A few weeks ago, I compared the Lewes Harbour Marina Canal Flounder Tournament to the White Marlin Open in Ocean City, Md. Granted, the White Marlin Open draws 400 big-money boats and pays out a couple million dollars in prize money. This year, the Canal Flounder Tournament drew 596 anglers May 15, which I believe is a new record for the event. And while the payout was not in the millions, it was still a substantial number. The party after the contest was awesome, with plenty of food and drink before the award presentation.

Aaron Teawillinger won first place with a 5.23-pound flounder. In second place was Charles Carpender with his 2.92-pound flounder. Close behind in third place was Alex Sperratore with a 2.91-pounder. 

The ladies' prize was won by Stacy Poe with a 2.01-pound flounder, and the kids' prize was taken by Adrien Foseman with a 1.92-pound flounder. 

The Special Aqua Clear Prize was won by Rodney Hawk with a 2.03-pound flounder.

The Pancreatic Cancer Center received 50% of the proceeds from the tournament. That is fantastic!

Cast for a Cure

The Cast for a Cure Surf Fishing Tournament was held May 16, with less-than-desirable weather conditions. The co-chairs of the event are Brandy Timmons and Clark Evans, and the headquarters are at Old Inlet Bait and Tackle.  

The 26 four-person surf-fishing teams fished the north end of Fenwick Island State Park. Of those 26 teams, only seven had scorable fish. Those included three striped bass measuring 36, 30 and 28 inches, one 20-inch black drum and two kings over the 11-inch minimum. 

Team One More Cast scored 52 points to win first place. Team Empty Cooler was second with 36 points. Team Damn Mediocre Shoreline Anglers came in third with 31 points.

Unlike many tournaments, no money is won by the teams in the Cast for a Cure. All money goes to the Beebe Medical Foundation. The winning team members do receive trophies made by Brandy Timmons, and they are true works of art.

As you can see, both tournaments raise money for medical foundations. This is an added bonus to the fun of fishing in a competition and enjoying a day on the water.

Menhaden tagging

When I wrote in last week’s article about menhaden tagging, I was not aware that any tagging of menhaden had even happened before. It seems I was mistaken. Joe Smith contacted me and said there was a tagging study done in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

It seems 1-inch or half-inch uniquely numbered ferro-magnetic tags were inserted in fish between the inside body wall and the internal organs. Tags were recovered on magnets strategically placed in menhaden factories from Florida to New York.

Results indicated that Atlantic menhaden are a unit stock. During summer, older and larger fish migrate north to the Mid-Atlantic and New England. Younger fish tend to stay in the South Atlantic and Chesapeake Bay. There is a major migration south of the Virginia and North Carolina capes in late fall and winter.

It seems that Mr. Smith has written a book about menhaden and has done considerable research on the subject. The book is titled, "Menhaden: A Biologist’s Thirty-Two Year Journey with the Fish and the Fishery." It's available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Fishing report

While open-water fishing has been hampered by strong winds on way too many days, when boats can reach ocean structure, they do find black sea bass waiting there. Boat limits are rare, but large catches are not.

Quite a few charter and private boats from Lewes have been fishing the Coral Beds off Slaughter Beach and the waters off Broadkill Beach. Soaking clams around dusk has produced black drum in the 25- to 35-pound class at both locations. My friend Keith Kauffman, his sons Cody and Ross, and Cody’s girlfriend Jayde fished with clams in 10 feet of water off Broadkill Beach on two evenings and caught four black drum the first evening and five the next. 

Dan at Dan’s Tackle on Route 1 in Milton said blues to 13 pounds have been caught from Broadkill Beach on cut mullet. Black drum are also available from there on clams. A few striped bass find those clams meant for drum. Blues also invade the Broadkill River and surprise flounder fishermen.

Surf fishing has produced some big striped bass. Most have been caught on cut mullet with some taking clams, sand fleas and bunker. They are scattered from 3Rs Road all the way down to Fenwick Island. The first kings were caught during the Cast for a Cure Tournament, I suspect on a bloodworm.