Finally, weather smiles and anglers head out on the water in full force
Was anyone paying attention last weekend? Mirabile dictu, a nice weekend! Calm seas greeted anglers up and down the lower Delaware coast, and a nice, sunny Saturday was in the offing for fishermen.
Anglers of every stripe were out in full force from the nearshore ocean, to the offshore tuna grounds, to even up in Shark Bay. Many were able to get in on some action.
Surf anglers on the ocean beaches have picked away at some kingfish, spot and small croakers. The fish have apparently spread up into the lower portion of Shark Bay as well, with anglers catching some from the Cape pier.
Bloodworms, either real of artificial, are an effective way to get in on the action. Small hooks are mandatory as the fish, well, are pretty mixy. Dr. Mark McDaniel worked the sands of Broadkill Beach to put together a catch of snapper blues, some of which were reported to have even been larger than the minnows.
Saturday, we had a nice catch of kings and some small croakers with son Brett “Shattered tackle” Rodgers. On Tuesday, we had Sam Esayed and his wife Asma out for a short charter and they did well with kings as well as a bonus snapper blue.
Small bits of the tons of surf clams left over from the windy “non-spring” spring turned the trick for the kings.
True to its name, Shark Bay was transom deep to a tall boat in sandbar sharks. An incredible amount of these toothy predators are around, with surf anglers in front of the house catching them continuously on dead LOW water.
By the time any actual water showed up they were tired of fishing for them. Small wonder no other fish species were caught.
Nearshore ocean fishing has also seen an uptick. Capt. Mark Steelman was able to take a charter aboard the Lewestown Lady for a limit catch of bass, returning early with a boat full of smiling faces and plenty of great eating.
Capt. Carey Evans on the Lewes charter boat Grizzly also had a super catch of sea bass, with limits for the Dave Washington party last Sunday.
On a busman’s holiday fishing sweet water, Capt. Carey passed along that his son Josh was able to boat and release four citation-sized pickerel, one of which was a strapping 26 inches, while two others taped at 24. Those are northern pike-sized fish!
Capt. Rick Yakimowicz reported that patrons on the all-day head boat out of Fisherman’s Wharf in Lewes have been putting together limit catches of flounder on those rare days that the wind conditions are right.
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The biggest fish have been over 5 pounds. Anglers have also had plenty of action on short flounders, sea bass and some of the biggest sea robins you can imagine. Plenty of catching going on.
Maybe the weather men will grant us a rare two good weekends in a row, but I sure wouldn’t bet on it! Good luck and good fishing!
Reports, comments or questions to captjackrodgers@comcast.net