Fisherman's Wharf Fishing Report September 9, 2004

While yet another Labor Day weekend has gone by the wayside marking the unofficial end to our summer season, Mother Nature has dealt us with a good dose of steady wind blowing out of the East. We did manage to get away from the dock for most of this past weekend, but the fishing along with the weather left a lot to be desired.

Since my last report I have spent a few days out on the water and a few days tied to the dock. Easterly winds have prevailed over our area for almost a week now. This wind, coupled with the weather mans’ daily prediction for rain has made getting customers our biggest challenge for the last couple of days.

Friday was day two of a moderate northeast wind. We did see a fair catch with a mixed bag of Sea Bass, Croakers, Small Blues and a few nice Flounder. This would be our best day catching fish for the impending holiday weekend.

By Saturday three days of East and Northeast winds had made drifting conditions almost impossible. Anglers at times had to fish with as much as a pound of weight just to try and get down to the fish. Sunday, now day four of the Northeast wind, waves had built up to a conservative five to six foot height with some swells reaching almost twice that size. Needless to say anchoring was our only option and we returned to the dock a little early but not soon enough for a few of the folks. We did see a few nice Sea Bass, but only a couple of Flounder and a hand full of Croakers and Blues were mixed in with the catch on this victory at sea.

As I write this I have been tied to the dock for three days in a row, the winds, although still in an easterly flow, have abated to more moderate levels. The deck of cards has most certainly been shuffled both inshore and offshore and it is likely that we will be seeing fish in places now that we have not seen them in a while.

Wed. September 8th was the first day of a scheduled two-week closure with the Black Sea Bass. Remember this is a coastwise closure on a Federal level and will re-open on Wed. September 22nd. Any Sea Bass caught over the next two weeks will have to be returned to the Sea.

As a lot of you already know, some of our best Flounder action over these past few weeks has been where the Sea Bass live. It will be difficult to stay away from this area if the Flounder fishing remains good after the blow, however with the appropriate baits I feel we should be able to keep the Sea Bass bycatch to a minimum should we choose to fish over these grounds. Our other options will include Croakers, Bluefish and Sea Trout. This will be our best bet when the drifting conditions are too tough for the deep water Fluke. I definitely expect to see some good catches in the next couple of weeks despite the fact that we are unable to keep the Sea Bass.

September has traditionally been one of our best months for catching fish and I see no reason why this September would be any different. The stage is set, there are a lot of fish around in a lot of different places and all we need is to have the conditions to catch them.

We will be continuing with the Full-Day boat sailing daily until the 20th of December. We have a multitude of Special Trips scheduled for this fall including our 12 hr. trips for Sea Bass and our 10 hr. trips for TauTog, as well as the 22 hr. offshore trips fishing for Tuna. If you are interested in reserving a space for one of these special trips or you need any other information about trips sailing out of the Wharf, or you would like to book a charter, please give us a call at (302) 645-TUNA. .


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