Great Weekend Of Fishing

This weekend was decent fishing up and down the state. It is great to see people getting out and getting some air. Social Distancing is occurring in the fishing community, none of us want to fish next to anyone anyway. From freshwater to saltwater there were a lot of people enjoying themselves. We have a few days of warm weather like today and warmer, then a cold snap is coming.

The surf has been good action for short striped bass and of course skates and dogfish. More people are seeing short bass thanks in part to using sand fleas or Fishbites bloodworm formula. The scavengers don’t hit those baits as much as they do with cut bait like squid or bunker chunks. The red packaged Fishbites work better this time of year they dissolve faster and work well in colder water.
Small pieces of Fishbites are your best bet to extend the life of the package. Last year the Lighthouse View Bait and Tackle crew did a comparison of Fishbites versus bloodworms. There was a lot of space on the beaches for the surf anglers to spread out and fish. Michael Berg … “There are maybe ten trucks out here and I can barely see half of them. I used my range finder and the closest one is a hundred and forty-one yards away.” Not a bad idea to take a range finder to measure that required sixty foot distance between vehicles.

The water ways had some boats here and there, lot of anglers on the Broadkill river catching perch with bloodworms or grass shrimp. We tried Oyster Rocks for a while but came up donuts. I did get a good shot of an osprey snatching a fish. Some decent sized perch, several citations here and there.
A few boats went by while we were there this afternoon for a couple of hours, shore anglers would come and go.
The Indian River Inlet had a decent crowd, and everyone was social distancing just fine.
Again, anglers like space and we are good at creating that space. With everything going on it is rather advantageous, social distancing is good for fishing. The inlet is producing tautog, and short striped bass for the most popular catches. Night fishing has been good for the short bass action. Throwing small white surf bullets, or flies with a popping rig. Sand fleas will work “fleaing” for bass. You just need a bucket full of fleas from the beach.

Up north the Delaware River is producing some nice keeper striped bass as well as short bass. White perch are also the hot catch. Bloodworms for the white perch and short bass, bunker chunks for the big bass. A large bass this time of year will take a whole or half bloodworm. Boat fishing has been producing the large bass, but pier fishing has seen some keepers caught in the past weeks.

The freshwater action around the area has been great. There seems to be a lot of people fishing more today than ever. A store in Milford said they sold more licenses today than they ever had. People are finding fishing as a great way to get out, social distance, and enjoy the outdoors. Anglers are catching bass, catfish, perch, crappie, bluegills and pickerel. Nice mixed bag for a day on the water.
Trout are still being caught in the northern rivers, no idea when DNREC will do another stocking.

It is really good to see everyone out fishing and getting some air. We all could use a deep breath right about now. As long as people social distance they can easily fish and enjoy the outdoors. I rarely see anyone when I am at the beach this time of year. Keep to the surf fishing restrictions if you do go to the beach. The rangers are enforcing these new rules.

Stay safe and don’t touch your face.

Fish On!
Rich King