Hi folks,

I hope everyone had a great Holiday weekend! The waters had a

makeover, at least for the weekend. The surface was painted with boats

of all sizes, styles, and colors. The was a whole lot of fishing going on but

it seems there was not near enough catching going on. We had a few flatties

brought in to be weighed, but just not the numbers we all would hope for. Maybe

the amount of boat traffic really put a damper on things. For those folks scoring

some flounder the preferred baits continue to be minnow/squid combo, frozen

shiners, GULP!, and smelt. If you are fishing the GULP! you may want to try threading the bait onto a jighead and bouncing it off the bottom. You can also

use a bucktail jig to accomplish this. I think some of the best advice I could give is to find a drop-off or slough where there is little or no boat traffic and give that

area an honest try. The fish seem to be really scattered about in the Rehoboth and Indian River Bays. Bluefish continue to invade the Inlet and back bays. If you

see the birds working try to get as close to the area as possible without going into the school of fish. Throw a shiny spoon or a small bucktail, with or without meat and you should be in for some fun times.

Ocean fishing has also been a bit slow as the tog have not realized the season is open again and they are supposed to be eating green crabs and sand

fleas. Guys anchoring up on structure are reporting some lite bites and a few tog

but not the activity expected. Seabass and flounder action has been best between DB Buoy and BA Buoy with the better being near DA Buoy. Offshore

action has hit or miss tuna activity at Massey’s Canyon and the Hambone, Hot Dog, and Sausages areas. Yellow action has been in the Poorman’s and Baltimore Canyons. Dolphin have been picked up at all locations including a

few being trolled up just east of the Delaware Lightship.

A few of the week’s weigh-ins include Shane Weist and dad Bill trolling

the Hambone to quickly score a 57-pound bluefin on Shane’s boat ”Five4Fighting”. John Faren scored a 9pound 4 ounce flattie while drifting the

Old Grounds. Mike Smith fooled a 4 pound 12 ounce flounder in Indian River Inlet using GULP!. David Moses fished the surf at 3R’s Road early in the morning to score some flounder and blues. Richard Cordy scored a 5Lb 9oz

flattie fishing the Old Grounds. Ron Hildenbrand nailed a 3 Lb 8ozer from the Back Bay. Lori Nickler tricked 2 Lb 13oz flattie. Jack Steward fished Massey’s Landing to score an 8Lb 9oz bluefish on Rick’s Chicken /minnow combo. On

the boat “Black Dog” Tony Dambro and Bill Kommer trolled the Hot Dog to score dolphin to 20 pounds.

Time is running out folks to get signed up for the Rick’s bait & Tackle / Sea Side Gas & Grill Inshore Tournament. The contest runs from July 17 thru July 24 at 4:00 PM. Fishes included are flounder, bluefish, seabass and croaker.

Two hundred is awarded to the heaviest fish in each category. Entry fee is $25.00 per person and deadline is 10 o’clock PM on July 16^th. The evening of

July 24^th, when prizes are awarded we will have a blast as the well-known blues

Band, “Pork Roll Project” will be performing at Sea Side Gas & Grill. Don’t miss out on all the fun! Pork Roll Project will also be performing at the Bandstand on the boardwalk in Rehoboth Friday night the 23^rd of July.

From Bill’s Sport Shop on RT# 1 in Lewes we hear that Tom Flickenger fished east of the Dog and went 4 for 7 on sharks. The party kept 1, 110 lb mako, released 2 hammerheads and a thresher. Tim King was fishing the back bay of Indian River and caught 3 keeper flounder up to 5 lbs on minnows. Chuck Nagle caught 3 flounder to 20" at Massey's Landing on a Gulp Natural Eel. Tom Bailor, with his brother Frank and son Mike, caught their limit of 2 bushels of nice fat crabs using a trot line w/ chicken necks near Gull Point, crabbing is excellent! Walt and Sharon Donaldson fished an artificial reef, Site #11, on their boat, the "No Rulez". Using clams for bait, they caught some nice keeper size black seabass. Dawn Olah and Brian Palmer from Baltimore fished the Cape Henlopen Pier with minnows and came away with 2 keepers up to 22" with close to a dozen throwbacks. Steve Johnson from Lebanon, Pa, caught a 3.25 lb, 21" flounder at Cape Henlopen Pier using squid. Received an email from Charlie Helmer of the "Tranquila Sport Fishing": "Hey Bill on Fri. we had a seabass trip to Site 11 and we caught seabass pretty steady with 6 keepers and a 22" flounder. On Sat. we went to the Baltimore Canyon and found some life in 70 fathoms East Wall of the notch. We caught a 50 lb. yellowfin, 20 lb. dolphin, 5lb dolphin, and raised a white marlin. Fishing is heating up and should be a good year offshore."

Henlopen Bait & Tackle reports croaker and spot at the Henlopen State Park Pier. Croaker and flounder in the Delaware Bay fishing close to Lewes. Megen Jobs of Middletown, Del. tricked 7-pound flattie to earn a citation.

Ron at Rattle & Reel Sports Center on Long Neck Road informed us that the outer wall at Lewes in full of triggerfish. So many triggers you just can’t get your bait to the tog. Flounder in the Back Bays are being taken using a minnow on a bucktail or jighead. You may also want to try tipping your jig with

GULP!. Ron says there are lots of throwbacks.

Capt. Joe Morris at Lewes Harbour Marina said bluefins made a good showing during the week. A few boats found tuna midweek along the inside edge of twenty fathoms from the 275 to 300 lines. Structure changes between that area and the South Paw also produced bluefins. By Saturday, there was quite a fleet working the fish. Boats on the grounds at daybreak had the best success, before traffic drove tuna down. Traditional trolled lures like cedar plugs and Green Machines accounted for numbers of bites, but when conditions permitted, ballyhoos skirted with heavy Jag lures and various other witches pulled way back tempted the biggest tuna. Drone spoons or ballyhoo towed behind a #32 planer got bit when tuna were deep. The situation when tuna move toward the bottom due to numerous boats driving overhead, or bright daylight, offers a good opportunity to jig the fish. Tuna will respond with a reactive strike to Butterfly and other flutter style jigs when they won’t take a trolled offering close to the surface. Savvy skippers cruise the area with eyes on the depth finder looking for tuna marks in the lower part of the water column. When fish are spotted, jigs are dropped to the proper depth, and often result in immediate hookups. Jigs can also be utilized to attract other bites while fighting fish hooked on the troll. Many times, there will be other tuna traveling with the one that ate a trolled bait, and pitching a jig when a fish is hooked trolling, may result in another hookup. Dolphin were mixed in throughout the same area where bluefins were located. On Saturday, the guys on Port-A-Bella returned with a bluefin and 3 mahi. Jam-Man’s crew put a nice bluefin in the box. The group aboard Reel Tease ended up with a 65-pound bluefin and a 15-pound dolphin Saturday. The Big Herring brought in a 70 pounder. Ocean bottom fishermen had success with flounder while drifting The Old Grounds. Jigging Spro Bucktails or drifting strips of cut meat, such as mackerel, were effective. Eddy Corado checked in a 5.8-pound flattie he caught on the Tranquila. Angelo Delapo decked a citation winning 7.82 pounder at Reef Site 10. In Delaware Bay, good numbers of flounder were located in the Cape May Channel, west of Prissy Wicks Shoal. The keeper to throwback ratio was pretty decent. Patrons aboard the Angler headboat kept nice fluke on Saturday’s six-hour trip. Guys who know how to properly work the artificial structures in the Bay pulled a few flatties from Reef Sites 5,6,7 and 8. Flounder remain in Lewes Canal and the shallow water along Lewes Beach. Anglers continue to sing the praises of Gulp! artificials for catching flounder. Berkley’s claim that “Gulp! outfishes all other bait”, just may be true. Joe Shaffer fished the pier at Massey’s Landing Saturday, where he scored a pair of legal fluke. One was a whopping 7.19-pound doormat. The summer tautog season opened July 1. Toggers told of good catches along the rocks of the Outer Wall and Ice Breakers, while using sand fleas and green crabs. Blackfish also hung out on wrecks and reefs. Numerous triggerfish were mixed in with tog on hard Bay structure. Sand fleas, shrimp and clams on small hooks tempted triggers. July 1 was also the start of the slot season for striped bass, when rockfish between 20 and 26 inches may be kept from Delaware Bay and it’s tributaries. Slot rock were reported from the Lewes Canal by fishermen using pencil eels and clams around the drawbridge. Boaters casting RatLTraps and Bombers at the Ice Breakers landed linesiders during evening and nighttime tides. Spot and small croakers were hooked from the Cape Henlopen and Cape Shores piers by folks using bloodworms and Fishbites. Boats anchored west of the Star Site picked at a mix of spot, small croakers, kingfish and blowfish while baiting with bloodworms.

Until next week, have fun and be safe!