Most of the time, I write about consumptive sports like hunting and fishing, but when my baby sister Debbie visits from Virginia, she is more into bird-watching and hiking, so I take her to Cape Henlopen State Park where we sit quietly and watch nature at its finest.
Not to say that hunting and fishing don’t provide plenty of opportunity for sitting and watching nature, but it seems that when you are concentrating on looking for a deer or goose or duck, you miss out on the rest of what’s going on around you. Waiting for a fish to bite along the beach does not require the same intense concentration as deer or waterfowl hunting, but still, you miss out on a lot of what’s going on around you.
Last fall when Debbie was here, we went up on the beach at Herring Point. At first, we noticed a few ospreys, and soon we noticed a lot of ospreys. As we counted the birds, we realized we were seeing a very unusual number of ospreys all in the same place. Since they refused to line up and sit still, it was difficult to make an accurate count, but we figured we had more than 25 ospreys right in front of us. We also figured they were getting together for their flight down to the tropics where they spend the winter before flying back here to build their nests and make more ospreys.
Sometimes you have to look down instead of up. I collect stuff. Too much stuff, according to my wife, but I like seashells, beach glass, rocks and driftwood. My office at home is full of stuff. It makes me feel good when I see it, and I enjoy touching the shells, driftwood and rocks. When I can’t be outside, I can have the outside inside.
And then there is sharing. It is so much fun enjoying the outside with someone like Debbie, who sees everything from a different perspective. She doesn’t look at the ocean and see a good slough where fish might be feeding. She sees a beautiful body of blue water that stretches as far as the eye can see. I think it’s a good thing to have your perspective stretched every once in a while, just to keep your mind open in an expanding world.
New regulations 2.0
On Wednesday, I picked up the new ruler that has the regulations for various fish and shellfish we are allowed to catch in Delaware. Unfortunately, the new ruler still has the old regulations for summer flounder, scup (porgies) and black sea bass. The same is true for the 2022 Delaware Fishing Guide. I believe it will be difficult for enforcement officers to write tickets for people who catch a limit of 12.5-inch black sea bass. All they have to do is take out the ruler or the fishing guide, both printed by DNREC Fish and Wildlife, and show the regulations at 12.5 inches. It will be interesting.
Fishing report
First, my sad story. Mike Pizzolato and I fished the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal from 8:30 a.m. until noon, Wednesday. We had a perfect game. No hits, no runs, no errors and no fish. Neither of us had a flounder or a bite. Mike was fishing with squid and minnow, while I was using my never-fail green bucktail with a nice, shiny Gulp! crawfish. There were a few other boats fishing, and if anyone else caught a flounder, I didn’t see it. Mike and I spoke to everyone we could, and no one said they caught a fish. We worked the incoming with 60-degree water. I hope the outgoing was more productive.
There were some decent-sized bluefish caught near and from the fishing pier at Cape Henlopen State Park early in the week. Some were taken on cut bunker while others hit surface lures, and that is a lot of fun. A few flounder have also been caught from the pier. We were going to run over that way Wednesday morning, but the brisk northwest wind discouraged that idea.
Old Inlet Bait and Tackle said a few guys have been walking the beach at night and casting SP Minnows into the surf. Their reward has been rockfish as large as 31 inches.
Patrick Louth from New Castle checked in the first black drum from the Delaware Bay Coral Beds. It weighed 56 pounds and was caught on a clam.
So far, black sea bass has been stupid fishing. Just drop and crank, and take home a limit. Sooner or later the larger fish will all be caught, and then finding those 13-inch keepers will become much more difficult. I figure that will happen Monday when I go out on the Angler from Ocean City, Md.
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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.
