Fisherman's Wharf Fishing Report July 7, 2004

Another Holiday weekend has come and gone and with it are lot’s of memories and almost as many fish stories as there were boats out on the water fishing for them. Just about any species of fish that is normally caught at this time of the year has been caught over the past several days with the exception of possibly the Sea Trout. This is the good news; the bad news is that there has just not been too many of them caught.

Fishing this past week on the Full-Day boat Keen Lady IV has once again seen the good and the bad. And the bad has been at times really bad. I have spent the past several days fishing up in the Delaware Bay catching a mixed bag of Croakers and a few Flounder. The Croaker have been running in size from about 10 inches to as big as 17 1/2 inches long with most of the fish ranging about a foot in length. On a few of our trips lucky anglers have been able to bag as many as a couple of dozen or more of these Croakers.

Our Flounder fishing has been tough at best this past week with almost all of the fish that we’ve caught haven been taken off of some sort of structure. We have landed 70 some Flounder this past week with less than half of them reaching the legal size limit. I did fish out in the Ocean for Bass and Flounder a couple of times this past week, however I was not very impressed. The best action seems to be up in the Delaware Bay for right now. The lack of Sea Bass out front has made for some long slow drifts without a lot action. Normally at this time of year I would be able to fish for the Fluke in the Ocean and catch a few Bass at the same time, but right now that does not seem to be the case. Hopefully this will change in the upcoming weeks as the Bass Spawn out and they begin to school back up.

There have been several noteworthy catches in the past seven days. Among those would be David Sliwinski’s 8 lb. Tog that he caught while we were anchored over some coral. Debbie Baker from Baltimore also caught a citation tog on this trip weighing in at just over seven pounds. Mark Williams from New Castle weighed in a 5 pound 4 oz. Flounder and "New York Johnny" had the biggest Flounder of the week with a great Flattie that tipped the scales at just over 6 pounds.

The Lewestown Lady had her first offshore overnighter this past weekend and returned with the first Tuna of the year.

A father and son team Peter Murphy Sr. and Jr. tagged two Yellowfin Tuna in the 50-lb. class. while John Hazzard of Lewes landed a 137 lb. Mako Shark. Capt. Benny said they also jumped off a White Marlin and released a Blue Whaler Shark as well as releasing some undersized Tuna. I will let Capt. Benny or his 1st mate Dave tell you the story about the one that got away. Let me just say that this is without doubt quite a fish story and involves an outrigger!

Our Half-Day boat continues to do well with the Croaker. The fish have been almost predictable for Capt. Mike and he has consistently been landing impressive numbers of these scrappy bottom dwellers. Remember this is the perfect trip for kids and first timers, or for the ones that just can’t make the whole day. Action on almost all of these trips has been steady and there has been plenty of fishing time.

I would look for much of the same kind of performance in the days to come. I will continue to be fishing for Flounder, Croaker, and Bass or whatever we can catch on the All-Day trips. The crowds and the weather will predicate whether we will fish in the Bay or in the Ocean. Wherever the best action is, that is where we will go.

For more information about Fisherman’s Wharf please give us a call at (302) 645-TUNA or check out our website at fishlewes.com.


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