There just aren't many fish around

“The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noon’s, and sunsets smeared with too much color.” — Natalie Babbit,

Years ago, when life didn’t just seem slower and more peaceful, and Rehoboth was still home to sand-covered streets and cottages with wraparound porches and screen doors that opened with a “screeeee” and closed with a “slammm” after being let go by a bare-footed kid, my grandfather would tune in to the fishing report on the radio. 

“Time for the Liar in Lewes,” he would guffaw, and we would listen to the tales of how good the fishing was while driving around in a big Ford station wagon, smelling inside of Coppertone and two-stroke mixed gasoline and carrying a “Ted Williams” Sears and Roebuck boat precariously affixed to the roof.

Today the sandy streets are gone, along with most of the cottages including, regrettably enough, our own piece of paradise, giving way to McMansions serving as quasi-hotels rented to people not from around here, by people not from around here. 

So as not to be confused with the long gone “Liar in Lewes,” I’m here once again with the unvarnished truth about the local fishing. Look, it’s better than NOT fishing. I mean, there IS that.

Capt. Rick Yakimowicz reports that things are pretty much a broken record on the all-day head boat out of Fisherman’s Wharf in Lewes. 

“There just aren’t the fish around,” said Capt. Rick. “When we get a day with good conditions, where we can drift at a decent speed and in the right direction, we can put together some good catches for this year. When conditions are off, there just aren’t enough fish around to compensate for it.”

Capt. Rick did pass along that there were some limit catches on his boat, and some nice four to five-pound fish. Bouncing bucktails laced with Gulp! or meat such as smooth dogfish strips are the preferred techniques.

One thing it appears that sandbar sharks don’t eat are small sea bass, because Shark Bay is paved with “pin” bass. 

The fish are about the size of a charcoal briquette with fins, though every now and again a decent bass is pulled out from whatever slab of concrete they are hiding under.

The historic amount of triggerfish that we had seen a few weeks ago has petered out some proving, once again, that you can only catch a keeper once. There are plenty of trout so bagging your one fish limit is a distinct possibility, along with some small croakers.  The later are all in the 7-8 inch range.

According to Old Inlet, things are pretty slow in the inlet itself, with some sporadic catches of the aforementioned small croakers, some blues and short stripers.  Flounder, though, continue to be conspicuous by their absence.

And that’s about it this week. Sure can’t call that a “Liar in Lewes” report. Though looking back comparatively, that guy on the radio wasn’t wrong. Even when it was bad back then, it wasn’t that bad.  Good luck and good fishing.

Reports, comments or questions to captjackrodgers@comcast.net