More summer heat and more summer Flounders here at the Wharf! Here we are now past the midway mark of the month of July and as far as I am concerned we have been enjoying some of the best Flounder fishing action that you can find, the offshore action continues to be on fire with the Tuna, and the long-range deep drops continue to produce coolers full of fish for those that have been making the journey with Capt. H.D.

With my all day trips over the past week we have endured just about every imaginable situation with winds and drifts or lack of either, and we have still managed to land the biggest number of keepers of any week so far this season. All tolled we have landed just over 300 keepers in just my past seven days including a few citation sized doormats and countless four to five pound fish that have been invited home for supper. If you like catching Flounder there may be no time like the present to try and catch them, there seems to be a lot of them around right now and they are in several different locations. We continue with all of our effort drifting the hard bottoms of the "old grounds" fishing over rock ledges, coral heads, and sea trees and on a few occasions we have actually found them just on a steep slope making for some nice long tackle friendly drifts at times with constant action catching fish. While the Flounder is most certainly what makes up the bulk of our catch with the all day trips, we still occasionally see a few nice Sea Bass in the mix daily. I had one lucky angler fishing with bloodworms who landed ten nice Bass along with two big flatties just a couple days ago proving that you can scrape up a nice mess of Bass if you try.

Our week has been mixed with some pesky easterly winds early on and then we had the doldrums of those lazy hazy hot and humid dog days with little or no breeze to give you a decent drift as the weekend approached. Fortunately Mother Nature gave us a little break on each day with the fishing conditions and we were able to at least see some good to excellent action on just about every trip we made during some point of the day. A couple of times it was literally just like a light switch the way the action started or stopped, but the end results were pretty much the same for us on every trip we have made racking up good numbers of keepers and seeing some really good action with the short fish along with the big ones when the bite was on. There have been several days with multiple limit catches spread around the boat and just about everyone has at least gotten in on the action and gone home with a fresh fish supper lately on every trip.

The freezer packing action continued over the weekend for Capt. H.D. on the long-range trip. With a little more wind and drift then he would have liked to have seen out of the gate he changed up his strategy on this trip and fished in a little less water than he has been fishing his last few excursions and was pleasantly surprised with the amount of nice Sea Bass and once again real impressive numbers with the Blueline Tiles. Most anglers ended up landing in the upper teens and low twenties with the Bass and the Bluelines added up even more for those that put in the effort winding the fish up from the depths. Capt. H.D. and Capt. Justin have been on a roll with these deep drop trips this summer and the coolers full of fish just keep coming in off of that boat every trip they have made. There are more of these trips on the schedule if you are interested and remember these are limited space-reservations in advance trips only so be sure to call.

On the other offshore scene the Tuna fishing continues to be red hot. Anglers making the trip offshore so far this year have enjoyed some of the best Tuna action in recent memory. Both Bluefin and Yellowfin Tuna have been coming in from the deep now for several weeks straight and the way it looks this action is going to continue for a while. The edges of the canyons as well as some of the inshore lumps have been producing great numbers of Tuna with both the troll and also while chunking either on the drift or at anchor. This has been the finest kind of Tuna fishing that you can ever imagine and with the water temperatures being the way they are right now these fish should stick around for a while providing plenty more opportunity to get in on the action if you are interested in booking a trip right now.

We have suffered through a couple of good heat waves so far this summer and I suspect that we haven't seen the last of it. With the air temperatures soaring into the nineties almost daily of late, our surface water temperatures out on the Ocean have been right around 80 degrees and on a few occasions even higher. The water is very warm for this time of year in my opinion. There has actually been somewhat of a relief while out on the water with the air movement, however with the water as warm as it has been there is really no such thing as a cool ocean breeze right now. I do know that once we get back on land everyone that was onboard says how nice it was while we were out on the water, it's much much cooler out there!

So far this year we have been blessed with some pretty decent fishing and I expect to continue to see some good trips for the remainder of the Summer with the Flounder and it finally seems as though some Croakers are now beginning to show along the beachfront and up in the Delaware Bay. With the All-Day Trips I will continue running daily at 7:00 a.m. and fishing primarily for the Flounder and we will take the Bass home as a bonus. We are fishing hard bottoms and we are mostly using a jigging style rig with big meat baits. Half-Day trips are sailing daily at 8:00 a.m. and then again at 1:00 p.m. and targeting a variety of fish including Croakers, Flounder and Trout. We also will be running evening Half Day trips on Friday and Saturday nights at 6:00 P.M.

If you would like any more information about trips sailing out of the Wharf or you would like to make a reservation for a special trip or book a private charter for the Tuna please give us a call at (302) 645-TUNA.

Until Next Week Happy Fishing!

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