Any Saltwater Anglers near Lewes, DE?

[NateFollmer]

People of Delaware! I am coming to the area next week to do some salt fishing. I will only be fishing from shore and I was wondering if any of you guys could give me some tips on where to go. I really only want to use my bass tackle (swimbaits, larger jigs, etc...), simply just to prove I can do it and because I'm cheap Any advice you could give would be awesome!

[SirSnookalot]

I would go on a salt water board for that area, I have one but I won't mention the name on this forum.  More important than the equipment, I would never use bass gear it's like taking a knife to a gunfight, is learning what fish are active during the incoming and outgoing tide cycles.  IMO saltwater inshore fishing is much harder than bass fishing as there is a window of opportunity to catch fish and outings of 50 or more fish as I see some bass posters claiming is rare.  You may fish for hours just to have a 5 or 10 minute window to catch fish, then wait for the next tide to bring bait in.

[NateFollmer]

Thanks SirSnookalot. I have been talking to a local tackle shop down there and they have been pretty helpful. I know it's going to be tough fishing, especially since I have no experience in fishing tidal waters OR salt.

When I say bass tackle, I'm talking 65lb braid on 7 ft. heavy action rods I'm only going to be there for 3 days and probably only get to fish for 1 of those days so I figured I'd just try and use what I already have. I'll let you know how it goes

[SirSnookalot]

By shore do you mean a pier, jettie or beach, live bait, cut bait or casting lures?  For a short trip I agree, use what you have.

I was out this morning, exceptional hot action for 45 minutes then it was dead, pretty normal.  I fished from a cement jettie about 6' above the water.  Caught about 8-10 snook, 2 of which went about 40" and caught 2 tarpon as well.  I was fishing with 7'6 mh 10/20 rod with a stradic 4000, 15# braid.  Needed a bit heavier rod to lift them up, my preference is really a med 8/17 rod.

Word of caution, cause I screwed up.  I had my drag too tight and had my line snapped like it was thread, lost nearly my entire spool.  Use your drag and play these fish, take your time keeping pressure on them.

[NateFollmer]

I'm not really sure where I'm going to be fishing yet haha. I know I don't want to fish from the beach (tried that once, I don't have the proper equipment to do that). I think there was a spot in Lewes or near there where the ocean entered the bay. It had some nice rip rap (is it still called rip rap in salt? I think I'm talking about a Jettie lol). I was going to try there. I want to stay as close to the water as possible and not fish off of a super tall pier. I was going to throw some Hollow Belly Swimbaits, Rapala Countdowns and other larger jerkbaits. The Capt. I was talking to (the guy that owned the tackle shop) said they should all work this time of year. He also said Jigs would be worthless because of the undertow. I guess I need to figure out WHAT I want to target before I just start tossing lures out.

I used to fish in the bay with squid and catch flounders, but I want to target something different. More like stripers or snook. I used to catch Kingfish when I would go to Beach Haven, that was pretty fun (I was 7 at the time though haha). I saw some fishing reports of guys catching smaller hammerhead and mekos, but I'm pretty sure my tackle couldn't handle something like that

The guys at the tackle shop said they could give me more info when I stop in, but I wanted to do a little more research BEFORE I got there so I'm a little more prepared.

I know it all depends on the tide and such but would you recommend in terms of time of day?

[SirSnookalot]

Don't sell the beach short, it's my favorite place to fish.  You can fish lighter too if you want from the beach as you can beach them and not deal with a sea wall to lift them. I generally use a 4000 spinning reel, 2000 will get the job done, med or mh rod.   Without doubt the best lure is a silver spoon, I'd eat dinner any where in the world with one.  Storm swimbaits are every good too and most of you bass lures will do just fine.  Tip: cast parallel to the shore, unless bait is breaking further out.  Walk the beach and look for bait and fins swimming, it's hunting.

I like to get out there an hour or so before sunrise, don't worry about the tide as you are going to fish any way.

[NateFollmer]

You are just a wealth of information I'll try some of those fishing only beaches in dewey if I can't get anything out of the bay/ocean transition... I have an old surf rod my great gram used to fish with down in Florida (she was one of those people that live in Florida in the winter and here in PA in the summer). It's an antique though and I would like to keep it for a man cave that will never get finished

[Crabcakes]

The Kingfish (sea mullet/whiting not king mackerel) should be in now. Those can be caught from the open beach pretty dependably. Use mole crab( sand flea as they call them in some parts)or blood worm on small hooks. Often times they require only a short cast just past the wash. My favorite way to catch these is on ultra light tackle using a light carolina rig with a small mole crab on a single hook.

Smaller bluefish will probably be around but may require a longer cast. You'll see them breaking, often with birds. Most artificials will work but I tend to go with hopkins or kastmasters to reach them. Bluefish do have teeth so a mono leader will help reduce bite-offs if you're using braid.

Flounder/fluke may be a possibility. Bucktails with Gulp or squid work well. Stripers will be spread out this time of year and not very dependable. If you want to go for those with lures your best luck may be to find a jetty or breachway and fish in low light hours. I've never fished delaware for stripers but the rest of the delmarva area rewards a long cast with bait and patience.

The big sharks are around now. Keep an eye out for the kayakers dropping bait. It's quite a show.

[NateFollmer]

Thanks MDangler. I usually use flouro for my leaders but still have a huge spool of 12lb. mono left that is collecting dust

I think I remember correctly but can you rent surf equipment down there? I'd love to try my hand at shark fishing while I'm down there! I tried searching but can't really find any info on rentals for equipment...

I can't stop thinking about salt fishing now... I think I'm in trouble

[Crabcakes]

No idea about renting but you'd need some heavy gear.

You can deifnitely catch sharks on casted baits. You'll need to have some large line capacity and the capability to throw a heavy bait. Daiwa sealines, saltists and avets are the types of reels you should be thinking of.  You'll need to come up with some kind of castable leader system. There are alot of ways to do this if you google it. Bluefish and kingfish, whole or heads work ok for castable baits from what i've heard. There are duskys, spinners, and sandbar sharks to catch.

That being said you can rent some surf gear and throw out some cut bait on a fishfinder rig. You might get a smaller shark or a ray to come by.

For the large sharks in that area people kayak out baits and use very heavy tackle. There are truly large sand tigers in delaware. I know a 9 foot bull

shark was caught from the beach in the last two weeks.

[SirSnookalot]

Getting a little ahead of yourself talking shark fishing, how ya going unhook then release back into the water a 5 or 6' shark, seen a few bitten hands trying to do that.  I've caught smaller sharks 50- 70# sight casting with soft plastics, but so many other species I would rather fish for.

BTW if fishing for bluefish use a wire leader, I've had blues bite my lures and hooks in half, extremely powerful jaws.

[NateFollmer]

HAHA I just want to catch a little sand shark or something small, nothing big

I have some wire leaders from when I was down there before, they are only about 6 inches long though. I did find a place to rent a surf rod also, I may do that if I have time. I think I'll stick to the jetties at the Indian River Intel though, looks like the action is decent from the fishing reports I have seen. I'll work my way up to sharks in a few trips haha.

[NateFollmer]

Got skunked in the salt went to the jetties at IRI and threw out some squid (let that just sit) and tossed swimbaits around the whole area. The squid moved (I think it was picked up) but I didn't get over to my rod in time. We left DE this morning because of the crowds and heat. It seemed like I should have waited until evening from what I heard, but ill be back for round 2 in Sept.

I'm driving to the lake as I type this for some bass. I need redemption!

[SirSnookalot]

Not unusual and artificial is even harder.  People tend to think there are fish every where in the ocean, nothing could be further than the truth.  Have had numerous days go by without a strike, but there are  times when every cast is a hook up too.

[NateFollmer]

Yeah, the ocean is a large area haha. I still had fun though (saw 2 or 3 pods of dolphins heading North, they were pretty close too!). I need to go down and fish a few days, not just 1. We are going again in Sept. and Ill have more fishing time then. Thanks for all the help guys, ill get ya a fish next time I got skunked bass fishing too and lost 3 lures so it was a bad fishing day all around haha.

I was thinking when I saw those Dolphins (the mammals) anglers don't usually catch them do they? Are they smart enough to not grab a bait? That would be terrible to accidentially hook one!

[Crabcakes]

About the dolphins. Yes they are smarter and it doesn't happen frequently but from what I've heard it can. I've had a dolphin follow a lure but it turned away very quickly once it realized something was up.

[NateFollmer]

Nice. It was neat watching them chase the baitfish. They would get into little packs of two or three and start swimming in circles, then they would take turns running through the middle. I thought about casting out toward them and maybe pick up something that could have been under the swarm, but it was out of my range. I think I'll just save myself the trouble and take a charter until I learn more about salt haha. I have some photos of the dolphins, maybe i'll post them once I get them off my camera.

Only good photo that came out. The rest are either blurry or just fins

[BadKarma42]

I assume by IRI you are referring to the Indian River Inlet?  I just got back from vacation at Bethany Beach and went to the Inlet for a few hours to try my hand.  I caught a tiny sea bass ( I think) and then caught two fish (have no idea what they were bu the had blue color on their belly) on a flounder rig with fishbites bloodworm on the hooks.

We also took a charter out trying to cathc dinner.  Between four of us we caught at least 100 sea bass.  Two were legal size to keep.  The guide told me that bottom fishing has not been good and took some shark stuff with us.  He said the shark fishing has been great.  We ended up bringing about 6 spinners and black tip to the boat and broke off a handfull more.  They were a lot of fun to watch and catch.  There was also a huge cobia cruising around, but we could not get him to bite.

[BadKarma42]

I forgot to add that the day before I fished the inlet, we went down just to check it out.  I saw a group of guys catching what I would consider a decent amount of bluefish.

They were using a white bucktail and some extra weight.  The also appeared to have a white Gotcha trailer on the bucktail.

[NateFollmer]

Hey thanks for the info. I was going to grab a charter, but we planned this trip 1 week before we left. Guess I should have took some bucktails along Which carter did you use? I was looking at a few but there are a TON of charters going out of that area.

I'm going back down in Sept. so hopefully I'll be able to nail some fish! I think I'll just rent the proper equipment next time (you can get surf and jettie rods from Old Inlet for like $9 a day).

[BadKarma42]

Finchaser Sport Fishing out of OC Maryland.

I have no idea what will be happening out there as the season progress.  He has a chart on his site that does a basic break down of what type of fishing is going on for what month it is.

[NateFollmer]

Ah, we usually make the drive to OC but we only stayed for 2 days so we didnt this time. I like fishing off the piers in OC (although I wish some of them were a little closer to the water. On some of them you toss out half your line just getting it into the water ).

[Bassin_0502]

Nate, Sorry I'm late to the thread, you've probably already come and gone...

I fish out of Lewes fairly regularly, the inlet that is located in Lewes is called Roosevelt Inlet, and connects the outflow of the Broadkill River to the mouth of the Delaware Bay. The Indian River Inlet mentioned earlier is about 10 miles south of Lewes and empties directly to the ocean; the rips here pretty scary, an 18' V can disappear from view in a trough pretty easily. There is another danger as well, many shorebound anglers fish from the rocks lining the inlets and a few jetties. At least once a year there is a report of someone found a few days later after presumably slipping on the seaweed covered rocks.

If you fish from the beach, there is a State Park, Cape Henlopen, where there is a four wheeler area (of course you can walk as well: I don't drive a 4w. An 11-14 foot rod is the order of the day. The most common catch this time of year will likely be a skate or a sand shark (dogfish). Good luck getting the hook out of either.

Most jetty fisherman are going for Tautog (or toggin). It's also called a blackfish in some waters, very tasty, skin is tough as nails, and a bit__ to catch. They live in the rocks, and the bait of the day is green crab or sand fleas. They are extremely light on the bait, you'll be amazed at how often you have to rebait without ever feeling the hit. Season opened on July 1st, 14" minimum, and I think 10 fish per. (Check on the number, but the size is correct I'm sure). Jetty guys are also fishing for flounder, problem is they have a 19" minimum; I can't find them that big unfortunately. Bait is minnows, cut squid ad Gulp.

I have not heard of much Striper hits right now near the shore, Fall is a better time from the beach. Bucktails with a squid trailer, live eels, and live spot are some of the best tools.

Personally, I think largemouth rods/reels, are pretty lightweight for salt. If nothing else, the tides and currents force you to load up on lead to get to the bottom. I know my Avid won't sling a 2 ounce bank sinker (or won't do it very often!)

And last, Delaware has a license requirement for both fresh and salt water fishing.

If I haven't missed your trip, good luck.

John

[NateFollmer]

Yeah, I was already down, but I'm coming back in Sept. Thanks for the info, I did get myself a DE license (just got a year license, it wasnt much more than the 3 day (i think it was 3 day?)).

I'll probably end up renting a surf or jettie rod when I'm down (it was cheap). I'll let ya know how I do

Thanks again!

[shawnmc]

Yeah, I was already down, but I'm coming back in Sept. Thanks for the info, I did get myself a DE license (just got a year license, it wasnt much more than the 3 day (i think it was 3 day?)).

I'll probably end up renting a surf or jettie rod when I'm down (it was cheap). I'll let ya know how I do

Thanks again!

Sorry I didn't see this earlier, I live about 10 minutes south of the Indian River Inlet.  There is some great fishing in the area including freshwater for bass.  Some of the guys already gave great advice on the area. I will just add that if you are looking for a little freshwater shore fishing in the area send me a PM. Good luck and enjoy your next trip down. September is a great time for the striped bass.