Its been another interesting week of fishing here at the Wharf, the Flounder continue to both please and frustrate anglers, the Croakers have made their best showing yet this year up in the Delaware Bay, and the offshore fishing scene continues to be red hot setting the stage for what should be a great White Marlin Open for the offshore specialists this week.

Our flounder fishing has been pretty steady these last seven days, while I can't call this great fishing by any standard, we have certainly had our moments with these Flounder. Some days we see nearly non stop throwback action at times, and we are still managing a good total number of keepers with the exception of just a couple of long days that I would rather forget. Conditions have never been more the key than what we have experienced just this last week. There are times it seemed that Mother Nature just didn't want us to catch any Flounder dishing out either no drift, or too much drift, sometimes actually seeing both scenarios during the course of the very same day! Fortunately for my own sanity and for the clients on board there were also times when conditions were just right and the fish cooperated for us very well.

Our total number of keepers for the past week was again in triple digits totaling about 120 keepers for our entire week; best day was about thirty, worst day only three keeper fish. I can only guesstimate at the total number of short fish we have landed but it still seems like a ten to one or even more keeper to throwback ratio to give you an idea. We have done more measuring recently than we have done all summer, a lot of our throw back fish have been just shy of the mark and have proved very frustrating for the anglers with many fish falling just under the line with what could have been a good fish supper. Our winning pool fish has been in the five pound class or bigger on just about every trip.

The trend with our Fluke fishing I would have to say is on somewhat of an upswing, we have been able to see some decent action even in less than favorable conditions and there seems to be a lot of fish in a lot of different locations right now. Just about all of our effort has been on the hard bottom structures of the old grounds and often times we grind on a very short area but this past week on several occasions I have drifted nearly a mile on some of our drifts catching flatties the whole way. There is certainly a good spread of fish in certain areas. We are also starting to see a few more Sea Bass in the mix and we continue to see a lot of small to medium sized ling and a few snapper sized Blues to take home. Now that we are seeing a little variety of fish coming up we have been experimenting with a few different rig set ups, but time and time again the jigging style rigs have prevailed and those that are working the hardest seem to be catching the most fish. This has not been typical drift and dream Flounder fishing of some of the years past. There is a lot of Flounder around and I expect to continue catching them for several more weeks but it might not be easy all the time.

There is great news for the bottom bouncers up in the Bay. Capt. Mike reports his best fishing of the year on his Half-Day trips. The Croakers have finally shown up in numbers enough that we can honestly say "this is pretty good fishing". The majority of the fish have been legal size, measuring around ten to twelve inches in length with a few fish in the fourteen inch category and the occasional Cadillac Croaker that is over sixteen inches long. These fish have shown up in good numbers seemingly overnight and have been pleasing Jr. anglers and meat hunters alike now for several days in a row. Capt. Mike also reports that he is seeing an awful lot of spike Trout and is still catching the occasional Kingfish, Flounder and Spot. Half-Day trips have had the best action of the year just these past few days and the outlook is good for the remainder of the summer and into the fall for the action with these Croakers.

The offshore scene has continued to be very good with Tuna, I spoke with a long time friend and Captain just a couple of days ago that specializes in offshore fishing and he told me he couldn't remember how long it's been since the Tuna fishing has held on this consistent for so long. Yellowfin Tuna have been biting now pretty much all summer and continue to please those that have ventured off into the deep in search of them. Mahi, Wahoo, and Marlin are also being landed nearly every day by those in search of these offshore trophy fish. The Tuna have been biting both on the troll and on the chunk and there has also been an awful lot of fish taken on live bait as well as jigging. There is no doubt that this year will have to be logged as one of the good ones as far as Tuna fishing goes.

The White Marlin Open is in full swing now down in Ocean City Maryland and these guys have so far been enjoying some great weather and some pretty good fishing. At the time of this post a personal friend and long time mate on deck with me is currently in first place on the boat he's working on in the Tuna division with a 279 lb. Big Eye Tuna. I'm sure some of you may remember my old mate Danny who is now a Captain. We were on the way home today when he was calling his dad (Capt. Bennett) to tell him of the big fish. Congratulations go out to Capt. Max, Capt. Dan and the crew of the Pipedreamer for this massive fish, and good luck throughout the rest of the tournament! That is one impressive fish, I watched the weigh in live on the internet when I got to the dock and it's a beauty. Hope it holds up!

We are already into the second week of August now and for me it really seems like we just started our season out a little while ago, time sure flies when your fishing every day. We are most definitely getting into the time of year when we anticipate some of our best fishing with a variety of fish. Flounder are around, Croakers are around, Sea Bass are on the move and massive schools of baitfish are seemingly everywhere. We will most certainly be having some good days of fishing in our immediate future. For the most part my all-day trips have been more like private charters with the small crowds and we have had some very comfortable fishing at the rail, I can only hope that this changes from a business point of view but for right now the folks that I have been carrying have sure been enjoying the light rail. I will continue to target primarily the Flounder with my all-day trips, we should also see a mix with a few Bass and some Ling and snapper sized Blues. I would anticipate a few Croaker in a few more weeks. If you just want Croakers, the Half-Day trip is the way to go at this time.

If you would like any more information about trips sailing out of the Wharf or you would like to book a private charter or reserve space on a special trip please give us a call at (302) 645-TUNA. Also for a 10$ off coupon on the All-Day trips go to the archives and print out the top of last weeks report and it is good until the end of August.

Until Next Week Happy Fishing!

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