I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day Weekend and enjoyed some great fishing. Flounder action in the back bays continues to produce good numbers of fish along with some nice sized fish. Indian River Inlet is giving up stripers and blues along with some runs of shad. Russell Frey of Boyertown, Pa. used a Storm Lure to fool a 13 pound 6 ounce linesider. David Smith of Felton,De tricked a fat 36-inch striper that In Indian River, hit the scales at 20 pounds 12 ounces. David Shepherd used a bucktail tipped with red squid to tempt his 4 pound 10 ounce, 23 inch flattie. Mark Herman of Bristow, Va. Used squid to nab his 6 pound, 25 inch Indian River flounder. John Grabowski of Long Neck used bucktail for his almost citation, 6 pound 11 ounce, 27-½ inch Indian River flattie. Will Breasure of Georgetown, De. took his citation 7 pound 8 ounce flounder from Indian River Bay using Berkley GULP!. Chris High of Reading, Pa. fished Massey’s Landing with minnow and squid to land a 4-¼ pound, 22 ½ inch flounder. Joe Vascaglia fished Delaware Bay with Dan Readinger to boat some 40-pound drum. Drum fishing is starting to become more and more popular each year.

The Black Drum as we know are also called Texas Drum, Sea Drum, Saltwater Drum, Gray Drum, Drumfish, Striped Drum, and Tambor. The black drum is a chunky, high-backed fish with many barbels or whiskers under the lower jaw. Younger fish have four or five dark vertical bars on their sides but these disappear with age. The bellies of older fish are white but coloration of backs and sides can vary greatly. Fish from Gulf waters frequently lack color and are light gray or silvery. Those living in muddy bay waters have dark gray or bronze-colored backs and sides. Some are solid silvery gray or jet black. A length of six inches is reached in the first year, 12 inches the second and 16 inches the third. Increases of about two inches per year occur after that. The largest black drum on record weighed 146 pounds. The Texas record taken by a sport angler is 78 pounds but most bull drum caught weigh 30 to 40 pounds. This fish is a member of the croaker family and is related to the Atlantic croaker, red drum, and spotted seatrout. A characteristic of this family of fish is the ability to produce croaking or drumming sounds with the air bladder, which is the reason for the common names croaker and drum. This ability is most developed in the black drum and anglers can sometime hear sounds from schools passing near their boats. Small fish, under a pound in weight, are sometimes called "butterfly drum" or “puppy drum” while those of larger size, 30 pounds and more, are called "bull drum", although the large specimens can be either male or female. Perhaps the most notable drum harvests are the annual runs of "bull" drum. In many of our deeper bays, around some jetties in the Gulf, and in some channels, large drum gather in schools before spawning. In February and March, catches of these large fish make the local sports columns in the newspapers.

Some compare landing a 40-pound drum with raising a sunken log, but many anglers are devotees of this kind of fishing in Texas. It is probably the best chance many people have to land a 30 to 40 pound fish. Unlike spotted seatrout that spawns only in the bays, and red drum that spawns only in the Gulf, black drum will spawn in either bay or Gulf or in the connecting passes. Free spawning (random release of eggs) occurs mostly in February, March, and April with some later spawning occurring in June and July. Larval drum are found in the surf and along bay shorelines in March and April, and by early summer one-half to one-inch juveniles are common in shallow, muddy creeks, sloughs and boat basins. Young drums feed on maritime worms, small shrimp, and crabs and small fish. Larger drum eat small crabs, worms, algae, small fish and mollusks. Barbels (or whiskers) are used to find food by feel and smell. Drum often dig or root out buried mollusks and worms while feeding in a head-down position. This process is called "tailing" and creates small craters in the bottom which anglers call "drum noodles." Experienced anglers can detect the recent passage of a school of drum by the presence of many "noodles." The black drum has no canine teeth like those of the spotted seatrout, but does have highly developed pharyngeal teeth (in the pharynx or throat), which are used to crush mollusks and crabs before swallowing. When food is plentiful and water conditions acceptable, movements are small, but long migrations in search of food and more desirable habitats have been recorded. Spawning migrations and movements toward freshwater flow are also notable. Tagging studies have recorded migrations of 245 miles in one year or less, but most distances covered were less than 10 miles. This species can adapt to a wider range of habitats than any other important Texas food fish. Drum are found in the clearest water of sand flats and in the muddiest waters of a flooding slough. They thrive in water so shallow that their backs are exposed, and also in the Gulf waters more than 100 feet deep. They are found in extremely warm shallow flats of the Laguna Madre during summer and survive better than many other fish in freezing weather. They are attracted to freshwater runoff of creeks and rivers, yet can live in waters twice as salty as the Gulf of Mexico. This adaptability makes the black drum available to more anglers than any other bay fish. The black drum is found along the Atlantic Coast from New York south through the Gulf States to Mexico. It is most abundant in Texas and is found in all bay and inshore waters and offshore in Gulf waters. The area of greatest abundance in Texas is from Corpus Christi to Brownsville on the lower coast.

From Bill’s Sport Shop On RT# 1 in Lewes, De. Bill wants to remind you his 2009 Flounder Tournament continues to June 12th. Standings as of 5/20/2009 are as follows.  1st place Tom Bailor 7.34lbs. 28in., 2nd place Billy Rawlings 5.99lbs 25.5in. 3rd place John Rupp 5.93lbs. 25in., 4th place Robert Scharmer 5.9lbs. 24.5 in., 5th place Dillon Mitchell 5.18lbs 24.5in. , 6th place Billy Rawlings 5.02lbs. 23.5in. 7th place William Dorey 4.98lbs. 24in. , 8th place Robert Scharmer 4.75lbs. , 23.5in. , 9th place James Dove 4.58lbs. 23in., 10th place Bruce Duncan 4.51lbs 24 in..  Josh Rowley of Milton caught a 40” 19.85lb striper on bunker at CHSP.  Kent Brittingham of Rehoboth caught an 18.2lb. striper at IRI on a Storm Lure.  Jon Kitchen went to Site 11 and boated about 80 sea bass with 4 keepers.  George and Judy Hinkle caught 18 skates, 8 sharks and 1 stingray.  Judy also landed one 32” striper on fresh bunker at Savages Ditch Road.  The Tradewinds III got out with a small group of fishermen and brought in a few really nice flounder.  Art Thompson had flounder up to 21 ½” on cut mullet at the Broadkill.  Ryan and the gang fished half the day Saturday at Fenwick and all day Sunday at 3R’s with mostly sharks and skates.  David Vetter emailed us that he managed to catch his first black drum on peeler crabs picked up from our store.

At Henelopen Bait & Tackle, Dan told us flounder fishing has been great almost every place you would normally fish for flounder. All the usual baits are being used. Minnow and squid, shiners, GULP!, fished on all the usual rigs. Dan also said the drum fishing has been

At Rattle and Reel Sporting Center on Long Neck Road, Ron tells us the fishing has been pretty steady with flounder catches in the back bays and striper and blues in the inlet.

At Hookem’ and Cookem’ Bait and Tackle at Delaware State Park, North Shore Marina, Burt reports stripers in the surf and the inlet. He also reports shad in the inlet. Bob Hayes from Selbyville took a 34-pound linesider from the beach using fresh bunker. Lots of sea bass on structure in the ocean but finding keepers has been tough. Bluefish seem to be staying quite a bit offshore. Flounder action remains good in the Indian River.

Joe Morris at Lewes Harbour Marina said the Canal Flounder Tournament was a big success. The weather was beautiful and flounder were in a cooperative mood for the 275 participants in this year’s event. Billy Hocker had the winning flattie, weighing 5.26 pounds. Dan Kimble captured Second with his 5.0 pounder. Darwin Fisher’s 4.97 pounder finished third, and Mike Zimmerman was a repeat winner from last year’s Tourney with the Fourth place 4.94 pound flatfish. Chris Moody from the Dewey Beach Lion’s Club coordinated donations to the Camp Awareness Youth Fishing Program with a portion of proceeds from the Canal Tournament. Joe and Amanda at Lewes Harbour thanked all who took part in a great day of fishing fun. Captain Billy Talbot and crew fished the tourney exclusively with their two-foot long Mity Might rod and reel combos and had two keepers out of 26 they caught on the miniature outfits. Seven-year-old Jagger Ruff brought in a 2.7 pound flounder he caught on Tournament Day. The Canal, Broadkill River and Roosevelt Inlet yielded lots of flounder, however the majority were shy of the 18-½ minimum. Nick Psaroudakis, Mike Hoffman and Bob Gantz managed to cull a limit of 12 keepers to 4.65 pounds from a large number of fish they caught in the Canal Thursday. Flounder also came on strong in the shallow water along Broadkill and Lewes Beaches. The shallows between the Cape Shores and Cape Henlopen Piers were quite productive as well. Brad Snitch checked in a 5.14-pound fluke he caught from the Cape Shores Pier on a chartreuse jig with a minnow. Spec Rigs tipped with shiners worked well for anglers casting and retrieving them slowly along the bottom from the recently reopened Cape Henlopen Pier. The bite seemed better after dark, at the edge of the lights.

Flounder also were taken from the 60 to 70 foot depths of the Anchorage between F and G Buoys. Mike Rebuck had a limit catch of 4 flatties to 5.05 pounds there aboard the Angler Saturday. Flounder were reported north of D Buoy too. It is very encouraging to see a spread of flounder on the open bottom, easily accessible to most anglers. In recent seasons, fluke were concentrated around the reef sites, where they were more difficult to get at. Joe said more good news came in the form of the first trout he had seen brought in by customers this spring. Frank and Sue Gaworski caught 13 weakfish to 2 ½ pounds during the last of flood tide Saturday morning. They were casting crystal shad Bass Assassins in shallow water along Broadkill Beach. Stripers were caught by boaters casting Bomber plugs along the Outer Wall and Ice Breakers at dusk. Rockfish were also taken at night around the Roosevelt Inlet Coast Guard Station docks. Black drum action continued to be very good. Boomers bit on the Coral Beds off Slaughter Beach and in Broadkill Slough. Andy Lano and crew fished the Coral Beds Friday afternoon for 10 drum, including Anthony Lano’s 82.3-pound behemoth. They returned to the same spot Saturday for 8 more, when Mike Lano earned a release citation for a 48 incher. Darryl Bear got a 77 pounder in the Slough on the Miss Kirstin. Michelle Swords was drumming on the Reel Passion when she decked her 73.7 pounder. There was a really good bite on the eastern side of the Bay Saturday evening, with catches at the Pin Top, Brandywine Slough, Tussey’s Slough and the Horseshoe. Captain Carey’s groups on the Grizzly got 14 drum Friday night at the Pin Top, and 16 more Saturday. They kept 6 fish to 68 pounds each trip. Captain Ted had 7 drum on the Indian Saturday night. Captain Chris had five on the Pirate King, including a 74.8 pounder for Daniel McCoy. Drum fishing is coming into it’s prime, and the shop will be handling surf clams for a few more weeks, but Joe requests reservations in advance to assure the availability of bait. Ocean trollers told of big bluefish near Delaware Light. Maw’s Tails Hooches and Mops, Pony Tails, and Stretch 25+ plugs were effective offerings.