Hi folks,

Catch em’ up, toss em’ back! That seems to be the name of the game

lately. Lots of flounder are being caught in the Back Bays and the ocean but

most are not of legal size. There are more and more legal size flounder being

taken in the ocean as that fishing is just now starting to get somewhere close

to good. The numbers of flatties being caught all season has been real impressive and for the most part there has been real good number of nice

flounder taken especially in the Back Bays. I guess this might just be the normal

summertime timetable we always have. When the water starts to cool back down

we should see an increase in the number of good size flounder go up in the

back waters. At the same time the ocean bottom fishing should really light up.

Croaker action continues to be quite good with a slight increase in the

average size being taken. Just a small piece of bloodworm is the # 1 bait for

these feisty critters. Bluefish continue to make their appearances in the Indian

River Inlet. Incoming tide seems to be the best time to target these guys. The

Last two hours of the incoming tide appears to be the prime time to target stripers

In the inlet if that is your species of choice. This has really been a great fishing

season in the Back Bays and hopefully it will continue well into the fall.

Some of this past week’s catches have included Bill Knisely taking a

4 pound 7 ounce flounder. Michalla Redick of Bear, De. fished the ocean to

boat a 25-½ inch, 5 pound 4 oz. flattie using a live minnow. Dean Lokey of

Millsboro, De. fished from the pier at Massey’s Ditch and put a 7 pound 2 oz

flattie on the dock while using live spot for bait. Dean’s fish measured 25 ½ inches.

Offshore action continues to produce lots of Mahi. They can be found

by trolling anywhere from “DA” Buoy on out. A number of wahoo are also being

caught. While fishing with Capt. Cory Waddington on “Another Bill”, Ron Campbell of Long Neck did battle with a 49-pound wahoo to earn him a state

citation. Ron took his wahoo while trolling the 30 Line near the Tea Cup. Capt

Ken Smith on “JoKen” had Bill Hunsberger, Mike Haas, and Bob Buckwalter to the Baltimore Canyon and the Tea Cup to score some white marlin, mahi, and yellowfin tuna.

Ron at Rattle & Reel Sports Center on Long Neck Rd. reported lots

of throwback flounder being taken in the Back Bays. Ron said shiners and GULP! are the key baits. In Indian River Ron says Buoy # 20 is the place to find croakers. In the Indian River Inlet there are plenty of blues and the stripers are

falling for live spot.

From Bill’s Sport Shop on RT #1 in Lewes we hear that Sue Killen (daughter of Capt. Bill and Kathy) aboard the "Slicker Too" took her brother, Kevin Baker, and nephews, Joey Neely and Brian Baker to the IRI and had a great trip. The party caught and released 20 undersized stripers and a bunch of bluefish. Joey Neely was high hook capturing a 20" flounder along with the largest striper and bluefish.  All were caught on live spot. A customer reported catching keeper tog at IRI on crabs and fleas. Eddie called from the IRI to say he limited on blues to 16" using Gotcha plugs and silver spoons. Tom Bailor and Bob Adams of Bill's Sport Shop fame went crabbing at Gull Point and came away with 2 bushels of crabs. On another trip, Tom and his nephew Doug went to Buoy 22 in Indian River and caught 40 croaker on Sabiki rigs with FishBites. Courtney Nagel of Phoenixville, PA. caught two 10" blowfish and three throwback flounder at Site 6 on pink Gulp aboard the "Martha Marie". Jeff Moyer of PA. caught 10 snapper blues on pink and white Gulp and shiner combo at Site 6 aboard the "Martha Marie". Brian Keech of Long Neck, DE caught two 4.10 lb, 23.5" and 3.10 lb, 21.5" flounder at Site 6 on Gulp and shiner combo aboard the "Martha Marie". Mike, Eric, Todd, Bill, Dan and Matt Langdon caught a bunch of chicken dolphin and went 3 for 3 on white marlin trolling ballyhoo in the Baltimore on the "Offishal". Ryan Smith and Jeff Thompson limited on slot stripers to 25" and caught 2 dozen white perch in Roosevelt limit and Lewes Canal on Rattletraps.
Capt Kenny G and crew Brian, Ambrose, Bob Geure, Bob Quin, and Hugh Alexander caught 6 dolphin trolling ballyhoo outside the Tea Cup. Received an email from Arline Simpson whose husband Charlie passed away recently: "Hi Bill, Just wanted to post this to you. You generally mention the ocean fishing but I thought this was worth mentioning. My 5 1/2 yr. old granddaughter, Sarah Naar of Milton, reeled in a 15 1/2" large mouth bass out of Red Mill Pond last night by herself. Twin brother Zak didn't have any luck and neither did Nana Simpson. Sarah also caught 4 sunfish. It was her lucky night. She told all of us on the dock that she is now taking over for Pop Pop Charlie as being the fisherman. Sarah loves to fish and is becoming quite the lady fisherwoman. She kept it for a little while and couldn't believe she really caught it and then sent it back home to the water. Charlie would be a very proud Pop Pop. God Bless." Chris and Rick Rannali went out with Capt. Chuck Cook of "First Light Charters" to the Outer and Inner Walls. They caught and released one striper approx. 30-32". The anglers then used a 4" Zonker and lost one in the rocks. Bob Adams and his son, Bob Jr. from Leesport, PA, fished the Old Grounds and boated 5 keeper flounder up to 25" on squid. They also caught a couple of nice sea bass. Frank Reed from Harbeson went to the Fingers and trolling with skirted ballyhoo managed to boat 6-mahi mahi. Bill Vernon Jr. fished with Capt. Steve on the "Four Play" out of Indian River.  They went to the South Poormans and boated yellowfins up to 65 lbs. along with some dolphin.  He also caught tuna on horse ballyhoo. The "Billfisher" caught 26 white marlin outside the Baltimore. Canyon in 1000 fathoms. Capt Chris Thurmon, "Skipjack Charters" out of Lewes Harbor Marina, reported a great canyon overnighter with 6 yellowfin, 9 dolphin and one wahoo.  He also says that the bottom fishing is good but that he is mostly running for tuna now. Capt. Steve Peterson, "Pandimonium Charters", had a great overnighter. The party ended up with 4 yellowfin, 1 white marlin, 4 gaffer dolphin, and went 2 for 3 on the big eyes with weights of 155 and 188 lbs. All were on the troll using spreader bars and bally-hoos. They lost the tail of the 155 to a 500 lb. mako right at boat. Capt. Carey Evans "Grizzly Sportfishing", finally got some nice sized croakers in the bay. Flounder fishing remains strong and will remain an option thru September. Some seabass are starting to show up in the mix.

Capt. Joe Morris at Lewes Harbour Marina said flatfish continued to please anglers this past week. The best catches came from structure of the reef sites. Fluke congregated close to artificial reef rubble, and crews willing to work the junk and lose some rigs were rewarded with nice catches. In Delaware Bay, sites 6 and 7 at Brown Shoal were popular, along with reef 8, the Star Site. Hobby Isaacs, Dave Popovich and George Durant drifted the Brown Shoal sites Thursday for 8 good keepers. Greg Pearson, Ted Garman, Todd Garman and John Leader put 8 flatties to 6.3 pounds in the box while using squid and minnows at Brown Shoal Saturday. Captain Carey on the Grizzly hosted Joe Shaffer and family for some great flounder action Saturday. The group iced 18 keepers and released 52 other fluke. They also had triggerfish, blowfish and sea bass. Flatties also hung out around the rocks of the Outer Breakwater. Donnie Nauman got his limit while using strips of shark close to the Wall on Saturday. Artificial structure in the Ocean attracted flounder as well. Captain Brent’s anglers aboard his Katy Did did a number on the fish at Site 10 on Thursday. They returned with 19 quality keeper fluke, including Billie Jo Hunter’s 6.97-pound doormat and 3.13 pound sea bass. Joe Walker, Bobby Bryant, Tony Vansant and Joe Walker, Jr. combined for a limit of 16 fine flounder Saturday at Site 10. Bobby was hot on big fish, icing flatties of 6 and 6.39 pounds. Croakers have become scarce in recent days. It’s unlikely that they’ve made an early exit, but for some reason, they have not been cooperating. A few good-sized hardheads were caught around the inner breakwater on clams, bloodworms and FishBites. Spot are still being pulled from the Lewes Canal. Anglers on the Cape Henlopen Pier also had spot. On the offshore scene, the white marlin bite has been big news. Billfish have been working bunches of bait, and experienced crews that find feeding whites have racked up some impressive numbers. Anglers on the Billfisher released 26 whites in 1000 fathoms of the Baltimore Monday. Later in the week, marlin had moved inshore, and whites were reported in 50 to 60 fathoms inside of Poor Man’s, between the Rockpile and the Triple Zeros. Vince Scheivert and the Boys on Black Bart recorded a white release for Tim Gola inshore of Poor Man’s Saturday. They also caught 5 small yellowfins. Charlie, Walt and the guys on Fish Whistle released 5 whites and a sailfish inshore of Poor Man’s Saturday. There was a pretty good showing of wahoos on the twenty-fathom lumps. ‘Hoos were taken by trollers at the Hambone, Chicken Bone, Hot Dog and Sausages. Captains Brent Wiest and Dave Walker trolled the Hambone aboard Katy Did on Saturday. They put a pair of yellowfins and 6 dolphin in the cooler. Among the mahi was a 23.6-pound citation winner boated by Jose Guevara.

At Hookem’ & Cookem’ Bait and Tackle in North Shore Marina Deanna tells us the flounder bite in Indian River Inlet has slowed a bit but

a few nice flatties are being taken on live spot. Blues to 7 pounds are making

their presence known in the inlet. Inshore fishermen are scoring on triggerfish,

blues, croaker, a few sea bass, and a few flounder. Reef Site #11 has given up

a few nice flounder. Offshore action remains pretty much the same with a good

white marlin bite. Dolphin and wahoo are showing in good numbers but the

tuna bite is scattered. John Klerlein of Milton brought a 38-pound wahoo and a 28.5-pound dolphin to the scales.

Until next week, have fun and be safe!