OUTDOORS

Rodgers: Tough fishing with tons of sandbar sharks in the Delaware Bay

CAPT. JACK RODGERS
DELMARVANOW CORRESPONDENT
Michael Radigan holds a shark that he caught at South Bowers Beach on cut bunker.

"Summer afternoon — summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language." — Henry James

As we round into the middle of the month of June, the local fishing scene is settling into a familiar “mixed bag” form. Bottom bouncers working both live and artificial structure in the Ocean have been doing pretty well on a variety of species.

Capt. Rick Yakimowicz on the all-day headboat out of Fisherman’s Wharf in Lewes reports good action on a mix of sea bass and summer flounder. The savvy skipper says that he has already seen the first limit catches of fluke by his patrons. The fish have been ranging up into the 5-pound class and there have been plenty of throwbacks as well. Capt. Carey Evans on the Lewes charter boat Grizzly also relayed some improving flounder fishing in the ocean. The increase in size limit has also made it a little more difficult for anglers to walk away with a limit of flatties.

Capt. Carey also said they have had some really good sea bass action over artificial reef structure in the ocean. The Shawn Chapman party recently had a boat limit catch of bass at the Delaware Jersey reef aboard the Grizzly.

Elsewhere, in the Delaware Bay, there continue to be plenty of trout around though the fishery is essentially closed with a one fish bag limit per angler. The regulation is sociologically based as fisheries managers have shown that mortality caused by humans has had no effect on the sluggish recovery of the trout. 

Speaking of non-anthropogenic sources of predation on trout, however, there are tons of sandbar sharks out there again. There are areas of the Delaware Bay where you literally can’t fish in the spring anymore due to the numbers of sharks in the area.

The lower bay has seen an increase in numbers of kingfish over the past week or so (I mean, it makes sense…who would hang around with all those sharks up the bay).  Working drop-offs with coral or artificial reefs has produced the tasty fish for happy anglers. 

Try using clam or either real or artificial bloodworms.  Smaller hooks, too, are a must, as the kings have smallish, underslung mouths. 

Kingfish have also been showing along the ocean beaches as well, giving surf anglers something to work on now that the blues have, for the most part, finally vacated the area.

Reports, comments and questions to captjackrodgers@comcast.net