7-7 to 7-22 2009

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hengstthomas

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CHP 7-7-09
I got to the pier at about 11pm and took a walk because I saw 2 trucks with Kayak racks (2 each) . I get out to the end and see 4 yaks at work and 1 boat . In that time it took me to walk the pier I only saw 1 Spot caught and thats it !
Water was stained and 3/4 down and going out . The Jellyfish were at full staff and quite a few varieties .
I was going to make the most of it anyways so I was on the water by midnight . I looked for a good spot and settled for the area near the burnt section .. Rigged up 2 pink Mullets and went to work .. First cast I get slammed and 2nd cast I land a 17" TB Flounder . I picked at them and it was a tough bite and I did figure out what slammed me ... CROAKERS
Anyhow with the bite being slow I had time to try a few things ..
First up was STRIPERS .. I could hear them popping and once in awhile I saw them but they wouldnt hit plastics so I tied on a Rattle Trap (Bleeding Shad Blue/Chrome Super Spot) and Bingo a 19" Striper followed by an 18" and another 19" .. 45 minutes later I get the one .. Fights like a Pig and sure enough its a 29" Striper that was super thick .. Spit 2 7" Spot in the canoe .. Oh well back she went .
Tide stalls at low so I go into Spot mode for some fresh cutbait but there is NO Spot ?? I tried all over to no avail so I went back to Floundering around .
Switched to Pogies and it was game time ... Landed 3 keepers in a row then a multitude of TB's with most being 16 to 17 inches and fat .. I didnt get the 4th till sunrise .
AH Sunrise The bite picked up 100 percent and I released 2 more keepers and lots of TB's .. Well when the Croakers allowed me to anyways .
The boats started to move in and a few yaks came off the beach so I figured it was time to exit stage left
Oh almost forgot .. Landed 2 Spikes on Pogies as well and I think I had a nice one on .. briefly anyways ..
I should have took pics while I was out there and I had the camera but after the first fish I was sand coated and wet .. Not a good combination !

It was a nice night with some decent pullage .. None over 20" but still a sweet night

I'll put up a pick when I muster up the energy to clean them .
Man I sure wish I had my Gulp that was stolen .. It was almost all Pogies .

PS They are almost done working on the Pier .

The Wall 7/12
The crew me, buddy Ray, Fran, Morty and Sunshine. Meet at Bills for some green crab then head to the ramp in Lewis, around 5:45, one of the first in water. Get to the wall it was vacant. toggled up and Sunshine done pulled in a trigger before us guys could even get in the water WOW.. Goodeal. Boxed about 6 I think on the outer wall with the waves just getting bigger and bigger . Finally chickened out and moved to the inside and snagged a 3" bass and prize winning cracker. Talked to a buddy who was free diving and he said move to the outside past the elbow and they had some clear water. Off we go and pick few more for the box. I put the most in the box and was intent on front of the boat. Ray picked 3 and Morty was BS with Fran but put 3 in box also. TH filleted in masterly fashion and Sunshine got the Trigger with some TB's. Total for day was 12 tog, 1 Trigger and about 12 TB Tog. Lil bit rougher than I wanted to be but the company was good and we had some fun.
We lost the wreck anchor and hopefully one of Frans diver buds will recover it .

Jellies were in full force ..
HPIM1437.jpg


Sunshines Trigger :)
HPIM1435.jpg


Here's a group pic..
100_4288.jpg


And a cooler shot..
100_4287.jpg


7-14-09 Lewes Canal
Fran , Sammie , Alfie and myself hit the canal for saome Flounder at about 7am . First stop and my first cast I land a 18.25" Flounder and it gives me high hopes for this day . I never liked the canal because of the stained and dirty water but something new cant be all that bad . The tide was almost dead low but it didnt seem to matter much .. Just had to keep casting . I was tossing tandem White 4" Gulp Shrimp while the rest used a variety of baits including Squid , Mackerel and Minnows .. The Gulp was outproducing bait 3 to 1 . After about 1.5 hours Fran finally got the hint and switched to Arties and his hook ups increased . Fran had a 4" White Fin"S" with a Chartreuse Gulp Mullet and all his fish came on the Gulp .
At about 11:30am Fran lands a Flounder thats 1/16 of an inch off the mark and has the biggest of the day and about an hour later announces we have 15 minutes left to fish .. not 2 seconds later I hookup and I know its a good fish .. Turned out to be a 19.75" Flounder .. :);)
Fran had me beat and let me have a chance to rectify the situation ;) Thanks Fran :)
So anyways we fished till about 1:15pm and had a total of 41 Flounder with only 1 keeper .
I had a ball and have since changed my outlook on the canal .. It turned out much better than I thought .
Sammie kept his streak of Junkfish and was the only one to land Oyster Crackers ;)
Alfie was a trip :) The man is 77 years old and has 2 hearing aids and still cant hear a word your saying .. or so he doesnt let on that he can hear .
It was good to see Sammie again and great to meet Alfie and as always Great fishing with you again Fran .
From now on I'll stick to cleaning all the fish and you guys can clean the boat .. What a workout !
100_4289.jpg


A friend also fished the canal today and they boated 22 TB's and NO keepers . Another boat said they had 2 at 20 inches but that was about it that we saw today .

CHP 7-16-09
Got to the pier around 10:30pm and took a walk to the end and didnt see anything caught . I noticed 2 groups that were about to leave so I went back and geared up and finished my coffee
The tide had been coming in for about an hour and the water was clean with lots of baitfish under the lights .
I started out with 2 Gulp Shrimp and targeted Flounder . I picked a spot near the end and lost a decent possible keeper on my first cast .. a few cast later I get a small 12" TB and from that point it took an hour to land another ..
I switched over to a Sabiki and BWFB and tried for Spot .. but could not keep the 6 to 9 inch Croakers off my line .. They were relentless and never ending . I managed 6 Spot and well into the triple digits on Croakers .
Gotta cut it short my rides here but I wanted to let you know the BIG Croakers have arrived .. Caught LOTS and good size ..


7-16-09 Lewes Canal
Morty and Destiney arrived at about 5:55am and Fran was right behind them so we loaded up into Mortys truck and hitched the boat and were off .
Had some early morning showers but we were determined .. Got on the water at about 7am and had pretty clear water with the tide almost dead low .. Lots of Cownose Rays around and at one point 2 came up to the back of the boat and almost whipped Fran with their tails .. I never knew Fran could move so fast :)
Anyhow I kept 24 Croakers and 6 Spot for bait today and the Croaker strips were the ticket :)
My first fish again was 18.25' and next was a 17" with 2 more at 18" after that .. then I get a nice keeper but when I went to flip it into the boat the second jighead hook the rail on the boat and the fishes head peeked into the boat just before it slipped back into the water .. By this time everyone is putting strips of Croaker on and we all begin to catch fish .
Fran first with a keeper and Destiney is soon to follow with Morty coming in about an hour after that .. Me I just couldnt get one over 18.5" even though most of mty fish were decent with quite a few at 17.5 to 18 inches .

All in all a great day on the water with GREAT company :)

Here's a pic of the keepers with a few smiles to boot :)
100_4290.jpg


I am sure I am forgetting something so hopefully one of the crew will chime in .. YEPP thats right everyone got a keeper but ME :anxious: :p
To be honest it was probably still more fun for me even though I didnt get dinner ;)

7-17 / 7-18-09 CHP
Got to the pier at 1pm and started out for Flounder using a tandem rig with two 3" Gulp Squids .. Ran into Drew and we shot the bull for a bit and he had to run . I caught Two small Tb's and one at 18.51" .. It went back as I had just arrived and couldnt afford shrinkage Worked my way out a tad farther but found no more Flounder so I switched to a Sabiki with Fishbites and tried for Spot .. I got 8 total and all were very close to the beach .. moved out as far as I could go and the Croakerfest began . It was pretty steady action with most between 8 and 11 inches with a few nicer ones in the mix .
Had a guy ask me if I knew "Tom" and it turned out to be Fishhead Good to see ya again Bob , it has been awhile !
So I played with the Croakers for awhile and when it thinned out enough I tossed Gulp Pogies under everyones lines and first cast was a nice Flounder that made it to the top of the fence before popping off .. Landed about 4 more TB's then the Croakers bit the tails off both so I switched to a Pink and a Red Gulp Mullet and could not keep the Croakers off it .. Landed 4 nicer Croakers and then reeled in and both Gulps were gone .. so I went back to Croakers .
I was fortunate enough to befriend a nice woman and her daughter and squeezed in at the corner against the fence and began to tear up Croakers one after another .. At slack low tide I was the only one catching anything and it was constant .. I dont think I had 2 casts that I didnt get a Croaker . I filled 2 coolers for the woman and daughter and filled another for the gentlemen behind me . I had people offering me food and drinks and the guys behind me even said the run to WAWA for coffee if I wanted I declined everything and just kept slaying Croakers . When the tide came back in I returned to flounder for a bit and landed another 18.51" and again let it go .. Got 2 more TB's and then couldnt find a place to jig so back to Croakers .
Bumped into Right Hook , Jungfish , Danger Ranger , Ihuntde and surphishn .. It was great to see everyone
I ended up leaving at 3:30am .. a total of 14.5 hours and caught well into the triple digits and wouldnt be surprised if I was very close to 300 fish or more . I went through a pack of Fishbites cut into 1/4 inch squares .. 8 Spot cut into tiny wedges and then began using Gulp Shrimp cut into 1/4 inch pieces .. The Gulp Shrimp worked the best
It was a very nice day indeed !
Yeah I know I curse Croakers but they can be fun

7-18-09 The Wall and The Canal
THE WALL
Fran came down with Ray , Bruce and a new guy .. Keith from NJ and the plan was to show Keith a good day at the Wall with Tog . Keith has never been to the Wall and doesnt fish for Tog very often .
We get out there and the winds are stiff from the NW so we drop the front anchor and the wind and current hold us perfect .
Fran is first in the water with a Flea and a green Crab and in seconds boats a nice Triggerfish on Flea . Bergals and Oyster Crackers were next .. It was hard to hold the bait in one spot long enough to get a hook into the Tog . The swells were huge and not far apart and we got rocked and rolled .
Keith puts on a fishfinder rig and gets a nice tog .. then another and another .. 3 keepers in a row Ray also get a Tog .
We decided to get the heck out of there after about 1 hour with 3 Tog and 1 Trigger in the box .. Just could take the beating so we were gonna hit the Inside of the Wall but the water was worse on the inside with wave slapping the rocks and sending water clean over the rocks . Our journey back to the ramp was a WET ADVENTURE !
Weget back after about 45 minutes or more and get some lighter rods and hit the canal .

THE CANAL
Not a lot to report . We tried a few places and stuck lots of TB Flounder but we didnt have a drift .. The winds kept switching directions . We saw the largest school of Cownose Rays I have ever seen .. Had to be 70 to 100 in that pack .
We talked to 2 people who both said they were catching keepers between the 2 bridges .. I told the guys I never did well on anything up in that section and I layed down feeling broken from the abuse out at the wall . I get up when the boat stops and just lay there awhile not interested in losing rigs . Well when they were close to the draw bridge I got up and made a cast only to get snagged and Ray and Bruce also get snagged .. BUT Keith pulls off the catch of the day with a TOG on a Gulp Mullet .. Who have ever thought a Tog would hang out in the Canal
We hit a few more spot with the same results .. TB's !
Back at the ramp at 2pm .
Had an idiot pack his truck with a boig boat right at the top of the ramp when Bruce was trying to back the trailer down .
The butthead moves up to the parking lot but is still blocking the ramp .. Dont know what he was thinking and I dont think he knew either as he just sat there

Someone finally told him to move and we got the boat on the trailer but Bruce had a few words for him and it wasnt pleasant but hopefully that guy learned a real life lesson !

7-20-09 CHP
I hit the pier at midnight and took a walk to the end to see how things were going .. Water was slightly stained with abosolutely NO wind and almost dead low tide . I saw Sport out near the end and he said he had a few Croakers and Spot but not much of a bite although he had not been there long either . I finally got my arse in gear and headed to the truck to gear up . On my way I ran into Eugene and Jenny I talked to EC on the phone earlier and was pleasantly surprise to see him and Jenny on my turf . So EC and I geared up and headed out as far as we could get .. we settled on the last light on the right but not much going on there but it wasnt long before a spot opened up at the end and Sport let us both in .. It started slow but the bite increased as the water rose . We were all targeting Spot and Croaker and caught quite a few with 90 percent being Croakers from 6 to 12 inches with a few slightly larger and the percent of Spot to Croakers was about 20 Croakers to 1 Spot . Danger Ranger stopped out in the wee hours to check coolers and licenses . Tim (redhawk) was also there but in a spot where the Croakers were in the 5 to 8 inch range average . It was funny to see how the "DF" crew were catching 95 percent of all fish caught while it was dark .. WTG Boys
Eugene kept trying to talk himself into leaving but I know it was tough with the bite increasing .. At one point he said "OK this is my last cast" .. he casted and boom I bet before the sinker hit bottom he had a fish .. He then says "That was too fast .. it dont count " and casts again He finally packs it in around 4am .
Sport and his buddy Jack ended up leaving around sunrise with a nice bag of fish for each of them .
Tim and I remained and began to try for Flounder at daybreak .. Tim had tried a few times at night without 1 Flounder and I knew better and waited for the sun . We had lots of fish breaking surface and at times heard some nice fish popping .. The Cownose Rays also started to show themselves as well as the BIg Blue Claw Crabs (Females with eggs).
I landed a Small TB Flounder on my second cast and offered Tim some Croaker strips but he refused until I was on my 4th or 5th Flounder . I ended up with 7 TB Flounder with none over 16" and 4 that were 12" or less .. Tim landed 1 TB Flounder that he said felt like a Crab .. With the bite being so slow were went back to Croakers and Spot . Tim couldnt cast quite far enough to get "into them" but I did
Slayed some Croakers for about 1.5 hours and then they shrunk in size and started to just disappear and in turn the Spot bit with a vengence but they were only small Spot from 5 to 7 inches . The Spot wanted real Bloodworms and would not touch the Fishbite Bloods .. Thats a first for me .
Steve showed up .. not sure of the time but he went after Flounder . Tim decided to hit IRI for some Tog and I had to pick up the wife so I called Steve over to give him my spot at the end but I remained for another 45 minutes or so and shot the bull with Steve for awhile .. In that time I found that the Spot did want Fishbites but not Bloods ... SHRIMP ! I got 3 or 4 and it was time to roll .
Danger Ranger made another check .. man he's working some long early hours and I am glad he is ..

It was an exceptionally great night and also great to see some "DF" members out there .. Best part of the night was to finally meet Eugene Cho (and Jenny )

7-21-09 CHP
Got a late start and as I pulled out of the driveway it started to rain I got to the pier at about 2am and found 2 people in the corner on the right .. Tide was almost dead low with light rain and slightly dirty water. I asked if they were catching anything and was told yes but I sat there and watched for about 30 minutes and saw no fish landed ?? In the course of the next 10 minutes we began a few conversations and we found we had a mutual friend .. Sport . Kinda funny because a second and I mean 1 second after he said the name Sport his phone goes off and its a text from Sport . So Scot called Sport and handed me the phone I am sure he was shocked but sounded like he need sleep more than anything so I handed off the phone and went to get my gear .
When I get back Scot starts to tell me that nothing is biting and I say I guess Sport didnt tell you "who" I was
I dont think I missed a beat for 2 hours .. Fish on every cast !!
Scot fell asleep and his wife and I caught fish until the sun came up . We had lots of Sea Nettles and it was like the 4th of July underwater with all the blueish green lights it was a site indeed There were Stripers "STACKED" out near the burnt pilings and they exploded on top for 3 hours .. It almost made me sick to my stomach .. I wish I could have got out there !!
Anyhow its was just the 3 of us until about 5am when we were joined by another guy from MD and 30 minutes later a group of 2 came and parked on the left corner .. I asked if they had Ice in the cooler and said I fill the cooler with fish if I could put my Spot on ice .. Too bad for them because they had no ice ?? A group of 3 came and they slowly started to arrive . I asked the guy from MD if he had ice and he said yes .. I made the same deal and he said SURE

I started with bloodworms (someone left 2 bags on the pier and a small Coleman cooler) and proceeded to load up on about 20 Spot in the 4 to 6 inch range and then started to let them go because I had no ice but was glad that guy showed up I could not understand his name .
So now with the bait on ice I take the next one and cut it into small strips and add to 2 flicker hooks and waged war on Croakers . They ranged from 10 to 15 inches and I even got a Spot on Spot about every 10th fish and landed 3 small TB Flounder.
At sunrise I began to cut the strips longer and used the tandem rig for Flounder and nailed 2 quick and had NO more bites from Flounder .. Started getting Crabs and Croakers . The sun started to shine finally .. I was soaked through my rain gear to the bone
The bite completely shut off right after high tide .
I left at 10am
Caught 5 TB Flounder about 15 inches , 30 Spot and about ??? God only knows how many Croakers . The size of the Croakers got smaller and smaller with the sunrise and the Sandperch bit more and more also .
I saw No one from "DF" last night/this morning .
A big Group of Porpoises with Young ones moved in around daybreak and a few put on a show for us .. Cownose Rays were thick and pissed a few people off

Another GREAT night .. I am so friggin sore and my hands hurt like heck from all the cuts from them darn Croakers

CHP 7-22-09
Loaded up the canoe and hit the pier at 10:15pm .. Met up with Eugene at about 10:30pm and we set out to look for Flatties and Stripers .
Got out there and found 2 boats bait fishing for Croakers so we had to make do with the not so hot area .
It was hard to get through the Croakers to get Flounder and we had Stripers crashing all night but they didnt want to play either.
The Flounder were not real active but we got a few and quite a few right at 18 but no over 18.5 inches . I ahd 2 keepers in the box and wanted EC to get one so I guided for awhile and he caught about a dozen TB's and came close but no Score
It was a pretty crazy night . I caught a bucket with some gooey crap in it and a Trowel , Spider Crab and a Conch . We fished out in the dark and when I puut my headlight on we had some huge Smelt looking fish swim right up to the canoe I caught 3 by hand
EC finally got 2 TB Stripers and missed quite a few .. Me I had one hooked up and it felt nice but wasnt meant to be .. Popped off after about 10 seconds .
The winds were light and from the SW so the bugs were pretty bad too .
When the sun came up we saw lots and lots of Porpoises as well as lots of Cownose Rays .. Man they can make an explosion . We targeted Flounder and fished 90 percent of the pier by canoe ... Lots of TB's !
The croakers would hit ANYTHING .. Any Gulp .. Fin"S" , BA's , 3 and 4 inch swimbaits .. Didnt seem to matter . They were also bigger on average then the ones from the pier .
EC had the Foul hook thing going and must have fould hooked a dozen Flounder
I also saw Jack in the parking lot and he told me Sport was on the pier and later on I heard Tim yelling to us .
Someone was trying real hard to get very close to the canoe with those sinkers


Anyhow I gave the 2 flatties to EC and kept about 6 nice Croakers 14 to 16 inches for my annual Croaker dinner .

I hope ya had a good time Eugene so maybe you'll come back when they are really snappin

The new section of the pier will open in 2 days .. Friday !

Totals were 2 keeper flounder (me)and about 40+ TB's (Both) and triple digit Croakers (both easily) and 2 schoolie Stripers (EC) and Zero Spot !

We fished from about 11pm to 1pm

Bait I caught with my hands and a few Croakers for my annual Croaker Dinner :)
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hengstthomas said:
CHP 7-7-09
I got to the pier at about 11pm and took a walk because I saw 2 trucks with Kayak racks (2 each) . I get out to the end and see 4 yaks at work and 1 boat . In that time it took me to walk the pier I only saw 1 Spot caught and thats it !
Water was stained and 3/4 down and going out . The Jellyfish were at full staff and quite a few varieties .
I was going to make the most of it anyways so I was on the water by midnight . I looked for a good spot and settled for the area near the burnt section .. Rigged up 2 pink Mullets and went to work .. First cast I get slammed and 2nd cast I land a 17" TB Flounder . I picked at them and it was a tough bite and I did figure out what slammed me ... CROAKERS
Anyhow with the bite being slow I had time to try a few things ..
First up was STRIPERS .. I could hear them popping and once in awhile I saw them but they wouldnt hit plastics so I tied on a Rattle Trap (Bleeding Shad Blue/Chrome Super Spot) and Bingo a 19" Striper followed by an 18" and another 19" .. 45 minutes later I get the one .. Fights like a Pig and sure enough its a 29" Striper that was super thick .. Spit 2 7" Spot in the canoe .. Oh well back she went .
Tide stalls at low so I go into Spot mode for some fresh cutbait but there is NO Spot ?? I tried all over to no avail so I went back to Floundering around .
Switched to Pogies and it was game time ... Landed 3 keepers in a row then a multitude of TB's with most being 16 to 17 inches and fat .. I didnt get the 4th till sunrise .
100_4286.jpg


AH Sunrise The bite picked up 100 percent and I released 2 more keepers and lots of TB's .. Well when the Croakers allowed me to anyways .
The boats started to move in and a few yaks came off the beach so I figured it was time to exit stage left
Oh almost forgot .. Landed 2 Spikes on Pogies as well and I think I had a nice one on .. briefly anyways ..
I should have took pics while I was out there and I had the camera but after the first fish I was sand coated and wet .. Not a good combination !

It was a nice night with some decent pullage .. None over 20" but still a sweet night

I'll put up a pick when I muster up the energy to clean them .
Man I sure wish I had my Gulp that was stolen .. It was almost all Pogies .

PS They are almost done working on the Pier .

The Wall 7/12
The crew me, buddy Ray, Fran, Morty and Sunshine. Meet at Bills for some green crab then head to the ramp in Lewis, around 5:45, one of the first in water. Get to the wall it was vacant. toggled up and Sunshine done pulled in a trigger before us guys could even get in the water WOW.. Goodeal. Boxed about 6 I think on the outer wall with the waves just getting bigger and bigger . Finally chickened out and moved to the inside and snagged a 3" bass and prize winning cracker. Talked to a buddy who was free diving and he said move to the outside past the elbow and they had some clear water. Off we go and pick few more for the box. I put the most in the box and was intent on front of the boat. Ray picked 3 and Morty was BS with Fran but put 3 in box also. TH filleted in masterly fashion and Sunshine got the Trigger with some TB's. Total for day was 12 tog, 1 Trigger and about 12 TB Tog. Lil bit rougher than I wanted to be but the company was good and we had some fun.
We lost the wreck anchor and hopefully one of Frans diver buds will recover it .

Jellies were in full force ..
HPIM1437.jpg


Sunshines Trigger :)
HPIM1435.jpg


Here's a group pic..
100_4288.jpg


And a cooler shot..
100_4287.jpg


7-14-09 Lewes Canal
Fran , Sammie , Alfie and myself hit the canal for saome Flounder at about 7am . First stop and my first cast I land a 18.25" Flounder and it gives me high hopes for this day . I never liked the canal because of the stained and dirty water but something new cant be all that bad . The tide was almost dead low but it didnt seem to matter much .. Just had to keep casting . I was tossing tandem White 4" Gulp Shrimp while the rest used a variety of baits including Squid , Mackerel and Minnows .. The Gulp was outproducing bait 3 to 1 . After about 1.5 hours Fran finally got the hint and switched to Arties and his hook ups increased . Fran had a 4" White Fin"S" with a Chartreuse Gulp Mullet and all his fish came on the Gulp .
At about 11:30am Fran lands a Flounder thats 1/16 of an inch off the mark and has the biggest of the day and about an hour later announces we have 15 minutes left to fish .. not 2 seconds later I hookup and I know its a good fish .. Turned out to be a 19.75" Flounder .. :);)
Fran had me beat and let me have a chance to rectify the situation ;) Thanks Fran :)
So anyways we fished till about 1:15pm and had a total of 41 Flounder with only 1 keeper .
I had a ball and have since changed my outlook on the canal .. It turned out much better than I thought .
Sammie kept his streak of Junkfish and was the only one to land Oyster Crackers ;)
Alfie was a trip :) The man is 77 years old and has 2 hearing aids and still cant hear a word your saying .. or so he doesnt let on that he can hear .
It was good to see Sammie again and great to meet Alfie and as always Great fishing with you again Fran .
From now on I'll stick to cleaning all the fish and you guys can clean the boat .. What a workout !
100_4289.jpg


A friend also fished the canal today and they boated 22 TB's and NO keepers . Another boat said they had 2 at 20 inches but that was about it that we saw today .

CHP 7-16-09
Got to the pier around 10:30pm and took a walk to the end and didnt see anything caught . I noticed 2 groups that were about to leave so I went back and geared up and finished my coffee
The tide had been coming in for about an hour and the water was clean with lots of baitfish under the lights .
I started out with 2 Gulp Shrimp and targeted Flounder . I picked a spot near the end and lost a decent possible keeper on my first cast .. a few cast later I get a small 12" TB and from that point it took an hour to land another ..
I switched over to a Sabiki and BWFB and tried for Spot .. but could not keep the 6 to 9 inch Croakers off my line .. They were relentless and never ending . I managed 6 Spot and well into the triple digits on Croakers .
Gotta cut it short my rides here but I wanted to let you know the BIG Croakers have arrived .. Caught LOTS and good size ..


7-16-09 Lewes Canal
Morty and Destiney arrived at about 5:55am and Fran was right behind them so we loaded up into Mortys truck and hitched the boat and were off .
Had some early morning showers but we were determined .. Got on the water at about 7am and had pretty clear water with the tide almost dead low .. Lots of Cownose Rays around and at one point 2 came up to the back of the boat and almost whipped Fran with their tails .. I never knew Fran could move so fast :)
Anyhow I kept 24 Croakers and 6 Spot for bait today and the Croaker strips were the ticket :)
My first fish again was 18.25' and next was a 17" with 2 more at 18" after that .. then I get a nice keeper but when I went to flip it into the boat the second jighead hook the rail on the boat and the fishes head peeked into the boat just before it slipped back into the water .. By this time everyone is putting strips of Croaker on and we all begin to catch fish .
Fran first with a keeper and Destiney is soon to follow with Morty coming in about an hour after that .. Me I just couldnt get one over 18.5" even though most of mty fish were decent with quite a few at 17.5 to 18 inches .

All in all a great day on the water with GREAT company :)

Here's a pic of the keepers with a few smiles to boot :)
100_4290.jpg


I am sure I am forgetting something so hopefully one of the crew will chime in .. YEPP thats right everyone got a keeper but ME :anxious: :p
To be honest it was probably still more fun for me even though I didnt get dinner ;)

7-17 / 7-18-09 CHP
Got to the pier at 1pm and started out for Flounder using a tandem rig with two 3" Gulp Squids .. Ran into Drew and we shot the bull for a bit and he had to run . I caught Two small Tb's and one at 18.51" .. It went back as I had just arrived and couldnt afford shrinkage Worked my way out a tad farther but found no more Flounder so I switched to a Sabiki with Fishbites and tried for Spot .. I got 8 total and all were very close to the beach .. moved out as far as I could go and the Croakerfest began . It was pretty steady action with most between 8 and 11 inches with a few nicer ones in the mix .
Had a guy ask me if I knew "Tom" and it turned out to be Fishhead Good to see ya again Bob , it has been awhile !
So I played with the Croakers for awhile and when it thinned out enough I tossed Gulp Pogies under everyones lines and first cast was a nice Flounder that made it to the top of the fence before popping off .. Landed about 4 more TB's then the Croakers bit the tails off both so I switched to a Pink and a Red Gulp Mullet and could not keep the Croakers off it .. Landed 4 nicer Croakers and then reeled in and both Gulps were gone .. so I went back to Croakers .
I was fortunate enough to befriend a nice woman and her daughter and squeezed in at the corner against the fence and began to tear up Croakers one after another .. At slack low tide I was the only one catching anything and it was constant .. I dont think I had 2 casts that I didnt get a Croaker . I filled 2 coolers for the woman and daughter and filled another for the gentlemen behind me . I had people offering me food and drinks and the guys behind me even said the run to WAWA for coffee if I wanted I declined everything and just kept slaying Croakers . When the tide came back in I returned to flounder for a bit and landed another 18.51" and again let it go .. Got 2 more TB's and then couldnt find a place to jig so back to Croakers .
Bumped into Right Hook , Jungfish , Danger Ranger , Ihuntde and surphishn .. It was great to see everyone
I ended up leaving at 3:30am .. a total of 14.5 hours and caught well into the triple digits and wouldnt be surprised if I was very close to 300 fish or more . I went through a pack of Fishbites cut into 1/4 inch squares .. 8 Spot cut into tiny wedges and then began using Gulp Shrimp cut into 1/4 inch pieces .. The Gulp Shrimp worked the best
It was a very nice day indeed !
Yeah I know I curse Croakers but they can be fun

7-18-09 The Wall and The Canal
THE WALL
Fran came down with Ray , Bruce and a new guy .. Keith from NJ and the plan was to show Keith a good day at the Wall with Tog . Keith has never been to the Wall and doesnt fish for Tog very often .
We get out there and the winds are stiff from the NW so we drop the front anchor and the wind and current hold us perfect .
Fran is first in the water with a Flea and a green Crab and in seconds boats a nice Triggerfish on Flea . Bergals and Oyster Crackers were next .. It was hard to hold the bait in one spot long enough to get a hook into the Tog . The swells were huge and not far apart and we got rocked and rolled .
Keith puts on a fishfinder rig and gets a nice tog .. then another and another .. 3 keepers in a row Ray also get a Tog .
We decided to get the heck out of there after about 1 hour with 3 Tog and 1 Trigger in the box .. Just could take the beating so we were gonna hit the Inside of the Wall but the water was worse on the inside with wave slapping the rocks and sending water clean over the rocks . Our journey back to the ramp was a WET ADVENTURE !
Weget back after about 45 minutes or more and get some lighter rods and hit the canal .

THE CANAL
Not a lot to report . We tried a few places and stuck lots of TB Flounder but we didnt have a drift .. The winds kept switching directions . We saw the largest school of Cownose Rays I have ever seen .. Had to be 70 to 100 in that pack .
We talked to 2 people who both said they were catching keepers between the 2 bridges .. I told the guys I never did well on anything up in that section and I layed down feeling broken from the abuse out at the wall . I get up when the boat stops and just lay there awhile not interested in losing rigs . Well when they were close to the draw bridge I got up and made a cast only to get snagged and Ray and Bruce also get snagged .. BUT Keith pulls off the catch of the day with a TOG on a Gulp Mullet .. Who have ever thought a Tog would hang out in the Canal
We hit a few more spot with the same results .. TB's !
Back at the ramp at 2pm .
Had an idiot pack his truck with a boig boat right at the top of the ramp when Bruce was trying to back the trailer down .
The butthead moves up to the parking lot but is still blocking the ramp .. Dont know what he was thinking and I dont think he knew either as he just sat there

Someone finally told him to move and we got the boat on the trailer but Bruce had a few words for him and it wasnt pleasant but hopefully that guy learned a real life lesson !

7-20-09 CHP
I hit the pier at midnight and took a walk to the end to see how things were going .. Water was slightly stained with abosolutely NO wind and almost dead low tide . I saw Sport out near the end and he said he had a few Croakers and Spot but not much of a bite although he had not been there long either . I finally got my arse in gear and headed to the truck to gear up . On my way I ran into Eugene and Jenny I talked to EC on the phone earlier and was pleasantly surprise to see him and Jenny on my turf . So EC and I geared up and headed out as far as we could get .. we settled on the last light on the right but not much going on there but it wasnt long before a spot opened up at the end and Sport let us both in .. It started slow but the bite increased as the water rose . We were all targeting Spot and Croaker and caught quite a few with 90 percent being Croakers from 6 to 12 inches with a few slightly larger and the percent of Spot to Croakers was about 20 Croakers to 1 Spot . Danger Ranger stopped out in the wee hours to check coolers and licenses . Tim (redhawk) was also there but in a spot where the Croakers were in the 5 to 8 inch range average . It was funny to see how the "DF" crew were catching 95 percent of all fish caught while it was dark .. WTG Boys
Eugene kept trying to talk himself into leaving but I know it was tough with the bite increasing .. At one point he said "OK this is my last cast" .. he casted and boom I bet before the sinker hit bottom he had a fish .. He then says "That was too fast .. it dont count " and casts again He finally packs it in around 4am .
Sport and his buddy Jack ended up leaving around sunrise with a nice bag of fish for each of them .
Tim and I remained and began to try for Flounder at daybreak .. Tim had tried a few times at night without 1 Flounder and I knew better and waited for the sun . We had lots of fish breaking surface and at times heard some nice fish popping .. The Cownose Rays also started to show themselves as well as the BIg Blue Claw Crabs (Females with eggs).
I landed a Small TB Flounder on my second cast and offered Tim some Croaker strips but he refused until I was on my 4th or 5th Flounder . I ended up with 7 TB Flounder with none over 16" and 4 that were 12" or less .. Tim landed 1 TB Flounder that he said felt like a Crab .. With the bite being so slow were went back to Croakers and Spot . Tim couldnt cast quite far enough to get "into them" but I did
Slayed some Croakers for about 1.5 hours and then they shrunk in size and started to just disappear and in turn the Spot bit with a vengence but they were only small Spot from 5 to 7 inches . The Spot wanted real Bloodworms and would not touch the Fishbite Bloods .. Thats a first for me .
Steve showed up .. not sure of the time but he went after Flounder . Tim decided to hit IRI for some Tog and I had to pick up the wife so I called Steve over to give him my spot at the end but I remained for another 45 minutes or so and shot the bull with Steve for awhile .. In that time I found that the Spot did want Fishbites but not Bloods ... SHRIMP ! I got 3 or 4 and it was time to roll .
Danger Ranger made another check .. man he's working some long early hours and I am glad he is ..

It was an exceptionally great night and also great to see some "DF" members out there .. Best part of the night was to finally meet Eugene Cho (and Jenny )

7-21-09 CHP
Got a late start and as I pulled out of the driveway it started to rain I got to the pier at about 2am and found 2 people in the corner on the right .. Tide was almost dead low with light rain and slightly dirty water. I asked if they were catching anything and was told yes but I sat there and watched for about 30 minutes and saw no fish landed ?? In the course of the next 10 minutes we began a few conversations and we found we had a mutual friend .. Sport . Kinda funny because a second and I mean 1 second after he said the name Sport his phone goes off and its a text from Sport . So Scot called Sport and handed me the phone I am sure he was shocked but sounded like he need sleep more than anything so I handed off the phone and went to get my gear .
When I get back Scot starts to tell me that nothing is biting and I say I guess Sport didnt tell you "who" I was
I dont think I missed a beat for 2 hours .. Fish on every cast !!
Scot fell asleep and his wife and I caught fish until the sun came up . We had lots of Sea Nettles and it was like the 4th of July underwater with all the blueish green lights it was a site indeed There were Stripers "STACKED" out near the burnt pilings and they exploded on top for 3 hours .. It almost made me sick to my stomach .. I wish I could have got out there !!
Anyhow its was just the 3 of us until about 5am when we were joined by another guy from MD and 30 minutes later a group of 2 came and parked on the left corner .. I asked if they had Ice in the cooler and said I fill the cooler with fish if I could put my Spot on ice .. Too bad for them because they had no ice ?? A group of 3 came and they slowly started to arrive . I asked the guy from MD if he had ice and he said yes .. I made the same deal and he said SURE

I started with bloodworms (someone left 2 bags on the pier and a small Coleman cooler) and proceeded to load up on about 20 Spot in the 4 to 6 inch range and then started to let them go because I had no ice but was glad that guy showed up I could not understand his name .
So now with the bait on ice I take the next one and cut it into small strips and add to 2 flicker hooks and waged war on Croakers . They ranged from 10 to 15 inches and I even got a Spot on Spot about every 10th fish and landed 3 small TB Flounder.
At sunrise I began to cut the strips longer and used the tandem rig for Flounder and nailed 2 quick and had NO more bites from Flounder .. Started getting Crabs and Croakers . The sun started to shine finally .. I was soaked through my rain gear to the bone
The bite completely shut off right after high tide .
I left at 10am
Caught 5 TB Flounder about 15 inches , 30 Spot and about ??? God only knows how many Croakers . The size of the Croakers got smaller and smaller with the sunrise and the Sandperch bit more and more also .
I saw No one from "DF" last night/this morning .
A big Group of Porpoises with Young ones moved in around daybreak and a few put on a show for us .. Cownose Rays were thick and pissed a few people off

Another GREAT night .. I am so friggin sore and my hands hurt like heck from all the cuts from them darn Croakers

CHP 7-22-09
Loaded up the canoe and hit the pier at 10:15pm .. Met up with Eugene at about 10:30pm and we set out to look for Flatties and Stripers .
Got out there and found 2 boats bait fishing for Croakers so we had to make do with the not so hot area .
It was hard to get through the Croakers to get Flounder and we had Stripers crashing all night but they didnt want to play either.
The Flounder were not real active but we got a few and quite a few right at 18 but no over 18.5 inches . I ahd 2 keepers in the box and wanted EC to get one so I guided for awhile and he caught about a dozen TB's and came close but no Score
It was a pretty crazy night . I caught a bucket with some gooey crap in it and a Trowel , Spider Crab and a Conch . We fished out in the dark and when I puut my headlight on we had some huge Smelt looking fish swim right up to the canoe I caught 3 by hand
EC finally got 2 TB Stripers and missed quite a few .. Me I had one hooked up and it felt nice but wasnt meant to be .. Popped off after about 10 seconds .
The winds were light and from the SW so the bugs were pretty bad too .
When the sun came up we saw lots and lots of Porpoises as well as lots of Cownose Rays .. Man they can make an explosion . We targeted Flounder and fished 90 percent of the pier by canoe ... Lots of TB's !
The croakers would hit ANYTHING .. Any Gulp .. Fin"S" , BA's , 3 and 4 inch swimbaits .. Didnt seem to matter . They were also bigger on average then the ones from the pier .
EC had the Foul hook thing going and must have fould hooked a dozen Flounder
I also saw Jack in the parking lot and he told me Sport was on the pier and later on I heard Tim yelling to us .
Someone was trying real hard to get very close to the canoe with those sinkers


Anyhow I gave the 2 flatties to EC and kept about 6 nice Croakers 14 to 16 inches for my annual Croaker dinner .

I hope ya had a good time Eugene so maybe you'll come back when they are really snappin

The new section of the pier will open in 2 days .. Friday !

Totals were 2 keeper flounder (me)and about 40+ TB's (Both) and triple digit Croakers (both easily) and 2 schoolie Stripers (EC) and Zero Spot !

We fished from about 11pm to 1pm

Bait I caught with my hands and a few Croakers for my annual Croaker Dinner :)
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You must make a journal after each fishing trip?
Theres know way I could remember all that info.
Nice report,glad your getting dinner:)
 

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