Indian River Inlet Fishing Report, 07-12 August: Conditions Matter: Chapter 2

 Friday Aug 11

What a difference a day, or two, can make.  As the next weekend approached, I was excited to get back on the water to try some of the drop-offs and holes that may provide excellent habitat for flounder waiting to pounce on bait moving with the incoming or outgoing tide.  I finally got the Mikey D launched again on Friday evening.  With the sun rapidly setting, I headed straight for the south jetty at Indian River Inlet.  There were 30 minutes left in the incoming tide.  I had a mixture of gulp and live minnows to pursue flounder and a handful of eels in case I saw stripers on the either of the jettys leading to the open sea.  

I was just a few feet off of the jetty on a nice drift with a top and bottom rig when a throwback flounder took the minnow before my first cast hit the bottom.  After fumbling with tackle and fish in the dark I hooked into another before the twilight turned to darkness.  

I decided to use the lights along the Coast Guard station to make the fishing a little easier and to see if there was any activity in the area.  As I approached the sea wall, I was not disappointed.  Schoolie stripers were slamming bait on top and slashing at silversides and bay anchovies just below the surface.  I grabbed and eel and threw it directly into the melee.  Seconds later I felt a tug and then the rod bent hard to the water.  The fight was short lived as the striper cut the eel in two.  The same thing happened on subsequent casts, but with darkness closing in and the tidal flow increasing, I decided to head back to the ramp and get ready for a full day on the water.  

Saturday Aug 12

Saturday brought light winds and a cloudless sky.  Long time friend Phil Weglein and son Connor joined me on an excellent day for a charter excursion to find flounder on the ledges around Indian River Bay. We started with a quick lunch at Dockside co-located at the Indian River Marina.  A perfect way to start a day on the water!  Conditions were close to perfect.  An incoming tide set us up on several nice drifts along the south jetty and the sandbars around Burton's Island.  Armed with minnows and gulp on top and bottom rigs, we soon started getting consistent hits.  The flounder seemed to be attracted to a mix of nuclear chicken gulp, white gulp, and live minnows.  Several hours of drifts produced 3 flounder over the rail, an alewife, and lots of short takes.  Connor was quick to bring rod to hand as he dispatched the flounder back in the water after the necessary hero shots.   No surprise that most of the action took place on ledges and drop-offs where the depths varied from 8' to 25'.  

While no keepers ended up in the cooler, the action just made me look forward to chasing the flatties back in the inlet or maybe down south in Cape Charles as Mikey D Fishing shifts HQ to the Southern Outpost.  Stay Tuned!

Tight Lines,

Mikey D Fishing

Indian River Inlet Fishing Report, 07-11 Augusr: Conditions Matter

Yes, a bit dated.  But as Thoreau wrote, "Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in."

Wind, tides, precip, water temps, lunar phase, water clarity.  All can turn fishing into catching, or just fishing.  Pretty much the experience earlier in the week.  We were supposed to be down in Cape Charles for our annual Cobia outing with Capt. Kenny  Louderback of Fish Freaks Guide Service.  Unfortunately forecast high winds forced us to cancel the charter.  So instead, we made an audible and put the Mikey D in at Indian River Inlet on Monday and Tuesday for Flounder. 

Conditions both days were tough.  While we had sunny skies and no precip, wind speeds were in the dobule digits.  That not only made it tough finding good drifts, but also contributed to cloudy water.  On Monday good friend and fellow angler Bery Edmonston joined us.  We drifted with top/bottom rigs tipped with live monnows and Berkley Gulps.  Although Capt. DiPaola was able to put us on good drifts, we only had a few bites, and only put one keeper Flounder in the boat.

Conditions on Tuesday were  even worse.  Winds were in the high teens.  Joining us on this outing was friend and fellow HSL 42 squadron mate Russ Knaub.  We boated only one Croaker and a small Flounder before lunch, and decided fighting the winds just wasnt worth it.

While a bad day on the water is better than a good day at work, you want some cooperation from the weather.  Unfortunately, that wasn't the case early in the week.  Fortunately, the Dockside bar and restaurant at the inlet marina offered some consolation from the tough conditions...

Indian River Fishing 29 Jul

For those suffering from withdrawal due to the dearth of Mikey D Fishing blog entries, I share your pain. The past few weeks were a reminder that despite being a faithful fishing machine, the Mikey D Fishing started to show the expected signs of her 9 years on the water.  A series of minor maintenance issues over the past month hampered fishing opportunities.  Repaired and refitted, I could not wait to get her back on the water where she belongs.

So it was with great anticipation that I launched her at the Indian River marina this past Sunday to learn the water and see what I could bring over the rail.  The weather was almost perfect.  Water temps were in the upper 70s which though high were a few degrees cooler following the passage of severe storms the night before.  Winds were manageable out of the North at 10 knots.  An almost full moon meant weaker tides, but by launching late morning, I would be able to take advantage of the full incoming tide.  As avid readers know, most of our time has been spent on the Chesapeake, where tides are more subtle and often fickle.  The Indian River Inlet is a natural cut between Delaware back bays and the Atlantic Ocean.  The inlet was a natural feature that was enhanced by the Army Corps of Engineers almost 80 years ago.  The massive amount of water that flows in and out of the inlet each day has scoured the bottom to form a 100 ft + canyon with all kinds of weird hydraulics in and around the main channel.  

I decided to start on the south jetty to target flounder.  The key was to find a spot on the edge of a channel where wind and tide did not conspire to prevent a drift that was too slow or too fast.  It had been a while since I felt the tug of a flounder, so I decided to try a little of everything to see what worked best.  I began with two top and bottom rigs.  The first had white hackle from Aqua clear and the other was the deadly double in orange by Fish in OC.  For each rig, I tipped one hook with a white gulp and the other with a live minnow.  For kicks, I also tossed a standard bottom rig with a 1/2 oz sinker and a live minnow.  

Action was minimal at first with a couple of light hits.  So, I decided to move further inside of Indian River Bay and drift along the main channel.   Almost immediately I was rewarded with a keeper sea trout.  Soon after, I found myself in a school of croakers.  After landing 3 or 4, I decided to keep moving to avoid expending all of my live bait on these fun fish from the drum family.  While they were hitting the gulp occasionally, they were tearing up the minnows.  And yes, for those who haven't caught a croaker, they really do make a croaking sound when they are out of the water.  

Heading a little further southeast, I found a spot that looked very promising next to Burton's island and green buoy #25.  The incoming tide allowed me to slowly drift west starting in about 6' of water to a maximum of 25'.  On my first drift, I picked up a nice flatty just under the limit at 15.5" (the limit is 16").  A second drift produced another flounder at 14" and a third soon followed.   Great fun!  Flounder are amazing predators, provide a fun but brief fight and are excellent table fare.  A great day on the water and typical of Indian River inlet, a day that produced multiple species.  

So happy to once again say to all, Tight Lines!

Mikey D Fishing