My good friend Mike Pizzolato and I arrived at the dock at Indian River Marina around 6:30 a.m. for the 7 a.m. departure of the Captain Bob head boat. We soon found out that Burt Adams, the owner of both boats, had moved the party to the larger Judy V. A wise decision since the rare good-weather day had brought out quite a crowd.
Most of the folks ahead of us in line seemed to know each other, and when the boarding began at 6:30, they all headed to the stern. Mike and I went to the bow because that’s where I like to fish when the boat is going to be drifting. If you are fishing from the bow, you can change sides, as the captain varies how he drifts to give each side of the boat an equal chance to have their line move away from the boat and not under it.
As we got closer to our 7 a.m. departure time, the boat was pretty full, but there was still plenty of room on the bow. Then a large van pulled up and deposited a number of Amish folks on the dock. Guess where they decided to fish? You got it! Up on the bow. So much for changing sides as the boat changed its drift pattern.
Now, I must mention that neither the Judy V nor the Captain Bob has rod holders on the rails. I was not prepared for this, but I could tell the regular customers were. They had homemade rod holders of various descriptions. I fashioned one from my rag that worked OK. If you do go on either boat, just be prepared to provide some sort of rod holder.
We were underway right on time and ran out to what I believe was the general area of the Old Grounds. Mike was fishing with his electric reel and almost as soon as his rig hit bottom, I heard the reel whine and up came a sea bass about the size of a sunfish. Mike was using a rig with small hooks and squid. I was using much bigger hooks and much larger Gulp! baits. I was catching nothing.
The Amish folks next to us were all fishing double bucktail rigs. That is the usual setup for flounder fishing. As far as I could see, they never caught a single fish all day.
Capt. Chris Adams moved all over the area trying to put us on fish, but as hard as he tried, the results were the same. The group in the stern did catch a keeper flounder or two, but 13-inch sea bass were rarer than hen’s teeth.
After a couple of hours, Capt. Chris announced that we were going on a long ride. I thought he would head to the Del-Jersey-Land Reef, but when we finally stopped there were strings of bass pots all around, and those are illegal on artificial reefs. With that many pots around, at least we knew there were fish here.
I finally caught a legal fish; in fact, I caught three. Three ling. Two took a Gulp! crab and the third hit a store-bought shrimp.
Chris came out of the wheelhouse and worked the deck with mate Will Dorcy. I asked Chris if he was marking sea bass and he said they were everywhere he stopped. I told him I had seen this twice before, and the last time was with Mike on the boat. We discussed tossing Mike overboard because he was an albatross, but decided against that plan due to the paperwork when we got back to the dock.
Neither of us has any idea why sea bass get lockjaw, but they do. I was afraid of this, because on Monday, the Katydid out of Angler’s Dock in Lewes caught 100 sea bass, but Tuesday, they had 20.
Did I mention the weather? It was beautiful! Mild air temperature, light winds and almost-calm seas. You could not ask for more. A few more fish perhaps, but nothing could improve the weather. It was a beautiful day on the water.
Fish consumption survey
Researchers at the University of Delaware are looking for folks to take a survey if they fish in Delaware Bay, Rehoboth Bay or Indian River Bay and if they eat the fish they catch. The main goal is to determine the most commonly caught and consumed fish from Delaware Bay and the Inland Bays. Please take the following survey: delaware.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SVbJxPUHQL5c5rU.
Inlet north side repair
DNREC will hold a community information session Tuesday, Sept. 24, to discuss the upcoming dredging, and beach and dune replenishment project on the north side of Indian River Inlet. The meeting will run from 5 to 7:30 p.m. in Bethany Beach Town Hall at 214 Garfield Parkway.
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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.
