Capt. Jack: Blues stay hot, after slow drum season

"Guard against the impostures of false patriotism." — George Washington

"True patriotism isn't cheap.  It's about taking on a fair share of the burden of keeping American going." — Robert Reich

"There is nothing wrong with American that can't be solved with what is right with America." — Bill Clinton

Incredibly, improbably, imperceptivity — Memorial Day has crept up on us again. Perhaps it's because I have a little more water under the keel, a little more gray (OK, a lot more) in what hair is left under that hat, but time just seems to fly by anymore. 

Perhaps, too, it's because the boat has been offline that it seems that the drum season has whizzed right by as well. Perhaps that's because many folks just simply can't get out. The weather the past few May's, the traditional heart of the drum action, have been simply hellacious weather-wise. Untold bushels of surf clams, ordered with images of starry May nights spent on the mirrored surfaced Delaware Bay have ended up on countless Sunday afternoons after another weekend blowout. Sad to say that this coming holiday weekend has all the earmarks of yet another. But simply not getting out isn't the only hurdle the modern drum angler faces.

One is the sheer fact that we fish for them. Back in the not too distant past, we here on the Delaware side of the bay didn't really fool with them. I mean, tiderunner trout were a cast away and if they didn't always eat all that better were sure a lot more likely to hit a bucktail. They were plentiful, pretty and you didn't need bait-any old purple worm would do.

Now, the past decade and a half have seen a real upswing in angler effort for the big boomers on both the recreational and commercial side. With the dearth of anything else to fish for there really isn't, as with the tautog, anything else to fish for right now. The godsend of big blues locally has saved quite a few trip and, probably all told, some drum.

Truth is that for some reason we haven't had the drum we normally have this season, and we didn't really last year, either. Perhaps, it's the beach replenishment projects smothering the benthic zones of local ecosystems, displacing or destroying the bottom feeding food sources. Then, too, any sentient person can connect that fact that food sources such as razor clams or blue mussels, drum candy for sure, live on the bottom and darn sure can't run away from a dredge.  So these food sources as well as worm colonies can easily be disrupted or damaged by whelk and crab dredges. The consensus reality among many is that they and other benthic environments are damaged in just such a way which of course results in disruption of fish species dependent on them, such as summer flounder, weakfish and black drum, among others. 

Whatever the reason, whether the water quality, or the bottom quality, the lousy weather, the drumbeat this year has been a desultory "tap" instead of a resounding "boom." Again.

Other news is far more upbeat with the banner bluefish blitz still in force. This fish, too, are stubbornly staying in a historically unorthodox pattern and staying pretty close to the Harbor of Refuge. There have also been some fish scattered to and fro up and down the beach, but the fish have stayed around the Harbor for the most part. You have to put your time in where they are and, if you have better luck than I most of the time, sooner or later the roulette ball will drop on your number.

Bass and blues have been the catch for most of the charter fleet as well. Being drumless near drum grounds many have turned their trips to the blues. Sea bass action has been good, too, for boats working the offshore artificial reef sites. Capt. Carey Evans on the Grizzly reports good action on both bass and blues for his patrons on recent trips.

Finally, the Joe Morris Canal Flounder tourney was held May 19. The top finishers and fish weights were Jesse Steele, 4.30 pounds, Jim Zato 4.10 pounds, Harry Neiman 3.93 pounds, Dan Lewis, 3.78 pounds, Ken Robinson 3.43 pounds, Keith Sherman 3.38 pounds and Jonathan Daniels 3.37 pounds. Combined tourney proceeds and donations came in well over $10,000.

Reports, comments or questions to captjackrodgers@comcast.net