Herring Are Running And Striped Bass Are Hitting

The warm weather has triggered a lot of fishing action.  Crab pots are now legal to put in the water and in some shallow water areas you could actually catch some on the warmer days around the inland bays and tidal creeks.  Snakeheads are hitting, but that may shut down with the coming colder weather.  Friday and Saturday night’s lows are going to be twenty-five degrees.  Old man Winter will be fighting to stay regardless of the crazy warm February spring we just had.  There are trees and flowers blooming all over Sussex county.  Meanwhile in the tidal creeks and rivers the herring are running so thick in some areas you could walk across the water on them.  “I haven’t seen herring this thick in a long time and they are very early” said one angler while we were fishing along the bank of the Nanticoke river.

Bunker are being caught by netters up north, as far up as Augustine Beach and as far south as Bowers.  They are also catching rockfish or striped bass up to ten pounds from Augustine to Slaughter Beach.  I know a few guys hitting the banks of the Delaware bay and river catching a lot of short striped bass.  Bloodworms are the ticket for this time of year.  Mike Eckert and I journeyed up north yesterday to fish Augustine beach and Reedy Point.  We were using bucktails and plugs, because we wanted to check some areas out and it was just easier than carrying bait.    Jason Schuster caught a fat bullhead cat at Augustine on bunker chunks.  Port Penn bait and tackle has fresh bunker if you are looking for it.  Bernard and his crew were slamming short striped bass on bloodworms from the banks near Augustine to Port Penn area.  I have seen bass caught as far up as Philadelphia.  These are nice looking fat schooling bass moving up river for the spawn.  The striped bass spawning regulations don’t start until April first.  The Chesapeake bay is already closed in many areas for striped bass fishing.  They have their own spawning regulations.

The wind we are going to see the next few days will cause some serious blow out tides.  The canals and tidal creeks were really low this morning.  The northwest winds will calm down by Sunday, but until then it will be pretty heavy out there.  Today is especially going to be bad with a gale warning until four this afternoon, and yesterday was no picnic either.  Hard to walk a jetty in twenty mile per hour winds, almost went swimming twice.

Fish On!

Rich King

Marine Forecast … 

COASTAL WATERS FROM CAPE MAY NJ TO CAPE HENLOPEN DE OUT 20 NM-
COASTAL WATERS FROM CAPE HENLOPEN TO FENWICK ISLAND DE OUT 20 NM-
928 AM EST THU MAR 2 2017

...GALE WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 4 PM EST THIS AFTERNOON...

.REST OF TODAY...NW WINDS 25 TO 30 KT WITH GUSTS UP TO 40 KT...
DIMINISHING TO 15 TO 20 KT WITH GUSTS UP TO 30 KT. SEAS 4 TO 7
FT...SUBSIDING TO 3 TO 5 FT LATE. MAINLY IN W SWELL WITH A
DOMINANT PERIOD OF 5 SECONDS.
.TONIGHT...NW WINDS 15 TO 20 KT...DIMINISHING TO 10 TO 15 KT
LATE. SEAS 2 TO 4 FT. MAINLY IN NW SWELL WITH A DOMINANT PERIOD
OF 4 SECONDS.
.FRI...W WINDS 5 TO 10 KT...BECOMING NW 15 TO 20 KT WITH GUSTS UP
TO 30 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. SEAS 3 TO 5 FT. MAINLY IN W SWELL WITH
A DOMINANT PERIOD OF 6 SECONDS.   A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
.FRI NIGHT...NW WINDS 20 TO 25 KT WITH GUSTS UP TO 35 KT. SEAS
3 TO 5 FT. MAINLY IN NW SWELL WITH A DOMINANT PERIOD OF
5 SECONDS.   A CHANCE OF SHOWERS EARLY IN THE EVENING.
.SAT...NW WINDS 15 TO 20 KT WITH GUSTS UP TO 30 KT. SEAS 3 TO
4 FT.
.SAT NIGHT...N WINDS 15 TO 20 KT WITH GUSTS UP TO 30 KT. SEAS
3 TO 4 FT.
.SUN...N WINDS 10 TO 15 KT...BECOMING NW 5 TO 10 KT IN THE
AFTERNOON. SEAS 2 TO 3 FT.
.SUN NIGHT...SW WINDS 5 TO 10 KT. SEAS 2 TO 3 FT.