Early summer fish already showing up
Well we made it! Some thought the winter would never end. I tuned, cleaned and organized my gear so many times because it was the closest we could get to fishing. It was maddening. Icebergs the size of small houses washed up on beaches, an ice pack that covered the Delaware Bay from Broadkill Beach to Rehoboth Beach that just made that feeling worse. We did think about trying ice fishing, but no one wanted to stand in the cold that long. We have been so used to mild winters but the last two have been an exception no one has been fond of. But we made it. Anyone who complains how hot it is this summer is getting their throat punched.
Spring fishing is great
Spring sprung slowly this year and that has been great for fishing. The start of the striped bass run was a fun time and now we are waiting for the final push north. The fish have all spawned out they will be on the move soon. Richard King of Port Penn Bait and Tackle has been seeing a lot of big striped bass from the upper Delaware Bay and those fish are on the move south. Water temperatures have been holding in the mid-fifties for a couple of weeks: Prime striped bass water. The big news this spring is not the annual striped bass run, we spend all winter hoping they will come close to shore so we can catch them in the surf. You never know; some years they just pass us by, but this year we have a lot of bait in the surf, inland bays, and Delaware Bay. Bunker are huge, herring are in the Broadkill River in Milton and shad are thick at the Indian River Inlet. We are still waiting for the striped bass to show up and we all wish for a heavy run like a few years ago when it was weeks of hitting big fish at the Indian River Inlet. We’re still talking about that! In the meantime we have been treated with a phenomenon that hasn’t occurred for years: There are gator- or slammer-sized bluefish all over the place, and it has been epic to say the least.
About two weeks ago, these big bluefish just showed up in the surf and Indian River Inlet. Okay, it’s normal that a few big ones show up and then they are gone. A friend of mine Jon Budler was fishing Broadkill Beach when he saw a nice-sized bluefish caught. He told me about it and I said it would be nice to see them show up in numbers. I mentioned that in a fishing report, and no sooner did I hit the publish button, the phone blows up. Pictures start popping up on the Delaware Surf Fishing Facebook page and friends are sending me pictures as text messages. I thought my phone was going to have a meltdown. All of a sudden there were bluefish in the surf and the inlet, now I had to write another fishing report. The messages started to flow. "Hey I am hearing that bluefish are thick at such and such, is this true?" I had to do a report just to stem the flow of messages. (I wanted to go fish.) I had friends fishing in several locations and everyone was hooking up; they were like kids in a candy store. The next day I met Alex, Randy, and Jim at Beach Plum Island, and the bluefish action was insane. We literally cast out bait and reeled in a fish. The fish were destroying rigs and snapping us off left and right. This was occurring on all of the ocean beaches as well. You could throw anything out there and catch a bluefish. Not the little snappers, but huge gator bluefish upwards of sixteen pounds. Three days later the surf went quiet, and we were like "Well, I guess they left." But that was not to be the case....
Bluefish are hungry!
The bluefish decided to move into the inland bays, farther north in the Delaware Bay and the Broadkill River. There were reports of the fish being caught at Assateague Island and now as far north as New Jersey, mid-way to northern New Jersey. The fish are hungry and looking for food and they are eating anything in their path. So for the past two weeks people have spent all day hammering bluefish. If you have a boat or kayak you can follow them around in the Harbor of Safe Refuge at Cape Henlopen. I spent three straight days with Jeff Weaver and Corby Fulton catching so many of these fish my arm was numb. What a great feeling! The fish are so thick they are trying to pull the lure off the fish you have hooked up which adds more excitement to the retrieve, and more weight. Steel leaders and large hooks are a must. By the third day my bucktails had no hair or paint, they looked like they were shot out of a cannon into a brick wall of teeth. Big thanks to Diamond State Tackle for the gear hookup. I put it to the test and their bucktails held up very well. The fish were still hitting them just as much as when it was brand new and looked pretty. I know people like to catch big stripers, but I will take the fight of a slammer bluefish over that any day of the week. Some folks using poppers with three treble hooks were pulling in two fish at a time. The blue would hit the front treble and a fish trying to steal the "bait" would get caught by the rear treble hook. Double hookup on a large plug is a ridiculous fight: The fish are trying to swim in opposite directions while you are trying to reel them in one direction. There is no telling how long this will last, and it will be talked about for years to come. Kids who just learned to surf fish were catching fish they only dream about. It was a lot of fun to be part of the spring bluefish run of 2015.
Dig a little for sand fleas
Some of the early summer fish are already showing up. We have seen puffers in the surf and even croaker. According to Smith's Bait and Tackle up north in Leipsic, the croaker are as far up as the Woodland Beach area. Bloodworms and Fishbites bloodworm formula are the best baits right now. Squid is good for these smaller fish as well as the smaller sand fleas from the surf. By the way, you can catch sand fleas on all of the beaches right now, you just have to dig a little. The warmer bay beaches such as Broadkill are an easier place to catch them. Skates and dogfish are in thick and the skate run of 2015 is in full effect. That run is always in full effect, whether you like it or not. We have been working on a recipe section and in a couple of weeks we are going to show you how to cook skate. Yes, it is good; you would be surprised. That will be a bonus, since you can't NOT catch skate when surf fishing. If you don’t, then there’s something wrong. Short striped bass are in the surf in random areas up and down the coast. Mother's Day weekend was the Old Inlet Surf Fishing Tournament, and the conditions were certainly there.
A few flounder have been caught in the surf, and some nice fish have been caught in the Lewes Canal, Indian River Bay at the VFW slough, and the surf. Minnows, Chartreuse Gulp, and a bucktail with a squid strip or pork rind jigged works well to catch flounder. Right now they are more prevalent in the warmer waters of the outgoing tides that will switch up when the summer cranks up the temperatures. Crabbing has picked up already and folks are getting some nice catches in crab pots. Look to shallow warmer waters to find crabs and you will do better. They are not too full of meat right now, and many people will wait until after the first shed to start catching them. I wait until after the full moon of June. The crabs have been in the mud all winter living off their fat reserves (meat). I prefer to wait until they are full and thick, and a nice grey color instead of white.
We have seen some interesting catches over the past weeks in the surf. Sea horses are in the waters and have been found holding onto lines with their tail. Just put them back in the water and they will be fine, they don't swim but travel with currents and will grasp onto a line of structure to rest and eat food as it passes. Pipefish which are related to seahorses are out there as well. I found a mermaid's purse in a clump of grass on my line last week. You see these all the time on the beach. This one was brown, but usually they are black. It turns out there was still a live baby skate inside. I quickly put it back in the water so it can hatch and annoy us one day soon while fishing. These are called mermaid purses or devil's purses, the common name for the casing that surrounds a fertilized egg of a shark, skate, and chimaeras. They are made of collagen protein strands.
Black Drum are showing up the past couple of weeks and they are a blast to catch from the surf. They are the equivalent of reeling in a boat anchor. Clams are the best baits. Keep that bait on the bottom, they do not feed in the water column but feed head down and tail up looking for clams. A red drum was caught at the Indian River Inlet in the bluefish melee not long ago, good to see them back and hope there are more than one out there. Freshwater fishing has been fun for all anglers and trout season went well. Seals made a huge appearance this year and there is still time to catch a glimpse of one possibly at Massey’s Landing across the ditch on the banks but they will be gone soon and migrate north. There were upwards of six seals at Massey’s Landing this year, it was a real treat for many to see one for the first time in their lives. They showed up on the beaches, piers in the back bays, and were even riding on the pancake ice during the freeze. We at least had some entertainment this winter.
Well it is great to be back with the Beach Paper and I hope we entertain and inform you throughout the summer. Check us out at delaware-surf-fishing.com for up to date and live fishing reports, you can also find us on Facebook. Fishing is a lifestyle, a pastime for friends and family, and catching is a bonus. We have been busy this winter working on a video format with shows about the outdoors, events and creatures of Delaware. Have a great summer and we will see you in the sandbox, plopped on a pier, drifting the bays, or rocking the rocks at the inlet.
