SPORTS

Blues are in the surf, rockfish continue to bite

Jeffrey Taviano
The News Journal

OCEAN

Tog action continues to improve. Good catches of tog were reported at Site 10 and 11. Randy Ewing fished aboard the Katydid. The boat hauled in its limit of tog at an ocean structure using green crab. Short rockfish and dogfish have been the main game at the Indian River Inlet. A few keeper rockfish have been landed at night. The rockfish are being caught on bucktails. Short rockfish were caught in numbers at 3R’s Beach with bloodworm as the most effective bait. Surf fishing at Cape Henlopen has picked up. Wayne Norris Jr. landed a 35-inch 11-pound bluefish at the beach. Keith Sherman reeled in a monster 55-pound black drum using clams.

DELAWARE BAY

The Yellow Can has produced a few keeper rockfish along with Collins Beach. Short rockfish have been caught at Broadkill Beach on bloodworms. The tog bite has picked up at Bowers Beach. The Cape Henlopen State Park fishing pier is now open. Dave Dajewski fished the beach next to the fishing pier and landed a 9, 10, and 11-pound bluefish on cut mullet. Jonah Robertson, Tanner Virden, and Jackson Ostroski landed multiple large bluefish weighing up to 13-pounds 9-ounces near the pier using top water plugs. Jon Robertson and Alex Neiss got in on the bluefish action landing fish up to 15-pounds near the pier on spook lures. Gage Taylor also landed large blues with the largest just shy of 12 pounds. Anglers are catching bluefish from the pier as well using rattle traps. The bluefish were brought into Lewes Harbour Marina. There’s been no shortage of white perch at Woodland Beach. Dominick Vavala weighed in a 1-pound 1-ounce white perch at Captain Bones that he caught at Woodland Beach on bloodworms. Kelly Pyle also brought in a white perch to Captain Bones that was caught at Woodland Beach. It weighed 1-pound 2-ounces and ate a bloodworm.

RIVERS

Ed Thomas hit on nice bluefish at Canary Creek on cut bait. The Roosevelt Inlet and the Broadkill River are loaded with bluefish. I fished Augustine Beach back to back days and had two completely different experiences. One day I was hooking large white perch, and short stripers on every cast, and the next I struggled to catch a handful of small white perch. The one common denominator was that bloodworm was the bait of choice for everything. Most anglers came up empty handed in search of keeper rockfish at Augustine. Not even a tap on bunker. Nick Ash fished the Delaware River near the Power Lines and reeled in a bunch of catfish along with a few eels. Large stripers are being caught on the outgoing tide in the evening at Dobbinsville, Battery Park, and at Fox Point, however, all stripers caught above the canal must be released. More big catfish were weighed in at Taylored Tackle. Johnathan White landed a 10-pound 1-ounce blue catfish on the Nanticoke while fishing with cut bait. James Blackburn also brought in a nice 14-pound 4-ounce catfish caught in the same place. There are a lot of short rockfish up to 22 inches being caught in the Nanticoke especially around the Woodland Ferry. However, all rockfish caught in the Nanticoke must be released. White perch have been biting on bunker up and down the Delaware River, and its tributaries with bloodworm as the top bait. I also fished White Clay Creek and landed a 2-pound 12-ounce citation rainbow trout on my first cast of the morning. It seemed as if everyone was filling their stringers at Thompsons Bridge with both rainbows and brown trout. I was using a mix of PowerBait, and a rooster tail. More trout citations were brought into Eastern Marine. Jeff Callahan pulled in a 3 pounder using a pin's minnow at White Clay. Bernadette Craig landed a 2-pound 6-ounce rainbow at White Clay on a trout magnet, and John Williams got in on the trout action as well at White Clay with a 2-pound 11-ounce rainbow caught on orange PowerBait. A large 11-pound 14-ounce musky was brought into Masterbaiters Bait & Tackle that was caught in the tidal section of the Brandywine River.

PONDS

Saturday, April 22: Casting with Cops will take place at Glasgow Regional Park between 10 a.m., and 2 p.m. There will be various fishing-related activities and demonstrations from the Mount Patrol and K9 units. For details visit www.nccde.org/specialevents. The crappie bite is still hot. Bellevue State Park Pond is another one that is producing crappie. Darrell Riley Sr. landed a citation black crappie at Silver Lake in Dover. He brought the fish into Captain Bones where it weighed 1-pound 9-ounces. Riley Sr. also caught catfish and white perch, all on minnows. Mike and Barb Trexler fished McGinnis Pond on the spillway side and pulled in yellow perch, and pickerel on minnows. John Hinckle brought in citation crappie to Eastern Marine that he caught at a private pond using a shad dart tipped with a nightcrawler under a bobber. Largemouth bass in the 2-4 pound range are biting at night at Becks Pond. Senkos have worked the best.

Email your fishing info and fishing photos to jtaviano@delawareonline.com or tweet @JeffreyTaviano.