Windy weekend made for poor fishing

The past week was decent fishing, even in the surf.  Some redfish on spoons and plugs, and several shorty striped bass from the beach.  Still smaller blues in the surf and some decent sizes at Indian River Inlet.  A few ling cod and spot were caught in the surf as well.  Mullet chunks and bunker have done good for catching.  The smaller fish are being picked up in small cut bait chunks and bloodworms.  Fishbites is still working, but that will not continue much longer as the water temperatures drop.  The water temps were in the 59 degree range average for the Delaware bay and upwards of 61 in the surf.  The water was cleaning up and looking good.  Until Friday when we were hit with heavy winds from the Westerly direction.  There was a blow out tide in the back bays and even the Delaware Bay.  Roosevelt inlet was still losing water well after low tide was over and switched to the incoming.  That was some strong wind.  Friday was decent casting, but the fish were just not around.  Even the tautog seemed to disappear, and the frequency of catches subsided.  Wind can be a real problem when it pushes water away from our coast and out of the bays.  The fish tend to follow the water and the food.  There were many skates and dogfish caught this weekend in the surf.  Compared to the the past week, very few fish were landed.  That is not to say the fishing was bad, you just had to go find the fish.  By go, I mean get on a boat, and look for them.  Even my normal fun spots in the back bays from shore were bleak.  The boys up north near Reedy Point, Dobbinsville, and Augustine beach have been doing well on shorts and occasional keepers.  A lot of catfish are being caught.  The Delaware bay is producing a decent amount of keeper striped bass as well.  Mostly casting or trolling lures.  Bunker chunks have produced nice fish.  I haven’t fished in a few days, I blew my shoulder out at work and it is all I can do to type this report.  Casting is excruciating, but I will be back in action soon enough.    Sorry this is such a short report, but typing is a sore chore.  Hope everyone had a good weekend despite the lack of fish, we did have seventy degree temperatures on Saturday … in November!  It was beautiful out there, and just nice to be able to play in the sand for some families.  The trees are almost done turning colors and the yellows, oranges, and reds are great looking contrasted by the green pines in our forests.  There were a lot of people watching the Punkin Chunkin, now if we could use one of those cannons on the beach then we could get some distant.  We will see how things change as the winds shift this week.  We need more of an easterly blow to get fish to our shoreline.

Fish On!!

Rich King