Striped Bass in Delaware’s Surf

Yesterday Corby Fulton and I loaded up in his boat to do some fishing in the Indian River Inlet.  We knew the fishing there has been good and we wanted to get in on the action.    Unfortunately we hit    at the bottom of the outgoing tide and the bite was not as hot as it was earlier during the beginning of the outgoing tide.  We had four hook ups and lost four fish, lost a few lures as well.  One fish mangled my swivel real bad on a bucktail and took that four ounce as a souvenir.    Anyone catches that one I would love to have that back.  The water was calm but moving fast, we drifted the inlet for a while and when tide was getting to slack we decided to venture out front.  Corby’s boat is a twenty foot flat bottom aluminum boat.  He is an experienced captain so I had no problem rising out there with him at the wheel.  I am very careful who I travel through that inlet with you have to be real careful.  We went out to the right and checked out in front of 3Rs and didn’t mark any bait or fish on the finder.  We marked bait and fish inside the inlet all day but they were not biting as well.    We hit the end of the north rock pile and marked a lot of fish off the ledge at fifty feet, then it drops to eighty feet real fast.  Closer to the end of the rock wall it is fourteen feet deep or so.  That inlet has some crazy drops and depths.  We were using Hopkins like spoons and jigging them like you would a diamond jig.  We didn’t stay long out front once the tide turns she would get nasty out there as always.  We took a quick ride in front of Faithful Steward (savages ditch) and Conquest beach towards some birds we saw about a quarter mile offshore.  We marked a lot of big fish and bait.  That would explain the keepers and larger shorts that showed up on those beaches this morning.  Bunker chunks are the bait of choice, but you could try some fresh surf clam.  So it is good to finally see more than a few random fish in the surf, as the past few weeks have been.  Hopefully this will last for a little while, but one can never tell.

The beaches are smoothed back out, just a little steep to the water.  Today is a decent day to fish with rain scheduled for later today.  Hopefully mother nature only has that penciled in, but tomorrow we are supposed to see more rain.  The water will still be calm like today down there, with only three to four foot waves, but Sunday the waves will pick up dramatically to seven to ten feet.  The water clarity is fair.  Striped bass love the rough surf, but holding bottom can be a chore.  North winds on Sunday will gust upwards of forty miles per hour and steady at around thirty miles per hour.  This will all pick up Saturday night into Sunday morning.  That is usually how it does we get bad weather on the weekends when everyone can fish.  If it makes you feel any better it is going to suck until Wednesday while this low pressure system moves up the coast from the south.  The boats have been doing well and it is looking like today and Saturday will be the best window of opportunity to get out front to the Overfalls all the way to sea colony and between.  These areas have seen nice and more frequent catches on stretches, mojos, and bombers.  Be wary fo the EEZ zone or 3 mile mark.  We have a full moon this weekend to add to the mix, some anglers like the full moon fishing and others prefer to fish after the full moon.  We will see how that goes after this weekend and storm that moves through.  How long will these fish be in the surf?  I have no idea, and there is only one way to find out, go fishing.

Don’t forget Delaware Day is Saturday at 16 Mile Brewery in Georgetown.  Oyster Stout on tap, great food, and a good time celebrating the first state!

Congratulations Bruce West, he was elected the 205 President of Delaware Mobile Surf-fishermen, last evening.

Fish On!!

Rich King