Post Nor’easter update : beach conditions

The wind is dying down, the storm is gone and the sun came out today.  Finally, we all really missed our normal nice days at the beach.  The water is even getting a little clearer.  It will take a few days for it to really clear up and hopefully the coming rains this weekend will not inhibit that either.  We will have to wait and see.  The parks had to shut down the drive on beaches during the brunt of the storm.  The point in CHSP and 3R’s was opened today.  You can walk on to any other beach.  As soon as the parks have the drive on access ramps clear you will be able to access the rest of beaches with your vehicle.  Many of the drive on access areas were filled in with windblown sand and some were chopped off a bit from high tides. The waves are still stacked out there, but are calming down.  Foam is still being pushed onto the beach, but that has slowed as well.  The “wash” is probably a good 20 yards wide until you get to the first wave.  The beaches for the most part look just like after Hurricane Sandy.  It will take a couple of weeks for the beaches to fill back in and the cuts reestablished.  The fishing will just be different until then.  Boots or waders will be necessary unless you plan on getting wet.  The surf temps have averaged sixty six degrees.  A tad chilly for barefeet but with the nice weather we are seeing now it is bearable.  Ladies it is a beach comber’s delight out there, I found a lot of sea glass in minutes of hitting the sand.  Low tide is your best bet, and that will be early in the morning this week into the late morning.

DSSP, CHSP, and FI were all effected about the same as far as beaches washing out and will fill back.  Beach Plum Island and Broadkill beach were flattened out a good bit as well.  The replenishment at the north beach near IRI helped save the bridge area.  Now there will need to be some serious consideration to fix the jetty or come up with a long term solution.  One more storm like that and the sand will erode away.  This storm was a typical Nor’easter, except for the fact it sat on top of us and hammered the county for six days.  Not the typical time frame we are used to seeing.  The Northern bay beaches such as Bowers Beach faired okay but took a beating.  The breach at Fowlers Beach is even worse now and that needs to be addressed soon, not a year from now.  We traveled north over the weekend and the farther north the less damage and flooding occurred.  The Delaware Bay definitely was higher than normal as was the bay.  The winds were relentless.  All in all it was not so bad, some damage occurred in Sussex county from high winds and flood waters, but nothing we are not accustomed to.  Fishing was impossible from the surf, casting was not happening.  Holding bottom would have been impossible save for using cinder blocks.  The inlet and back bays were not too bad to fish, but the fish were not very active.  A few toggers got lucky and the Indian river inlet, and possibly a few shorty striped ass.  The water looked like grey chocolate milk.  I watched a guy catch a catfish at Woodland Beach on Saturday.

This afternoon a few small blue fish were caught at Beach Plum Island and skates.  Mullet chunks and squid were the baits.  A decent flounder was caught at the Henlopen pier today as well (Monday).  On Friday a few die hards, or crazy guys, depending on how you look at it, picked up a few snapper bluefish at the Cape Henlopen fishing pier when I dropped by there to check beach conditions.  The point was covered with a foot of water for most of the weekend.  A few folks I know tried to go out there, but the wind made casting a chore and a half.  All in all an interesting weekend, and we will see how the fishing does over the next few days.  The Indian River Inlet still looks cloudy as does the back bays and Massey’s Landing.  Roosevelt Inlet always looks stirred up, and everything should go back to normal in a couple of days.  There is still a lot of water that has to drain out of the bays.  Hopefully mother nature gave us a good cleaning.  I don’t think any fish were blown in so to speak, they would have to be out there to get pushed this way.  We will probably go right back to where we left off last week.  Tog, triggers, sheepshead, and some keeper stripers at the walls in the Delaware bay.  Tog at IRI and Massey’s Landing.  Huge spot all over the place, monster croaker when you can catch them.  Some decent trout here and there, shorty striped bass everywhere, as well as small blues.  Hoping the blues get bigger, a few schools of larger ones moved through the inlet last week.  I bought an array of new spoons and plugs at Tackle Direct this weekend to try out, and we will see how much of it I manage to feed the rockpile at IRI.  I will keep you updated over the next few days, we have all been dying to get a line wet.  For now it is back to work, and fish in the evenings, the best of both worlds.

Fish On!!

RIch King