You Don’t Have To Look Too Far To Find Fish In The Surf In Delaware

(June 2019) … Being able to read the beach is key to help find fish, but fish swim, and can be found up and down the beaches. Delaware has a unique set of beaches, the structure is not like other beaches.
The Delaware beaches’ waves break close to shore and the fish are often right there in the “wash”. We call it the wash because it is the area where the water washes back out and stirs up the sand at the ledge or drop off. When you walk into the ocean in Delaware, you will step off a ledge, and in some spots it is foot drop and others it is taller. All along that ledge the sand is like quick sand due tot he water turning it over constantly. Full of food or live critters such as sand fleas, sand and small rocks and shell pieces create the “cloud” you see at the top of cuts and along the ledge. This wave action also polishes sea glass.

That ledge area is where the fish are hanging out, and is not that far off form the dry sand. Just behind where the breaking wave lifts. In the pictures and videos Robby Brown took at Fenwick Island (the town not the park) you can see this area clearly. The stirred up sand shows why this is where fish would congregate for feeding. The sand is all stirred up releasing critters into the water column, especially sand fleas. The sand also confuses the same fish that are feeding and larger predator fish will hunt them. The food chain in motion.

If you stand in a cut area you will feel the water pull along your feet, and you sink in the sand. That action is super powerful for fish and scatters the bait for a hot second. The predators just move along or sit and wait for an easy meal. This si why yo want bai tin that area and on some days you could reach out with your rod and just drop your line.

Ever notice people who don’t cast that far catch more fish? No offense ladies, but the reason you tend to out fish the men is you don’t cast as far. Because the men, for some reason, as soon as they (we) get to the edge and rip that rod, we want to “send it” a country mile. Casting over the fish and out where the “trash” fish hang out, skates, sharks, rays, and dogfish, the scavengers. The other reason fish stay closer to that ledge is structure for protection. Being in the open ocean makes one more of a target for predators. Huddling close to structure to move along the coastline is protection and food is available.

We always say fish a line out far, in close and somewhere in between. Most of the time you’re “in close” rod will catch the most fish. Now there is structure out front like sand bars and what not that form rips to fish as well. They are either close or so far out you do have to cast a country mile. Reading the water or beach for structure is tougher here because it is so subtle. You will find scour holes created by objects stuck in the sand on the bottom. You have to look for changes in surface currents and rips to find these. Dragging a heavy weight across the bottom helps you “feel” the structure in front of you and find holes, small profile sand bars, and ledges.. At beaches like Assateague Island National Seashore the water is much easier to read than Delaware.

Cuts or run outs are deeper than the surrounding area and where you will find fish congregating for food. Rip currents are the most extreme example of a cut. When the water from incoming waves, drains off the beach after washing up and over the sand bars. The water will drain back out from the trough through a cut or run out area. Pulling water with it and creating a “cut” in the sand for the water to drain. You see these after storms, heavily carved into the beach face or profile. That is where you want to fish. You can see the plume of sand as it gets washed out into the water. The rougher the water, the more extreme the cuts will look. During high tide is the easiest time to find these areas, as it more pronounced on the water surface than at low tide. However low tide especially after storms, will show you the beach’s profile under the water at high tide. The dramatic profile form storms is much more subtle once things smooth back out. That profile shifts a bit up or down the beach with the tide, but is usually in the same area.

Next time you are at the beach or can go when there is less of a crowd, sit back and look up and down the beach and you can see these areas. It just takes some getting used to and you will be able to find and catch more fish. Cuts tend to stay in the same areas too, even after storms. If you find a good one that produces catches, remember where it was for that weekend trip. This is why there are spots on all of the beaches that are more popular to fish than others. Some of us may or may not have these cuts on GPS, we used to just mark the dune fence or remember the background. “Meet me at the cut in front of the 14th pole south of the tower, where we caught those fish that day.”
No that spot doesn’t exist.

Fish On!
Rich King

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