Delaware Surf Fishing Report April 22, 2022

Time to hit that twenty four hour soak, the chessy girls are arriving

The weather snapped and tried to kill us, but the fishing only dropped a bit for a couple of days. It hadn’t really amped up heavily yet, but even the south slowed down.
It is back on track. Fish on the “run”, really don’t care at that point. They either slow down or plow on through. These fish are on the spawn run, not much is going to stop them They can’t hit a holiday inn Express for a couple days. The ocean is a violent place to live, food or feed, you are both. Few are at the top of that chain.

The water temperature of the Delaware river crashed from the snow storm and rain. That is already back on track and that striped bass action up there on bloodworms is still fire. Make sure you know the Striped Bass Spawning Season Regulations For Delaware The commercial guys are already done with striped bass for the season most have moved to bunker and crabs.
The Black Drum action should be picking up soon it has been very random catches Delaware bay beach and Jersey side. The bay beaches are a little grassy, clogging up lines, and gear.

Water temperatures crashed around the inland bays as well. Masseys dropped a few degrees on the cold side (slope) but really dropped about six degrees on the warmer side at low tide. The fact the temperature only went two degrees below the past weeks’ lowest is good news. It is just a little chilly now, but not too cold for action, and warming back up quickly over this weekend. We don’t want it to warm up too fast.

Nowcast Water Surface Temperatures For The Delaware Bay And Coast Check the live surface water temperatures for the Delaware and Chesapeake bays.

Links To Look Up Atlantic Coast And Bay Water Temperatures These are the sites that you want to pay attention to for temperature data for planning fishing trips.

Some of the Chesapeake striped bass migration is spawning out and heading into the ocean. Not all of them at once, don’t get excited some are still running to spawn. The run comes in waves, pun intended. Bunker chunks, or clam are the best baits to soak for striped bass. The clam is a bonus for targeting black drum at the same time. The scavengers love cut bait and clam, check your bait often. If you rebait every fifteen minutes you will constantly keep fresh scents in the water. Adding some clam fishbites will help as well.
Assateague Island OSV surf anglers just started catching some migratory bass a few days ago. Dave Moore landed a nice 37 inch striped bass on bunker chunks. Gotta love Dave, one of the best surf anglers out there and my man can’t eat fish. The irony is wild. Fish are like Haahaahaa, now put me back.

A kingfish was caught as well and rumors of a bluefish. The action is random, because you know fishing, this is not blitz conditions, go surf fish, put in time. Maybe you catch, maybe you don’t, but you have to try.
We are hitting the 24 hour anise bunker, Bob The Garbage Man Soak this weekend. White Boots in sand, fish on land.

Skates and doggies are more frequent catches. Start targeting kingfish, and northern puffers. Bloodworms, or Fishbites all of the clam, crab and blood formulas are working, the long lasting and fast acting. The long lasting does just that lasts longer. The fast acting dissolves faster and is designed for cooler water. Sand fleas are in the first eight inches of sand or more, it will be less as the sand warms up through out the day. I’m getting three fleas per four big scoops of sand. Honestly I’m digging as I need sand fleas, that is too much like work. It is faster than standing there with a net for a minute, but that works too. Obviously a sand flea rake, but again, work. Look for birds at the beach to find fish and bait. Birds Find More Than Just Fish.

Flounder are in the Lewes Canal and inland bays real small and very random slow catches. Jimmy at Dan’s Bait and Tackle found a keeper flounder in a commercial crab pot in the Delaware Bay a few days ago. So that is good news. This is all getting started, again put in the time. We have new flounder regulations that will go into effect soon at the moment we are still on 2021 regulations. Delaware Changes Flounder, Scup, And Black Sea Bass Regulations For 2022
The inland bays are going to be messy this year trying to fish and not get hit by credit card captains trying to cross/avoid sand bars.
Tow Boat is going to be busy as all get out on the weekends. The inland bays are really filled in again, not surprised. Bakers channel will be an issue this year too. Be careful out there. Don’t forget your DNREC sandbar permit.

White perch action is still good in all the waterways, but it slowed down a bit. Grass shrimp, minnows, or bloodworms are the best baits. Some short striped bass mixed in with the perch as usual. Since anglers are targeting perch the circle hook regulation for striped bass isn’t an issue. Non Offset Circle Hooks Required For Striped Bass If you are in a closed spawning are make sure you follow those regulations if you are getting striped bass as by catch. You are required to use non offset circle hooks for striped bass in the closed spawning areas. Despite targeting white perch or anything else. It’s possible that would be an enforcement discretion deal, but better to follow that regulation than not. I hear four ounce bucktails work great for striped perch.

The Cape Henlopen Fishing pier is really shoaled in about halfway out or more now. At a dead low tide there is about a foot of water then it increases. The end structure of the old pier is full of short striped bass. Probably flounder laying in there too feeding off the pylons. The later morning incoming tide will help make for a good day at the pier this weekend, I hope. All of the flats are filled in not jsut around the pier. Which has increased the subtle structure and holes around that area. In the picture below you can see the structure. Perfect for fly fishing and wading. Lemonade out of lemons.
If we could just get the Cape Henlopen Fishing Pier rebuilt to the old “T ” then 200 people could fish that place with no problems. The state and surrounding community is losing a lot of money due to that lack of more fishing area. Our fishing license funds can easily be tapped for this project, it is a FISHING PIER. Our money is building the Dobbinsville pier at some point, so yeah, let’s us some for this too.

Early afternoon high tide with a morning low tide. Predawn anglers will have the outgoing tide to fish into the incoming tide. One of my favorite tide cycles to fish. With low tide in the mid to late morning ( 9 am ish). I get up at 5 AM daily by 10 AM I’ve got half a work day in already, two pots of coffee, and I am looking for lunch. So 9 Am to me is late morning.

If you want to do some walking and surf casting there are plenty of new places you could walk on and try. Delaware Walk On Surf Fishing Locations. Do some exploring this time of year on the town beaches. These are all migratory fish, on the move. So you either sit, bait, and wait or cast, look and chase. Either way it is all a lot of fun and a great time at the beach.

Get out and fish.

Target everything.

This time of year you never know what is going to show up next.

FRESH BAIT >>> The Bait shops we work with have most of the fresh baits and are listed below.
Dan’s has … fresh bunker coming today and bloods.
Icehouse has … Fresh bunker, green crabs, bloodworms, sand fleas, eels Frozen clams salted in pints and quarts and 5lb unsalted bags
Lighthouse view has … night crawlers and, minnows
Fenwick Tackle has … fresh bunker coming today
Lead Pot bait and tackle … minnows and night crawlers
Bucks at Assateague has … fresh Clams and bunker and bloodworms
Treading Water has bloodworms and minnows and green night crawlers and nightcrawlers
A Bit More Than Bait and Tackle … nightcrawlers and minnows If you need fresh clams around here,

Dans suggested hit a seafood place for the big chowdah clams by the dozen. Or, get to clammin .. you could hit up Friends Clam and Oysters and see if Steve is getting the chuckle heads

Good luck this weekend fishing!