Rocking the rail on the bluefish blitz

The last few nights the bluefish have been lighting up the Indian River Inlet on the outgoing tide.  It has been surreal to experience according to many that have seen this for the first time.  Mike and Gary Basehore had the best weekend fishing ever.  They were just bubbling with excitement when they told me about the blitz.  I am glad they came down, and had an excellent weekend.  Dave LeCates was hitting shorties on the rail, said the bait fish were just thick out there, and hard to compete with.  That has been the hardest part about fishing this year, competing with natural food.  “Kirsten Bare caught her first fish ever, a 20” striped and then got a blue at Bubblegum.” … from Paul, whom had to catch a bigger fish to show up the student.  Nice hit Kirsten, and welcome to the Inlet.  The storm yesterday was supposed to pummel us, it came in hard and fast, then left with hardly a drizzle and gust.  Once the rain past, john said the inlet was eerily calm.  The Delaware Bay here on Broadkill Beach, was the same, and the white caps were gone.  Strange day yesterday, waiting for a storm.  I wanted to take the Jackson Cuda Kayak for a spin, but the winds were pushing waves perpendicular to the beach.  Did not look like a fun day of sand blasting, and fighting the wind.  Speaking of which, this weekend is looking like a lot of rain, so keep that in mind during your travels.

Jason Duncan was fishing the point this weekend.  He emailed me earlier in the week and asked where would be the best place to fish.  A lot of you “kids” keep emailing me, and asking that, my answer … “Fish where you are the most comfortable, read the last few days to a week on the site, and decide from there.  Remember the weekends are always crowded so get to your spots early.  If your bringing first timers that get bored or distracted easily, go to Cape Henlopen, you have more options.”  That is my standard answer and it will abide all.  Jason did very well this weekend in the surf.  I honestly think this is the best report anyone has sent me … “Quick trip to Herring Point in Cape Henlopen State Park turned out to be a great day.  We started a little later than I wanted to but with both of us coming off night shift we got down to the surf as quick as we could.

Already had a box of squid as well as some frozen bunker so this trip we didn’t have to stop for bait, we were all set for the afternoon. Since it was a weekday we pretty much had the entire beach to choose from. We arrived at Herring Point about 11am. We set up all three rods a little different. One with a top and bottom rig, one w/ a blue fish rig, and one w/ a lighter rig w/ circle hooks. We used various size pieces of bait and cast out various lengths. Squid seemed to be the best for us, that was until I changed out one of the rigs for a white gulp rigged on a white ¼ oz jig head. On the Squid we caught several small croaker sizing between 6-10 inches. My wife Jessica caught one small Spot also on squid on the blue fish rig. Just about as the tide went slack is when I started messing with the white gulp. It was an immediate success. First cast I let it sit on the bottom for a few minutes and with one twitch scored a small flounder. A few casts later I was into the Red Drum. They ranged in size between 13-20 inches. I wish I had started out w/ the gulp sooner. Tried a silver spoon w only a hit or two, nothing landed. Looking forward to my next trip down, I’ll definitely be leading off with the white gulp. No need for rod holders in the sand. Hold on to your rod, those holders are just missed hits and a way to feed the fish LOL!  Overall it was a fantastic 5 hours of fishing. Special credit to the Delaware Surf Fishing page, Rich King, and Rich Moerman for the tips!   Jason thanks for the excellent report buddy, and glad you had such success.  On a side note, this is not a spot burn, this is a “what I used and worked” report.

I received an email from a friend, about some of the fish that are moving up north.  Bluefish are starting to get bigger for the boys about 60 miles above Delaware … “FYI, just got off the phone moments ago with a gillnetter in NJ. He had 3K lbs of blues in the 18-20lb class < 1/2 mile of the beach about 50 miles N of Cape May today. He said the blues were hogs and were choked with bait and slowly making their way down the beach under the birds. Time to start looking…..feel free to post this but just remove me from the equation. It is as solid as the dope comes. We should see those fish in a week or two. Very good sign.”  Thank you for that information sir, and this is a very reliable source gang, you can believe that. Start getting that gear ready to rock, (pun intended).  Farther up north, some friends are hammering large striped bass, and the fish would appear to be moving a bit, not running, but definitely getting stirred up.  The air temps are dropping at night, and the water is cooling off, fish come soon.  The striper tournaments this year should be a blast.  We will let u know how they are going with updates.  Sign up today for Rick’s Striper-gaza in Long Neck, DE and Bill’s Sport Shop’s Striped Bass Tournament with Irish Eyes of Lewes, DE, come hungry for that one.  If you want to know what events we are promoting, go to our Special Events page.

Fish On!!

Rich King