Albies Making An Appearance in the Surf

Please try entering https://graph.facebook.com/972152009495089/photos?fields=source,link,name,images,album&limit=1000 into your URL bar and seeing if the page loads.

 

Serious cold snap the other day and we had our first frost.  That just gets people pumped up for more fall fishing and much bigger fish.  The water temperatures have dropped significantly  compared to last week.  Masseys Landing was down to fifty three degrees and dropped twelve degrees in seven days.  Today it jumped back up to fifty nine degrees at low tide.  The Delaware Bay around Lewes right now is fifty eight degrees, the Delaware River around Reedy Point is sixty one degrees.  The off shore temperature at buoy 44009 is sixty three degrees.  The air is slowly warming up but the temperatures will remain lower for a few days and I wouldn’t expect the water temperatures to warm up too much.  Good news for striped bass fishing and the fall migration, not so good news for any of the summer fish still around.  Those either need to start heading south or become part of the ecosystem.  The weekend should be decent temperatures and chilly to cold at night.

 

The water clarity is increasing daily.  I was on the end of the north wall today and could see an easy six feet into the water, and closer inside the Indian River Inlet the clarity was about four feet, this was at the beginning of the incoming tide an hour after noon.  Masseys Landing was clear for about eighteen inches on the incoming tide this evening.  I was out on the wall today looking for false albacore, you have seen the one caught at the inlet, but what you haven’t heard is about the ones in the surf.  That made for an exciting time on Saturday.  So what had happened was … We were fishing conquest beach and I had Bob Masserini there fishing the surf for the first time and we were hitting some blues around sixteen inches.  Bob looks at me, points, and says hey check that out.  Not thirty feet from our feet the water is boiling but not like a bluefish blitz.  It was just different, and I knew what they could be, so at this point I am running down the beach casting every small metal we had.  I was about to take a video when a false albacore jumped out of the water, I could have reached out and touched it, I dropped the phone and was on the move.  Didn’t hook up with any, but I have been back almost everyday looking for them.  Some boys hooked up with them near the north wall from a boat the other day and today.  These albies are as far up the coast as Upper New York and as far south as North Carolina in the surf.  Reminds me of the spring bluefish blitz, they were that widespread as well.  If you are going to go after the albies use small metals and reel them quick, like you are retrieving for blues.

 

The surf has been full of small bluefish, mullet on mullet rigs has been the best bait, frozen is fine.  Fresh mullet is a unicorn here at this point, you would have better luck finding a UFO.  You can really see the sandbars in the surf at low tide, fish the ones that jut out on the opposite side of the current.  The ones in front are not that far out. fish on the other side of them and don’t forget to try the trough in front of you at your feet.  Try casting along the beach with spoons, swim shads and plugs.  The beaches are still carved up and starting to slope off but are still flat on top from the loss of sand due to the storm.  There are still swales or tide pools on the upper part of the beach, be careful driving, some of these are steep and deep.  There are some flounder in the surf and sand fleas are still around.  Small black puppy drum are also present and few people are hoping the reds will show up.  Short striped bass are here and there but more prevalent around the inland bays, canals and Delaware bay.  They have been schooling up feeding heavily on spearing.  The Cape Henlopen fishing pier has been slow but some small blues, short striped bass and flounder have been caught.  I don’t imagine summer flounder will be around here much longer, but some years we catch them into December so we will have to see how that plays out.

 

 

The tautog action has been hot at the Indian River Inlet, mostly during or around slack tide.  The walls, haystacks and sites in the Delaware Bay have been good action.  Kudos to the rangers for working IRI today and popping a few people trying to keep undersized tautog.  That was rather gratifying to watch for a few anglers I know that are fed up watching people try to keep undersized fish.  The worst part is to avoid being caught these poachers are just dumping their dead catches into the rocks, that is such a waste of a resource.  Green crabs are the best baits but some of the shops are having a hard time stocking them, check our bait shop business directory for a store that is stocked up with green crabs.  Everyone has sand fleas.  The charter boats have been loading up when they can get out there and do some work.  Check the business directory for a charter or head boat to get you out there fishing.  There are a lot of bergal still out there and sheepshead.  The Delaware Jet Ski boys have been doing a little “taugin” at the walls and haystacks.  The boys said it is a tad cold, so they will be gearing up with wet/dry wear for the coming season.  Big thanks to Rob Jones for the hook up, I will be outfitting a ski soon for fishing, that ought to be interesting.

 

Up north the white perch action has been decent and striped bass are schooling in all the tidal creeks and rivers.  The Mispillion near Cedar Creek marina has been hot at night and the Murderkill in Bowers has been decent.  We received a report the other day that there were bluefish at Augustine Beach, yes, you heard that correctly.  Just little ones but they were up there. Big catfish are in the C&D canal, white perch, and schooling striped bass.  I haven’t been to Woodland beach in a while but I imagine the same is true for that area.  It is that time of year that the resident striped bass feed heavy and some get ready to join the Atlantic migration.  Don’t forget to check out the Orionids tomorrow night.  There are pictures below from the DSF Facebook page.  Everyone have a great rest of the week and we will check back in with a report on Friday.

Fish On!!

Rich King

 

 

NOAA Tides at IRI …. 

 

 

 

 

 

Buoy data 44009 … 

Wind Direction (WDIR):	SSW ( 210 deg true )
	Wind Speed (WSPD):	15.5 kts
	Wind Gust (GST):	17.5 kts
	Wave Height (WVHT):	3.0 ft
	Dominant Wave Period (DPD):	4 sec
	Average Period (APD):	3.7 sec
	Mean Wave Direction (MWD):	SSW ( 200 deg true )
	Atmospheric Pressure (PRES):	30.30 in
	Pressure Tendency (PTDY):	+0.02 in ( Rising )
	Air Temperature (ATMP):	62.2 °F
	Water Temperature (WTMP):	63.1 °F
	Dew Point (DEWP):	49.5 °F
	Wind Speed at 10 meters (WSPD10M):	17.5 kts
	Wind Speed at 20 meters (WSPD20M):	17.5 kts

 

Facebook API came back with a faulty result. You may be accessing an album you do not have permissions to access.