This year's Canal Flounder Tournament generated the largest turnout so far. More than 400 flattie aficionados fished the event. Weather was much better than last year's scheduled date, when hurricane-like conditions forced postponement until the following day. Although Canal water was murky from wind during preceeding days, flukers picked away at fish during most of the outgoing tide. The largest specimens were landed in the afternoon, near the end of the ebb. There didn't seem to be a concentration of flatfish in any single location, and catches were reported from several different spots. Avid flounder pounder Mickey Payne was the big winner. His 6.2 pound mat inhaled a Nuclear Chicken colored grub at Roosevelt Inlet, and earned him top prize and major bragging rights. Defending Champ Chad Mitchell scored Second Place 5.29 pounder with a custom white jighead rig and shiner combo while drifting past Gordon's Pond ditch. Brian Beebe boated the Third Place 4.3 pound flounder near the drawbridge, using a chartreuse teaser with a shiner. A pink Gulp! jigged by the Town Dock was responsible for Chris Huk's Fourth Place 3.81 pounder. Matthew Mitchell drifted a custom chartreuse jig rig and shiner between the bridges to take Fifth with his 3.63 pound flattie. Bob Brullo boated his Sixth Place 3.63 pounder while working a white Gulp! near the Sea Gypsy Pirate Boat. Shane Townsend took Seventh with a twin 3.63 pound fluke that ate a minnow on an icy blue teaser, also near the Sea Gypsy. More than $2000 of entry money will be donated to Camp Awareness. We at Lewes Harbour Marina, and the Dewey Beach Lions Club extended congratulations to the winners, and many thanks to all who participated to make the day fun, and a great success. The Black Drum bite came on strong on the New Jersey side of Delaware Bay, following the new moon. There was a big fleet anchored up in Bayshore Channel, above the Canal entrance Saturday evening, where many big boomers were landed. Don Zeiset decked a 60.6 pounder, and Vernon Zeiset got one weighing 55.8 pounds there aboard Miss Kirstin. Captain Brian's crew on Lil' Angler II kept five drum, the largest was a 55.7 pound fish fought by Mike Hojda. Kevin Martzal's group on the Pirate King II brought back 11 drum, including a 53 pounder landed by Leon Martzal. Scattered reports of drum came from the Delaware side. Jack Ostroski had a 63.2 pound boomer and Mason Newsham nailed a 34.3 pounder while fishing with clams on the Coral Beds. Mike Thompson checked in a nice drum he pulled from the Broadkill Beach surf. Drum action should hold up through the full moon at the beginning of June. The shop will be carrying surf clams, but we suggest calling ahead, early in the week, to reserve baits. The opening of Sea Bass Season resulted in good catches. Boats that ran to Twenty Fathom structure did ok with bass, but had surprising numbers of cod. Captain Carey's bassers aboard Grizzly boxed 58 blueheads and 24 keeper codfish. It actually seemed like sea bass catches were better inshore, at Site 11. Captain Brent's Saturday group on the Katydid had their limit of 120 quality bass, including Luis Mispireta's 3.71 pound knothead. Dr. Mike Junck and his gang had a nice mess of bass and cod on their wreck trip aboard Top Fin. Mike managed a 3.92 pound bass on that outing. Offshore bottom bouncers did well in deep water. Matt Baker, Jeff Drury and Chip Graves dropped in Wilmington Canyon Friday for 21 beautiful Golden Tilefish to 27 pounds. A few more stripers showed up. Harry Doherty checked in a 32 incher he beached using bunker in the surf at Faithful Steward Crossing. Because of new slot size regulations, Dave McGirk released a 40 inch linesider he hooked using clams at Herring Point. Matt Mundok managed a 14.6 pound rockfish and a pair of shorts while tossing Bombers at the Outer Wall Sunday morning. Boaters and jetty jocks at Indian River inlet had stripers during evening incoming tides on bucktails and Storm Shads. The bluefish run in Indian River was ridiculous this week, with slammers terrorizing schools of bunker in a feeding frenzy. Guys casting from the rocks or drifting in boats hammered the choppers with bucktails and metals. Wes Grove, Kevin Grove and Todd Macentee were drifting for flounder in the inlet when big blues attacked their minnows. After landing several choppers, they did boat a 4.64 pound flatfish. Blues thinned out inside Cape Henlopen at the end of the week. But, some remained in Broadkill River. Buzz Morrow, Brian Morrow and Jeff Weaver bucktailed a bunch of big bluefish at Oyster Rocks Saturday. D.J. Rawley caught his biggest bluefish ever while flounder fishing in the river Sunday with "Pop Pop" John Halsey, who did get a nice 3.2 pound flattie.