There Was A Disturbance In The Surf Monday

May The Fish Be With You, has come and gone. We didn’t get to have the tournament this past weekend. It was rescheduled to May 30th, but that isn’t looking too good either. We miss everyone and hope this all ends soon, but for now at least we have limited restricted access to the surf to fish for food. Yesterday was a good day for a few anglers, as was the weekend.
One of my issues with all of this going on is doing fishing reports, getting people all fired up and crowding an area. We are keeping locations to the bare minimum for that reason. “The fish are in the water, there are no fish in the ocean”

Pufferfish have been a popular catch and random action on all beaches. The incoming tide seems to be the preferred tide. Fishbites, clam and squid have been the best baits. Sand fleas are working for the occasional drum. Surf calm is in some shops you have to call ahead to find out. There are sand perch in the surf too, great for bait.

Tim Dale was surf fishing yesterday and nailed a thirty-eight inch striped bass. He caught it on a DS Custom Tackle top and bottom rig with Fishbites bloodworm formula. “I was all set up for small fish and this happened. I had some Tic Tac sized pieces of Fishbites bloodworm on my top and bottom rig. I am still shaking from this catch. She was released and swam away just fine since she was out of the slot or she would have made the table.”

More bait shops are open; Fenwick Tackle opened over the weekend and so did Dan’s Tackle Box. “We are going to give it a go and see how it pans out, people are calling for bait and gear.”

Indian River Inlet is producing tautog, but they are small with a few keepers, the boats are doing much better. Still no charters or head boats only private boats are going out. That will change eventually. I would not count on the May 15th date for things like that to open in Delaware. Based on the latest news as far as opening in phases. This has all been surreal and crazy.

Short striped bass action has been good at the beaches and Indian River inlet and inland bays. Founder action is slow but people are catching some keepers. The Cape henlopen pier has some decent flounder action already.
Virginia’s flounder catches are increasing daily. That will start happening here soon. This weekend’s cold weather is going to be an issue. The water temperatures are in the lower sixties around the inland bays and upper fifties for the surf and Delaware Bay. Check the coastal water temperature site from NOAA.

Stay safe and smart out there.


Surf anglers we are in danger of losing this limited access if people keep breaking those rules. The parks and Secretary of DNREC contacted us yesterday, they are concerned about too many rules being broken. The rangers spent a lot of time this weekend an the past two days writing tickets and throwing people off the beaches. If this continues, it will cause them (DNREC) to completely shut down everything. Follow the rules and we will get past this eventually.