First, let me correct a mistake I made in last week’s article. I said the minimum size for black sea bass in Delaware was 15 inches, but that is incorrect. The minimum size for black sea bass in Delaware is 13 inches. How I made such a stupid mistake is beyond my understanding. I can see writing it once, but I go over my articles three or four times before sending them to my editor at the Cape Gazette. At any rate, I have now corrected my mistake and I hope you can forgive me.
The idea I had to reduce the size limit by a half-inch was presented to the Advisory Council on Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass. I did use the correct minimum size of 13 inches and requested the minimum size be lowered to 12.5 inches in order to cut down on dead discards. I am happy to report the moderators of the council took the idea seriously and promised to consider the results of a lower size limit and a reduction in dead discards. At this stage of the game, that is all you can hope for.
Unfortunately, the regulations still depend on Marine Recreational Information Program numbers to set our recreational limits. These numbers are so out of whack it is a criminal act to use them, but so long as they are the best available data, we are going to be stuck with them. One other advisor suggested having recreational anglers use a program on their phone to record the data from their fishing trips. The silence of the replies was deafening.
I will no longer continue to beat a dead horse in this column. I will continue to carry my campaign to the powers that be in the federal government as I did to Sen. Tom Carper’s office before he announced his retirement. I will soon contact the folks I was working with there to see what they suggest as my next step.
Fishing report
It has been difficult to put together a pattern of saltwater fishing over the past month due to the unsettled weather conditions. As some of you know, I do a daily fishing report for WGMD, and when the wind blows at gale force and the seas in the ocean run to 10 feet, there sure ain’t much to report. About the time the seas settle down from one blow, along comes another, and we go back into the washing machine.
The yellowfin tuna bite started off like gangbusters; then the fish got lockjaw. The last report I received from the offshore boats said the yellowfins were back on the feed, and they were joined by some bigeyes to 200 pounds. Even when the tuna were uncooperative, the blueline and golden tilefish were more than happy to fill up the fish boxes.
Black sea bass were also getting a bit picky. Boats were marking them by the thousands on the sonar and hardly catching any. I have experienced this myself and have no explanation for that behavior. Fortunately, summer flounder have been in good supply at the Old Grounds, and those who know how to catch them have been filling their four-fish limits.
Hook ‘em and Cook ‘em reported that Mike Lewes Sr. fished the Old Grounds with Gulp! on a Spro bucktail to catch the largest flounder I have heard of so far this year. His Delaware citation weighed 9.6 pounds. He had a respectable second flounder weighing 6.5 pounds. A little closer to home, Buddy Brass caught a 7.2-pound flounder out of Rehoboth Bay on a minnow. Shawn Hastings had a limit of flounder out of Indian River Bay, also on minnows.
The Sea Jay II had Daryl and his crew out for flounder Sunday. They boxed up a limit and were on their way back to the cleaning table at Lewes Harbour Marina by 12:30. Also Sunday, the head boats out of Fisherman’s Wharf found lots of sea bass and flounder, but many were below the minimum size. The anglers were able to cull out the shorts, and a few even managed to take home four-fish flounder limits plus some keeper sea bass.
Sheepshead were found at the Outer Wall close to Lewes. Paul Matthews had a 13.78-pounder on a sand flea at the wall, and dad Jacob helped son Ryan hold up the 7.89-pound sheepshead that Ryan caught all by himself Sunday. Paul O’Brian caught an 8.28-pound Delaware citation sheepshead at the Outer Wall on a sand flea Sunday.
Rick’s Bait and Tackle reported that young Josiah Powalski caught a 22.5-inch flounder from the fishing pier at Massey’s Ditch Wednesday.
The fish are there; you just have to go out and catch them.
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Eric Burnley is a Delaware native who has fished and hunted the state from an early age. Since 1978 he has written countless articles about hunting and fishing in Delaware and elsewhere along the Atlantic Coast. He has been the regional editor for several publications and was the founding editor of the Mid-Atlantic Fisherman magazine. Eric is the author of three books: Surf Fishing the Atlantic Coast, The Ultimate Guide to Striped Bass Fishing and Fishing Saltwater Baits. He and his wife Barbara live near Milton, Delaware. Eric can be reached at Eburnle@aol.com.
