Hi Folks,

Fishing in the Indian River and Rehoboth Bay continues

to be fairly productive. Some real nice flounder are being taken

along with some stripers and blues. The flounder are still chasing

minnows and squid, along with cut herring, bunker, or mullet. The

Berkley GULP! continues to produce its’ fair share of really nice

size flatties. The bluefish are taking just about anything you throw

at them and as always anything with a shine will work. The stripers

in the back bays are falling for various artificials or cut bunker or

herring. Bill Nace of New Oxford, Pa. took an 8Lb. 7oz flattie while

fishing off of Pots Nets Bayside. Bruce Hudson of Bayside fooled

an 8Lb 1oz flounder while fishing Indian River aboard the “Leslie

Kay” with John McBride at the helm. Donald Simon of Temple, Pa.

Tricked an 8Lb. 7oz flattie while fishing Indian River with Carl

Stamm. John Rinker of West Bay Park had two productive days in

a row when he scored 5Lb. 13oz. and 5Lb. 9oz. flatties. Bob

Cleveland had a good day seabassing as he brought home 12 in

the 15 inch range, had a fair amount of short fish and returned

some rally nice females. Capt. Eric Ludwig on “Hook & Cook”

Charters fished Site # 11 to score well on the sea bass. John

Grabowski fished the Indian River Slough to score 4 flounder to

26.5 inches. Mark your calendar now for the Rick’s Bait & Tackle/

Sea Side Gas & Grill Inshore Fishing Tournament. It will take place

From July 18^th to July 24^th and the awards presentation will take

place @ 6PM on the 24^th followed by a live performance by

renowned blues band “Pork Roll Project”. This is an event you will

want to be part of. More details will be listed in the upcoming

weeks. Capt. Brent Wiest and his father Bill fished Dry Docks to

tangle with a 166 Lb Thresher. Sure was good eating! Thanks

Capt. Brent.

From Bill at Henlopen Bait & Tackle we got reports of good

flounder action at the Henlopen State Park Pier. Striper action on

the beaches for anglers soaking fresh bunker. Black drum are being

taken in the Delaware Bay.

At Rattle & Reel Sports Center on Long Neck Rd., Ron

reports the flounder action in the VFW Slough is still good and

bluefish and shad are in the Indian River Inlet. Stripers are being

taken at night in the Inlet on live eels.

Bill’s Sport Shop on Rt #1 in Lewes reports the current standings in

their flounder tournament is as follows. In first place is William Rawlings 9.4Lb

28.25 in. flounder. Don Ruth is 2^nd with a 9.12Lb 28.5 incher, Kwan Chon is 3^rd

at 6.20 Lb and 25 inches. Eddie Kim is 4^th with a 2.74 Lb 21 inch fish. Kwan

Chon also holds 5^th place at 2.49Lbs.19 5 inches. Tara Faust is 6^th place with

a 2.35 pounder at 19 inches.

In other fishing news from Bill’s we find the striper bite has been red hot

and linesiders have been taken from the beach as well as the inlet. Mickey Bremer

beached a 38", 19.55Lb striper while fishing the North Pocket on a bunker noggin.
Al Boyd caught a limit of stripers up to 23.05Lb and 42" on Storm lures at IRI. Brian Elliott and Paul Spencer caught their limit of stripers to 20lb at IRI on rigged eels and storm lures. Brian Harpster of Millsboro was using nightcrawlers in the Broadkill and nailed a citation 1.03Lb white perch. George and Judy Hinkle landed 20 sharks from 36" to 50" on fresh bunker at Savages Ditch. Mark and Carol Stiegler were at 3R's Rd. using top and bottom rigs tipped with cut bait and were hammering blues up to 13". A customer came in and said he and a buddy had 5 keeper flounder in the Lewes Canal. Mike Thompson caught a 24" 5Lb flounder in IRI on minnows. Capt. Oak also reported landing a 21.5" 3Lb flounder and released a lot of small blues on bucktails. He wishes they would have signed up for our flounder tournament. The black drum have shown up in the DE. Bay. The bite should only get better over the next few weeks.

From Hookem’ & Cookem’ Bait & Tackle at North Shore Marina we got the following information. On Sunday evening at 5pm I was about to close up the shop for the day when I received a phone call. It was from a cell phone and it was hard to hear. All I could make out was "is anyone going to be around to clean a tuna?" Then I heard "we won't be in until around 6-6:30." All I could think was...man I'm tired, but the first tuna of the year is coming in we had better stick around. So, I told the guy we would be here to take care of his fish.
5:30 comes around and here comes a boat. A boat that had decided to go out that morning to go sharking. I had thought they had already returned to the dock for the day. They surprised us with the First Thresher Shark of the season. The "Undertaker" with Bill, Bill Doherty Jr. and CJ Walus came to the dock with a 216lb shark. They had been out near the Twin Wrecks that afternoon and were using Hook 'em & Cook 'em's Special Chum Mix along with a blue fish fillet on the hook. Bill, Jr., the angler, said it took almost 2 hours to bring the fish to the boat. Congrats to them.
No sooner had I looked at the clock, it was about 6:10pm, I looked out the window and the boat that had called about the tuna had arrived!!
"Margin" had come in with our first blue fin tuna of the year. It weighed 66.4lbs and was caught just north of the Norfolk. Tom Dorwalt, the angler, said they caught it on a blue Ilander while trolling.
After Christopher had cleaned, steaked and bagged the fish all that was left was the clean up.
So two and a half hours after that phone call we were finally on our way home. That was definitely worth it.

Joe Morris at Lewes Harbour Marina said the Canal Flounder Tournament was a total success. Weather was perfect for the 300 anglers that fished Friday’s event. That was the largest turnout so far. Many flatties were caught, but most fell short of the 18-½ inch minimum. However, some impressive specimens hit the scales, and the winning lineup looked good. Matt Sanderson was the big winner with a 7.15-pound doormat. D.J. Churchill captured second with his 5.39 pounder. Alan Herr had a 4.69-pound fluke for Third. A 4.52 pounder caught by Jeff Purdy put him in Fourth. Mike Newcomb nailed a 4.19-pound flounder for Fifth. Rich Owen’s 3.95-pound flatfish took sixth, and Lance Wheatley was Seventh with his 3.77 pounder. Dewey Beach Lions Club sponsored the tourney, and twenty percent of entry monies were donated to Camp Awareness youth fishing programs. Joe and Amanda extend thanks to all who participated. The Canal also yielded nice flounder other days during the week. Aaron Strausbaugh stuck a 6.83 pounder Thursday. Six-year-old Rylee Caras showed up her Dad by catching a 2.72-pound flattie in the Canal. Joe said Saturday was a bad day to be a sea bass. The long awaited season opening lived up to expectations. Fishermen found big numbers of hungry bass at Reef Site 11. Other artificial and natural structure between 60 and 90 feet depths also gave up bass. Crews reported fish feeding eagerly, spitting out gobs of sand eels and crabs when they came aboard. Boats that drifted Site 11 seemed to have even better catches than those that anchored. Surface temps were in the upper 50’s, but water temperatures on the bottom remain cool, and several cod were caught by the bass fleet. Decent numbers of keeper flounder were also landed, offering encouragement for a good fluke season. Guys on the Grizzly had a big opening day with bass. Harry and Michael Weaver, John Brandt, John Cope, Matt Klohr and Corey Gassert had their limit of 150 nice knotheads, plus 6 codfish. The crew of Skipjack hosted the “Fishin’ Bitches” from Lewes, and the ladies returned with 130 bass and a cod. Patrons on the Angler and Lil’ Angler enjoyed great sea bass action over the weekend. Tommy Otto scored a 3.26-pound citation bass aboard the Martha Marie. Thresher sharks have made an appearance, along with the bass. Captain Brent Wiest and his dad Bill Wiest brought back the first thresher of the season at Lewes Harbour Marina. The big longtail ate a mackerel east of Delaware Light, and weighed 166 pounds. Black drum fishing was in full swing on the Coral Beds off Fowler Beach, and should be really hot around full moon on the 27th. Best bites occurred during late afternoon ebb tides and evening flood. Surf clams and peeler crab were favored offerings. Joe reminded drummers to reserve clams early in the week to insure bait for the Holiday weekend. The Indian had some big boomers Friday night, the largest weighing 82 pounds. Andy Grudza got a 76 pounder on the Indian Saturday. The Grizzly’s crew had 7 drum to 62 pounds for Lawrence Rohn’s group Friday night. On Saturday night, Larry Gardner got 3 drum to 76 pounds on the Grizzly. Jam-Man’s gang scored 8 drum Saturday evening, including an 84.6 pounder for Jedidiah Fices, and a 65.6 for Raymond Eichelberger. Kathy Rodgers reeled in a drum that tipped the scales to 69.3 pounds. Larry Wilson wound in a 76.5 pounder, and Dave Horan had a 66.3. Boaters drifting along the rocks of the Outer Wall and Ice Breakers had stripers while casting artificials at sunset. Bomber and Stretch 12 plugs, plus bucktails and Storm Shads were effective lures.

Until next week, have fun and be safe!