And with the blink of an eye yet another month has come and gone. September has given way to some of the best late summer Flounder fishing you could expect and has left us with a nice variety of fish almost not knowing what to expect to catch on each given day.

In the days since my last report we have seen a little bit of everything. A few more nice Flounders have been landed, some big Sea Bass as well as some keeper sized Trout, and plenty of Croakers too. We have also seen Bluefish up to 13 pounds, quite a few Triggerfish, and some Kingfish, Pigfish and Porgies. Add to this a various assortment of junk fish and you almost can’t wait to bait up! Oh yea I should also mention that we have sighted Whales, Sharks, Turtles, Sunfish, and Rays. It most definitely must be the fall season, you never know what to expect.

For years when someone has asked me in the morning what we are going to be fishing for, I have always given an answer that was passed down from the late great Pappy Parsons. “Fish” he would say with a smile, “Fish.” This couldn’t be a truer answer right now. These last several days I don’t even know what to expect. For an example a couple of days last week all we caught were Sea Bass. Then on a couple of days we were back to the variety. Over the weekend it was almost all Croakers with just a few Bass. Monday morning it was all Sea Bass again, we couldn’t buy a Croaker. Go figure. I anchored over a piece of hard bottom one day and caught Croakers and Trout with a few Sea Bass mixed in and on the same piece of bottom the following day all we caught were Sea Bass and big Bluefish. Crazy but true. We could certainly have had worse problems!

This really is typical given the time of year. Fish are on the move and with the constant changing weather and current conditions, fish could move with the next change of tide! Fortunately there are still plenty of fish around and for the most part all you have to do is look elsewhere and you will find more action. Despite some of the cooler nights that we have had the water temperatures have remained steady if not warm for the date. We have seen a slight cool down closer to the beach but out twenty miles not a lot has changed. Temps are still around 70 to 72 degrees. The seawater is also crystal clear if you get outside the channel to about eight or ten miles off of the beach. We have had no shortage of sunshine in the recent weeks and this is certainly a key in keeping the water temperatures up.
Mother Nature will prevail though and a cool down is inevitable. With this cooling of the water Temperature look for more action with these mixed bag catches. Big Blues will be migrating along the coast chasing bait, more Trout will also be showing up with the large schools of Croakers and the Sea Bass will start to bunch up and follow the Flatties out to the deeper waters stopping at the various shipwrecks along the way to fatten up on schools of baitfish hanging around these structures. Tau tog will also start to actively feed around the structured bottoms.

I will continue with the all-day trips this year daily until the 15th of December sailing at 7:00 a.m. Our half day boat will wrap up the ’05 season this weekend sailing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 8:00 a.m. and then again at 12:30 p.m. Next week we are scheduled to start Striper fishing daily at 8:00 a.m. however with the water temperature as warm as it is it may be best to hold off another week or so.

We will also have the last Tuna trip for the season on Saturday 10/08 if you are interested there is space available. Special Wreck trips are scheduled throughout October and November both 12 hour and 10 hour trips. Reservations are required for all special trips. If you would like any more information about trips sailing out of the Wharf please give us a call at (302) 645-TUNA or check out the website at fishlewes.com

Until Next Week Happy Fishing!

Capt. Rick Yakimowicz
Keen Lady IV
catchfish@verizon.net