Rehoboth Beach Report

[tdub]

Just got back from a week in Rehoboth and was able to get some fishing in and learn a few things about fishing Indian River Inlet that I thought I would share. I fished on several different occasions:

Monday - Caught an incoming morning tide and fished the south side of the inlet near the inlet; the folks at the Old Inlet Tackle Shop said folks were catching a few blues on the morning incoming but I had no luck. The kids were with me so we only fished an hour before patience started to wear so we packed it in. Didn't see anyone catching either. Used all artificials: spoons, rattletraps, plastics, buck tails.

Tuesday - Had a little alone time so I wandered down to the Inlet again and fished off the north jetty, it was dry enough to walk out a third off the way without Korkers but I would recommend them in order to get down close to the water. Fished both sides and primarily threw a 3" yellow twist tail Gulp. I chatted with a few friendly regulars who mentioned that flounder were being caught on the ocean side of the jetty (north side of the north jetty), none for me that day. I did hook a big stargazer and a massive stingray on the Gulp; I didn't realize stargazers have a little electrical shock capability.
Took a walk with my daughter down the beach in the evening and took along a rod just in case. Along the way we came on a lot of bird activity about 20 yds off the beach and could see small (10") fish breaking the surface. After watching for awhile we realized they were chasing anchovies about 2" long. I figured they had to be little blues so we started throwing a white bucktail into the mix and did this for about a half hour without any success. I didn't bring any other lures so we made the best with what we had. It wasn't until later in the week I realized these were probably shad chasing the anchovies and a small spoon would definitely have been the way to go.

Wednesday - Fished the surf with the kids in the evening, lots of dogfish, skate, rays and a few small spot. The ocean was incredibly calm for the first part of the week, in fact I can't remember ever seeing it so calm. That all changed on Thursday. Friday was pretty intense in the morning, the lifeguards were definitely earning their money.

Thursday - Fished from about 11 to 4 on the north side by the marina. There's a nice jetty that runs from the Coast Guard station to the marina inlet, a little more protected from the big Inlet current but plenty of moving water. We did catch a few flounder drifting minnows rigged on 2 oz sliding rigs. Also caught a few small black sea bass. The flounder were all in the 15" range (18" or 18.5" is legal) and were consistently short striking the minnows. I would cast a little up current and slowly reel as it drifted, it took me a while but realized that when I felt a little drag on the line it was actually a flounder holding the minnow just below the head (and hook). Needless to say I brought in a lot of bodiless minnows. 3/4 oz bucktails seemed to be the right weight to get it down in current and while I didn't land any fish on anything other than minnows, I did get some hits on it and saw a few other folks land some flounder on them.

Friday - After an intense day of playing in the surf, my brother in law and I decided to take the tip from one of the locals I chatted with and headed down to the Inlet at around 11 pm to catch the incoming tide. I had heard that blues were around the lights by the Coast Guard station in the evening and also under the new bridge that is being built with all the construction lighting. The area around the Coast Guard station was packed so we walked up to the bridge and found massive schools of anchovies being hammered. The area that seemed to produce best was just past the Inlet were it begins to open up a little and the current begins to get a little slower. Spoons seemed to be the ticket (small Kastmaster worked best) and after a few casts caught a nice 15" blue. Went on to get several more hookups, all coming unglued after about 5 seconds or so. What I didn't realize until after landing another fish was that these were mostly shad busting on the anchovies, with a few blues and some stripers mixed in. We fished until about 2:00 am or so and ended up with a few blues, lots of shad, and one 20+" striper. One of the folks fishing nearby was catching lot's of stripers in that size range using a white 4" BA type Gulp.
3/4 oz jig heads are required to get your lure down in the current and bring a few of whatever you are using, snags close to shore are pretty common.

I hope this helps anyone heading out that way locking for some opportunities to fish without a boat. The night time excursion on Friday was definitely the best of the week. Lastly, avoid buying Fishbites, nothing in the surf seems to like them.

[Don Hershfeld]

I caught a very large stargazer once off Bodie Island's west side. Surprisingly it took a large, VERY rapidly retrieved blade bait (like a Sonar). The surprises weren't over. Like you, I did not realize they could give you a mild jolt. Not sure if this is used to stun prey or perhaps to help detect it. While unhooking it in the wash, there were two unusual aspects... 1) "Hey, I think this fish is shocking me!" and 2) their muscular and fused pelvic fin may as well be a plow of sorts - they can hunker themselves straight down into the sand pretty darn quick. That might explain why right after the strike and set I was nearly convinced I'd hooked a piling or other immoveable snag. But I'd never snagged in that location before, so I just kept the pressure on and eventually noticed the angle of the line changing. Although ugly, it was the largest fish captured on that outing and I had an extended family to feed with fresh fish, so it became a 'traveler.' Filleting it required some exploratory surgery, but the meat was firm, white, flaky, and quite good on plates.