On the Water: Conditions make flounder a dice roll
“Summer afternoon — summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” — Henry James
Yep, August. That most summery of summer months is now upon us. Depending on your view of heat, humidity and crowds it’s not as popular as some but it’s the time many folks take their vacations. As such a lot of time is spent with family and friends, and many a crab will be cooked, corn shucked and fish caught along the lower Delaware coast.
Many of those fish will still be flounder as that’s pretty much the only game in town. Capt. Rick Yakimowicz on the all-day headboat out of Fisherman’s Wharf in Lewes reports that action on the flatties has remained fairly steady, but, channeling his inner Charles Dickens, he explained it hasn’t been easy.
“Over the past week, we have actually seen some of the best and some of the worst it has to offer,” the savvy skipper said. “Conditions just haven’t done us any favors, and it seems like we can never just get that decent drift, and the wind always, seemingly, opposing the current.”
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That can be the kiss of death for flounder fishing, where drift is everything with the fish spread out the way they are. Still, though, some good catches have been made, particularly for anglers willing to make the effort to jig bucktails off the bottom to get the flatties' attention. Tipping the bucktails with Gulp! grubs in swimming mullet or twister tails has been an effective method of getting the bites. Capt. Rick passed along some terrific catches, with Wes Pollitt, a mate on the Morning Star, taking a busman’s holiday and racking up an easy limit of flounder topped off with a 6-pound pool fish. Bill Haines put on a clinic, landing a total of a whopping 11 keeper fish with eight coming on one drift, and Frank “The Hammer” landed a limit and a pool fish of 6 pounds. Capt. Alicen also took a bus person’s holiday and landed an easy limit on a super-secret “jiggy” rig.
Elsewhere there has been a mixed bag, albeit small, of different panfish along the lower Delaware Bay rubble on Site 8. Some small croakers have mixed in with a few kingfish, snapper blues and porgies. Capt. Rick reports that the canal in Lewes has seen a surge of small croakers and spot. Small hooks are the way to go here; with a size 6 long shanked being a good choice. A piece of either real or artificial bloodworm is a great choice of bait or, if you are like me, you have a ton of salted clam to put to use from being blown out all drum season!
Old Inlet reports that kingfishing along the ocean beaches early and late in the day is the way to go for action. It’s important to not “overcast” the fish. I know I write that every week but it bears repeating. The fish are in tight to the beach. There have been some small snapper blues running into the inlet on the flood tides.
Plenty of action out there from the surf to the ocean, good luck and good fishing!
Reports, comments or questions to captjackrodgers@comcast.net