Well we survived the lunar super blood moon eclipse. If you haven’t heard we have a tropical depression headed up the coast and will arrive in our area around Saturday. There are some predictions of waves to twenty feet high off shore, but for the most part seas will be seven to ten feet at the beach. So far that is the predictions and these could change. The winds will top out around fifty mile per hour gusts, and it will cause some nasty conditions. So will the storm create some excitement? I am sure we will all be excited if we manage to land one fish on the beach on Saturday for the Cast For A Cure Tournament. That is if the beaches are not closed, then we will just have a big party at DDC. In that case I am going storm chasing and fortunately it will be coming right at us, so I won’t have far to go. We will see the usual localized flooding or worse if this just sits on top of us. Whatever happens, be prepared to either head for the hills, stock up on lots of beer, or enjoy a nice calm day at the beach. The latter will not happen, but we can hope and dream. By now most if not all of us are about sick of the Northeast winds. However the fishing today was not too bad at the beach, in the mild calm before the storms. One thing we have noticed is the winds have been laying down at night and not cranking up until morning. Right now it is calm out and rather humid to boot, we could use a breeze to cool off.
Tautoag season starts (tomorrow) Tuesday, September 29 – March 31st the creel is fifteen inches and five fish per day per angler. The water temperatures still need to drop some more for the bite to turn on at places like the haystacks, inner wall,and outer wall. The ocean wrecks sites will be the hot spots before the bay sites turn on. Now that the pier is open you can go crabbing for white legs or calico crabs. The tautog tear these up like candy. I know a few guys going out tomorrow to try for fish, before the storms get close enough to create heavier seas. There have been a few tautog caught during the last season but not many at all. I expect to see a lot of trigger and hopefully some sheepshead and spade fish catches. Anglers catch all kinds of other fish during taug season. Also if you hook into a any bergals, keep in mind they are tasty to eat. They look similar to taug and have some freaky looking teeth.
The striped bass are schooling up all over the inland bays and Delaware bay, if you get into them be prepared to hammer fish one after another. You won’t catch any keepers but you will have a blast hitting twelve to twenty six inch fish. There are some keepers in the bays but not usually in the schooled up shortys. Small poppers, swim shads, and spoons will do the trick if you are casting. They are gorging on spearing and mummichugs. The best places to look are along the grass lines in Love Creek, Herring Creek and Indian River. When the water is moving out of the grass onthe outgoing tide, the bass will school up along the mud banks waiting for baitfish to drop out of the grass areas from the marshes. A small bucktail will work wonders as well for mimicking the bait fish. If you happen upon a school in a boat DO NOT drive the boat into the school, stay a good fifty feet away and cast to them. Your boat can drift across the school with less chances of scaring them off. Sometimes you can anchor up and stay on top of them for hours. Just be careful or gentle dropping the anchor overboard, place it int he water don’t throw it. The rock piles at IRI are seeing a lot of schooling bass on the ends, this is nothing new as far as news. Any area that is lit up at night will hold schooling striped bass, Indian River Inlet, Masseys Landing, and the Henlopen pier. The light brings in the baitfish and the big fish come in for the little fish. We watched tons of schooling bass the other night near pot nets in a marina. You can always light up the water around your pier or boat to attract fish, the law forbidding that was repealed last year, way to go Jay Little for that one!
Bluefish are all over the place in the tiny snipper size range to upwards of eighteen inches, depends on the school you get into. They are hitting mullet chunks or whole on rigs. Spoons are doing well and deadly dicks. Look for schools moving up and down the beaches chasing spearing, mullet, and bunker. About ten days ago we told you about a false albacore that was caught in the surf. That did happen and it was on a deadly dick on a beach below Indian River Inlet. They are sometimes running near the bluefish schools, so be prepared for that, it is a fight like no other from the surf. Bluefish are around the inland bays in schools but you have to find them they move fast and don’t sit in one place too long. Dewey Beach and other town beaches are good places to fish if you like to walk on and the parking is now free in all town beaches, well except Lewes. That won’t happen until mid October. The baitfish schools off Lewes beach are sick in size. Roosevelt inlet is seeing its share of bluefish, flounder, small sea bass, oyster crackers and short striped bass.
Not too many people have been fishing the past week and we are late reporting anything. The winds have been brutal and when that happens we catch up on house work so we can blow off everything when the weather does calm down. It is pretty safe to say next week I am going to be out fishing everyday somewhere. I know the off shore boys are going nuts because last week the tuna bite came hot on the chunk, then the seas turned angry. Hopefully they can get out there soon and get back on that bite. Marlin was doing good and deep dropping for tilefish, rose bellies, and the occasional swallow tail bass. I was able to secure three specimens of those bass (anthias) for Dewayne Fox and his colleagues. Big thanks to Suzanne Martin for the heads up and The Katydid for the catches. I will have all the particulars about that soon, exciting news for sure. Keep the gear ready and wait out the storms. You will be out and about soon enough.
Fish On!!
Rich King