Weakfish Return to Delaware Bay as Flounder Bite Heats Up

What's biting

What's next

Expect the Delaware Bay flounder bite to keep building through the week if the pattern Higbee's Bait and Tackle describes holds — boaters working the EP Tower have moved from picking through shorts to limiting on keepers to 22 inches, with party-boat pool fish up to 25 inches, and that kind of size and consistency in the drift usually means fish are staging for the fall migration rather than passing through. Anglers working structure in the mid-bay should keep working the reef sites and wrecks as flounder push out of the shallow back bays; Big Dave's Tackle notes that warm back-bay water is still holding aggressive short flounder willing to hit almost anything, while the more discerning keepers are sitting in deeper water near the inlet — a split that should sharpen as nights cool into mid-September.

Weakfish are the story to watch. Per Hands Too Bait and Tackle, fish to 24 inches have finally shown up along the Delaware Bay coastline after sitting out the spring and summer entirely, and the same shop's surf report has companion fish to 22-24 inches holding tight to jetty tips. If that push continues, look for the bite to spread along the bay-side jetties and rock structure over the next several days, with bloodworms and jigs staying the go-to baits on any tide.

Sheepshead and tautog should hold steady around jetty and inlet rock structure — Boulevard Bait and Tackle is seeing tog to 5 pounds and sheepshead to 8 pounds on crab baits, and that pattern typically extends well into fall along structure that retains heat longer than open water. Croaker and spot action, per The Fisherman's DE/MD/Chesapeake reports, should keep improving into September as those species finish out their season around the Old Grounds and bay piers.

Plan around morning tide changes for the flounder drift bite — captains working the bay describe the bite turning on and off with current speed, so target slack-to-moderate current windows rather than peak flow. With no live buoy or gauge readings available for this stretch this week, check a local marine forecast before heading out, particularly for wind direction on open-bay drifts, and confirm current flounder and weakfish size and possession limits with NJ Fish and Wildlife before keeping fish, as these can shift seasonally.

Context

The weakfish return described by Hands Too Bait and Tackle is the more notable seasonal marker here — the shop called the fish "suspiciously missing all spring and summer," a longer absence than anglers on the Delaware Bay typically report before a September show, and it lines up with the sheepshead pattern On The Water describes: sheepshead "remain in New Jersey's back bays longer than most anglers think," meaning both species can still deliver solid fall windows even after slow starts.

The flounder fishery looks on-schedule to slightly ahead of typical late-summer form. Multiple boaters limiting out on keepers to 22 inches with pool fish to 25 inches, as reported by Higbee's Bait and Tackle at the EP Tower, is a stronger showing than the "short flounder in the back bay, keepers on the reef" pattern other bay shops like Pier 47 Marina are still describing — a split that's typical for early September as fish begin staging out of the shallow bay ahead of the fall run.

There's no buoy or gauge data this cycle to say definitively whether water temperatures are running warm or cool for the date, so treat this as a qualitative read from angler reports rather than a measured one. General pattern for Delaware Bay (NJ side) in early September: flounder season closing out, weakfish and croaker typically improving, and sheepshead/tautog holding around structure into fall — this week's reports track that seasonal arc, with the delayed weakfish arrival as the one notable wrinkle.