Fishing is getting better in Delaware

Fishing was picking up until the cold snap and then picked up again.  Hoping this rainy warm weather will help bring the temperatures back up.  Masseys Landing has been hitting as high as forty eight degrees today and as low as thirty nine degrees the past few days.  You have to remember that at low tide the back bays are at their highest temperature and the lowest temperature is during the incoming tide.  The colder ocean water cools off the bays, the outgoing tide increases the temperatures.  The fish will bite better this time of year during the warmer temperatures of the outgoing tides and stay nearer the warmer water areas.  There is more food in the warmer water.

White  perch action is hot on bloodworms in all the rivers, tidal streams, cuts and sloughs.  Yellow perch is doing just as well.  The Delaware River along Augustine beach and Woodland pier area have been producing  shorty striped bass and white perch.  All along route 9 the streams and bay beaches are producing fish, the further north you travel it gets better with warmer water.  Everything is hitting bloodworms for the most part.  Carp are hitting too and they are always a blast to catch for a serious tug on a line.  The Nanticoke has been hot for white perch and shorty stripers.   Granted those are all resident rockfish and they will move into the spawning areas soon.  The boys in the Chesapeake have been hammering some very large bass, and soon they will have their own spawning season to deal with.

Remember spawning season for striped bass starts on April first and that ain’t no fools.  The restrictions for spawning season as per DNREC are as follows … ” Striped bass Spawning season … The spawning season for striped bass in Delaware is considered to begin at 12:01 a.m. on April 1 and continue through midnight on May 31 of each calendar year. It is unlawful for any person to take and retain any striped bass during the spawning season from the Nanticoke River or its tributaries, the Delaware River and its tributaries to the north of a line extending due east beginning at and including the south jetty at the mouth of the C & D Canal, or the C & D Canal or its tributaries. Catch and release only during this season; no harvest is allowed.  Circle-hooks …. It is unlawful for any person to fish during the striped bass spawning season on any striped bass spawning ground with natural bait using any hook other than a non-offset circle-hook when said hook measures greater than 3/8 inches as measured from the point of the hook to the shank of the hook.

Our leader for the All Species Fishing Tournament this week is Miss Kylie Payton with 3 fish checked off the list, in one day of fishing the Nanticoke and a few other areas with her brother Robbie, Dad, and Pop pop.  She has caught yellow perch, catfish, and white perch  Way to go Kylie, keep it up kiddo!  The tournament is  eight months long and you can join in at any time.  The crappie bass action has been heating up on minnows or bloodworms.  Some boys I know got into a lot of gizzard shad in Milford fishing the Mispillion River.  Milton park has been producing crappie and large mouth bass.  Hopefully the fishing will just continue to get better as the water gets warmer and warmer.  I am seeing more and more osprey and that is always a great sign.

Fish On!

Rich King

“