Across all five spots this week, these are the three things worth building your trip around.
Bluefish are moving through on the daytime incoming tide. Spot/kingfish bite is steady most of the day but picks up early morning and evening as beach traffic thins.
~75°F nearshore per NOAA Buoy 44009. Clarity is generally decent on east winds, gets dirty fast after wind/rain — check before you load the truck.
Outgoing tide is the play — pull up on a sandbar and drift back with it for flounder. Crabbing is best in the deeper holes, roughly 15-20 feet, for the biggest, heaviest crabs; 12-15 feet gives a good mix.
Bay water is running warm (upper 70s to low 80s), typical for late August. Expect the usual afternoon algae haze in the shallows — fish deeper channel edges for cleaner water.
Daytime bite in the canal for spot/croaker/flounder; work the current seams near pilings and bulkheads.
Warm and typically a bit stained in the canal, clearer at the outer breakwaters where it mixes with the Delaware Bay/ocean.
Bluefish run through on the daytime incoming tide. Striper bite is a night/early-morning game on eels. Tog/sheepshead bite along the rocks is steady most of the day.
Running warm — mid-to-upper 70s in the inlet, tracking the ~75°F reading offshore at Buoy 44009.
The Dockside & Indian River Marina Tournament drew 58 boats for its first-ever running the weekend of Aug 21-22 — a huge turnout for a debut event.
White and blue marlin releases (some boated in tournaments), yellowfin, bluefin and bigeye tuna, wahoo, tilefish, and scattered mahi. Charter bookings: call 302-227-3071 and ask for Matt.
Flood (incoming) tide is best for back-bay flounder. Big cut baits are drawing sandbar, blacktip and sand tiger sharks in the surf all day. *MD striped bass season is closed in the Bay/tributaries through Aug 31, reopening Sept 1.
Nearshore temps tracking around 75°F. Back-bay clarity has been an issue lately — many flounder there are running under the 17.5" minimum, so anglers are shifting toward the inlet and ocean structure for keeper-size fish.
$9.9M total payout across 334 boats. Bill Sharpe's 80-lb white marlin aboard Mister Pete topped the field for $3.5M. MaxBet took the blue marlin division (607.5 lbs, $1.27M). John Wardlaw's crew won both bigeye tuna (179 lbs) and wahoo (69.5 lbs) divisions.
Bahia Marina: half-day sea bass/tog/trout/croaker trips aboard the 75-ft Judith M, plus 3-hr back-bay flounder trips on the Tortuga.
Sunset Marina: offshore charters for white marlin, blue marlin, tuna, dolphin and wahoo.
Heading out toward Indian River Bay or the Inlet? Stop by Rick's Tackle in Long Neck, DE for live bait, current local intel and rigs dialed in for exactly what's biting this week.