It has certainly been a strange week here at the Wharf for me as far as the fishing goes. We are still in just about the heart of our summer Flounder season however there has been a few times I had to wonder if the Flounder really knew it!

I have fished thirty of the last thirty one days and believe me when I tell you that I have seen some decent Flounder fishing. I have also witnessed some pretty ragged fishing to go along with it, and this past week I saw first hand both the very good, and I have seen some fishing that would be best for me not to try and describe in this forum so I can keep it friendly! Earlier in the week we had some of our better numbers with nice sized keepers as well as a good run of shorts to keep the action alive. As the week progressed into the weekend these numbers of nice keepers started to dwindle and by Sunday and Monday I think we hit rock bottom with our production. I had to take a personal day on Monday so Capt. H was at the helm but after the day of fish catching action I had seen on Sunday we pretty much thought it couldn't get much worse. It did. It was 2:40 Sunday afternoon when we landed our first keeper Fluke for the day ending with a grand total of three keepers for the entire trip. We did see quite a few shorts throughout the day but even they were not cooperating the way they should have been. Monday was a little worse with only two keepers having been landed for the day and not many throwbacks either. I was glad to be off!

Its no secret that our Fluking this year so far has had more ups and downs than we would normally expect to see. There could be several explanations for this but I'm not exactly sure which any one excuse would really hold up to any facts. My old saying of "too much salt water and not enough fish" to me seems the most logical! There is no doubt that there are a good number of Flounder around this year we have proved that time and time again. Has it been a banner year? No way not even close. We have had to work much harder for these fish than we would have to in a more "normal" year. The Flounders now seem to be in more locations than they have been so far this year but they just don't appear to be bunched up anywhere in concentration for any amount of time and they have be difficult to catch at times unless the conditions are ideal. I mentioned last week that I had rarely fished any one particular area more than one or two days in a row its been similar this past week bouncing around to several different areas during the ever changing weather and tidal conditions.

I have spent just about an equal amount of time drifting in the Ocean and up in the Delaware Bay over these last seven days and I have seen both success and failure in both places. The old grounds as good as they have been at times have been very disappointing with fish that just don't always bite, and the Bay has been very sensitive to the changing weather and tidal conditions. While I'm actually impressed with the numbers of Fluke we have racked up this past week, its all relative. There has been a lot of effort put foreword to catching these fish by a lot of private and charter boats as well as party boats recently without a lot to show for it. I think we have been somewhat lucky being able to catch these fish and rack up some fair numbers on most days. We have actually seen several limit catches over the past week and limit catches of four 18 1/2 inch fish have been very hard to come by this year.

It truly is anyone's guess as to how this 2010 Fluke season will all shake out in the end but there are most definitely some fish around and I fully anticipate having some great days on these Flatties in the next several weeks. I can't guarantee that we will be fishing in the Bay or in the Ocean but believe me it's a very good thing to be able to have this option to go either way on any given day. I will be running the All-Day trips for the Flounder sailing daily at 7:00 a.m. and we usually return around 4:00. We furnish all cut bait and squid.

Water temperatures out in the Ocean along the coast and out to about twenty miles off of the beach have been as warm as seventy five degrees and we are starting to see some of that crystal clear water just a few miles off the beach. The water is finally warming up in a consistent manner and the fish will be feeding and on the move again with this next moon and the associated strong currents.

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.

Until Next Week Happy Fishing!

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