Beautiful weather and fabulous fishing would pretty much sum up the report for this week. After last weeks report of mixed bag fishing the limelight will once again turn to the Flounder and a few nice Sea Bass. There was actually a couple days prior to my last report that we didn’t even see a Flounder on the full day trip however we have certainly made up for that in just these past five or six days!

The numbers don’t lie; in just five short days we have actually landed almost as many Fluke as we landed for nearly the entire month of August. Literally hundreds and hundreds of Flounder have been coming over the rails over the past several days as these fish are staging for their offshore migration. Not just little ones either. The biggest one this past week was just shy of ten pounds and we have had at least nine fish that would tip the scales over seven pounds with countless fish in the three to five pound class! Can’t say how long this is going to last but we will sure stick with this type of fishing as long as we can continue to see this success.

With threatening weather forecasted for the weekend, crowds were at a minimum and the weather was just fine. Swells from the passing tropical system were barely noticeable except for right along the shore. Surface water temperatures have soared to as high as 80 degrees with the afternoon sun at just fifteen miles off the beach with a more stable temperature of 76 degrees throughout most of the area. Fish are still on the move. I have rode over miles of Croakers and small Trout to get to the Flounder grounds and these fish are rarely in the same area from one day to the next. The mouth of the Delaware Bay is alive with fish! I am still fishing the “old grounds” and our depth has been from eighty to ninety feet. There were a few times that 12 ounces of lead or more were needed to get down to the bottom however the fish were snapping most of the time so no one seemed to mind pressing up with the lead. The results were well worth the effort, everywhere you looked someone was hooked up with another nice Flattie!

Today 9/11 was a little tougher, southerly winds came across a hard running ebb tide and staying in touch with the bottom became a real challenge. We did land some beautiful fish but nowhere near the numbers that we had been seeing. That’s fluking they can’t all be banner days! I could honestly say though, “you should have been here yesterday!” I feel pretty certain that this was more of a condition thing and that we will still get a few more shots on these Flounders when conditions are right before they move off into the deep. With the reports that I am still getting from up in the Delaware Bay there are still a good number of nice flatties way up the Bay. Still more to come out and we will be waiting for them. This is one time that I am glad that we are not dealing with a Fluke closure like our neighbors over in New Jersey, their Fluke season ended yesterday and they will not be able to land anymore until the 2008 season. I feel pretty certain that we will see some nice flatfish up until the bitter end. Not like last week of course but we will see some.

In the upcoming weeks I would look for some more fabulous fall fishing with a nice variety of fish. I am getting a lot of questions about the Sea Bass, as far as I can tell there does seem to be quite a few around and I think we will see some good days on them both drifting and at anchor. It does seem like there is a bumper crop of little guys everywhere we go hopefully we will see some of their big brothers as time progresses. I won’t make the switch over to wreck fishing until I know that we can make a good day of it. We will see how the Jersey boys make out in the next couple of weeks now that they are done with the Flounder. With the amount of fish spread across the bottom now drifting is still the best option.

I will continue with the Full-Day trips sailing daily at 7:00 a.m. this is at least an eight-hour trip dock-to-dock and usually closer to nine. Our Half-Day trips have cut back to just Friday through Monday’s now and are continuing to see good numbers with the Croakers. Half day trips will be sailing at 8:00 a.m. and then again at 1:00 p.m. We are gearing up for our next offshore Tuna trip with the headboat, Sept. 22 is the next date. Tuna fishing at night in the canyons has been red hot with Yellowfin Tuna up to 100 pounds. There will be some excellent fishing offshore for several more weeks with these overnight trips.

If you would like any more information about trips sailing out of the Wharf or you would like to reserve a spot for on of the offshore trips please give us a call at (302) 645-TUNA

Until Next Week Happy Fishing!

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