Delaware Dock Tales: Records, Rarities and River History

Dock Tales are short, researched stories about Delaware’s waters: the record fish, the rare species and the river history behind them. They are written and checked by BCRods from agency sources. They are not Adam’s personal stories, and when we cannot confirm a detail from a source we can read, we leave it out.

Delaware state records

DNREC keeps a list of current Delaware record fish. We read it on November 1, 2026. Here are six species that anglers target in the waters covered in these guides:

Species	Weight	Angler	Year
Black drum	115 lb	Kenneth Smith	1978
Blue catfish	53 lb	Sydney McBroom	2023
Flathead catfish	33 lb 15.68 oz	Jason Wise	2025
Largemouth bass	11 lb 1.6 oz	Andrew Klein	2016
Bluefish	24 lb 13 oz	Luis Mispireta	2015
Tautog	22 lb 14.4 oz	James Milano	2023

DNREC’s page lists only species, weight, angler and year. It does not say where each fish was caught. Records change, so check DNREC’s list for the current one.

The stories

Records

• The Record Black Drum Nobody Expected: Delaware’s 115-pound black drum and the Delaware Bay water behind it.
• Three State Records, One River: the Nanticoke River’s run of record blue catfish.
• The 41-Acre Pond With Two State Records: Wagamons Pond bass.
• The First Flathead Record: Delaware’s first official flathead catfish record.
• The Bluefish That Hooked Itself: a record fish that grabbed a hooked sea bass over a reef.
• The Record Tog, Days Before the Closure: a wreck east of Indian River Inlet.

History and wildlife

• The Inlet That Wouldn’t Stay Put: how the Indian River Inlet got fixed in place.
• Atlantic Sturgeon in the Delaware River: an endangered fish that still uses the river, and what to do if you hook one.

We tell each story only with details we could confirm. Where sources disagree or we could not check a detail, we say so or leave it out.

How to read a record

A state record is the heaviest fish of its species that DNREC has certified, and the list changes whenever someone beats a mark. Three of the six above were set in 2023 or later, which shows how quickly a record can move. The two catfish are a good example. Blue catfish and flathead catfish are invasive in Delaware, and the Delaware Fishing Guide says they must not be returned to the water, so a record catfish is partly a sign of how well those fish have settled in. If you think you have caught a fish near a record, DNREC has the process for certifying it, and the agency’s records page is the place to start. Do not kill a fish on the chance that it is a record without checking what DNREC requires first. Take clear photographs, note where and when you caught it, and keep the fish in good condition until you have spoken to the agency. Delaware also has size and daily limits on many species, so a fish that would be legal to keep as a record still has to be a legal catch.

Send us a correction

If you know a record, a date or a place that we have wrong, or a Delaware fishing story with a source behind it, tell us. The contact for corrections is on our how we research page. We check the claim against an agency source before we change anything.

Why we do it this way

Fishing stories are easy to inflate. Weights change from one retelling to the next, and the same catch can have three different locations. So we use agency lists for numbers and names, we say where a fact comes from and we leave out anything we cannot check. Our how we research page explains the rest, including how to send us a correction.

Fishing where the records were set

If you want to fish the waters behind these stories, the guides to the Delaware Bay, Delaware River and Wagamons Pond are good places to begin. A custom rod built for the water and the species is part of what we do. Tell us where you fish and what you target.