Fisherman Wharf Fishing Report, 7-14-10

[Saltwater Fishing]

Fisherman's Wharf Fishing Report July 14th 2010
It has certainly been a strange week here at the Wharf for me
as far as the fishing goes. We are still in just about the heart of our
summer Flounder season however there has been a few times I had
to wonder if the Flounder really knew it!
I have fished thirty of the last thirty one days and believe me
when I tell you that I have seen some decent Flounder fishing. I
have also witnessed some pretty ragged fishing to go along with it,
and this past week I saw first hand both the very good, and I have
seen some fishing that would be best for me not to try and
describe in this forum so I can keep it friendly! Earlier in the
week we had some of our better numbers with nice sized keepers
as well as a good run of shorts to keep the action alive. As the
week progressed into the weekend these numbers of nice keepers
started to dwindle and by Sunday and Monday I think we hit rock
bottom with our production. I had to take a personal day on
Monday so Capt. H was at the helm but after the day of fish
catching action I had seen on Sunday we pretty much thought it
couldn't get much worse. It did. It was 2:40 Sunday afternoon
when we landed our first keeper Fluke for the day ending with a
grand total of three keepers for the entire trip. We did see quite a
few shorts throughout the day but even they were not cooperating
the way they should have been. Monday was a little worse with
only two keepers having been landed for the day and not many
throwbacks either. I was glad to be off!
Its no secret that our Fluking this year so far has had more
ups and downs than we would normally expect to see. There could
be several explanations for this but I'm not exactly sure which any
one excuse would really hold up to any facts. My old saying of
"too much salt water and not enough fish" to me seems the
most logical! There is no doubt that there are a good number of
Flounder around this year we have proved that time and time
again. Has it been a banner year? No way not even close. We
have had to work much harder for these fish than we would have
to in a more "normal" year. The Flounders now seem to be in
more locations than they have been so far this year but they just
don't appear to be bunched up anywhere in concentration for any
amount of time and they have be difficult to catch at times unless
the conditions are ideal. I mentioned last week that I had rarely
fished any one particular area more than one or two days in a row
its been similar this past week bouncing around to several different
areas during the ever changing weather and tidal conditions.
I have spent just about an equal amount of time drifting in the
Ocean and up in the Delaware Bay over
these last seven days and I have seen both
success and failure in both places. The
old grounds as good as they have been at
times have been very disappointing with
fish that just don't always bite, and the
Bay has been very sensitive to the
changing weather and tidal conditions.
While I'm actually impressed with the
numbers of Fluke we have racked up this
past week, its all relative. There has been
a lot of effort put foreword to catching these fish by a lot of private
and charter boats as well as party boats recently without a lot to
show for it. I think we have been somewhat lucky being able to
catch these fish and rack up some fair numbers on most days. We
have actually seen several limit catches over the past week and
limit catches of four 18 1/2 inch fish have been very hard to come
by this year.
It truly is anyone's guess as to how this 2010 Fluke season
will all shake out in the end but there are
most definitely some fish around and I
fully anticipate having some great days on
these Flatties in the next several weeks. I
can't guarantee that we will be fishing in
the Bay or in the Ocean but believe me it's
a very good thing to be able to have this
option to go either way on any given day.
I will be running the All-Day trips for the
Flounder sailing daily at 7:00 a.m. and we
usually return around 4:00. We furnish all
cut bait and squid.
Water temperatures out in the Ocean along the coast and out
to about twenty miles off of the beach have been as warm as
seventy five degrees and we are starting to see some of that crystal
clear water just a few miles off the beach. The water is finally
warming up in a consistent manner and the fish will be feeding and
on the move again with this next moon and the associated strong
currents.
If you would like any more information about trips sailing
out of the Wharf or you would like to book a private charter or
reserve space on a special trip please give us a call at (302) 645-
TUNA.
Until Next Week Happy Fishing!
Capt. Rick Yakimowicz
Thelma Dale IV
catchfish@verizon.net

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