Hi folks,

I hope everyone made it through the storm safely. Fishing before the storm was still ok but not great. Indian River Inlet continues to give some stripers, flounder and bluefish. Live spot or live eel are the ticket for the stripers. Live spot, minnows, squid or shiners will get you a flattie. Most fish will not measure up to the legal standards but still put some action on the end of the line. Chris Saxton of Elsmere, De. used live spot to take a 30-inch, 9-pound striper. John Justison of New Castle used shiners to fool his 4.2-pound flounder. Chip Illian and crew fished Delaware Bay and had a blast boating one gray trout after another. All fish were small but fun and nice to see. Capt. Boyd Lord on the “Capt. Snooze” had the Pa. Gang out for a pretty good day on the water. Trolled up some dolphin and took a few nice sea bass in the deeper water. Let’s hope the wrath of Irene turns the fishing on hot and heavy!

Capt. Bill Baker of Bill’s Sport Shop on Rt. #1 in Lewes tells us that SW and SE of B Buoy you'll find flounder, ling cod and sea bass. Croakers and spot are at pier, croakers at the inner wall. Middle De. Bay is providing a nice flounder bite along with croakers and blues. On the surf you will find croakers and kings on bloodworms also blue fish on fresh mullet. Indian River Bay has croakers, flounder, spot and small sea bass along with blues. The Old Grounds are giving up flounder, sea bass and mahi mahi For those venturing offshore you will find big eye tuna, bull dolphin along with both white and blue marlin in the Baltimore Canyon.
Walt & Sharon Donaldson, of the "No Rulez", caught 16 flounder including 2 keepers, ten black sea bass, with two over 16", while fishing site #11. On another trip, they caught keeper flounder in the area of B Buoy and then went offshore to Massey's Canyon where they had several knockdowns and boated dolphin. The largest of the dolphin weighed in at being 8.6 pounds and measured 32 inches in length. Dave Konick sent us an email "Bill -- this was on Saturday all in less than two hours fishing up in Indian River Bay, S-SE of the "19" can across from Massey's Landing: a 19" flounder and loads of croaker- the 19" flounder bit a strip of dolphin tipped with squid I got out of the stomach of one of the dolphin caught on Tuesday. How's that for recycling? Cassie O'Neill, age 5, of Millsboro caught her first keeper flounder in the Lewes canal on squid and shiner. Captain Mike Rivera," On Delivery Charters" had an inshore shark trip and caught and released 4 large sharks at A Buoy. One was an estimated 600# great white and released two duskies and a hammerhead. Fishing at 3 R's Rd. provided a lot of small blues for Chris and Don Parret from PA, Jim, Chuck Nagel and Bill Weiss of DE. Whole mullet rigs were the ticket for the blues. A 4 1/2' thresher shark was also caught on mullet chunks. On Friday, 8/19 at Site 10, Capt Bob Marsilio, Dave Jordan and Mark Sugalski of Malvern, Pa were on the fish.  Capt Bob & Dave used Gulp and minnows with top/bottom and spec rigs to catch shorts, ling and skate.  Mark used big bait - whole squid to land a 24 and 26" flounder.  Capt. Bob was so excited he had trouble netting the 2nd big flounder and had to have Mark onboard the big fish. Capt. Bob then wanted Mark's rigs for his own use. Thank you Bill for having a great selection of bait & rigs at your store. Jeffery Woleslagle had a great week fishing off the Pier and on kayaks around the Pier. We caught two keeper flounder (lots of shorts), stripers, snapper blues, oyster crackers, sea robins, sand perch, weakfish, pinfish, kingfish, puppy drum, black sea bass, needle fish, puffer fish, rays, and loads of croakers and spot. Jack Brzoska of Angola was fishing at IRI with minnows and caught 3 keeper flounder up to 5.95 pounds and 24 ¾ inches.
Capt. Joe Morris at Lewes Harbour Marina said he wasn’t sure what the effects of Hurricane Irene would bring, but before the blow, the ocean flounder bite was good. Boats working structure changes and live bottom along the edges of the shipping lane from DB Buoy to DA Buoy had success with nice flatties. The artificial reef rubble of sites 9, 10 and 11 was productive as well. Sunday, flukers aboard Katy Did rounded up 15 keepers while drifting several pieces of bottom. Captain Brent Wiest wound in a 6.44 pounder, and Lou Panella put a 5.63 pounder in the box. Captain Charlie’s anglers on Tranquila had a great trip Wednesday. They caught over 70 flounder while drifting west of DA Buoy, and put 15 keepers to 5 pounds on ice. They also had nice seabass and ling. Ling have been plentiful this season, even in Delaware Bay, perhaps because bottom water temperatures have remained cool, even though the surface was warmer than usual. Wes Olson checked in an 8.77-pound doormat he decked while fishing southeast of DB Buoy Wednesday. Flounder bit on Friday, just before the hurricane. Fishermen on Katy Did caught more than 70 flounder south of DB. They ended up with 8 keepers including trophies of 8.09 and 7.47 pounds for Jeremy Armolt. Croaker action continued in Delaware Bay. Hardheads were captured at reef sites 5, 6, 7 and 8 by bottom bouncers soaking clam, bloodworm and FishBites baits. Croakers hung out along the Ferry Jetty and Inner and Outer Walls too. It seemed like larger fish favored those spots. Patrons on the Angler and Pirate King had good catches of croakers on Thursday and Friday, just ahead of the approaching storm. Bay fishermen also encountered spot, kingfish, snapper blues, blowfish, porgies and sea bass. The Lil’ Angler had good catching Friday at the Brown Shoal reefs, with the storm on the way. The take included a 6-pound flounder for Mike Bayshore, plus 4 other keepers. In addition, the guys had over 20 puffers and a bunch of hardheads. Those who fished the end of the slot striper season did well while using clams and eels in Lewes Canal near the drawbridge.

‘Till next week, have fun and be safe!