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Estuary · Southern Delaware, Sussex County, the tidal channel joining Rehoboth Bay and Indian River Bay at Massey Landing · Delaware

Massey Ditch Fishing Guides

The tidal channel that connects Rehoboth Bay to Indian River Bay at Massey Landing, where the current runs hard and the gauge reads temperature, salinity, oxygen and pH rather than flow.

A dock reaching out over wide brackish water at dusk
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

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About the Massey Ditch

Massey Ditch is the tidal channel that joins Rehoboth Bay to Indian River Bay behind the Delaware coast at Massey Landing in Sussex County. The name is unglamorous and the fishing is not. Every tide, a large volume of water is forced between the two bays through a narrow deep channel, and that constriction concentrates bait and the fish that follow it in a way the open bays never do. It is one of the better-known inshore spots on the Delaware coast for exactly that reason.

The gauge here reads water temperature, specific conductance, dissolved oxygen and pH, and carries no discharge or stage series at all. That is the right instrumentation for this water. In a tidal channel the flow reverses twice a day and a discharge number would say very little, while temperature and salinity between them say a great deal about which species are in the system and where they are holding. A salinity shift after heavy rain moves fish, and the conductance trace is the way to see it.

Summer flounder are the headline fish, worked by drifting the channel with the current. Striped bass hold on the edges and around the bridge structure, bluefish and weakfish move through in season, and tautog and black sea bass use the hard structure. Northern kingfish, spot, croaker, scup and white perch fill out a genuinely varied inshore list, and blue crabbing in the surrounding shallows is a serious pursuit in its own right.

The current is strong and the channel is busy with boat traffic in summer. Fish the moving water, mind the tide tables, and treat the narrow section with respect from a small boat. Shore and pier anglers do well here on the right stage of tide, and the bridge and bulkhead at the landing give access to the deep edge without a boat at all, which is unusual for water that fishes this well.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Massey Ditch.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

Massey Landing - the public access point and ramp at the channel itself.
Long Neck - the nearest community, minutes away, with fuel, food, tackle and lodging.
Indian River Inlet - the ocean inlet to the east, with its own strong fishery and public access.
Delaware Seashore State Park - the developed park on the barrier beach with ramps, camping and surf access.
Rehoboth Bay - the northern bay this channel feeds, with shallow-water flats fishing.
Rehoboth Beach - the resort town north, with full services, charters and marine supply.
Millsboro - the town west on Indian River, with additional ramps and services.

Seasons

Spring: water warms and the first flounder and striped bass arrive, with weakfish following as the bays warm further.
Summer: peak season, with flounder drifting the channel, bluefish moving through and crabbing at its best.
Fall: striped bass fishing improves markedly as bait leaves the bays through the channel on falling tides.
Winter: quiet and cold, with tautog on the hard structure the main option and most boats put away.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Massey Ditch?

Anglers target Atlantic Croaker, Black Sea Bass, Blue Crab, Bluefish, Northern Kingfish, Scup, Spot, Striped Bass, Summer Flounder, Tautog, Weakfish, White Perch on the Massey Ditch in Delaware.

Where can you access the Massey Ditch?

Massey Landing - the public access point and ramp at the channel itself. Long Neck - the nearest community, minutes away, with fuel, food, tackle and lodging. Indian River Inlet - the ocean inlet to the east, with its own strong fishery and public access. Delaware Seashore State Park - the developed park on the barrier beach with ramps, camping and surf access. Rehoboth Bay - the northern bay this channel feeds, with shallow-water flats fishing. Rehoboth Beach - the resort town north, with full services, charters and marine supply. Millsboro - the town west on Indian River, with additional ram...

When is the best time to fish the Massey Ditch?

Spring: water warms and the first flounder and striped bass arrive, with weakfish following as the bays warm further. Summer: peak season, with flounder drifting the channel, bluefish moving through and crabbing at its best. Fall: striped bass fishing improves markedly as bait leaves the bays through the channel on falling tides. Winter: quiet and cold, with tautog on the hard structure the main option and most boats put away.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Massey Ditch?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Delaware agency site: https://dnrec.delaware.gov/fish-wildlife/fishing/regulations/