Fishing Report

Summertime flounder action has been good. Anglers reported catching numerous fish on Delaware Bay and Ocean structure, however, a lot of the fish have been short of the 16 inch minimum. Although, we've seen several of this seasons biggest fluke over the past week. Jim Davidson decked a dandy 9.25 pound doormat, while drifting cut bait over Delaware Bay structure Saturday aboard the Grizzly. John Yoder used a 6 inch Nuclear Chicken Gulp! to tempt his personal best 8.64 pound fluke form Ocean bottom Saturday on the Capt. Bob II. Mike Eastman managed a 7.5 pound citation earner Saturday on the Old Grounds. Steve Price used squid and minnows on a B2 Squid rig to hook the 6.84 pound flatfish he pulled from a wreck outside the mouth of Delaware Bay. John Schnaitman scored a 6.64 pounder over reef rubble at Site 10. George Durant decked a 6.25 pound flattie on the Old Grounds. Captain Brent's flukers on Katydid enjoyed fine fishing all week. Mike Surowiec and the Monday regulars limited out with 32 keepers. The every Wednesday crew on Katydid returned with 39 fluke, topped off by Ron Mistrettas 5.65 pounder. Captain Brent hosted a group of junior anglers Thursday afternoon , and they did a great job, returning with 13 keeper fluke. A gang of flounder poundin' locals fished on Katydid Friday, and put together their 32 flatfish limit. Pat Irelan had big fish honors with his 6.25 pounder. Ken Seltzer and his crew had a great Saturday on Katydid, bringing back a boxful of flatfish. Sunday's morning flukers on Katydid returned with a limit of 24 keepers, and the afternoon group took home 27. Dave Walker, Matt Shoup, Bill Wiest and Kyle Fagowski worked Bay rubble Thursday for their limit of 16 stout fluke. Wayne DeMarco, Joe Pergeorelis and Doug Mickowski bucktailed Site 11 Tuesday for their limit of a dozen flatties. Wayne, Doug, Harry Hudson, Daryl Mergenthaler and Doug Mickowski did Site 11 again on Friday for their limit of 16 keepers. Bob Bryant and Michelle and John Schnaitman jigged up 10 keepers to 6.6 pounds at Site 10 Tuesday. Bottom bouncers seeking panfish in Delaware Bay found croakers, kingfish and blowfish at Reef Site 8. Some of the biggest hardheads continued to come from Lewes Canal. Jason Miller had a 1.46 pound croaker in the Canal that he hooked on a small bucktail with a piece of Fishbites Sunday. It seems all the big black drum hadn't dropped out of the Bay yet. A couple anglers tangled unexpectedly with boomers while trying for other species. Brad Sokso was fishing for croakers at the Ice Breakers with a small piece of Fishbites on a size 4 hook when a big fish grabbed his rig. The boomer broke his light rod during the battle, and busted his net at boatside, but Brad finally landed the 35 pounder. Dillon Talley was working a bucktail tipped with Gulp! near the Ice Breakers Friday when he had a heavy hit. After quite a tussle, Dillon decked what turned out to be a 49 pound drum. Slot sized striped bass were active in Lewes Canal and Broadkill River. Drifting eels near the bridges or casting plugs and soft plastics along marsh banks produced keepers. Rich Kline Sr. and Rich Kline, Jr. fished the Canal all week, and had limits most days by deploying eels. Brayden Coverdale used a Gulp! to get his first Canal keeper striper. Offshore boaters chunked up small yellowfins at the 19 Fathom Lump, but had to contend with swarms of bluefish that invaded the area. Best bites were early in the day, and often, anglers had to use light fluorocarbon leaders to get tuna to eat a hook bait. Trollers working between the 19 Lump, Massey's Canyon, Chicken Bone, Hambone and Hot Dog connected with dolphin and wahoo. Ted Garman landed a 60 pound wahoo while trolling ballyhoo at the Hambone Saturday. Billfish action was decent in 100 Fathoms of the Baltimore, with whites and blues reported. Canyon deep dropping was productive. Adam Lovenguth celebrated his 30th birthday by dropping in the Wilmington Saturday with Matt Baker, Chip Graves and Jeff Drury aboard the Sea Tiger for 10 golden tile and 50 big blackbelly rosefish. With nice conditions Saturday, John Schneider ran his Patient Lady to the Norfolk Canyon for some tilefishing. That's where Jesse Kegley landed a potential new Delaware State Record Blueline Tilefish. The big Gray weighed in at a whopping 21.8 pounds. Bill Fintel boated the current 19.7 pound Blueline in the Baltimore just two months ago.

We checked in a real nice mako Saturday. Ed Sigda and his crew aboard Snow Goose drifted 82 degree water in the deep of Wilmington Canyon Friday night. They deployed a chum slick of ground tuna and bunker, and baited with false albacore fillets, using 20/0 circle hooks on 400 pound mono. Mike Fritz hooked up a shark, and boated the blackeye after an hour battle. The circle hook mono rig had done its job, lodging right in the corner of the jaw. Back at Lewes Harbour, the male mako was weighed in at 272.5 pounds. At the cleaning station, a deteriorating longline J hook on mono was discovered lodged in the back of the stomach. Evidently the shark swallowed and bit off the bait some time ago. Had a circle been used, the hook would likely have ended up outside the cutting teeth. Wilmington Canyon trollers hooked bigeyes while pulling ballyhoos behind Joe Shutes and Iland Lures between 6 and 11 pm. Other offshore reports told of a chunk bite for bluefins and yellowfins at the 19 Fathom Lump. Captain Brent's Sunday crew on Katydid chunked the 19 to bring home 11 yellowfins. Captain Carey set up Grizzly there as well Sunday, and his chunkers put a 45 inch bluefin, 7 yellowfins and a 16 pound mahi in the box. They also released several small yellowfins. Evan Falgowski chunked the Hot Dog Sunday, and said light fluorocarbon leaders were necessary to get bites. Finesse fishing paid off for Evans crew with three yellowfins to 50 pounds and a pair of gaffer mahis. Trollers picked up a few tuna and good numbers of mahi around Massey's Canyon, the Hambone Hot Dog and the Fingers. Back inshore, flounder action was decent on the Old Grounds, and over Reef Sites 9, 10 and 11. S&S Bucktails with Gulp teasers, and hair skirted rigs sporting strips of fresh meat like cut sea robin, bluefish or croaker have worked well. Smelts and shiners were also popular baits. Captain Brent's flukers on Katydid had quite a catch of quality flatfish while working Ocean structure Saturday. They put 34 keepers in the box, with several between 5 and 6 pounds. Ron Mistretta added a 7.33 pound citation earner, and Tom Wood topped the take with his 8.19 pound doormat. Conditions were tough Friday, but persistent anglers on Katydid managed 20 keepers. Wednesday's regular "atheletes" had an early bite for 24 keepers aboard Katydid. Flounder poundin' brothers Joe, Dave and Michael Walker teamed up to bring back 10 fine flatties to 4.75 pounds from Ocean structure Wednesday. On Monday, Joe Walker, Ron Mistretta and Bob Murphy made the circuit of Sites 9, 10 and 11 to assemble their limit of 12 flounder to 5 pounds. Captain Ted took Pirate King II to the Old Grounds Monday, and returned with 18 good keepers for his party of flounder seekers. On Sunday, Joe Pergeorelis, Josh Wilkers and Doug Mickowski drifted the Old Grounds for their limit of flatties to 4.5 pounds. Fred Robinson, Joe McNeal and Daryl Mergenthaler decked their limit of 12 fine fluke by bucktailing the Old Grounds Sunday. In Delaware Bay, boaters had to contend with hard running currents, but caught some flatties at the end of the tide around Reef Sites 5 and 8. Alex Robertson reeled in a 20 inch flounder, and her Uncle Kirk Robertson captured a 22 incher during their morning trip to Site 8 on Lil Angler II. Landon Burkhart and Dalton Stanley scored four flatfish to 23 inches drifting Nuclear Chicken Gulp over Site 5 at the beginning of flood tide Sunday morning. Wes Grove and his guys pulled 5 chunky keepers off Bay structure Sunday. Bob Bryant and his crew drifted Bay reefs Sunday to capture 10 stout flounder to nearly 5 pounds. Croakers and kingfish continued to come from reef rubble as well. Roosevelt inlet is still giving up flatties. Larry Taylor and Lou Chudnofsky had five keepers fishing minnows during incoming tide Saturday morning. Mike Buczik boated a 23 inch fluke while working a pink Gulp in Broadkill River. Some of the nicest croakers around came from the Canal. Edward and Jason Miller had a batch of 12 plus inch golden beauties while using small bucktails tipped with Fishbites, between the Drawbridge and the Train Bridge. Slot striper action has been good on the Canal. Drifting eels or bottom fishing with squid heads and clams near the bridges works. For those who prefer artificials, casting swimming and topwater plugs and soft baits along the marsh banks is also effective. Jake Mundok stopped by with his two rockfish limit that fell for Yozuri plugs. The first few spot were caught in Lewes Canal on bloodworms and Fishbites. Tautog season was off to a slow start. Only a handful of keepers were taken by toggers along the Inner and Outer Walls and Ice Breakers.

Inshore action with tuna and dolphin was decent. Trolling ballyhoo, spreader bars and Flippy Floppy Things over traditional structure between Twenty and Thirty Fathoms produced a mix of yellowfins and bluefins. Good numbers of dolphin were mixed in. The first wahoo checked in at Lewes Harbour hit the dock Tuesday. Rick Barker, Julie Nelson, Chris Dispoto and JoeBeaudet trolled pink and white skirted ballyhoo at the Hambone aboard Triple Play to connect with the 24.2 pound hoo, a 40 pound bluefin and four gaffer mahis. Bill Swords and Donna Floyd made a quick trip to the 19 Fathom Lump in the Upper Dumpsite Monday morning aboard Swords Fish. Shortly after deploying spreader bars, they got bit by bluefins. They landed a 45 pounder, and released another, then headed back to port in time for lunch. John Caplinger and crew trolled the Chicken Bone aboard Grizzly for their two under bluefins and some nice dolphin Saturday. Matt Baker boated a 20.1 pound bull dolphin at the Hot Dog. Sean Hickey scored a 16.1 pound mahi while trolling at the Chicken Bone Saturday. Mike Ambler managed a pair of yellowfins Saturday afternoon while trolling east of Masseys Canyon. Offshore canyon crews encountered billfish. Ryan Short reported he fished the Wilmington Saturday with Captain Billy Hein on the Stacey, where anglers aboard released two blue marlin and one white. Back inshore, bottom bouncers concentrated their efforts on flatfish. Flounder were found on natural structure of the Old Grounds between DB and DA Buoys, and at artificial reef sites 10 and 11. S & S Bucktails with Gulp! teasers worked well, as did fluke killer rigs baited with squid, shiners, smelts or fresh cut strips of bluefish, croaker or sea robin. Captain Brents regular Wednesday fluke fanatics aboard Katydid had a fantastic trip, putting together a boat limit of 40 keepers. Brent boated a 5.9 pounder himself while jigging from the bridge. Thursdays crew on Katydid kept 27. Because of wind on Friday, Brent anchored closer to the beach, and his anglers took a boat limit of bluefish, plus triggerfish to over three pounds and 15 flounder. Local flounder pounders landed some quality fish Saturday on Katydid. They had two over 5 pounds and several over 4 pounds among the 26 they brought back. Wayne Demarco, Joe Pergeorelis, Ray Ganc and Joe Pergeorelis, Jr drifted the Old Grounds for their limit of 20 fine flatties. Jen Petkus fished minnows near DB Buoy to put a 23 inch flounder in the cooler. In Delaware Bay, strong currents made drift conditions difficult for flatfishermen. There were windows of catching at the end of the tides. Laura Kemper landed a 5.1 pound fluke at Site 8. Jack Henriksen had a 3.9 pounder from Site 8 as well. Croakers, kingfish and blowfish also hung out at Site 8 and Site 5. Croakers and flounder continued to come from Lewes Canal, Broadkill River and Roosevelt inlet. The first spot finally arrived in the Canal and along Lewes Beach. Slot stripers were caught floating eels around the bridges. Rock responded to surface plugs and Storm Shads worked along the marsh banks too.

Area anglers took advantage of the Slot Striper Season opening up, and worked Lewes Canal and Broadkill River for keepers within the 20 to 25 inch legal range. Dustin and Brad Schell checked in with their limit of four rockfish landed by drifting eels around the drawbridge. Mike Slaughter and Charlie Booth brought in some nice slot bass as well. Zach Belcher and Spencer Brooks bucktailed bass and bluefish at Canary Creek. Tony and Diana Vansant limited out on slots drifting eels at the drawbridge during the end of flood tide Sunday. Other fishermen told of success with stripers while tossing Zara Spooks, Chug Bugs, Pop Rs, and other surface plugs along the marsh banks. Swimming Storm shads, Gulp! and RatLTraps also took their share. Rigs on the bottom with clams, squid heads or cut bunker caught bass for bait soakers too. Croakers have been numerous in Lewes Canal, and would bite bloodworms, clams or Fishbites. Flounder continue to come from the Canal, as well as off shallow water structure along Lewes Beach and inside Cape Henlopen. Steve Warren scored a 3.5 pound Canal keeper while jigging a Nuclear Chicken Gulp! from the Town Dock. Marty Riley was casting a Storm Shad near the train bridge for stripers, but it was inhaled instead by a 4.5 pound flatfish. Garrett Stryzs got his 2.5 pound Canal flattie with a white Gulp! Craig Goebel drifted the Canal three times during the week for a total of 10 keeper fluke, while using squid, minnows and cut croaker. Jack Ostroski used Gulp! to tempt a 22 incher from the Canal. Small boaters drifting around the pilings of Cape Henlopen Pier encountered flatties. Young kayakers A.J. Wiles and Colby Bealing had five fine keepers one trip while deploying minnows near the Pier. A.J. went back another day, and returned with his limit of four keepers. Julie Stevenson used her canoe to get close to Pier structure, and pulled in a pair of 20 plus inchers. Near shore rock piles also yielded fluke. Rob McMann said Gulp! outfished everything else he threw at the Ferry Wall, and put three nice keepers in the box for him Wednesday evening. Kyle Falgowski landed his limit of four at the Ferry Wall Friday morning with Gulp! and minnows. Bay Reef Sites held flounder, but conditions were tough around the full moon. Captain Brent about wore out the shifters keeping Katydid over rubble Tuesday, but his flukers managed 15 quality fish, including a 5.43 pounder for Greg Kratzer. Josh Bauman boated a 5.22 pound fluke aboard Katydid Thursday. Emmy Fibelkorn got a brace of flatfish to 22 inches at Site 5 Friday. Bay artificial reefs also produced croakers, kingfish, blowfish, snapper blues and spike trout. Spot haven't shown up yet, but some better sized croakers have been caught. Anchoring right on reef debris was best for bigger fish. Chaz Tennermann checked in a 1.25 pound croaker from Site 5. Some other species showed on structure as well. Andrea Monetti managed the first triggerfish from the Outer Wall, a 2.65 pounder. Diane Foster fought an 8 pound black drum while fishing for croakers at the Star Site aboard Lil Angler II. Ocean bottom bouncing has been pretty good. A group of Katydid regulars decided to try for sea bass Monday, since most boats had recently been concentrating on flounder. The decision paid off, and they returned from their wreck trip with a pile of big knothead bass, ling, codfish and flounder. Another gang of frequent flyers on Katydid fished Ocean structure with Captain Brent Wednesday for 26 fine flatties, including a 6.25 pounder for Lou Pennella, plus a 7.21 pound lunker for Joe Lee. Wilson brought a 6.8 pounder over the rail of Katydid Friday. John Christopher captured a 7.25 pound citation earning fluke from the Old Grounds Tuesday aboard Grizzly. Dave Walker, Bob Bryant and Al Riberio drifted Ocean wrecks Wednesday for their limit of 12 chunky flatties, including Als 5.5 pounder. Junior flounder pounders E.J. and Josh Hopkins used minnows and squid to take 6 good keepers off the Old Grounds Friday. Captain Carey's Sunday group aboard Grizzly had a great catch on the Old Grounds. They limited out with 32 keeper flatties. Dave Angstadt decked the heaviest fluke of the week, a 7.9 pounder he boated over the Old Grounds aboard Thelma Dale IV. A ball jig with a 6 inch Nuclear Chicken Gulp! was responsible for the downfall of that dandy doormat. Good water quality on the Old Grounds offered up some bonuses for boaters, with fish not usually found in close. There were several reports of mahi mahi among flounder fishermen, and some crews spotted schools of bluefins busting in the area. Jack Henriksen landed a 7 pound dolphin while fluking the Old Grounds Sunday. In addition, Jack, Ricky and Todd Mills and Bob Horton brought in 7 nice flounder from that trip. Tuna action was pretty good between Twenty and Thirty Fathoms. Mostly bluefins, and some yellowfins mingled at Massey's Canyon, 19 Fathom Lump, the Tea Cup, Hambone and Hot Dog. Trolling Flippy Floppy Things, spreader bars, Green Machines and skirted ballyhoos enticed tunas to bite. Cory Falgowski trolled up a 55.2 pound yellowfin near the Dog Thursday. Ed Sigda and his crew aboard Snow Goose pulled spreader bars between the 19 Fathom Lump and Masseys for their two forty pound bluefins and a yellowfin. Keith Beebe, Chuck Gooding and Taylor Deemer trolled spreader bars at the Tea Cup Thursday for three bluefins and a mahi. Captain Brent's trollers on Katydid boated two 40 pound bluefins for the box Friday morning by trolling ballyhoos with Ilanders. Keith Orendorf and his gang aboard Miss Five O trolled up several bluefins at Masseys Canyon Friday, keeping a 45 pounder. In addition, they decked 5 gaffer dolphin. Geoff McCloskey and the boys on Tutta Benne were at the 19 Fathom Lump first thing Sunday morning, and trolled up 3 bluefins while towing Flippy Floppy Things. They put a 40 pounder in the cooler and released the others. Captain Jeff Hoepfl and his trollers aboard Joint Venture also hit the 19 Fathom Lump Sunday morning for plenty of bluefin action. They boxed their pair of under 47 inchers, and released others. Bill Swords and his crew on Swords Fish worked Baltimore Canyon Friday, where Brandon Brown boated a 20 pound dolphin. They also deep dropped for a nice batch of Golden Tile, including Brandon's 30.2 pounder. Bigeyes have been frequenting the 800 Square in Washington Canyon. Pods of whales have been working over schools of squid in the area, and boaters that found feeding whales, often hooked tuna lurking below. Best bites occurred in the evening, with eyeballs attacking trolled offerings well into the darkness. Charlie Horning and his crew on Fish Whistle trolled until 11 pm Thursday, and boated a pair of bigeyes in the 150 pound class. Ballyhoos dressed with Joe Shutes did the trick. Larry McDonald and his buddies had a terrific trip to the Washington Monday afternoon aboard Pumpin Hard. They trolled up four eyeballs with a total weight of more than 900 pounds. The heaviest tipped the scales to 296 pounds. Seven gaffer mahis topped off their catch. Congratulations on an awesome excursion!