Spring fishing is picking up with an early start of the season. There are migratory striped bass around the Delaware and Inland bays. Seen some quality fish caught around Indian River and Rehoboth Bay the past several days.
Fishing the rips off points of land and marsh banks during an outgoing tide. Swim shads or red/white bucktails in the smaller two ounce size. You can’t bounce a four ounce bucktail across a mud flat along a marsh bank too easily. The darker colors for the swim shads to match the mummichugs. Water temperatures are on the rise.
The inland bays water temperatures are swinging between the high fifties and low sixties the past few days. The coastal temperatures have been holding around the low fifties.
The water temperatures increasing around the inland bays is helping get the crabs moving. Crab pots are producing more daily. Crabs make excellent bait, especially the knuckles. Not too many people like using blue crabs for bait. The price of that crab is one deterrent. The other is using a delicious crab for bait. Which is exactly why you should use one, legal size, for bait. The new Fishbites® Longer Lasting E-Z Crab Blue Crab should do well in the northeast. The water is now warm enough for the long lasting formulas to start working better.
The drum around the Delaware bay are full of small crabs and sand fleas. Clam is excellent bait as well for drum and striped bass. Waiting on a random spring gator bluefish to be caught soon.
Northern puffers showed up last week during that storm. Fishing before a storm is always the best, but you can catch during storms as well. Fish don’t stop eating conditions just slow them down a little bit. Some fish, such as striped bass, prefer the heavy sloppy weather to hunt for food.
You have to dig, but fleas are easy to find now. Easiest to find them at low tide in the cuts. Just look for the holes in the sand after the water recedes and dig. If you find an area of a wrack line full of sand flea parts, that is always a good place to start.