Hi Folks,

Fishing in the Back Bays remains fair to good, but keeping is a problem. There seems to be plenty of fish but the same old story of it is a half-inch short continues to be what most anglers are finding. From the reports I am getting it seems most keepers are being found in deeper water and striking on incoming tide. Areas with some structure, such as the rocks along the south side of the inlet are also holding bigger fish. Use bigger baits and keep them bouncing off the bottom should bring you a bit more success. Dave Wise fished Rehoboth Bay with Tim Gladfelter on “Kathy Ann” to score a 7 pound 12 oz. flattie. Croaker reports have been mixed. Some folks reporting loads of croakers and others saying they can’t find them. When fishing for the croakers use either live bloodworms or FishBites artificial bloodworms to fool these scrappy critters. Both of these baits are also the ticket to catch spot. When fishing for spot be sure to use at least a #8 or #10 hook. Bluefish can still be taken in the Indian River Inlet on incoming tide. Stripers are also being taken at the ends of incoming nighttime or early morning tide.

Inshore action has also been tough when it comes to finding keeper size flatties. Capt. Chuck Cook of “First Light Charters” has been putting his parties on some keepers at Site #10. A few fish have also been taken around the DB Buoy area and the Old Grounds.

Offshore action has cooled a bit but some tuna and dolphin are still at the Hot Dog and Hambone areas. In the Rick’s Bait & Tackle / Sea Side Gas & Grill Offshore Tournament, the Sharon Lee is at the top in the tuna division with a 2.4 pounder. The Stacy has 2 at 16.2 and 15 pounds. The Jasper has 1 at 14 pounds and 1 marlin release. Moondog has a 17.8 pound dolphin and 2 marlin releases. The Joken also has 2 marlin releases. The contest runs thru Saturday, so check next week’s issue for final results.

Pat from Rattle & Reel Sports Center reported a 22-inch; 3.82-pound flattie for Tim Painter of Rockville, Md. Tim was fishing just outside Ginny Creek.

Plenty of sea robins at DB Buoy but not many keeper size flounder. Offshore the dolphin are chasing down the sardines.

Capt Bill Baker at Bill’s Sport Shop on RT. #1 in Lewes reported that Kevin, of Allentown, PA, was fishing at Massey’s Ditch with fresh clams and landed a lot of nice croaker. He also started to catch small sea bass and spot.

Bill Jr., of Bill's Sport Shop, went to Massey’s Ditch in the afternoon and using chartreuse Gulp on a speck rig he also started catching croaker and then was rewarded with a fat 23 1/2" flounder. We're getting reports from a couple of locals that fishing at Indian River Inlet at night has been very productive. Nice keeper stripers are being taken with eels. Another angler was there toward the last part of the outgoing tide using a home made fly tipped with a white worm and he was rewarded with a 10-pound bluefish. He also took a young gentleman with him and they caught so many stripers that the young gent had to beg off. His arms were too tired and that is all his father heard about for the next few days.

Paul Powalski of Bill's Sport Shop took his two nephews Collin and Brenden, ages 10 and 12, to Indian River Inlet where the youngsters caught 15 flounder. Although most were throwbacks, Collin caught his largest ever at 18 inches. They were using tube squid. Rich Moerman Jr, was fishing at Herring Point and had several nice blues, about 14 inches, caught on mullet and freshly caught spot. Shaun Galloway and friend were fishing south of Herring Point and had a good day with catches of kingfish up to 12 inches, croakers, a large ray plus 2 keeper blue claw crabs and had a 5/0 hook and float crushed and bitten in half.

Joe Morris at Lewes Harbour Marina said the dock was buzzing over a big flounder that was brought in. Captain Vince “Killer” Keagy of the Miss Kirstin has been fishing Delaware Bay for 35 years, but said the fish he caught Saturday was his biggest yet. The 31 inch long, 11.72 pound doormat grabbed a shad dart tipped with squid at Reef Site 7, and was fought to the boat on 12 pound test line. Congratulations to Vince on his impressive catch. Other Bay anglers also had success with flatties. Joe Walker, Tom Coyle, Bobby Bryant and Veryl Burns had their limit of 16 fluke to 5 pounds, with good drift conditions on the Brown Shoal reefs Thursday. Jack Henriksen, Ricky Mills and John “Dynamo” Deiner drifted the Brown reefs Friday for 8 nice keepers, including Jack’s 5.21 pounder. Bottom bouncers in the Bay also found spot, kingfish, blowfish, snapper blues, small trout and a few croakers. Anglers have been anxious for the arrival of large schools of croakers, but the hardheads have yet to show in any numbers. Spot have been plentiful around the Cape Henlopen pier, the inner and outer walls, in Roosevelt Inlet and on the Star and Broadkill Reef Sites. Slot size stripers were taken in Lewes Canal with eels and clams. Flounder action was good in the ocean on days with favorable conditions. On Thursday, flukers aboard Katy Did captured 11 quality keepers at Site 10, with most fish over 3 pounds. Michael Walker bucktailed a 5.8 pounder and Jerry Cuff caught a 6-pound flatfish on that trip. Captain Carey’s Saturday group on the Grizzly put 11 keeper flounder in the box at Site 10. Jonathan Thompson took the largest, a 6.5-pound beauty. In addition to Site 10, flatties were also found on rough bottom between DB and DA Buoys. Many ling were mixed in. The yellowfin chunk bite at the Hot Dog was good until mid week, but tuna were uncooperative after that. Jason and Howard Burris, Mario and Matt Disabatino and Jason Hanny set up at the Hot Dog Sunday for some fun with the yellowfins. They chunked tuna to the boat with butterfish, then got the fish really fired up by tossing in handfuls of live minnows. They put 9 yellowfins aboard, but the highlight happened when Matt cast a fly on his 14-weight outfit to the frenzied tuna, and after a wild battle, boated a 32.5 pounder. On Monday, Wes Major, Jim Curry, Dave Carlin, Thomas Borrell, Jim Mays, Jim Martelli and Erminio Savelloni travelled to the Dog aboard Katy Did, where they proceeded to chunk up 13 yellowfins and 2 dolphin. On Friday, Captain Mike Connolly on the Sea Note located tuna in Massey’s Canyon, and kept 5 yellowfins to 45 pounds, out of 9 he trolled up using ballyhoo. Offshore bottom fishing was good. Captain Pete Floyd and the guys on Candy’s Choice dropped deep in the Baltimore Canyon for 30 tilefish. The largest was a 36.3 pound golden tile landed by Pete’s Grandson, Scott Davis. Billfish activity was good in the Baltimore Canyon Saturday, with a fair number of white marlin releases. Trollers encountered decent sized yellowfins there as well. Captain Jeff Hoepfl on the Joint Venture overnighted in the Baltimore Saturday for a pair of yellowfins and a swordfish.

‘Til next week, have fun and be safe!