We have just experienced a week or more of northwest to northeast winds, and the water temperature has dropped from the upper 70s to 67.3 at the Delaware Lightship Buoy and 63.3 at Lewes. Fish are cold-blooded animals, and this much of a drop in the water temperature is a really strong shock to their body. Some species such as flounder may move farther offshore, while others like tog may simply go on a hunger strike.
As anglers, this can be a very confusing time. Once the winds die down, we will want to get out on the water, and the fish may not be where we expect them to be, or we may mark them thick on the SONAR yet get nothing on our hooks.
I recall when I was in the Boy Scouts we had a rather elaborate joke with the punch line, “patience, jackass, patience.” This is good advice when the fish refuse to bite due to current sea or weather conditions. Some days you have to wait for the current to change or the wind to switch direction. Then there will be days that no matter what you do, the fish remain with that dreaded disease, lockjaw.
One thing that will be interesting to see is the abundance of bait in local waters. Before the blow, there were large schools of bunker, mullet and rainfish all over the ocean and bay. Strong winds have a tendency to bust up these bait schools, and that in turn causes the predator fish to scatter as well.
I have a friend who goes to Morehead City, N.C., every fall to chase false albacore with his fly rod. His first two days this week were slow because the bait pods were scattered. Then he caught albies until his arms gave out as the bait pods got back together. The last photo he sent me, he was sitting on the stern of the boat just watching the fish busting up the bait.
That is what we look forward to in the fall. Of course, you have to be there to see it happen and be a part of the excitement.
Fish busting bait can occur in the bay or the ocean. Species that are most likely to engage in this activity are blues, false albacore, striped bass and weakfish or speckled trout.
Some anglers will play run and gun. This is a game where you keep chasing the schools of fish chasing schools of bait under flocks of diving birds. It’s fun, but it can burn up lots of fuel.
I play a modified version of this game. I will run to a flock of birds and make my casts into the school of fish. As soon as some moron runs into the breaking fish and drives them down, and trust me, this will happen, I will stop casting until all the other boats move away, then I will drop my metal jig to the bottom and catch some of the biggest fish of the trip.
Speaking of striped bass, what will happen to them this fall? I wish I knew.
My friends in North Jersey are catching a few nice fish at night from the beach on plugs. This has been going on for years, and with today’s regulations, they release every fish they catch instead of selling them, as they did not too long ago.
It is my observation that our good striped bass fishing ended right after Superstorm Sandy passed by the Delaware coast and slammed into New Jersey. I have no scientific proof and I have seen none. I do know for a fact that we had good fishing in the Cape May Rips and along the Delaware coast before the storm, and now we have just about zero.
Even more interesting is the fact that New Jersey still has a good fall run of striped bass. They are the ones that took the direct hit from Sandy, yet their fishery remains good.
How it appears to me is that the stripers move down the Jersey coast to somewhere north of Cape May and then head out into the ocean and remain there beyond the Three-Mile-Limit for the rest of their journey south.
The Fisherman Magazine has done some interesting tagging studies on striped bass. One fish they tagged went as far offshore as the canyons. Is that where these fish go? I have no idea. I do know they no longer get within fishing range of Delaware anglers.
The next place big stripers show up is in the spring off the cost of Cape Charles, Va. Perhaps these fish winter in the Norfolk Canyon, then come into the Chesapeake Bay to spawn. Anyway, that’s my theory.
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Eric Burnley is a Delaware native who has fished and hunted the state from an early age. Since 1978 he has written countless articles about hunting and fishing in Delaware and elsewhere along the Atlantic Coast. He has been the regional editor for several publications and was the founding editor of the Mid-Atlantic Fisherman magazine. Eric is the author of three books: Surf Fishing the Atlantic Coast, The Ultimate Guide to Striped Bass Fishing and Fishing Saltwater Baits. He and his wife Barbara live near Milton, Delaware. Eric can be reached at Eburnle@aol.com.
