Delaware surf fishing the surf in Delaware

Happy May Day!! … The site is back online! (Obviously)  Sorry about that, there shouldn’t be any more problems with servers crashing and bandwidth limits.  Thanks to the boys at Fine Line in Lewes, DE.  DSF is now hosted locally in Delaware!  The email contacts and online store will be operating correctly in a day or two.  All of my emails have been lost due to the last crash, it has been an eventful weekend.  I saw the pink full moon rise, and it was actually pink for the first 30 minutes.  Some of the crew has been fishing all over the place, and I had the time to join them Saturday night.  Jimmy, Ray, Scott, and I fished Herring Point beach north of the towers.  We were playing skate, skate, dogfish, skate, skate … all night long.  I met several people that dropped by to say hello and meet DSF.  Everyone was catching skates and dogs. We even had a skate wash up on the shoreline from a huge wave that surrounded the trucks with water.  We were fishing at night hoping to slam into some striped bass action during the rise of the moon.  The frequency of catches increased, just not the fish we were expecting.  Lots of shorties were caught south of us near the towers that afternoon.  The bay beaches have been slowing down, but still producing.  The big news is weakfish are showing up on the Delaware bay beaches.  The boys who caught them were geared for flounder.  Bunker chunks, minnows, and gulp have produced a 7 pound and 5.5 pound weakfish from the surf.  The Cape Henlopen pier has been producing flounder, shorty striped bass, and bluefish.  That is a great area to do a little kayak fishing.  Tautog are starting to show in large numbers and good sizes at the Indian River Inlet and outer wall.

Beach Plum Island has been producing the occasional big drum, shorty striped bass, bluefish, and a few puffer fish.  Tim Gola caught a turtle the other day, and it was released safely.  The animal was snagged in his line.  Kristen Kemper has been hitting the surf  here and there, sporting her new pink DSF hoodie.   Delaware Seashore State park was hot all weekend for shorty striped bass, kingfish, dogfish, skates, and a few blue fish.  There are puffer fish everywhere, and in large numbers, please be responsible when keeping a few of these.  Last year I saw a boat with six, five gallon buckets full of puffers.  We do not need to go ballistic out there, and keep every single fish.  Maybe we need a creel limit on puffers.  A sand tiger shark was caught on the beach Sunday afternoon.  The shark was not removed from the water and released correctly.  The folks that caught the shark were surprised. They knew it was a sand tiger from the tell tale mouthful of teeth pointing in every direction.

The weekend was beautiful and people were fishing all over the place.  Bunker, bloodworms, and clam have been the choice baits.  Gulp is starting to work as well for flounder.  A few folks tried their hands at fly fishing the surf.  Striped bass are still up north in large numbers, but just this weekend, big cows have been caught in the Delaware Bay on our side and Jersey.  They will run in full force very soon and head north, everyone is still talking about the spring run a few years ago.  When 300 people were shoulder to shoulder at the North rail of the Indian River Inlet.  That was some crazy fishing, and just as fun to watch as it was to catch.  There were so many boats out there you could barely see the horizon.  When the fish came in rods would start to bend all the way down the rail, like dominoes.  I watched a guy limit out in 30 seconds, and then give his buddy his space at the rail.  I don’t know if we will see a run like that again, but we can always dream.  The Indian River Inlet is always an interesting place to visit.  You never know what is going to pop up, yesterday I was taking shots of the waves, and an osprey.  I looked to my left, and saw my first diamond back terrapin, digging into a sand embankment.  I see them all the time popping their heads up in the water, I have never seen one in the wild up close.  Seeing things like this make you realize just how lucky we are to live here, and that we need to take care of these waters.

In a few days when the online store is back up and running there will be a new feature.  We are now offering fishing classes, brought to you by Ray Hibbs owner of Long Neck Outfitters.  You will be able to learn how to fish the surf, rocks, rails, piers, and the bays.  Kayak fishing lessons are also available.  We will have in house classes for gear, bait, etc. etc.  DSF and LNO will have all the gear you need to learn, just show up, ready to learn.  Many have asked DSF to provide lessons, and I have come to realize I can not do all of these things by myself.  Ray Hibbs has offered to take over the fishing lessons division of the company to free my time up for other interests.  I will be there from time to time teaching classes, or just hanging out, and fishing.  His first set starts this weekend, and like always I product test services.  This Saturday Ray has to teach me how to fish, I plan on being a total Noob!  I can’t wait for this weekend, I am going to have so much fun trying to drive him nuts.  Guided tours of our area will also be available soon, as well as surf fishing excursions for groups.  The Black Pearl designated driver service will be providing the transportation for these events.  I will announce the details as soon as the online store is back on track.  Thank you all for your support, it has truly been a pleasure working for you.

Fish On!!

Rich King