🛒 Delaware's first Grocery Outlet is opening soon. Here's what we know
OUTDOORS

Fishing: Get those lines wet, the best time of year is coming

CAPT. JACK RODGERS
DELMARVANOW CORRESPONDENT
Capt. Jack Rodgers

“By all these lovely tokens September days are here, With summer's best of weather And autumn's best of cheer.” — Helen Hunt Jackson

“It is September, the month of the great fish….” — Ernest Hemingway, "The Old Man and the Sea"

Can it really be? Labor Day weekend is upon us as incredible as it seems. Labor Day was always bittersweet for most folks. The air has a little more autumn tang to it and every now and again when you look out over the autumn sea, you see a skittering mullet arrow out, glistening silvery in the sun.

The mullet are one of the feature attractions to the end of summer. They will wend their way down south along the beach and the blues will be right on their tails. All up and down the coast anglers will be out in force along the shoreline participating in the annual tradition that is surf fishing along the lower Delaware coast.

Boat anglers, too, embrace autumn warming up in the wings with some of the best angling of the season. As the calendar changes to September, there is great reason for optimism

“There are more flounder around, it seems, than at any point in the season,” said Capt. Rick Yakimowicz aboard the all-day headboat out of Fisherman’s Wharf in Lewes. 

“Places where we haven’t had fish all season are now there in numbers. I’m sure that this latest blow will shuffle the deck some, but we are really thinking that we will have these fish for another month or so to work on.”

Sea bass too, have made a showing. Fishermen are reporting some nice chunky bass while fishing for flatties along the drop-offs, reefs and wrecks along the shipping approaches. 

Up in shark bay, more and more blues are starting to show heralding the fall fishing season. 

There have been a smattering of reports of croakers as long as foot-long though I personally have not seen one that large in the bay proper in years (we did, a few years ago, have a bunch of them that size up in the river, and last year in the canal).  This year, though, the bay fish we have seen have been like potato chips with fins.

Hope you had a safe and happy Labor Day weekend! Get out there and wet a line. The best time of year is coming right up!

Comments, questions or reports to captjackrodgers@comcast.net