Weekend Outlook For Fishing

 

Yesterday a huge swell showed up and the surfers were in heaven, for hours.  The fishing was nearly impossible in the surf so I checked out the boys catching monster waves.  We have a lot of great surfers in this area.  It was mind numbing to watch some of these monster waves crash onto the shore.  You can see the power and feel it in the ground when they crash.  Two hours before high tide the surf wash was up to the dune base.  The king tides the past few  days kept us off the beaches during high tide.  The water was really dirty with sand yesterday but today was much calmer and has cleared up significantly.  The beaches are a little flatter and there are still swales that fill during high tide so be careful driving and stay out of the wet sand with your vehicles.  The sand bars are still really defined which the surfers are loving as well as the anglers.  You can cast very easily to the back side of the sand bar.  Just look for the spot where the wave starts to lift up, that is the sand bars edge, and is where the fish are hanging out.  The trough that is usually in front of the surf line at your feet is slowly rebuilding, but for the most part is very shallow.  There could easily be fish in there as well.  If you are fishing at high tide wear waders the swales will fill in and walking across them can get deep fast, be careful.

What are King Tides? Everyone keeps asking this question.   A basic definition would be any abnormally high tide, usually attributed to super moons, when the moon is in perigee.  However the actual King Tides are exceptionally high tides that occur twice a year, caused by the gravitational alignment of the earth, sun, and a full moon.  When the moon is in perigee its gravitational pull is the greatest.  Even though the moon has more influence on tides, the sun’s gravity plays a key role in king tides.  When the sun is closest to earth, it creates a peak gravitational pull, known as perihelion.  The earth is closest to the sun every year at the Beginning of January.  Twice a year, the sun, earth and moon are lined up at perigee and perihelion, and the gravitational force is the strongest creating these huge tides (king tides).  When this occurs during bad storms and on shore winds (east) we get even higher tides, such as we saw the past few days.  It is being said that with sea level rise the king tides we see now will be the tides of the future.

 

Fishing has been decent in the surf for bluefish on mullet rigs.  Short striped bass on mullet rigs, bucktails, and chunk bait.  Bloodworms have been decent for striped bass in the surf, and are also catching puppy drum, and kingfish.  There are still sandfleas in the surf but a little farther intot he water on that sand bar.  The striped bass are still feeding in schools waiting to hit the road south.  The first wave of the migratory fish have shown up outside of Seaside heights New Jersey and some early fish have been caught farther south.  Raritan Bay was on fire the last couple of days near Sandy Hook in New Jersey.  The fish will be in Delaware soon enough.  When will they get here and how long they will stay remains to be seen, I remain optimistic.  Meanwhile the resident bass are always fun to catch and schools are moving around the Inland Bays, Lewes Canal, Broadkill River, and Delaware Bay and River.  Some of the fish are finicky about what they will hit and others are not.  Last night the Delaware Jet Ski crew was fishing near slaughter beach and found that only grass shrimp were working.  Down here in the inland bays we are hammering striped bass on swim shads, spoons, and bucktails.  White perch action is hot up north on the upper bay beaches and tidal creeks.  Augustine beach has seen some nice action and the Port Penn area.  Haven’t been up to Woodland Beach in a while, I need to get up there and check that out soon, but there should be some decent action around there.

 

The Indian River Inlet has decent tautog fishing, as well as bluefish and shad.  I believe the green crab shortage is now over, but call ahead to area bait shops to make sure.  The flounder action has been good offshore for several of the charters when they are sea bass fishing.  You can check out the charters in our business directory section of the website.  The tuatgo action at the walls and haystacks was good before the king tides.  The boats didn’t go out the last couple of days, it was right snotty out there, and no one likes to be around people chumming over the side.  This weekend will be good for a boat ride to do some fishing.  The water temperatures are averaging sixty degrees, but will fluctuate with the crazy air temperatures. We keep bouncing around from mid seventy afternoons to as low as the high thirties at night.  Next week we are going to have another warm snap or Indian summer thanks to the El Nino.  These unusually warm temperatures will occur most of the month of November according to some weather experts.  Masseys Landing has fluctuated seven degrees in three days from fifty seven degrees to sixty four degrees.  The Delaware Bay has been holding around sixty degrees for the most part as well as the surf.  The off shore temperature at buoy 44009 is sixty two degrees as I write this report.

Have a good weekend and we will see you at the Boo B Que or in the sandbox.  The numbered Delaware Surf Fishing Tags are starting to go up again in the online auction.  Tomorrow we will see how high number 2 goes for at the live auction.

Fish On!!

Rich King

IRI tides …. 

 

 

 

 

 

Buoy 44009 Data …    

Wind Direction (WDIR):	NW ( 320 deg true )
	Wind Speed (WSPD):	17.5 kts
	Wind Gust (GST):	21.4 kts
	Wave Height (WVHT):	3.9 ft
	Dominant Wave Period (DPD):	10 sec
	Average Period (APD):	4.8 sec
	Mean Wave Direction (MWD):	ESE ( 103 deg true )
	Atmospheric Pressure (PRES):	30.08 in
	Pressure Tendency (PTDY):	+0.08 in ( Rising )
	Air Temperature (ATMP):	56.8 °F
	Water Temperature (WTMP):	62.1 °F
	Dew Point (DEWP):	42.4 °F
	Wind Speed at 10 meters (WSPD10M):	17.5 kts
	Wind Speed at 20 meters (WSPD20M):	19.4 kts