Hi folks,

The summer fishing season in the Back Bays has really been good and now the inshore fishing seems to heating up. The DB Buoy and DA Buoy areas along with the Old Grounds and Reef Site # 10 are starting to turn on. Some real nice flatties are coming off the bottom in these areas and the sea bass action is also improving a bit. When fishing for the flounder be sure you have enough weight

to be on the bottom. There are some really nice size flounder starting to feed

in these areas and a large bait will make your line more appealing. A large strip

of squid or large minnow / squid combo will work just fine. The Berkley GULP! is

also tricking the flounder and sea bass. Jim Musumeci of Elizabethtown, Pa. fished the Old Grounds to score a 9-pound flattie that measured 28 ½ inches.

Preston Miller of Mohnton, Pa. had his wife Kathy, Sue Lilly and Tracey Lilly to Reef Site # 10 for a “Girls’ day out”. They had a great day and brought home 10 flatties to 5 Lb-1 oz and a few sea bass. Jamie Scott and Kyle Riley from Wilmington fished aboard “I Have Fissues” using minnows and brought home a couple of 3 pound flounder from Site # 10. Thirteen-year-old Mat McKaskill of

Millsboro used white GULP! at Site # 10 to score a 6 pound 12 oz flounder while

Fishing aboard “3 Catches” with Capt. Scott DiGardi. Rose Hobbs of Reading, Pa. fished DB Buoy aboard “ Heather Lynn” using Berkley GULP! and boated a

5-pound 2-ounce flattie. Capt. Chuck Cook of “First Light Charters” took Bruce, Sherry, and Ian McClay to Indian River Inlet for a fun-filled fishing trip. The McClay crew could have sunk the boat with fish. Capt. Chuck took Roger and Chris Hone fly-fishing where Roger scored a 30-inch striper. His largest ever on a fly.

Offshore action this past week produced some wahoo for local fishermen. Capt. Paul Taylor on “Nurse Catch It” tolled ballyhoo at the Hot Dog to score a 43 pound, 57 inch wahoo. Capt. Tony Dambro on “FreeBird” took Kevin Burdett to the Hambone and trolled ballyhoo to boat a 26 pound 2 oz wahoo. Gil Waddington, Cory Waddington, Tom Strang, and Doug trolled the

Baltimore Canyon to score a 50-pound yellowfin, a 35-pound wahoo, and 10 dolphin. Capt Mark Hess on “Predator” trolled ballyhoo along the 40-line and

provided Brett Thompson of Exeter, Pa. with a white marlin release. Capt. Bobby

Haas aboard “Deep Passion” trolled a blue / white ILander skirted ballyhoo to score a 70 pound yellowfin.

From Bill’s Sport Shop on RT #1 in Lewes we find that fishing on the "Partner-Ship" with Captain Mark Cropper and his mate, Spencer Cropper (his 16 year old son), and Bradley Layfield of Millsboro caught the first billfish in his fishing career (approx 75 lb white marlin), which he released. A few hours later, released a blue marlin (approx 175 Lbs). The day was capped off with Nickkie Lane, of Millsboro, who completed the boat's Atlantic Grand Slam by releasing a sailfish (approx 50 Lbs). Tina Hutchins, Denise, Candace, Lonnie Culver, Carol Elliott (Brian’s Mom), and Chrissy Jamgochian caught a 27.3lb dolphin aboard the "No Worries" with Capt. John Ratliff and Mate Donnie Culver in the Poor Girls Open, with a payout of $2900.00. A 43 pounder took 1st place. "We were out over the weekend and fished all over the bay and inlet of OCMD. We caught some short flounder and sea bass. One angler told me he had 60 flounder and no keepers. Some boats took advantage of school of blues in the east channel. Stripers were red hot on the out going tide in and around the 50 Bridge. We saw two real nice keepers and lots of throw backs."  Email from Brandon Boyer "My Sanity". Lee and Joanie Lovette told us they fished just outside Massey's Landing and caught about 30 croakers up to 11".  They used strips of mullet, spot and blue. On another trip, they slammed into more croakers and plenty of spot using Fish Bites. Reports are coming in of puffer fish biting on the Rehoboth Bay side of Massey's using clams. Bill's Sport Shop is having a "Trash Fish Tournament" which will run from Sept. 1st till the 30th.  There will be four categories:  Skate, oyster crackers, sea robins and dogfish.  The entry fee is $5.00 per category and all weigh-ins will be at Bill's.

Eric at Rattle & Reel Spots Center on Long Neck Rd. reports plenty of croaker at Buoy # 20 in Indian River. Bloodworms, FishBites, or nightcrawlers

will fool the croakers. Plenty of flounder in the Back Bays but many of them are throwbacks. Minnows, squid, or Berkley GULP! will produce flounder. Stripers are being taken at night in Massey’s Ditch and Indian River Inlet using live spot or live eels. Blue fish are showing up in the inlet on incoming tide and anything shiny will get their attention. Offshore action was mainly at the Tea Cup.

Capt. Joe Morris at Lewes Harbour Marina said flounder action improved this past week. Reef sites 6 and 7 near Brown Shoal gave up decent numbers of flatties, but the best bites occurred around tide changes, when the current was slower. Fish hung tight to structure. When the current ran hard, some crews did well by anchoring ahead of rubble and walking baits back through the junk. Bucktail jigs tipped with strip baits or Gulp! were effective when used in that situation. On Thursday, Captain Vince’s guys on Miss Kirstin returned from Site 6 with 6 keepers to 4.5 pounds. Joe Walker and his friends had 7 legal flatties on site 6 Friday. The influence of tidal currents wasn’t as strong in the Ocean as it has been in the Bay, and flatfish cooperated at reef site 10, and on rough bottom of the Old Grounds. Three generations of flounder fishermen teamed up for a good catch on the Old Grounds Friday. Andrew, Wade and John Bondrowski put 10 flounder to 6.33 pounds in the box, along with 9 sea bass. Larry Burkins checked in a 7.04-pound citation fluke from site 10, part of a 7 fish bag he and his buddy had while using Gulp! and squid. Tony Vansant, Larry Pleasenton, Louie and Tugboat Dan worked site 10 Friday for 9 quality keepers. Captain Chet’s group had a great trip Saturday aboard the Lil’ Angler. They brought back 13 chunky flounder from site 10. Captain Pete’s fishermen on Top Fin ended up with 9 keepers Saturday at site 10. Croakers continue to be spread out along the Ocean beachfront and in Delaware Bay. Spots that yielded croakers in the Bay included the Star Site, the eastern edge of the Anchorage and the Lower Middle. Captain Ted on the Indian reported a red-hot hardhead bite on the drop-off outside the Outer Wall at the end of Sunday morning’s flood tide. Clams, bloodworms, shrimp and FishBites were favored offerings for the feisty panfish. Anglers also encountered blowfish, kingfish, snapper blues and spot mixed in with croakers. Anglers on the rails at Cape Henlopen Pier had lots of hand-sized spot while baiting with bloodworms and FishBites. Spot were also plentiful in Lewes Canal and Broadkill River. Nice white perch were caught in the Canal as well. Leon Deshields checked in a plump citation perch weighing 1.1 pounds. Stripers came from the Canal too. Guys casting RatLTraps to the marsh banks had rock within the 20 to 26 inch slot size limit. The slot season closes August 31. Offshore fishermen told of good billfish bites in the deep of Baltimore Canyon. Both white and blue marlin were working bait in 1000 to 1500 fathoms. Yellowfin tuna action was spotty. Captain Tom Cornell on the High Hook had a yellowfin and a wahoo while trolling in 35 fathoms east of the Tea Cup. Boaters running to the Washington Canyon reported longfins between 55 and 100 fathoms along the 760 line. Deep-water bottom fishing in the Baltimore was productive. Captain Carey and the boys on Grizzly had a great catch Saturday. They had a mix of 18 golden and blueline tilefish. Tom Foltz boated a 35 pound golden, and Dave Moncrief had the unexpected bonus of a 44.5 pound snowy grouper.

At Hookem’ & Cookem’ Bait & Tackle in North Shore Marina Bert informs us of good flounder action in the Indian River Inlet. Flounder to 8.9 pounds were brought to the scales this past week. Plenty of blues, striper, black drum, and croakers to 14 inches are also being taken. The flounder and croaker are also being found throughout the Back Bays. In the surf you will find lots of spot, croaker, and blues. Big sharks are also being taken from the surf at night.

On the Head Boat Capt. Bob and Judy V, flounder and sea bass action has

Been improving. Offshore activity has consisted mainly of dolphin, dolphin, dolphin, and dolphin. And after all that they caught some dolphin. Along with the dolphin a few Wahoo have been taken trolling the Hot Dog and Tea Cup areas.

White marlin action has been pretty good at the Poorman’s Canyon.

Until next week, have fun and be safe.