WEEKLY “Gone Fishing” AT THE BEACH by Sue Foster

 May 27th, 2013

Water Temp: 57.0

Fishing Report by Sue Foster

Memorial Weekend started off cold and windy. It finally got warmer on
Sunday and the wind quit on Monday. Despite it all, we saw some fish.
Before the blow we saw a LOT of nice stripers from the Inlet and Surf.
So many sharks from the surf were reported I'm not even sure what kind
they all were. Some were toothy while others had no teeth. I know some
were smooth dogfish and some were black tip sharks. One picture looked
like to be a dusky. Some good sized sea trout were reported from the sea
wall in Ocean City and the Indian River Inlet. Some nice flounder were
caught from the bay and inlet area. Blues were running from the Route 50
Bridge along with some catches of stripers. Tautog really picked up
inshore on Sunday. Some black drum were reported by the Verrazano
Bridge. Offshore, the sea bass bite was so-so. Weather didn't help...
Further offshore the first threasher shark was caught.

 Oyster Bay will be open 8-5 Mon and Tues...-Wed and Thursday 7-7
 Friday-7-9  and Sat- 6-8 & Sun-7-7. Fenwick Tackle will be open 8-6 on
 Tuesday and Wednesday) Thursday 7-7, Friday thru Saturday 7-9 Sun 7-7,
 Monday 7-7.  E-mail Sue Foster at:  Oyster Bay Tackle. The  online mall is open. We sell
 MD licenses and 2013 boat stickers at our Oyster Bay and Fenwick Tackle
 locations. De Licenses are sold at our DEL location. I've been selling
 MD fishing licenses at Oyster Bay since we opened and it is really easy
 once you're in the system. If you have last year's license, bring it in
 with you, and all we have to do is punch in the DNR ID number to bring
 up your info! Otherwise, bring in your Driver's License. For DEL boat
 fishing stickers you MUST bring in a current boat registration and a
 driver's license. Locals, please try to avoid Memorial Weekend to get
 your licenses!!! We have plenty staff but you may have to wait and
 sometimes the systems get slow at times of high volume...

BTW, There's a mistake in the MD Fishing Guide about clamming. If you
are out of state it IS legal for you to catch clams in Ocean City.

(Yea!!!!) The Bulkhead at 2nd thru 4th Street is finally finished and
anglers can now fish there again. The Ocean Pier is also open. If you
fish the bulkhead you still need to obtain a free registry. We can do
that for you at Oyster Bay Tackle or call 1-855-855-3906.

2013 Tide Charts are now available in our stores and online. Go to our website and click on More Fishing Info.

Flounder season is now open in MD- Minimum Size - 16" Creel - 4 fish
open all year.  (DE is 18-inches until they officially change it to
17-inches. I heard rumor that might be several weeks or longer...)

New Ocean City chart by Capt Seagull available:
Buy at Oyster Bay Tackle or online.  The bay portion of this chart is a
little small, but it shows the nearshore Reef Sites with numbers.

2013 White Marlin Open T's are here! Instore or Online.  
>
2013 Shark T's! In store or on  Online. We also have the  2013 Shark Tank Tops.

Stopping in to Oyster Bay Tackle or Fenwick Tackle? Clip out a coupon
for xtra savings!  Coupons

Lots of fish were reported in the surf during the week. Mike Moss
e-mailed in: "Hi Sue, Landed this 40” Striper on Fenwick Saturday
morning thought I would share…lost another one but had our fill of
sharks and rays as well. Caught on FRESH bunker."

Jeff Tebay e-mailed in on Sunday: "My brother (Jamie) and I were fishing
Fenwick (bath house) Tuesday at Dusk.  24Lbs, 38 inches, cut spot We
caught a couple dinks, a few sharks, and too many to count skates."

Frank Fetter of Ocean City, MD came into Fenwick Tackle with a 38.5"
18.5 pound striper caught from the Fenwick Surf using cut bait on
5/23/13. Happy Birthday Frank!

Paul Norris e-mailed in on Friday: "I fished on Thursday at Conquest
road and the wind blew hard. I was able to keep the bunker bait down
with an 8oz sinker. I could fish only 3 rods as with the wind, the other
rod was to light. It started off good as with 2 rods in I caught a skate
and a black tip before I could get the third rod baited up. So on and
on. sharks, all black tips, and while releasing one a guy drove up to my
southern most rod in his truck. It turned out to be a surf fishing
instructor, Harry Aikens ...as we were talking my middle rod goes down
and I am hooked to a whopper cow nose. Three minutes into it the other
rod goes off and I beg the surf fishing instructor to please help
himself. We fight those devils for 15 or 20 minutes and land them both.
Well that made us really good friends and we had a very good visit."

Justin Lynch e-mailed in on the 18th:  "Caught this 36-inch blue last
Saturday in north oc.  Also caught a few black tip sharks between 3 and
4 ft.  I told Libby I'd give u a report if I caught anything that day
after I picked up some fresh bunker from you guys.  I'll be down again
this weekend to stop by for some more bait.  Hopefully my report will be
of a big rock this weekend.

Jim Thompson of Wilmington, DE came into Fenwick Tackle to get his pic
taken with an 18 pound, 37" Striper caught from the Delaware Seashore
State Park on 5/21/13

Eugene Markov e-mailed in on the 20th: "Thanks a lot for your fishing
reports! I was reading those for a long time. But finally wanted to
share with you a picture of my first striper of the year. This 33", 21lb
striper was cought on fresh clam off the surf at Fenwick Island."

Jim Thompson from Wilmington, Del caught a 33 inch Black Drum on Clams
weighing 21 pounds on the Beaches of Delaware.

Nate Neumann e-mailed in on the 20th: "I am a long time customer of
Oyster Bay, I just wanted to send you this picture of my first keeper of
the year. Caught it on Cape Henlopen, at the Navy Crossing, at 10:30 Pm
Friday night the 17th on clam. 38” around 20 pounds. We caught a couple
sand sharks as well that night.

All these great pictures are in our  Surf Fishing Photo Gallery.

Lots of nice stripers were caught at the Indian River Inlet this past
week. Some nights were hot and some were not. Just had to be there when
the action was happening.

John Pilcicki of Herndon was there! He came in to Fenwick Tackle to get
his picture taken with a 15 and a 1- pound 15-ounce striper 33' and
31.5" caught on Storm Lures at the Indian River Inlet on 5/20/13.

His picture is in our  Delaware Photo Gallery.

Many anglers ask about reading the beach when surf fishing. "Poppy" a
very good angler has posted another very good description with pictures
on Stripers Online. Check it out:  Reading the Beach  He draws it out
completely! If you're not catching fish in the surf, you need to study
this!

Our online mall is now open and we have: 
Trailhead Tire Deflators!  We also carry the Oasis Trailhead brand.

Surf Packages, complete with sinkers. (Also flounder, Aqua-Clear, Swim
Shad, and Got-cha Plug Packages.)

J.J. from the Oceanic Pier (410-289-2602) reported good action on
bluefish and shad. Flounder fishing was disappointing, mainly because of
the windy weather. Some sea trout 20" to 25" were taken from the pier
and the inlet wall this week. Also some stripers from the Wall and the
Bridge. Blues and shad from the Pier, along with blowfish, rays, skates,
and sharks on the windy nights. Tautog fishing picked up.  (You do not
need a fishing license to fish the Oceanic Pier.)

 Larry Jock of the  Coastal  Fisherman reports on Sunday:  "Chuck Wenzel, David Oliphant and
 Dean Pecunes had 3 keeper flounder at the South Jetty this morning. All
 caught on white Gulp! Swimming Mullets during the incoming tide. Fish
 measured 17, 17 & 19-inches.

The headboat, "Morning Star" picked at the sea bass today. The heaviest
of the trip weighed 3.5 lbs. and was caught by John Strother at an
artificial reef.

Surfcasters off Assateague are up to their waders in skates and dog
sharks. An occasional striper has been caught."

On Saturday: ""Jezebel" returned with 34 sea bass, primarily from the
Great Eastern Reef. Charter boat, "Lucky Break" returned with a 38-inch
striper caught by Brooks Kline at the South Jetty. Caught on live spot.
Charter boat, "Lucky Break" fished around the Assateague Bridge and had
5 black drum on clams."

 Stripers and Flounder!

 Pictures say a million words:

 Dan Conroy from Woodbridge, Va fished the RT 50 Bridge on Thursday
 night 5/23/2013 using Pink Zooms during the outgoing tide and caught a
 nice 43 inch Striper weighing in at 21 pounds.  Dan got a nice Citation
 with this one.

 My husband, Bob Foster, caught a huge 26-inch 5-pound flounder in the
 bay behind Assateague around the Duck Blinds on 5/21 on live minnows.
 We had 5 keepers all together, all over 17" .   The flounder was long
 but kinda skinny… it would have weighed 7 or 8 pounds in the fall!

 Charlie Donohue from Philly, PA came in with a 23 inch Flounder
 weighing in at 4.5 pounds during a High Tide in the Thorofare using
 combo of live minnows and fishbite.

Oyster Bay Tackle's own Paul Coughlin better known as "Cog" fished with
Capt. Charlie Donohue from Philly and Brian Mattingly of Salisbury
Maryland on the "Lucky One Charters" on Tuesday 5/21/13.  The guys
fished the Thorofare during the Outgoing Tide and Paul came up with a
beautiful 23 inch Flounder weighing in at 5 pounds using Live Minnows
and Squid combo.

Oyster Bay Tackle local Jake Allnutt fished the Ocean City Jetty Wall on
Saturday night 5/25/13 and caught a 34-inch Striper weighing in at 12
3/4 pounds using a jig head with White Ice Soft body Zoom lure during
the low out going tide.

These pictures are in our  Inshore Photo Gallery.

Jeff Grimes Of Helbent Charters
reports: "Snuck into town Thursday night hoping to get a trip in on
Friday. Well mother nature had other plans for us! Not only did we not a
chance to fish Friday the wind was stronger on Saturday plus Sunday
morning the wind was still blowing a little too hard to make fishing
fun. The bite has been good when the weather has been decent but those
days have been few. Tomorrow is Memorial Day so give thanks for all
those who servied and lets hope we finally get the brake in the winds
and we get a chance to catch fish tomorrow! There is still time to book
a trip so give me a call at 717-574-4010 or email me at
helbentcharters@hotmail.com. Do not forget to check out our website at
helbentcharters.com. See you on the water!"  Helbent Charters is one of
the few charters available in North Ocean City.

Dave Beall of Dave's Delmarva First Mate Service reports: "This has been
a great week for fishing and catching! Indian River Inlet has been
really hot this week from last Sunday night all the way to the full Moon
last (Sat.) night for big Rockfish. The best Bite has been in the dark
but there were fish caught in the daylight as well. The best baits for
these trophy size fish have been either 5" Storm Lures or 5" Tsunami
Lures in the Golden Bunker w/Spots pattern, white Bucktails w/ red wrap
and a white worm trailer in weights from 3/4 oz to 3 oz (depending on
the depth of water) and 5" split tail Blue Back Herring (Heavy Version)
Tsunami's. The Guys were really excited! One guy was so excited that he
was running across the parking lot next to the Coast Guard Station and
had his fishing rod and gaff in one hand and a huge tackle box in the
other . Don't get me wrong; I get that excited too but its usually not
about fishing! The Flounder have not turned on yet at Indian River
Inlet. This is non-typical for there not to be more flounder than there
are for this time of the year. Because of the wind yesterday (Sat.)
Marina and I went to Trussum Pond (Near Laurel) where we found it to
less windy, warmer and less crowded that IRI or other fishing areas at
the Beach because of Memorial Day Weekend. Marina caught two huge Black
Crappies on a red and white tube jig under a bobber. It would have been
better if we had a boat with an electric motor though since there aren't
many places to fish from the bank there. Trussum Pond is very pretty
with lots of Cypress Trees and I am sure that we will be going back
there again. Talk to you soon, Dave" Check out his new web site.

Bluefish continued to be caught in the bay this week, mostly around the
Rt. 50 Bridge. Guys fishing the Bridge caught some big ones along with
some keeper stripers. A couple days of bad wind put a damper on the
fishing. When it wasn't blowing too much, fishing was good. Apparently
there was a big run of stripers in the Ocean City and Indian River Inlet
on Friday morning before the wind started blowing. Indian River Inlet
had a hot bite on Thursday as well.

Had a customer say he caught 18 tautog with two fat keepers from the 2nd
Thru 4th Street bulkhead on Sunday. He was using green crabs and sand
fleas. Heard there were tautog caught from the Route 50 Bridge as well,
and a pick-up on tautog catching from the Oceanic Pier.

 Flounder and Surf, Rig and Lure Packages, Selection of Swimming Shads or Gotcha Plugs!  

Capt. Monty on the "
Morning Star sends us his update and comments on May 23rd:

" Greetings All, Opening day of sea bass, May 19th, was announced by
Maryland on May 18th. The fed never did announce. I keep hearing
something about a press release in June.. Windy & Rough; borderline
weather greeted us as we cleared the inlet opening day. I thought the
hard part would be getting to a good reef in heavy weather, that the
cbassing would be a cinch.

It was not.

In these opening days we've seen a summer pick, even a slow summer pick
some days. Sending folks home with dinner; some with a few dinners. Have
had a couple cbass close to 5 pounds & some clients in double digits.
Working hard to get folks a catch. Fair many throwbacks; seeing a few
tog and even some ling — no fluke yet.

We had a long sustained ENE wind not too long ago; lasted almost 2
weeks. While scientists like to tell us about how warm surface waters
have become with climate change: often warming's greatest perceived
effect on our reefs is from melting ice-water coming down-coast with the
Labrador Current & cooling the bottom. Those SCUBA divers I put down at
the Radford May 10th, those Nitrox divers, they experienced not quite 60
degrees on the surface yet had 44 on the bottom..

Even though I think black sea bass are at a multi-decadal production
low, Even though I think discovering & quantifying reef habitat's loss
here in the nearshore waters of the Mid-Atlantic is a vital part of reef
fisheries restoration, Even though I think allowing our cbass spawning
stock to shrink owing to biological response from overdone size-limit
restriction is management's greatest flaw: I believe what we have now,
today, is fish missing — this shortage is because they haven't all come
inshore yet. With chilly bottom temps a large percentage remain
offshore. I hope.

Time will tell whether the bite improves.

As I have written many, many times; The single most important repair to
this fishery—What we could swiftly do to improve cbass production—is to
force more young fish into the spawning stock. Much more on that below..

The Hall's Restaurant Spring Reef Dinner went well. We quite nearly
doubled last year's participation. Joe Hall & Family donate their staff,
facility & food — Thank You! Oyster Bay Tackle owner Sue and her husband
Bob, the good folks at Ake Marine, and auctioneer JL Cropper have long
been the backbone of this fundraiser, have always been there — always.
Joining in the heavy lifting this year was Benelli, especially their
senior gunsmith, Randy, who donated a hand-made knife amidst mountains
of other auction items. Anthony's Carryout donated carving of their
delicious roast beef; Capt Kane on the Fish Bound donated a charter
trip; Fleming donated two autographed pieces of sports memorabilia; Capt
Dan of the Finchaser donated two reels; Capt. Victor from the Ocean
Princess donated tickets; an anonymous angler handed me a fistful of
hundreds; Gus from Accurate Pawn in Baltimore brought three nice St.
Croix rods and assorted goodies; St Croix themselves donated a sweet tog
stick, Seacrets gave us a nice gift certificate, All Tackle OC donated a
bunch of deep-drop jigs, Gander Mountain in Pittsburgh donated several
big boxes of goodies, Capt. Dan Harrison of Crisfield donated a splendid
matted photograph, Dick Arnold had several of his photos present.. Too
many to remember! Thank You All!

The Ocean City Reef Foundation's mission is pretty simple: More Coral,
More Fish. Have a new website about to debut at ocreefs.org  .. Lot of
pics.

There's been a local battle over our tautog size limit. Somehow it was
discovered that there were errors in the coastwide recreational tog
catch estimates, and its obvious that MD's catch had plummeted since
going to a 16 inch size limit. A very real sign of improving management;
MD DNR Fisheries devoted a lot of energy to getting the tautog size
limit reduced which would be consistent with nearby states. I very much
appreciate that they carried the tautog idea forward. Its really quite
different from DNR of decades past.. It just happens that I was an
opponent; that I & very few others wanted to keep the 16 inch limit. I
think this is the one fortunate accident of management's response to bad
catch estimates in recent times. It was because "MD private boats caught
19,000 tautog in Mar/Apr 2010" (nineteen or 190 would be closer to the
truth..) and similar ludicrous over-estimates that the size limit shot
up 2 inches: We Were Falsely Accused Of Overfishing -Again– But here
participants' pain will truly result in fisheries gain. Is already..
"

Go to " Morning Star to read Capt Monty's entire newsletter...

 E-mail Capt Monty at: Capt  Monty about upcoming trips or to subscribe to his newsletter:
 mhawkins@mediacombb.net

Capt. Monty Hawkins mhawkins@siteone.net Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservation Line 410 520 2076 http://www.morningstarfishing.com/

Watch the  weather.

 Help and Donate to the Ocean City Reef Foundation!  http://www.ocreeffoundation.com/
It's a 501c3 tax deductable .org

 Joe at  Lewes Harbour
 Marina (302-645-6227) reports on May 23rd: "Flounder Tourney
 Results The 2013 Canal Flounder Tournament held May 19th was a great
 success. This year's turnout was the largest ever. The weather was
 beautiful, and decent numbers of flatties were caught. Bragging rights
 for his winning 5.09 pounder go to James Stanley. Charlie Booth secured
 Second with a 4.24 pounder. Danny Schurman scored Third with a 4.06
 pound flatfish. Jesse Steele's 4.04 was Fourth. Gene Stalls got a 3.98
 pounder that was good for Fifth Place. Mike Hoffman had a 3.94 pound
 fluke for Sixth, and Will Wiedmann wound up Seventh with his 3.93
 pounder. Twenty percent of the entry fees will be donated to Camp
 Awareness, which promotes education about the State's natural resources
 to young fishermen, hunters, hikers and other outdoor enthusiasts. We
 thank all who participated to make the day a fun event, and are already
 looking forward to next year's Tourney. Flounder continued to come from
 the Canal following the Tournament, though the numbers have dwindled
 compared to a couple weeks ago. It seems that the fish have started to
 move out into the Bay. Flukers on Katydid returned with the first nice
 catch of flounder from the open Bay last Saturday. They had 8 keepers
 plus a 32.2 pound striper that Captain Brent bucktailed off reef
 rubble. It's likely we'll see more fluke from structure like the
 artificial reefs, and inner and outer breakwaters in the coming weeks.
 Fishermen on the Cape Henlopen pier had flounder on speck rigs tipped
 with shiners or Gulp! They also reported increasing numbers of spot and
 croakers. Shore fishermen inside Cape Henlopen and on Lewes Beach also
 caught a mix of croakers, spot, kingfish, blowfish, bluefish and
 weakfish. Zach Brown brought in a beautiful 5.66 trout he took while
 casting a pink Gulp! from the beach. Sea trout have definitely come
 back in better numbers and sizes than in past seasons, and anglers
 targeting them around the Roosevelt Jetties, and the Inner and Ferry
 Walls have done well. Artificials such as Bass Assassins, Fin-S-Fish,
 Gulp! and paddletail worms were effective. There have been some
 surprises for trout fishermen tossing jigs around the rocks. Robert
 Perholtz was working a pink Gulp along the Inner Wall when it was
 inhaled by a 72.6 pound black drum. Amazingly, he was able to land the
 brute with the 10 pound test spinning outfit he was using. Just to
 prove it was skill and not luck, the very next day, Robert boated a
 63.3 pounder at the same spot, using pink Gulp! on the same ten pound
 spinning gear! Those actually trying to catch a drum also got into some
 big boomers at the Coral Beds while baiting with surf clams. The fleet
 of New Jersey boats that had been fishing there disappeared, so it's
 likely they've located some schools on their side of the Bay. Spots
 such as Brandywine, Tussey's, the Pin Top and Horseshoe usually yield
 drum. This weekend traditionally offers the best action with boomers.
 Some of the most impressive specimens to hit the dock this week
 included a monster 93 pounder boated by Mark Butler aboard the Indian,
 and an 82.7 pound behemoth taken by Tom Kuzsma on the Pirate King.
 Richard Hammond had a 68 pounder on the Pirate King, and Chuck
 Coverdale captured a 67.3 pounder on the Indian. Kathy Rodgers checked
 in drum scaling 65.4 and 58 pounds. Nick Campbell nailed a 64.5 pounder
 on Martha Marie. Larry Grim landed a 62.5 pounder, and Scott Dostaz
 decked a 60.9 pounder, both aboard the Lil' Angler II. In recent days,
 drum seemed to feed more actively in the late afternoon rather than
 after dark. A lower Bay striper bite has failed to materialize, which
 is surprising since it's been so good in the upper Bay. However, there
 were some nice bass pulled from the surf during daybreak at Herring
 Point by casters using clams. Wayne Demarco and Wayne,Jr double teamed
 rock of 15.4 and 25.9 pounds. Martin Kris captured a 33.8 pound lunker
 rockfish. Andy Lano and Mickey Bremer limited out with 4 linesiders to
 24.3 pounds. Robert Baum deployed a chunk of bunker to beach a 25.7
 pound bass at Roosevelt Inlet. Sea bass season got off to a lumpy
 start, with high winds and rough seas last Sunday. Captain Brent on the
 Katydid pushed many miles offshore despite crappy conditions, and made
 several anchor stops. He said the structures were not loaded up like he
 expected, but his anglers picked some keepers at each spot, and ended
 up with a boat limit. Paul Pergeorelis put a 3.25 pound knothead in the
 box on that trip. Seas were friendlier Tuesday, and bassers aboard
 Katydid had a much better time of it. They returned with a 160 bass
 limit, plus 30 plump ling and a pair of nice cod. Boats working reef
 site 11 had good numbers of fish, but the majority were shy of the 12.5
 inch minimum."

Anglers  need a DE Fishing License to fish, crab, and clam in DEL:
Individual Delaware Fishing Licenses are now available online

Stop by to the Oyster Bay Tackle location and buy your 2013 Ocean City
Reef Foundation Charts. The donation fee for these charts are $50. $54
if you use a credit card. These charts pin-point all the GPS numbers for
all the Artificial Reef materials that have been scattered near offshore
wrecks, reefs, and obstructions. The charts give you hundreds of numbers
to find fish. All the money collected goes back into the Artificial Reef
Foundation. Come to Oyster Bay Tackle or buy online. 
(They are up in price, but all the numbers have been redone and the
charts are in book-form.)

Check out the link on our web site to the local chapter of the  MSSA.   They are keeping us
abreast on all the Fishing Issues.  From our Oyster Bay Website, go to
"More Fishing Info" on the left hand side, and click on "MSSA Atlantic
Anglers".

Check the weather before driving hours to go offshore or fish the surf.
Go to Coastal Marine Forecast to get an idea of
the weather and height of the waves.

Capt. Rick Yakimowicz of the "Thelma Dale V" fishes out of Fisherman's
Wharf. Here's his report from May 22nd:

The fishing that we saw on that opening day while somewhat disappointing
to those expecting limits of nice fat Sea Bass was actually not
horrific. We have certainly seen tougher fishing and it gets much worse
than what we have seen so far. Top hooks each trip that I have made have
been anywhere from the low to mid teens with the Bass and yesterday
while scouring for something better we managed to find a nice batch of
Red Hake (ling) that helped fill the boxes immensely. The part that has
been hard to swallow is the fact that some folks are walking away with
just barely supper. You can have one lucky stick land a dozen or so nice
fish on a stop and the fellow standing beside catch next to nothing. I
have also stopped over certain wrecks that would normally produce
hundreds of fish this time of year and we caught nothing but Tautog or
Bergalls. For me that is the most frustrating part.

The beat goes on, this start that we have had is similar to the start
that we have been seeing ever since we had opening days. There is no
doubt that if we had been allowed to fish for the Bass a few weeks ago
we would have had some really good trips. The weather hasn't exactly
been doing us any favors either, we continue to have a big ground swell
with all the southerly winds and the Bass generally bite better without
the swells. Surface temperatures are up we have seen nearly 60 degrees
at times on top however divers report bottom temperatures at only 44
degrees which is still a little cool in my book. As far as the outlook
for our Sea Bass season this spring? The jury is still out. There is no
doubt in the next couple weeks that we will have some decent fishing
however it looks like we are going to also have some pain if some more
fish don't move into our area as the water gets warmer.

I plan to continue targeting the Sea Bass anchoring over wrecks rocks
and artificial reefs as long as we continue to have success I just don't
know how long that will be. After that we will likely start doing some
drift fishing with a variety of both Sea Bass and the Flounder. All
indications so far are pointing to a good season with the Fluke and
everyone is looking foreword to being able to land the 17 inch fish this
year for a nice change. Seventeen inches is the smallest size limit that
we have seen in Delaware for a very long time, we actually get to keep a
smaller sized fish than our neighbors in New Jersey for the first time I
can remember. The New regulations will take effect on June 11th and by
that time I am fairly certain that they will be at least one of our
target species. 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.

His full report and boat info is here.

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

Old Inlet Bait and Tackle (302-227-7974)  reports on May 20th: " Weighed
a 35 pound striper from the Inlet this morning and just weighed a 24
pound striper taken from the surf. Heard about some nice black drum on
the beach too." The Inlet has been pretty good. The bite is not
consistent but the fish are showing up about 3-4 days a week. On the off
days they just pick at the fish. Stripers, blues and shad. The early
morning hours have been good lately on the last part of the incoming and
first of the outgoing tide. Bucktails, swim shads and eels have all been
effective. We have weighed a couple of nice trout from the Inlet lately.
Had some spike trout reported from the beach as well. Is the comeback
on? Flounder fishing has been decent in the bay on the days the wind is
not blowing hard. Those days have been hard to find. The VFW slough and
Masseys and the hot spots. Gulp Alive and live minnows are the ticket.

Bill's Sport Shop (302-645-7654) in Lewes, DE reports on May 24th that
some nice stripers caught from the Indian River Inlet and also the surf.
Flounder are biting. Kingfish, croaker, and spot at Beach Plum Island.
Blues in the inlet and surf. Big drum in the Delaware Bay.

Capt.Dan Stauffer (866-623-4746) of the  Fin Chaser does wreck,
inlet and trolling trips. Here's two of his reports from this week:

 "05/25/13 Today’s five hour charter was greeted with 25 knot west
 winds. Offering a complete refund and my advice to avoid the angry
 ocean.  I told them our ONLY option would be to hug the coast and try
 for some tog. I also noted that sometimes tog don’t bite well when it’s
 this rough out. “Lets go capt.” was the cry. Managed to find a few
 hungry fish but all under the 16? size limit, and with 30 knot winds,
 we really couldn’t look any deeper. The guys had fun and everyone
 caught a couple tog. As they put it ” what a great adventure”!

05/24/13 Out with a couple from northern MD for a day of sea bass and
tog fishing. The sea bass bite was slow and after a few stops we decided
to turn our attentions to tog. Bite started off slow but within thirty
minutes the tog turned on. Unfortunately, so did the wind, which was to
be west at 10-15 knots, NOT northwest at 20-25. Pulled the anchor a
little early due to deteriorating conditions. In the slip with just
under a dozen sea bass and one tog shy of our limit.

05/21/13 Out with a family of five who wanna have some fun and if they
can catch a few fish, even better. Conditions were MUCH better than the
last two days and the bite was better too. Back in the slip with a
bakers dozen sea bass, a couple of them are nice big knot-heads."

 Larry Jock of the  Coastal
 Fisherman reports The first thresher shark was brought to the
 scales Sunday by angler Charlie Lutes who was fishing on the "Shark
 Killer". The thresher was caught on a bluefish at the Fingers and
 weighed 178 lbs."

( Wilson Cropp Charters and Guide Service. Cape Charles, VA- 1-434-531-6376)
Stripers....Flounder....Drum...  Speckled Trout....Tog...    Eco tours
as well.

Dave Beall has retired from his "real job" and has set up a little local
First Mate Service. I have a lot of anglers ask to pay someone to go out
with them on their new boat and show them the waters and how to fish. I
also have anglers that would like to pay someone to teach them how to
fish off the beach. Check out his new web site.

 (Just a note to say to my readers that many of my fishing reports are
 from other anglers and party boats that come over my e-mail. When I
 "copy/paste" their reports I try to leave them intact. It keeps the
 fishing reports lively and interesting. But any comments/politics
 within the quotes are their comments and views, and not necessarily
 mine.)