After what has seemed like a mere a blink of the eye, here we are already into the first month of August. We have crystal clear warm waters, typical summer weather, and to go along with it lots of biting fish! The Delaware Bay has been providing anglers with Croakers, Bluefish, and Flounder and the Ocean has shown an abundance of Tuna, Mahi, and Marlin and of course the deep water flounders that we have been seeing now for several weeks.

I hate to sound like a broken record but the fishing is good! Even on some of the toughest of days we are landing way more fish than we did for most of the entire summer last year. Flounder continue to take the spotlight with my All- Day trips fishing mainly in the Ocean and the Croakers are the main event for our Half-Day trips fishing up in the Delaware Bay. Flounder action has been for the most part what I would call very steady, we continue to see good numbers of these flat fish almost daily even in some of the toughest of conditions. With the prevailing afternoon southwest winds kicking up nearly every day last week we still managed to dodge the bullet and landed some quality fish on nearly every trip and the action with the throwbacks and the keepers at times has been hot and heavy.

Drifting conditions are the key to our success and with the weather pattern that we have been in for the majority of the summer sometimes these conditions just donÂ’t work in our favor. The fish are here however and are usually willing to bite, with a little patience and perseverance we continue to beat the odds continually landing some very nice Flounder sometimes during what seems like the worst of conditions. Over the past week I have seen several days when winds were over twenty knots, when the wind and tides are somewhat together life is good; these fish are spread out over miles of bottom and drifting along is a good thing. When the wind gets against the tide however, just staying in touch with the bottom becomes a chore in the deeper water and you may think you are fishing over the abyss, not being able to even remotely feel that sinker bounce the bottom. Drifting conditions were so tough a few times this past week that I actually ended up anchoring over structure just so we could get back in touch with the bottom. This method proved to be even better than I expected. With the amount of Flounder that seem to be looming around some of the heavy structures right now some of our best landings of Fluke have actually been made while we were at anchor with the wind blowing the hardest. While this may not be the most traditional way of catching Flounder it certainly seems to work sometimes and has saved the day on several occasions this past week when the wind was blowing too hard to effectively drift fish.

Back up in the Bay the Croakers continue to get bigger and better. Capt. Mike has reported once again that he has had his best fishing with the Croakers so far this summer in just this past week. Croakers have been providing good action for Half-Day patrons on just about every trip. For the most part these fish have still been a little small on the average but they have started to see more and more fish that are close to, and bigger than fourteen inches. Capt. Mike says these fish are pretty much settled in now and expects good to excellent action for the remainder of the summer and into the fall.

It seems like just yesterday that the cool spring weather was forcing us to keep the warm clothes close at hand while out on the water yet here we are on the countdown to labor day and the kids will be back in school before you know it. We have been experiencing some of the best Flounder fishing over the past several weeks that we have seen in quite a while and are even expecting this fishing to get better as the Fluke congregate near the mouth of the Bay for their departure to the deeper offshore spawning grounds later this fall. The outlook is good and the stage is set, with a little help from Mother Nature we will undoubtedly be seeing some fabulous fishing in the upcoming weeks both inshore and offshore.

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 for one of the special trips please give us a call at (302) 645-TUNA.

Until Next Week Happy Fishing!

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