Jeff Taviano's Delaware Regional Fishing Report

OCEAN

The White Marlin Open has come to a conclusion. The winning fish weighed 76 pounds, 5 ounces and netted a whopping $2.8 million. Hunter Pusey finished in third place in the shark category with a 223-pound mako. A Trenton, New Jersey firefighter and police sergeant landed a 236-pound, 5-ounce bigeye that scored them a nice $767,091 payday. The best action from the Open came from the Baltimore and Washington canyons. Flounder fishing is still in full swing at the Old Grounds, and A Buoy. Jigging bucktails have been the best method, but squid has worked too. Mike Bono caught a 4-pound, 8-ounce doormat at the Old Grounds using squid and minnows. Mark Newcott also had luck at the Old Grounds netting a 7-pound, 2-ounce flounder. Robert Karpavich landed a citation 8-pound, 4-ounce flounder at the Old Grounds. Neil and Phil Falgowski caught a 5-pound, 2-ounce flatty at Site 9 using squid. Pete Antonelli caught a limit of flounder including a 5-pound, 2-ounce fish at Site 10 using bucktails, shiners, and squid. Trolling spoons at the Fenwick Shoal is still producing bluefish and Spanish mackerel. Areas near the Coast Guard Station, including Bubblegum Beach, are seeing more and more flounder with drifting squid and minnows working the best. Flounder are finally showing up at Massey’s Ditch along with croaker and spot. For the surf report, it has mostly been kingfish up and down the Delaware Coastline with bloodworms serving as the main bait.

DELAWARE BAY

Slot stripers are still at the Yellow Can and the submerged jetty at Augustine Beach. Chunking bunker has worked at Yellow Can while peelers, and bloodworms are productive at the jetty, however, white perch will also take the bloodworms. Bluefish action has been hot in the lower bay around the Outer Wall, small lures have worked well on the aggressive fish. Sheepshead have picked back up at the Outer Wall and the Ice Breakers with sand fleas as the main bait, fish in the 10-pound range have been reported at the Outer Wall. A nice mix of trout, blowfish, kingfish, blues, and croaker are being caught at reef sites on top-bottom rigs with bloodworms. The Cape Henlopen Pier has picked back up with a mix of small blues and croaker along with a few spot. Live lining a spot under the pier is always exciting as one may run into a nice flounder, a big blue, or even wandering slot striper.

RIVERS

Good catches of flounder this past week in the Broadkill River on minnows. Flounder fishing in the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal continues to improve with live minnows working the best. Many anglers had success on catfish in the Delaware River this past week during the catfish tournament. The power lines and the warm water near the nuclear plant served as productive spots for catfish with bunker as the best bait.

PONDS

The extreme heat has slowed down pond action, however, if you get to the ponds early enough or late enough in the day avoiding the heat you may have luck with a bass or two on soft plastics.

Email your fishing info and fishing photos to jtaviano@delawareonline.com or tweet @JeffreyTaviano.