is great for surf fishing. If you look at the map above you can see why it is cooler off our coast. Still a bit of an upwelling occurring.

The inland bay temperatures have been fluctuating between seventy-eight and seventy-two degrees in Masseys Ditch. Great temperatures for the fishing. Usually by this time of year we are in bathtub conditions over eighty degrees. This weather is helping keep the water at optimum fishing temperatures this summer. We do have another heat wave coming that will jack up the water temperatures. I wouldn’t imagine too much with these cooler nights. Fall is coming and so are the fish, but for now we are all good with the summer fish in the hood.

The Delaware Bay came hot not long ago for croaker. The head boats started bailing them two at a time. Great action and eating. Back the day it was Porgy for the catch of choice that was replaced croaker. There has been decent croaker caught at the Indian River Inlet and we are seeing some in the surf. They will hit just about every bait you throw at them. They may be called “hard heads” but not when it comes to eating.

Fish On!
Rich King