Long time Scott’s Dock rental customer and skilled angler Bill Mendenhall brought his friend mikezuba who ended up being high hook on the trip with this beautiful 5.9 pound flounder.
Here is the direct local fishing rundown for the Downbeach area:
- Back Bay Fluke (Summer Flounder): The bite in the Intracoastal Waterway channels behind Ventnor and Margate is wide open. Action is heavily dominated by short fish, but patience is paying off. Keepers up to 4 and 5 pounds are being pulled from 10 to 14 feet of water.
- Scott’s Dock Margate Report: Rental skiffs and the Captain Robin are sorting through high volumes of fish. Sizing up your bait is the key to boxing a dinner. Scented 5-inch plastics, fresh mackerel or herring strip baits, and live minnows fished on the deep edges during the turn of the outgoing tide are producing the best keepers.
- Sheepshead Arrival: Rising water temperatures have fired up the sheepshead bite. Solid fish from 5 to 8 pounds—with a few studs pushing 13 pounds—are tight to local bridge pilings and bulkheads. Drop live sand fleas (fully stocked at Scott’s) close to the structure on heavy jigs.
- Ventnor Surf & Pier: Evening tides are prime. Surfcasters are pinning fresh clams or sand eels right in the suds as the sun dips to connect with slot-sized striped bass. Aggressive cocktail bluefish are also mixing into the schools.
(Note: Check local notices if planning to fish the Ventnor Pier around holiday celebrations, as temporary closures frequently occur for safety.)
- The Captain Robin & Rental Skiffs: The Fisherman Magazine’s logs confirm that while the back-bay fluke season has been a grind through high volumes of short fish, the keeper-to-short ratio has explicitly spiked this week. Multi-fish keeper boxes of summer flounder up to 5 pounds are landing on the docks daily.
- The “Ditch” Temperature Shift: According to regional log data from FishingBooker, volatile ocean fronts dropped coastal surf temps down to 60°F before bouncing back. Area captains report that finding stable 68°F pockets in the back-bay channels—locally referred to as “the ditch”—is critical to finding active fish right now.
- Bait Shop Intel: Logs from the counter at Scott’s Dock indicate that their custom-tied fluke rigs paired with 5-inch Gulp! grubs are matching the profile of massive local spearing schools. For the bridges, their live sand flea habitat is fully running to support the expanding sheepshead push.
- Ventnor Pier Structural Focus: Anglers tracking the beachfront note that evening outgoing tides remain the golden window for slot-sized stripers. If you are targeting the pier itself, keep an eye out for triggerfish, which have begun filtering onto the piling structures alongside the bluefish.
Scott’s Dock: Margate back-bay family fun! Boat & kayak rentals, terrapin turtle rescue, private charter trips, Tohatsu engine dealership.
Rental boats and the Captain Robin are starting to fill up for the weekend. Make your reservation now at scottsdock.com or call 609 822 6829.
