Hi folks,

Indian River Bay and Rehoboth Bay continue to produce their fair

share of flounder. There certainly are more throwbacks than keepers but

overall there are good amount of nice fish being taken. One major key to

scoring your take home fish may be to try to stay away from the crowds.

Reports show the flounder being scattered up and down Indian River, and

throughout Rehoboth Bay. The increased boat traffic seems to move lots

of fish away from the early season hideouts. If you find a drop-off of slough

and little or no boat traffic, that would probably be a great place to try your

skills. Blue fish are still being taken in the Indian River Inlet and stripers of

good size are also coming from the Inlet.

Bottom fishing in the ocean is still a bit slow but should pick up as soon

as the sea bass are through the spawn. Flounder action is slowly picking up

and hopefully will continue to improve. Offshore action has bluefin tuna at

Massey’s Canyon and sharks at the Hot Dog, Jackspot, and Triple Wrecks.

Yellowfin Tuna are in abundance at Poorman’s Canyon let’s hope that

Continues and moves a bit closer to home. In the Rick’s Bait & Tackle /

Sea Side Gas & Grill Flounder Tournament we have Bill Weist leading the

Pack with a 4Lb 14oz and a 4Lb 9oz flounder. Next is Bob Gormsen at 3Lb

10oz and Capt Oaks Thompson at 3 Lb. Other catches this past week have

been 6 year-old Alyssa Bortner of York, Pa. with 2Lb 8oz flattie for her first

fish. Joe Lombardo fooled a 7 Lber using a Sro bucktail. Bob Felix tricked

a 3Lb flattie and Paul Baranyi scored a 2 pound 11 oz flounder. Julie Hildenbrand

scored a 3Lb 7oz flattie and Justin Marando took a 4Lb 10oz flattie. Doug Druschel caught a 3Lb flounder. Jackie Raber of Dover, Pa. showed the boys

how it’s done with her 6Lb. 8oz. flounder she took from Little Ditch using a

minnow/squid combo. Capt. Bob Smallwood on the “Dana Lynn” fished

Poorman’s Canyon to score big on yellowfin tuna. Capt. Bob also reported

“pretty water” and lots of life at Poorman’s and at Massey’s. Bobby and Greg

Haas had Larry Finkbinder and Mike Binder to the Hot Dog on their boat

“Deep Passion” where Larry scored a 100Lb mako. Capt. John Dolmetche on “Hooked-Up” had Bruce Furry, Tim Strathmayer, Brian Hart, Tyler Dolmetche,

and John Muran to Poorman’s to score 2 yellowfin, 6 bluefish, and 5 dolphin.

At Rattle & Reel Sports Center on Long Neck Road, Ron tells us the

flounder fishing in Roosevelt Inlet has been good for those using jigs tipped

with minnows or shiners. Indian River is also giving up flounder on jigs tipped

with shiners, smelt, or GULP!. Bluefish action is fishing the tides. Stripers can

be taken at night in the Inlet.

From Bill’s Sport Shop on RT# 1 in Lewes we find that Bill Rawlings of Laurel won the top prize of $1000 in our tournament with a 9.45 lb flounder caught in DE Bay. Don Ruth of Longneck came in second and fifth place with a 9.12 lb and 6.66 lb flounder. Paul Caras of Milton nailed a 7.16 lb tournament flounder with 2 hours to spare putting him in 4th place. Trevor McCarthy of

Landenberg, Pa brought in a 23", 4.20 lb flounder. Dylan Englehart, age 10, of PA used finger mullet to entice 24", 4.9 lb flounder at Massey's Landing. More flounder catches include Dan Mattio, 4 lbs., 22", caught at the Inlet, Symantha Kerns, 4 1/2 lb, 24", caught near #9 Buoy and Bill Dorey, 4.30 lb, 23". Ellen White of Millsboro, tossed a Gulp bait on a Spec rig to deck a19" and 19 1/4" flounder while fishing the VFW Slough. BILL JR. from Bills Sport Shop, used a bucktail with Gulp to capture a 23 3/4tT flounder also fishing the 71W Slough.
Matt and Dan Langdon, Jen, Steve and Joe caught 1 for 1 bluefin tuna in
the 30 lb range and 7 bluefish while trolling the Hot Dog with ballyhoo on the "Offishal". Austin Kitchen, age 14, of Lewes caught his first ever bluefin tuna
weighing 20 lbs and measuring 31" on a green machine trolling the Dumpsite. The crew also caught 5.blues up to 14.5 lbs.
On Sunday, Trey Parker of Georgetown and crew on the "Play-n Hook-e"
went to the Rock Pile caught and released 5 mako including one over 200lbs. They then ran north of the 461 and caught 4 yellowfin tuna, 2 over 40 lbs. on spreader bars. Chris Carey. Chambersburg, Pa, brought to the surf a 1 lb, 3 0z kingfish caught on bloodworms at Fenwick Island Beach. Capt. Angelo Dellapo aboard the "Spoiled Three" ran to the 1000 fathom line and using ballyhoo, hooked up with 13 dolphin and a 500 lb plus blue marlin with angler, Chris Dispoto, of the Rehoboth Car Wash, that was tagged and released. The crew also captured 2 yellow fin at the Rock Pile. We have reports of bluefin tuna to 70 lbs. while trolling ballyhoo at Massey’s and also from the Hot Dog to the 19 Fathom Lump. Joe Cangianelli picked off a 110 lb mako just off the Hot Dog using a bluefish fillet in a mackerel chum slick.

From Hookem’ & Cookem’ Bait & Tackle at North Shore Marina Deanna

tells us that if you like tuna fishing then you are in luck. The yellow fin are here. Get in your boat and get out to Poor Man's. It all began on Friday afternoon around 2pm and never stopped until around 9pm that night. The first boat to the dock was the "Stacey" that brought in 12 yellowfin totaling over 478lbs. and from then on they just kept coming. Four Play brought in 4 fish weighing in at 156.5lbs, Fish Whistle brought in 10 tuna weighing in at 356lbs, No Worries with 221lbs. To mix it up a bit one Capt Doug Krisher, on the "Unbelievable" brought in the heaviest mako of the season weighing in at 180lbs with their tuna. And Todd Buchanan brought in a 120lb Mako while out to the Poor Man's. Everyone was reporting the same thing....Poor Man's with Ballyhoo. The bite was red hot.
The Saturday bite was a bit slower with boats still bringing in about 2-5 per boat, and one with a White Release.
The inlet fishing has slowed down with fewer keeper stripers being caught during the day and only a few being caught at night. Most are using live spot, live eels or artificial lures such as the Tsunami and Storm Lures. John Shaffer, of York, PA, caught a 37.6lb rockfish while fishing with a rigged eel.
The flounder have also slowed but there are still nice flounder coming in with Kayla Speece, of PA, bringing in a 2.8lb flounder on squid and minnow. John Lindsay, of Dagsboro, caught one that weighed 8.4lbs while fishing on a fly; and Phillip Chandler caught 2 weighing in at 7.5lbs. These were caught in the Inlet. We also have had some bluefish caught in the Inlet; one weighed 6.5lbs and was caught by Chris Hey, of Pittsburg, PA. The sea bass bite is still slower than it should be with a few keepers being brought in on the boat and an occasional flounder coming in from the ocean. Boats are having to go off to wrecks further out to get more keepers in the boat.
The surf report is still showing skates and sharks, but there have been a few people coming in reporting king fish still.
Joe Morris at Lewes Harbour Marina said yellowfin tuna continued to be the buzz among offshore fishermen. Good numbers of yellowfins were located between the Poor Man’s and Washington Canyons. Crews trolling spreader bars and ballyhoos skirted with witches, Iland Trackers and other small lures hooked tuna averaging 25 to 45 pounds. Most action took place along the inside of the hundred fathom line, from the 800 square to the triple zeros. Water temps were in the upper 60’s. Tuna worked their way up along the edge by the weekend, and Captain Alan Steele and the boys aboard “Big Herring” got into yellowfins on the 030 line Saturday. They trolled up eight fish in the 35-pound class while pulling ballyhoos. When tuna were bunched up, some boats racked up pretty good numbers. Billy Hein and the guys on the “Stacey” had 14 yellowfins Friday on the hundred fathom line south of Poor Man’s. The largest weighed 51 pounds.

Inshore trollers found scattered bluefins and bluefish mixed in Massey’s Canyon, at the Dumpsite, Chicken Bone and Sausages. Sharkers had a few makos near Massey’s Canyon, at the Hambone, outside the Hot Dog, and on the Sausages. Some nice threshers were also landed. Kevin McCoy was sharking near DB Buoy aboard the Pirate King II with Captain Terry Murray when he hooked a big Thresher Saturday. Back at the dock, the longtail weighed 196.7 pounds. Chopper bluefish cruised shark chumslicks too. Jordan Flaherty checked in a 10.1 pounder he caught at the Triple Wrecks. Deep-water bottom fishing produced some good catches. Bill Swords and his buddies on “Swords Fish” dropped offshore for 7 golden tilefish to 35 pounds and a pair of blueline tile. They moved into 300 feet and set up on sea bass, putting 38 knotheads in the box, including a 4.33 pounder for Jake Knox, and a 3.61 pounder for Brian Murray. Inshore bottom fishing was fair. Boats working bass concentrated in small areas on reef site 11 culled decent numbers of keepers from numerous short fish. Bobby Warfield boated a 5.04 pound sea bass at site 11 aboard the Lil’ Angler II. Flounder were pulled from the Old Grounds. Spro jigs tipped with strip baits were effective for flatfish. In Delaware Bay, boats drifting reefs 6 and 7 near Brown Shoal picked a few keeper flatties. The group aboard “Top Fin” returned with 6 keepers Saturday. The most consistent flounder catching continues to happen in shallow water. Numerous flatties came from the Lewes Canal, Broadkill River and Roosevelt Inlet, although, most were shy of the 18 ½ inch minimum. However, those who persevered ended up with keepers. Larry Taylor checked in with his limit of fluke, the largest weighing 5.61 pounds. Those fish fell for pearl white Gulp! George Miller managed a 5.79-pound flounder while using minnows at the Canary Creek Bridge. Anglers walking Lewes Beach and casting jigs tipped with minnows or Gulp! found flatfish right in the wash. Often, flatties would strike just as the lure was being lifted from the water at their feet. Stripers of varying sizes roamed the Lewes Canal. Drifting eels around the drawbridge produced legal sized bass. Rockfish were also caught while bottom fishing with clams and bunker. The slot striper season opens July 1^st, when anglers will be allowed to keep two fish between 20 and 26 inches from Delaware Bay and its tributaries.

Until next week, Have fun and be safe!!!!!