Trying to keep up an updated fishing report every week is much easier some weeks than it is others. I hate to sound like a broken record, I refuse to lie, and I want to at least have folks read past the first couple of paragraphs before they decide to click on something else. In the last seven days I have seen the good and the bad and I have seen a lot of the in between as far as catching fish is concerned, and the bottom line is we are without doubt catching some very nice fish here at the Wharf right now!

On my All Day trips this past week we have battled some ugly conditions and still prevailed. Not every trip has been a winner, in fact I have had my worst couple of days with the numbers of fish landed in over a couple of months with the Flounder, but I have also had a couple of my best! These Flounder continue to steal the show with the Full-Day trips and I am standing firm that this will go down as one of the best Flounder catching seasons we have had in the past several years. The Flounder are everywhere in our region right now and when everything falls into place we can catch them. I know some of you might have been out with me recently and are thinking… What’s he talking about?? I went out and it sucked! Well the simple truth is, It’s fishing and we don’t get them every day and even on the days that we do “get them” there is always someone on the outside looking in, wondering…. what was I doing wrong?

You have to love it when the first timers or the young ones end up with more keepers than the pro’s or they end up landing the biggest fish of the day. It happens, and it actually happens quite frequently. There is most definitely a certain amount of luck that plays a role here with these Flounder, but also, the ones that think they know the most sometimes seem to “out think” themselves and become what I like to call a spectator in a non-spectator sport. It’s all part of the fun and we have had plenty of fun to go around so far this season! It has been a roller coaster ride in the last week with these fish and there has been no shortage of excuses to go around. There was more than enough wind at times and not enough wind at others. The currents and the swells have also played a role, there have been times when sixteen ounces of lead just walked away from the boat and there were times that a three-ounce jig went straight down in ninety feet of water. We caught fish and we didn’t catch fish during both scenarios! You just never know when it’s going to happen.

I have fished both in the Ocean and up in the Delaware Bay over the last week and I have had equal amounts of success and failure in either area. Southerly winds in excess of 20 knots several days in a row and the accompanied large swells in the Ocean kept us up in the Bay for a couple days in a row and the fishing was for the most part pretty good, that was until the Flounder decided that they just wanted to bite on the outgoing tide up in the Bay. Naturally we had several hours of incoming tide that day and we didnÂ’t get them! While we fished up in the Bay we saw a little variety of fish with some Croakers and a few Snapper Blues mixed in with the Fluke and while fishing in the Ocean itÂ’s still been predominately Flounder with just a few keeper Bass. Even though there is a lot of Flounder up in the Bay I would expect most of our time to be spent out in the Ocean unless the weather is questionable for the deeper water out front. I expect to be fishing for Flounder for several more weeks with the All-Day Boat and your chances at a big one are possibly better than they have ever been right now.

Back up in the Delaware Bay Half-Day trips have had the best Croaker action of the year so far. Capt. Mike reports many anglers landing more than enough croakers to keep them busy on just about all of his trips this past week and his anglers are actually filling up coolers and throwing keepers back at times because they have more than they want. These Croakers are still in the small to medium size range for the most part but the bigger ones are getting a little bigger now and the average fish is about a foot long with some of the biggest Croakers approaching nearly 14 and 15 inches. These scrappy bottom dwellers are perfect for the young anglers who are looking for constant action with bites and should provide good to excellent action for several more weeks to come. As a reminder kids will still go for free when accompanied by an adult on any of our Half-Day trips.

The Offshore scene has also been hot with the Tuna and the Mahi. Boats heading offshore have been catching both Bluefin and Yellowfin Tuna along the edges of the canyons and also on the edges of some of the inshore lumps. There were also several White Marlin raised and released over the past seven days setting the stage for the Ocean City White Marlin Open next week. Mahi have been sighted and caught on floating debris and around weed lines as close to the beach as twelve miles. Offshore fishing should only continue to heat up over the next several weeks and will provide some excellent sport fishing action for the remainder of the summer and into the fall.

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. Please give us a call at (302) 645-TUNA.

Until Next Week Happy Fishing!

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