Fishing report

By Bill Hamilton
Specail to the Coastal Point

Joe Morris from Lewes Harbor Marina says flounder fishing has been okay in the bay around the Starsite & Brown Shoal site, and east of Buoys 9 and 10. Southeast of “B” buoy, flounder and croaker catches remain good. Eleven-year old Beau Fibelkorn, from Lewes, caught a nice 6.35-pound flounder fishing near the Brown Shoal site. Joe Walker from Bethel, Penn. caught a 9.37-pound flounder in the same area and weighed in at Lewes Harbor Marina.

The headboats out of Lewes and Indian River report fair-to-good catches of croakers, some sea bass and flounder, depending on the tide and the drift.

Anna, from Hook Line & Sinker at Cape Henlopen Pier, said they are catching lots of croakers, spot, a few bluefish and small trout at night. Best baits have been bloodworms, fishbites (the bloodworm alternative) and cut bait.

Rick, from Rick’s Bait & Tackle, reported good catches of croakers, lots of undersized flounder, stripers, and a few small trout near the upper end of Massey’s Ditch. Several “hot spots” in Indian River Bay for flounder are near Buoys 19-20 and 12-14, using live minnow/squid. Fishing from the seawall and the north and south jetties has produced good catches of croakers, nice stripers at night using live eels, live spot, or artificial plugs and storm lures. Bluefish continue to make their presence known on the incoming tide. Bucktails, Gotcha Plugs or Spoons are your best baits. Tom Cheeseman, from Ocean View, does it again with his catch of two stripers — 29 and 33 inches, respectively, while fishing off the north side seawall near the Coast Guard Station. Ron Weber, also from Ocean View, caught four stripers (released two), and kept two weighing 16-17 pounds, while fishing storm lures and live eels off the north jetty.

Bud Hurlock, son Jeffrey, and Jackie Speakman, from Wilmington, fishing in Indian River Bay near the Coast Guard Station, caught one legal flounder, 17.74 inches long, several short stripers which they released and netted an 18-inch striper floating in the water, with a croaker stuck in its mouth. They removed the croaker from the striper’s mouth and released both fish, which swam away. That is a good story. Fishing outside of Indian River Inlet out to “B” buoy is producing good catches of both croakers and flounder. The “Karen Sue” with Capt. John Nedelka with a party from Bowmansville, Penn. caught some nice sea bass and 14 flounder up to 7.1 pounds, while fishing the open bottom southeast of “B” buoy.

Offshore fishing hasn’t changed much from last week. However, there have been more reports of tuna in the 30 to 100 fathom areas, the Hotdog and the Canyons. Jack King, from Dover, with mate Steve Hobson from South Bethany, caught and released three white marlin, boated a 25-pound yellowfin tuna while fishing in the 100 fathom of the Poorman’s Canyon. Tara and Capt. Barry Grims, fishing on the “Trade Off II”, caught two yellowfin tuna, 42 and 56 pounds, while trolling south of the Hotdog. Both of these fish took a Green machine bait. Allen Reikhert, Rick and Nathan Barr, Kim and Kevin Plitt from Camp Hill, Penn., fishing on the “Banshee,” caught three yellowfin tuna, 26-35 pounds, 24 dolphins, five trigger fish and released one blue marlin estimated at 400-pounds while fishing near the tip of the Baltimore Canyon. Nice going, guys!

Still lots of small fish are being caught from the surf, mainly croakers, spot, a few kingfish, skates, cow rays and sharks at night. Best baits — bloodworms, fishbites or squid. Chris Brown from Severna, Md. caught a dozen croakers up to 1.5-pounds and 1 kingfish while fishing the surf at Sea Colony. These fish were caught on bloodworms. Rick Broch, from Bethany Beach, caught several spot and lots of croakers, using bloodworms/fishbites, while fishing on the Fenwick state beach.

Until next week, good luck and take a kid fishing.

Bill Hamilton is co-owner of B & R Bait & Tackle in South Bethany.