Offshore has been the best action

It's so hot out this week that we are catching steamed crabs. Flounder fishing is not so great around the inland bays, and I know everyone is tired of hearing that. Some are catching keepers, but many are not. It has been a rough year for flounder around the inland bays, and offshore has been the best action. The traditional spots in the bays are not producing much, whether the fish aren’t there or the numbers are down that much; you be the judge. I have heard many a theory, one is that the sixteen-inch creel limit allowed too many fish to be caught, and now we are dealing with low numbers. If you aren’t catching move to another spot, flounder like moving water with low areas where they can sit and ambush baitfish as they swim by.
 
 Croaker action is good around the inland bays, Cape Henlopen pier, Lewes Canal, the Indian River Inlet and Delaware Bay. Mostly smaller croaker, but there have been some decent-sized keepers. Spot are around the inland bays, piers, Lewes Canal and the surf. Not heavily in the surf, but catchable. Small weakies are in the same places hitting the same baits. Short striped-bass are in the tidal creeks and rivers around bridges, also feeding along grass banks on the outgoing tide. There are kingfish in the Broadkill River.
 
The kingfish action is the hot catch in the surf, with sand perch, spot, and trout in the mix. Top and bottom rigs with sharp hooks. Fishbites, bloodworms or sand flea are working well, and the crab is decent too. Squid and real bloodworms will work great. Bluefish action has been decent with mullet rigs, you have to call around for fresh mullet, or go catch them around the bays and tidal creeks.
 
Occasional pompano catches have been decently sized for Delaware. Usually they are really small, but each year they seem to get bigger. Up to a foot in length and they are good to eat. Haven’t seen too many lizard fish. Surprised look-downs, and butterflies aren’t showing up in crab and minnow traps, but it is still a little early, that is usually late August. People are catching baby billfish off the Avalon pier in Carolina; their water is eighty degrees in the surf. When ours gets that warm we will see some of the weirder Gulf fish.

Bowers Beach is seeing some decent flounder action with croakers and short striped bass in the Murderkill River.  

Same goes for the Mispillion River near Cedar Creek Marina. Croakers have been caught as far up as Woodland Beach pier.  
 
Water temperatures have been on the steady rise at Massey’s ditch. Fluctuating between eighty-three and seventy-eight degrees. That has increased a degree a day all week.  

Delaware Bay is hitting the low eighties in the upper to mid-bay.  

Lewes is almost to eighty degrees during mid-day depending on the tide.  The surf is around seventy-eight to eighty-one degrees depending on the time of day, tide, and winds.