Catching black sea bass with every drop

I had $150 in gift cards sitting in my dresser drawer for months. They were almost forgotten because I never found a gift that I wanted or needed. Then I had a marvelous idea. Why not use those gift cards to pay for a fishing trip? After all, there is nothing I enjoy more than catching fish. 

First, I made reservations on a boat out of Fisherman’s Wharf in Lewes for one of their sea bass trips. Then they changed the date of that trip to a day I could not go. Next, it was back to the Angler out of Ocean City, Md., and there it took three tries before I finally got a day when the seas were less than 6 feet.

That day was Nov. 30. I was up at 3 a.m., out the door at 4 and on the dock by 5. We boarded at 5:30, and I guess because I had been on the list three times, I ended up with the third boarding number and elected to fish from the stern. That proved to be an excellent choice.

We left the dock right on time at 6 a.m. and ran for two-and-a-half hours before dropping the first baits to the bottom. My rig had no more than touched down before I had a solid hit and began cranking up a heavy load. It turned out to be my first keeper of the day, a solid 2-pound black sea bass. After rebaiting with the boat-supplied salted clam, I dropped back down and was rewarded with another quick hit and more black sea bass. My fishing continued like this all day, from 8:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m.

As for the men on either side of me, they were not having as much luck. The gentleman to my left was using a variety of contraptions that would have looked better on a Christmas tree than on the bottom of the ocean trying to catch black sea bass. He did manage to put a few sea bass in his bucket, and he also caught the pool-winning 5-pound flounder on a double-bucktail rig, so I guess there was a plan in there somewhere.

The gentleman to my right was using some sort of silver bait that he cut in at least 6-inch-by-1-inch-wide strips. Now you could tell when he caught a keeper sea bass because he did a little dance, sorta like football players do when they score a touchdown. If nothing else, he was entertaining.

Then those silver strips began attracting bluefish. Nice-sized blues. And when he caught the first one, you would have thought he had brought in the devil himself. He kicked and beat that poor fish to death. Then he kept on catching blues, and it never occurred to him that those flashing baits were attracting his hated adversary. I asked him for one of the blues before he beat the pulp out of it, and I had that fish for dinner Friday evening. Finally, one of the mates told him to cut up the blues and use them for bait. Then he began to catch some big sea bass.

While all of this was entertaining, I was busy cranking in black sea bass on every drop but one. On three drops, I had doubleheader keepers. I only caught one spiney dog and only got my hooks cleaned once. I ended the day with 20 keepers, of which five were distributed by the mates to anglers who did not fill their limits. It was a wonderful day.

Once again, I can’t say enough good things about the mates. They help me carry my stuff aboard and off the boat at the end of the trip, and they are right there when lines get tangled or I snag something on the bottom. They are pleasant and kind with the anglers to make the day enjoyable.

And by the way, the red-hot secret location where Capt. Chris took us for this great fishing – the Del-Jersey-Land Reef.

Fishing report

I sort of expected to see some big striped bass in the ocean along the Delaware coast and they have shown up, but the big surprise has been the big bluefin tuna caught at Fenwick Shoal. Lewes Harbour Marina reported that Hillary Graves, fishing on the Bird Dog with Capt. Chip Graves, caught a 56-inch bluefin tuna on a blue and white Joe Shute lure and ballyhoo at Fenwick Shoal. They also reported that Ben Nichols, fishing on the Queen of Tides, had a 145-pound bluefin tuna, also at Fenwick Shoal. I had reports that more bluefins were brought back to Ocean City, Md., caught at Fenwick Shoal.