Thanksgiving memories of hunting and fishing

Thanksgiving not only meant great food and family when I was growing up in Claymont, but it also meant hunting rabbits behind our house on Wister Street. Back in the 1950s, the land between my house and the Pennsylvania Railroad was open field with lots of underbrush, just perfect rabbit habitat. I would let the dog out of his pen and off we would go. That land is now covered by I-495, and a rabbit or, anything else, would be roadkill trying to go across.

When I returned from four years in the Navy, I still did a lot of rabbit hunting on Thanksgiving, but as the years went by and I got married, then had two sons, things changed. One of the biggest changes was the tremendous influx of Canada geese. I was very lucky to end up with a goose pit on Snow Farm in Smyrna due to my friendship with Capt. Ben Betts. Ben first invited me as a guest, then, when a pit opened up, he gave me the chance to fill it with my friends.

By this time, my boys were old enough to go hunting, and every Thanksgiving they would join us in the goose pit. Didn’t kill a lot of birds, but made a lot of memories.

In 1989, we moved to Virginia Beach and fishing took over from hunting. At first, we fished from my 24-Albemarle, then, when Roger began working on the Lynnhaven head boats, we fished with him on Thanksgiving morning. Those trips were fantastic! It seems the same core of regulars were there every year, and the kidding and carrying on was never-ending. And on top of that, we caught a lot of rockfish. I don’t remember a trip when we didn’t get our two-fish limit.

In the late 1990s, we began to spend Thanksgiving surf fishing on Hatteras Island. By this time, Ric was married to Natasha, a girl he had met in Russia while he was working in the Peace Corps. We rented a big house and invited other friends, including a few more Russians. If you have never put a half-dozen Russians and a bottle of vodka in a hot tub, then had them sing the Russian national anthem, you have missed out on a great cultural event.

Barbara and I moved back to Delaware in 2000 and for a few years the boys would come here for Thanksgiving or we would go to Virginia Beach. In either case, we would fish on Thanksgiving morning, either on my boat or Roger’s head boat since he was now a captain. That lasted until Roger fell in love and moved to New Jersey with his bride. Now he has two small children and spends one Thanksgiving with us in Delaware and one with Connie’s family in New Jersey.

It has been a while since I have fished or hunted on Thanksgiving morning. Do I miss it? Sure, but with my boys separated by 300 miles, it is difficult to get together, let alone set up a fishing or hunting trip. The Canada geese have become scarce, the big blues don’t run in the surf and big rockfish won’t show up until December, if they show up at all. I have lived long enough to know the only constant is change, and I have accepted this fact. I don’t like it, but I accept it.

Fishing report

A few big rockfish have been caught at the Rips between Cape May and Cape Henlopen. The Eights have produced two that I know of. Carter Dirado landed a 48-inch, 42.5-pound rock on a Mojo from the Eights. Joe Walker, fishing with his brother Mike, had a 36.5-pound rockfish, also from the Eights.

Being the optimist that I am, I consider this a good sign. For whatever reason, big rock seem to be the first to come by as the migratory stock heads south. The main body of striped bass is still off the New Jersey coast, but the recent cold weather could convince them to move farther south and come within range of Delaware boats.

The black sea bass action remains good at the Del-Jersey-Land Reef. Bob and Dave Klinger ran the Crazy Herring out there and came back with a limit catch of sea bass plus some bluefish.

The Katydid is not catching a lot of tog, but they are catching some big ones. Their last trip produced three citations – Dan McDermott had an 8.14-pounder, Brett Curtis had a 7.53-pounder and Chris Vann caught an 8.05-pound citation tog.

In the surf, a few keeper rockfish have been caught at the Point on Cape Henlopen State Park on bunker or mullet. Small rock and spiny dogs were taken all along the beach.