The big girls are moving around in the upper Delaware Bay and lower River areas. The Bullpen produced a nice striped bass today caught by Matt Tweed on Port Penn Bait and Tackle’s Fresh Bunker, Richard King is filling his nets daily check out the store sometime his bunker doesn’t sit there long. The big resident fish in the Delaware Bay are on the move. Not surprised since the water is warming up faster this year. The schoolies or shorts are up and down the bay along the beaches and tributaries. Cape Henlopen produced a some nice short striper bass today on fishbite bloodfworms of all baits. The water is too cold for the Fishbites to really dissolve, but those striped bass get hungry when they school up. Real bloodworms will work well in the surf on top and bottom rigs for short striped bass. Skates and spiny dogfish are hitting bunker chunks. You can look for schooling bass in the Lewes Canal and inland bays by fishing the outgoing tide when the minnows dump out of the grass on the mud banks. Also look for holes in the bays and canal , then fish them with bloodworms on top and bottom rigs.
I checked out the inlet this afternoon. The sand that washed out along the walkway or jetty cap has filled in the rocks between the pier and the outside corner on the north side. It looks like a small beach on the edge of the inlet and is almost exposed at low tide. I imagine it will wash out eventually but in the mean time it looks like a good place to look for a flounder. The beaches have a big swale here and there so be careful driving. Lot of nice cuts and pools, but the beach is very flat at low tide. Even with the full moon I don’t think high tide will be an issue the next couple of days. The beaches have filled in decently in Delaware Seashore State Park.
The other night near Laurel, Delaware Ethan Henry, Ryan Henry, and Cody Gallien were soaking bunker chunks when Ethan latched into a big fish on the retrieve. Ethan … “It was a surprise to all of us. I was just reeling my line in for a bait check. Next thing we knew my rod tip took a nose dive and a few minutes later this beast was on land ” Ryan sent me a text at midnight, “Hey what is the state record for a catfish?” I had to look it up, after I woke up, and found it was a little over twenty three pounds. “Wooo Hooo we got a state record!” was the response. Until I asked if it was a blue catfish. Talk about taking the wind out of someone’s sails. It turned out to be a blue cat which are invasive, but weighed in at 25.8 lbs, 36 1/4 inch long, and a 24.5 inch girth. So the boys went back to fishing after they calmed down. They managed two more beasts, but not like the size of the first beast. They were all surprised because they were soaking bunker chunks in hopes of catching any large bass moving through the area. Remove any blue catfish you catch and by the way, they are great table fare.
Fish On!!
Rich King