Fisherman's Wharf Fishing Report July 14, 2004

Fishing this past week aboard the All-Day boat Keen Lady IV has been the best that we have seen in a few weeks. I can honestly say that the fish finally seem to be coming on in several different locations, allowing us more options for the conditions on any given day.

Croakers have been making up most of our catch but we have seen more Flounders this past week than we have seen so far this year. We have also seen a few Spike Trout, some Kingfish and Snapper Blues as well as some Sea Bass, and we have even caught the first few Triggerfish of the year.

The majority of the Flounders we have seen taken are still being caught around some of the various structures near the Lower end of the Bay. Good numbers of Flounder are also showing up in some of the more traditional spots such as the Broadkill Slough, the "Old Grounds", the Cape May Channel or the Punk Grounds, as well as along the Shipping channel around # 19 buoy.

With the exception of Saturdays’ trip I have been running exclusively up into the Delaware Bay on every day. On Saturday I decided to get away from the weekend boat traffic in the Bay and try our luck back out on the Ocean fishing over the open bottom of the "Old Grounds." On this trip we found constant action with Flounder, Sea Robbins and a few Black Sea Bass. Unfortunately the bulk of the fish we caught went back into the Ocean falling short of what the Delaware size restrictions would allow. The Bay is still producing far better than the Ocean as far as catching keeper sized fish.

We have caught in the neighborhood of 175 Flounders over this past week, however less than one third of these fish have made the 17 &Mac184; inch size limit. A lot of the fish we didn’t even bother to measure as they fell way shy. Fortunately the Croakers have been plentiful enough so that folks can have good action and still take home enough fish for a meal. In fact on some trips anglers have been able to walk away with as many as 25 or more nice sized Croaks.

The action has really picked up this past week and with the numbers of fish that seem to be up in the Bay, we should continue to pick away at Croakers and at times do well with the Flounders. It is also possible that we will fish out in the ocean on any given day, although I would not expect to see big numbers of Sea Bass coming over the rails for a couple more weeks. If we do fish out in the Ocean I would expect mostly Flounder with a few Bass mixed in.

Weather conditions will be playing a big role in where we fish on each day and I will continue to go where we have our best shot at a nice catch. As I stated earlier there are fish in a lot of different areas now and we can take full advantage of the winds and currents to be in the best spot at the best time!

If you would like more information on trips sailing out of the Wharf or you would like to make reservations please check out our website at fishlewes.com or give us a call at (302) 645-TUNA.


Until next time Happy Fishing!
Capt. Rick Yakimowicz
fishing@fishlewes.com
Keen Lady IV