Friday we got off work early so I went out and about to do a little fishing. I hit up the Indian River Inlet on the north side near the back marina. Throwing spoons just for fun and to relax a little. I caught five bluefish in the eighteen inch range. It was fun and as soon as I went to get the phone to get some pictures it just kept ringing, now I know why I left the phone in the truck. I left the north side of the inlet and dropped by the south wall in front of the bridge. The water was clear for a good four feet and I managed a shorty on a small needle plug. Then headed to Cape Henlopen to check out the pier action, the tide was so low you could see most of the sand bars in the flats. Not much to cast for in a foot of water. I headed home and cleaned the gear for the next day’s adventure. Saturday was not much better in the surf, skates and dogs galore, mostly on bunker chunks. A few friends were having the same luck on all of the other beaches. The weather never cleared up as was forecast, and I headed home after a long day of running around. I did fish the Roosevelt Inlet rock wall in the rain that morning. I watched boat after boat head out into the bay. I called Scott who was on the Lil Angler II and told him you have a lot of company headed your way. He said the Bay already looked like a mall parking lot at Christmas at the Overfalls shoals. There were a lot of boats out there. I decided to go to the beach, instead of head home. More skates and no dogs that time. I ran into Aarron and his crew, said hello to them they were having zero luck but a good time in the sand. Then went to the pier again to check out how low the tide was that evening. The full moon is creating some very low tides. Last weekend we had crazy strong winds and this weekend it was nice out despite the overcast skies. Time to head home and clean the gear for Sunday’s boat excursion.
On Sunday I met Mikey, Saad, and Rocky in Lewes and we dropped the boat in the water. The fog was thick and we were anticipating it would burn off about ten a.m. We headed out into the pea soup and carefully worked our way to the haystacks for a little tautog fishing. We were also geared to try for striped bass and wanted to head to the rips later. We tied off tot he haystacks as best we could. You can’t run an anchor line out in the area when no one can see it or the boat. We fished the back side of the rocks out of the currents and fed a lot of fish. One oyster cracker was caught, and after two hours we decided some slow trolling was in order. We still couldn’t see a hundred feet to fifty feet in front of the boat. We trolled a couple of stretch twenty fives beyond the outer wall and finally decided too call it quits. The return trip was eventful save for the fact the fog was worse the closer we got to shore. Once we made it inside the Roosevelt Inlet the fog just cleared up and you could see everywhere. Not long after we pulled the boat the fog cleared up on the bay and when the sun came out th fish started hitting. Several friends started having luck, we even considered dropping the boat back in but decided to wait until the next weekend. You can never rely on the weather when planning a trip a week away. The boys loaded up in their vehicles and headed back north, I went to the beach and tried throwing spoons for a whole. Mark and Matt were there and they had a skate not long after I arrived. The fog was clearing up and you could see for miles across the bay. Farther north Scott and Captain Brian’s crew for the day were hitting tautog as soon as the sun came out. The tide was almost to the top of the incoming, and some of the other boats at overfalls and and the eights hit a few nice monster striped bass. Just goes to show you never know when and where the fish will hit. The surf has been a skate and dogfish fest for the past week. Hopefully that will change and some striped bass in decent numbers will hit the surf. Some channel cats have been caught up north in the Delaware River and in the Lewes Canal. I am looking forward to fishing with the boys again this weekend. I have a striped bass trip i was invited to this Saturday and we are all anticipating a good day. One thing I have learned over the years, if you go fishing with no expectations you will come back with no disappointments. When you go out there and expect a good day that can ruin your day when nothing happens. The joy for me is in the act of fishing itself, hanging with good people, and just enjoying a nice day off of work. The easiest way to catch … sell your gear stop fishing and go catch it by the pound at Big Fish Wholesale. The amount of money you blow in a year’s time fishing, will probably feed you and a family of four for a year.
I fished a little today after work in the surf, Mark caught a piece of carpet during happy hour on the beach, a fun fall tradition. Nothing like a couple of hours at the beach after a long day at the salt mines. A few folks hit the Inlet tonight and were catching shorty striped bass on flies at the top of the incoming tide to the beginning of the outgoing. I think Forrest finally got rid of the skunk he has been chasing the past couple of weeks. Good to hear that. The beaches are still a little worse for wear from the storms and winds recently. The beach replenishment is done at the north side and the equipment has been removed. The Army Corp of Engineers is still working on the north wall at Indian River Inlet. The park improvement work has started. The crews are working on removing the temporary staging area for the bridge construction. I will have to try and get a time frame on that project. Tomorrow night Wallops Flight Facility will launch a Minotaur I rocket, carrying the Operationally Responsive Space-3 mission. I will be on a beach fishing and waiting for this launch, most of the east coast should see a great show. You can check out the launch details at Orbital. Hope everyone has a great week and we will see you in the sandbox soon. By the way you do not need to register to this website to read it or enjoy the content. I have had a few issues with registered spam users, so I have not approved any registered readers. Soon I hope to change formats and that will alleviate that problem. I am also having issues with loading pictures in these reports. You can see many pictures on the Delaware Surf Fishing Facebook page. Another problem I hope to take care of soon. Keep an eye out soon for announcements of upcoming DSF tournaments for next year, I have the dates reserved, I just have to get some details ironed out for spring and fall. I will have all the information available soon for everyone who wants to participate.
Fish On!!
Rich King