Sunrise

When you get to the boat ramp early,

you get to see pretty sunrises.

Worked our spots, caught a bunch of fish: croaker, black bass, dogfish, kingfish, and a flounder that taped out at 18 1/4 inches.

Thanks to Capt. Bob for a great day on the water!

Vacation in Lewes

After attending to some business on Friday, I loaded up my truck and headed south to Lewes to meet up with my wife and daughter who were already at the beach house with my father-in-law and brother-in-law.  We went out and had dinner when I arrived and made plans for fishing the next day.  My father-in-law had his 17' Sea Pro Center Console with him and we had plans to put a hurting on the flounder.  The catching had already started Friday morning when BIL caught a keeper flounder.  With that fish in the fridge, we headed out Saturday morning to add to it.  I managed to put a keeper in the boat Saturday at about 22". 

Posing with the Captain who put me on the fish.  Thanks Chi-Chi Bobriquez!

We fried those fish up along with a keeper sea trout for a delicious dinner Saturday night.

Sunday I headed out with my wife and a buddy and his nephew on a head boat for some drinking and fishing.  Not too much to report.  I was way outfished by my wife and my buddy's nephew...I didn't even put a keeper anything in the boat.  I caught a dogfish and a short sea bass.  My wife caught a mess of croaker.

Tuesday we headed out again early and found some nice keeper flounder.  My BIL and I were both able to boat two keepers each measuring around 19-20".

Thanks to Chi-Chi Bobriquez for captaining the boat for us so we could catch so many great fish.  We had two great meals of fried flounder and I have a nice bag of flounder in the freezer for another meal. 

Video Wednesday - Capt. Cook Flounder Fishing

Today's Video Wednesday is brought to us courtesy of Capt. Chuck Cook of First Light Charters based in Lewes, DE.  I've been fishing with Capt. Cook for a few years now and he's highly recommended if anyone is looking for a charter to go out in the area.  You won't find a harder working Captain!

In this video, Capt. Cook shows us how to cut blue fish strips for flounder fishing.  I apologize for the wind noise in the video, even though it is not my work.  The location where the video was shot is incredibly windy and trying to find a non-windy day to shoot video is impossible.

Enjoy!

Skates don't count...I was skunked

Left early Saturday morning

to head south and try to see if we couldn't coax some flounder to pierce themselves on our hooked offerings. 

Launched the boat without any difficulties and it wasn't long until Chi-Chi Bobriguez had the first flounder in the boat.

 Try as we might, we couldn't stretch this one to 18", it came up short at about 17 3/4".  Another few drifts through that hole and Chi-Chi's phone rings as he hooks up with another fish.  He takes the call, I reel up the fish.  The first keeper of the season is in the boat as this flounder was easily 18 1/2"!  That fish was caught in front of an audience

We tried multiple spots the rest of the morning, but weren't able to hook up with any more game fish.

I did manage to land a skate, which felt like a nice flounder at first, but skates don't count.  No fish for me on this trip.  An uneventful trip back north, washed the boat, trailer and our gear and back home to head out to watch the Belmont Stakes and visit the Greek Festival.  A great day all around!

Floundering in Lewes

To get the proper feel for this day, I suggest you read this entry sitting directly in front of a fan set on high and blowing directly into your face.

We started early Friday morning (5:30 AM) and headed down RT 1 with visions of flounder in our heads.  A check of the weather on the way down showed we were in for a treat.  Sunny skies with a high near 60 with winds out of the east at 15-20 mph.  Great!  Oh well, we were committed and decided to try anyway.  A stop at Bill's Sport Shop (formerly called Bill's Perms and Worms) an hour and half later revealed there was a small craft advisory in the bay.  We still decided to try since we were already there.  The boat launch was uneventful and went well despite the constant wind.  One look at the inlet and we decided to stay in the canal as there was no way the 17' center console was making its way through the white caps in the inlet.

We worked hard in the canal and had a great captain (thanks Bob) who wasn't afraid to motor around trying to find warmer water that was hopefully shielding from the wind.  That proved to be an impossible mission.  We did see the huge windmill and were able to see some osprey really up close.  Plus, a day spent fishing with good friends and the laughs that ensue is way better than any day spent at work.

PA Fly Fish Saltwater Jam at IBSP

Ok, I'm a little late to the party on this post, but I'm trying to revive my blog after one mediocre post way back in May.  Saturday, October 22, I traveled to Island Beach State Park in Seaside Park, NJ to meet up with some guys from the PaFlyFish.com board for a saltwater jam.  I met up with three of the guys at Betty and Nick's for breakfast at 7AM to fuel up for a full day on the sand.  After a great breakfast, we split up and I headed to the first bathing beach with another member before we were going to all get back together at 10.  I geared up and hit the sand and almost immediately had an undersized fluke (we were fishing in NJ so trying to keep terms correct) with the other guy hitting a small fluke as well for almost a doubleheader.  After that, action slowed and the other guys started showing on the sand.  We had a talk from a more experienced saltwater fly fisherman (thanks FishIdiot) and then worked the area around the first swimming beach again.  I hit up with another small fluke, and that would prove to be my last landed fish of the day.  We decided to head to the southernmost post parking area and fish the beach on our way to the jetty at the inlet, which was about 1.5 miles from the parking area.  We worked the beach hard with nothing to show for it.  We then worked the jetty for a while and I connected with a much larger fluke, but lost him shortly into the battle.  That would be it for me.  Worked some areas around the jetty, then trekked back to the parking area.  Found an awesome shell for my daughter, then hit the road back home.  A great day spent making new friends, that's what fishing of any type is all about.