Bluefish Are In The Delaware Bay

The Bluefish are starting to show up in the Delaware Bay.  At first it was some smaller ones, but the big twelve plus pounders also made an appearance.  On Monday a couple of netters had bluefish at the docks when Smith’s Bait and Tackle was picking up bait.  Rumor has it some black drum were in the nets as well as some weakfish in the five-pound range.  I wouldn’t get too excited about the weakfish that is a unicorn these days in Delaware.

 The drum is exciting news as well, now if the water temperature would jump up a couple of notches and the winds calm down we could get out and do some fishing.  The water is starting to clear up despite the heavy winds and for the most part along the beaches it is just stirred up sand.  Indian River inlet is cleaner on the incoming and chocolate milk on the outgoing tide.  

Short striped bass action is still hot at the beaches, canals, creeks, and bays.  Bloodworms are the hot bait for the shorts and even the big cows up north in the spawning areas.  Bunker is also working well for the big girls.   DNREC is keeping a close eye on our spawning grounds so do not retain any striped bass in the spawning areas. Which is anywhere above the C&D canal south jetty.  The schools of bunker up north are huge and all over the place.  Lot of gannets working the bait schools.

The trout action is still hot in the creeks.  White Clay is producing some monster trout as far as stocked trout size up.   Freshwater action in the ponds has been great, even with the cold snap it has only slacked off a bit.  Fish are hungry and want to feed.  Buddy Cahall watched an osprey on Duck Creek in Smyrna pick up a nice sized pickerel and then struggle with it when the fish decided to bite back.  Buddy said it took the osprey almost four minutes to gain control of the pickerel.   You have to love osprey, they are truly the best fish finders.  

Speaking of which we saw some osprey at the beach today but not the birds, well not the little birds.  These were the big military birds and they ran the beach at Cape Henlopen this afternoon.  We were catching short striped bass on bloodworms, well actually Suzanne was catching the fish, we were casting lures and soaking bunker.  No dice on our rigs and baits but it was a good day at the beach.  Especially before winter sets back in tomorrow.  We were the only trucks on the beach today at Herring Point.

Osprey at Cape Henlopen today

Shad are running the Nanticoke River and showing up at the Concord spillway.  Good to see the shad run in full swing finally.   Won’t belong they will be thick at the Indian River inlet. Shad are a lot of fun to catch on ultralight gear.  The Chesapeake action for striped bass has been off the hook for many anglers.    We have some nasty weather tomorrow and into Sunday.  Hoping the wind slacks off by Tuesday so we can fish calmer seas.  Captain Brent of the Katydid snuck out before the heavy winds a couple of days ago and managed a nice box full of tautog.  One of the fish weighed in at 9.9 pounds.  Old Inlet has green crabs and so does the Oceanic Pier.  Ricks Bait and Tackle has Asian box crabs.  Haven’t seen much tautog action at the Indian River Inlet but it has been pretty rough down there the last several days.

Delaware Surf Fishing State Park surf fishing tags number 24, 99 and 444 went up for auction.  Tag 24 went for $4,000, tag 99 went for $3,000 and tag 444 went for $1,200 at Wilson’s Auction Friday night.

Fish On!!

Rich King