Delaware Fishing Report
When, Where, What and How they're Biting



By Eric Burnley Sr.*

Updated: August 27, 2010

DELAWARE BAY The past weekend saw a few surprises. On Friday, the croaker bit well and flounder fishing was poor. On Saturday, the croaker action fell way off, but good numbers of flounder found their way to the cleaning table.

I was out Friday and caught all the croaker I wanted, but could not catch a legal flounder. On Saturday we tried for croaker again and had a heck of a time putting a catch together. Meanwhile, the guys fishing over reef sites were able to catch more keeper flounder than anytime over the past month. The weather wiped out fishing on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday so I have no idea how things will play out this weekend.

One bright spot on the croaker fishing scene was the dropoff east of the Outer Wall where fish to 15 inches were caught. The same was true for the area around the Cape Henlopen Fishing Pier.

There was a run of croaker at Broadkill Beach on Sunday. It would be nice if that would continue and move down to Lewes Beach.

Spot fishing was good from the pier and in the Lewes & Rehoboth Canal. The canal also held slot rockfish that could be caught on clam or Rat L Traps. Slot rock were also caught in the tidal creeks with the best action at the mouths of the creeks on bloodworms and peeler crab.
The Outer Wall gave up a few rockfish on plugs and flies. Tog fishing remains slow as does sheepshead and triggerfish.

Bluefish continue to roam the bay from Woodland Beach to Cape Henlopen. Most are small with a few large enough to keep.

Boats that anchor up over structure at the reef sites and wrecks report a mixed bag of croaker, flounder, blowfish, triggerfish and kings. Anchored boats must keep a sharp lookout to prevent drifting boats from coming down on them.

INSHORE OCEAN Flounder fishing really turned on over the weekend with excellent numbers of big keepers taken at Reef Site 10, the Old Grounds and B Buoy. The largest number of keepers taken by a private boat was 18 caught on Sunday at Reef Site 10.

The bottom at the Old Grounds and B Buoy produced keeper sea bass along with the flounder. This weekend we will be coming off a full moon so the current may make holding bottom in the deep water difficult.

Dolphin are still around the Lightship Buoy and any thing else that floats. Most are bailers with the occasional gaffer in the mix. Banded rudderfish and triggerfish are also holding on floating objects. A former fisheries supervisor caught a triggerfish on a fly last Friday by casting to a floating basket.

Trollers are finding blues and false albacore over inshore structure. As the summer turns into fall these fish should move closer to shore.

OFFSHORE OCEAN If catching a marlin has been your life-long dream now is the time to make that dream come true. Reports from canyons up and down the coast indicate more billfish than have been seen in 30 years. This is confirmed by the two recent tournaments out of Cape May, N.J. and Ocean City, Md., where hundreds of marlin were caught with most released.

My son Roger fished in 50 fathoms near the Norfolk Canyon last Sunday and saw more marlin than he has ever seen in his life. He said they were busting balls of bait, cutting through the water and free jumping. At times they had four and five fish in the baits. At the end of the day they were five for 10 on the fish they hooked and could not guess how many others they missed completely. At one point they hooked and landed a double.

Tuna fishing in the local canyons remains spotty, but on Sunday two bigeye tuna were brought in by the Pandemonium out of Indian River. A few yellowfin were also recorded.

Wahoo have been showing up in increasing numbers so you might want to rig your baits with a short wire leader. Dolphin are anywhere you can find something floating.

INDIAN RIVER INLET The Indian River Bay has been yeilding good numbers of croaker and spot. This fishery is great for young people and other less experienced anglers who may not have the patience to drift around waiting for a flounder to find their bait.

Flounder have been caught on live spot, minnows and squid. The larger fish are taking the spot.

The inlet continues to produce good bluefish action on incoming water at dawn and dusk. Rockfish are caught during the day on live spot and at night on plugs, bucktails and eels. Most of the rock are small with a few keepers taken by lucky anglers.

Tog fishing has been slow with the occasional keeper along with a sheepshead or two.

SURF Kings, spot and croaker have been caught from the beach with the best bite at dawn and dusk. A few blues show up on occasion.
Just one more week until Labor Day and the exit of many beachgoers. The ocean side of the Point at Cape Henlopen will open and Gordon’s Pond opened back up a week ago. Surf fishing will do nothing but improve from now until late fall unless we are hit with another big nor’easter or hurricane.

FRESHWATER The best fishing in freshwater right now has to be white perch in the tidal creeks. Every week I have reports of big catches of perch to 1-pound and above. Bloodworms and grass shrimp are the top perch baits.

Bass fishing in the ponds is still an early or late day operation. Surface lures and worms have been the best offerings.

I would suspect the water level in the Brandywine has gone down so drifting along while casting to smallmouth bass in a kayak or an intertube should be available again. It still pays to be careful as there are dams and shallows that can cause problems.

In the Nanticoke River and Broad Creek bass, crappie and pickerel will be taken on falling tides.

ANCHOR UP It seems that anchoring up and fishing the bottom over structure or even open bottom is becoming more popular. Last Friday we almost drifted into a charter boat that was anchored at Reef Site 6. I saw the boat was stationary before we started our drift, but thought we would carry past him. Fortunately, the captain saw us coming and blew the horn in time for us to move.

If you plan to anchor in an area where many of the boats are drifting, it pays to keep a sharp lookout for other boats that are drifting down on you. The same is true for boats drifting where others are anchored. That is what we didn’t do because I thought our drift was going to clear the other boat.

The way to set your boat on anchor is to find the piece of rubble you want to fish and mark it with a buoy. I use a Tide bottle on 100-pound mono leader held in place with a window weight.

Next run the boat to the bottle and then let it drift back for a few hundred yards until you get a steady reading on the compass for your heading back to the buoy.

Run the boat slowly back to the buoy on that heading. Run past the buoy on the same heading until you are far enough away to set the anchor. You should drift back on the anchor rode until you are directly over the structure. If not, pull the anchor and try again, this time running further past the buoy to be sure you have enough rode out to hold bottom.

Anchoring can make fishing the bottom easier when the current is running hard, as it should be this weekend with the full moon Friday.

*Eric Burnley Sr. is a native Delawarean who has fished the waters of his home state for more than 60 years. He has been a full-time outdoor writer since 1978, with articles appearing in most national magazines as well as many regional publications. He has authored two books, Surf Fishing The Atlantic Coast and The Ultimate Guide To Catching Striped Bass.

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