When Will Blues Change Up For Striped Bass

Well it has been three solid days of hammering bluefish.  The boats are getting into them in the harbor at Cape Henlopen.  It is not hard to tell where the fish are just follow the boats.  We were fishing the chum slick of a head boat yesterday and it was almost unfair.  Every cast was a slammer bluefish, largest was 36 inches and 12.9 pounds by Corby Fulton.  Once you find the fish you are into them hot and heavy.  We saw fish busting the surf near the beach at the pier, and Roosevelt inlet has them on the beach side.  Broadkill river is still hot and heavy.  Corby and I finally busted the skunk.  Recently when we are fishing together we don’t catch any fish.  Yesterday we made up for that with several that we kept and close to fifty released.  Big thanks to Joe at Lewes Harbour Marina for cleaning the fish and the sashimi treat, that volcano sauce was smokin!  Good thing he doesn’t have beer on tap we never would have left, and the fish cleaning bill would have been ridiculous.  If it weren’t for paperwork I would be out there today and I am hearing I need to get to the inlet for some hot blues action that just hit there according to Clark at Old Inlet Bait and Tackle.

The inland bays have been warming up fast with a temperature difference of almost ten degrees the last few days.  At high tide it was fifty-five degrees and sixty-five degrees at low tide.  This warm weather is heating up the water.  Rehoboth bay is chock full of large bluefish, but these warm temps will push them out eventually.  The harbor yesterday was fifty-six degrees and fifty-four in the morning.  It will not be long now and they will head further north, but when that happens is beyond me, the ocean is still cool enough for them to hang around.  We are hoping to see them on the beaches heavily this weekend for the tournament.   You are going to need steel leaders and bucktails to land these slammers, they will hit anything from metals, to top water plugs, to hot dogs on a hook.

 Normally there are striped bass mixed in with these slammer bluefish, but that has not been the case this run.  We have been hoping to see more striped bass show up as the shad got thicker in the inlet.  There have been very few keepers caught from the inlet, but they are showing up in the surf in assateague.  A few keepers is not a blitz but does constitute that they are starting to show up from the Chesapeake.  The Delaware Bay striped bass will move soon the temperatures up north are climbing but not as fast as the inland bays.  Port Penn bait and Tackle and Smiths bait and Tackle has reported some nice catches the past few days.  The fish are moving farther south in the Big D everyday, then they will head north for the summer.  I would tell you about the rest of the fishing out there but everyone seems to only care about two things …. when will the stripers get here and how long will the blues be here.  Best answer is when it happens.  We have good temperatures and a lot of food out there. Shad at the inlet are huge.  Black drum action is still good in the Delaware Bay and bay beaches.  Tautog is heating up but closes on the 11th of May.  Check out our Business Directory Bait Shops list for a store near you,and our Charter Section if you need to find a boat for hire.

Paperwork is done, time to go find Jeff on the Addicted Outcast and get in some time.

Fish On!!

Rich King