Fishing Reports come a lot easier when the fishing is red hot and the action is non stop. Unfortunately that is not the case at this time. We are in the middle of somewhat of a transition period now coming off of several weeks of anchoring over wrecks and now just about all of my time has been spent drifting over the open bottom of what is commonly known as the “old grounds.” Even Though this fishing is what I can only best describe as slow there is a bright spot in the fact that we are now seeing Flounder on a regular basis and we are even seeing some very nice keepers!

In the last seven days we have landed nearly 200 Flounder with a keeper ratio of about one in five biggest one so far was just over six pounds. Not a bad start as far as I am concerned the Flounder fishing should only get better. As in typical Fluke action; conditions must be just right in order to put together a catch but on a few occasions last week we did manage to see some pretty decent Fluking. I can even say that we have seen our first limits of the year, which at 19 ½ inches makes for a catch that you can honestly brag about! Fluke killers have landed most of the fish but the plain old top and bottom rigs have been doing just fine even some of the guys jigging on the slow drift days have had some good luck with the keepers. Sea Bass action has slowed to a mere crawl there are times that we do get into them pretty good but the keeper ratio is horrible. Windy conditions had me on the anchor over the weekend and one fellow told me that he had caught over sixty Bass to keep just seven. Good action but not much in the box it was fun though.

I expect to be doing a lot more drifting from here on in and we will have some good days and some bad days but we will be dragging our Fluke baits pretty much every day from now on. I will continue to sail daily with the All-Day trips departing the docks at 7:00 a.m. and a full boat of people seems to be a thing of the past so don’t worry about the boat being too crowded that doesn’t seem to be an issue right now. As the variety goes it will be Sea Bass, Fluke and a few Snapper Blues that make up the catch. I will only be anchoring when the conditions are too tough to drift. These fish are spread over literally miles of bottom and drifting is going to be our best option for now.

The Delaware Bay is starting to come alive also with good numbers of both throwback and keeper Flounders and it is entirely possible that we may use that option of fishing up in the Bay if the fishing gets right but as of now we are still seeing better numbers with keepers in the Ocean and more of a variety in our catch. There are some more reports of Croakers being caught around the jetties and in the inlet and hopefully with any luck these fish will be right on schedule to provide good bottom bouncing action up in the Bay for our Half-Day trips and charters.

Croaker action usually heats up a week or two prior to the fourth of July. Our Half-Day trips will continue to sail three trips a day 8:00, 1:00 and then again at 6:00 in the evening.

Capt. H.D. will be running another 18-hour long-range deep drop trip for Tilefish and Sea Bass this weekend. This trip will depart Saturday night at midnight as opposed to the normal Friday night departure. They will fish all day Sunday and return late Sunday afternoon. Reservations for this trip are required and space is limited. There are still a few slots open if anyone is interested. 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 a spot on a special trip please give us a call at (302) 645-TUNA.

Until Next Week Happy Fishing!

Capt. Rick Yakimowicz
Thelma Dale V
catchfish@verizon.net