Article by Capt. BJ Pietryak
Another winter fades into the past as a new season of summer arrives. The past winter was a very mild one and spring came early. Everything seems to be ahead of schedule compared to past years. Tog are being caught on most wrecks with tons of out of season sea bass as a by catch. On the beaches, as well as Delaware Bay, black drum are showing up in large numbers. Flounder are showing up in the back bays as well as canals and rockfish are making an early appearance.
Black Drum & Rockfish
The surf beaches have been alive early this year with big black drum. Surf clams are the normal bait for this time of the year, however this year sand fleas tipped with Fish Bites is making the difference between catching in the surf and going home empty. The first fish reported to the magazine was on the 4th of April and caught by Jeremy Zimm who was fishing the surf right at the Delaware and Ocean City line. The crew dug up their own sand fleas and some Fish Bites they had bought from Fenwick Tackle. The fish was a medium size drum caught on an incoming tide. This is rather early for these big boys to show up. Not to be outdone, on April 6 Kris brought a nice sized drum to the beach again on sand fleas and Fishbites. After the 6th it seemed like every day more fish were being brought in from our Delaware beaches. Christina checked in with Delaware-Surf-Fishing.com with a nice 34” black. She reported that the new DelDot rulers are too short. Christina, believe me, that's a great problem to have! Chase Haugh reported he caught a few small drum, but that the only big fish he caught was a 40” rockfish. Jim Steele checked in at Old Inlet Bait & Tackle with a nice 28” drum caught on sand fleas off the surf at Fenwick. Christina Puglisi was fishing sand fleas and landed a great eating black drum weighing 28 lbs. Bob Pleasonton had great success with Fishbites EZ clam along with sand fleas while fishing the beach in Fenwick. Bob landed a beautiful 14.5 lb. black which he invited to dinner, along with a few he released. Kelly Matthew Poper got lucky on Fenwick Beach, fishing an outgoing tide using sand fleas, caught a nice 34” drum. Kelly reports the medium cast was the ticket as the fish were closer to shore than expected and realized he was casting over the fish on his first few casts. This is a great point to remember. Many anglers new to surf fishing assume they have to cast out as far as possible to get a nice fish. Many large fish are cruising right along the beach catching crabs and sand fleas churned up in the breaking surf. Along the surf many anglers were searching for drum, however, they were rewarded with nice size rockfish. Dylan Patrick was fishing for drum with sand fleas and landed a beautiful 40” rockfish instead. Although not a keeper, Dylan said it's the biggest rockfish he ever caught on the beach. Brad checked into Henlopen Bait & Tackle and said he needed some bunker to catch a striper. That is what he got and exactly what he did, catching a nice 35” rockfish off the northern beach. It really seems like the beach is showing some nice signs of life early this year. The Delaware Bay has started to see some of the big breeders showing up, however it still looks like the water needs a few more degrees before the big girls arrive. A few big stripers have also shown up in the bay with Mark Gilch catching a 33.25” as well as a 44” rockfish. The past fall was one of the best rockfish seasons we have seen in years with big schools of fish breaking on the surface in December and January. I fished several trips where we got tired of catching over slot fish. All the members of my crew fished slow pitch jigs in the 200 gram size and hooked fish after fish. As a bonus on every trip (5 total) we did manage a limit of keeper fish within the slot. As many of you know, we don't see many fish within the slot here in the ocean. Most of the fish we see are over slot. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks more fish will move in as the spawn and migration continues. For those wishing to try their hand at slow pitch jigging this is a great fish to target as most fish are in less than 60 feet of water.
Flounder & Tog
Flounder fishing was a little slow to start in the back bays of Indian River, but as the water warmed the flounder did not disappoint. Alex Neiss was fishing the VFW slough and landed an impressive 4 keepers on April 12. Catching one fish this early in the year is good, but to catch 4 is outstanding! Alex did not stop there and went to Massey’s Landing on the 16th. He and his crew returned to the dock with 9 keepers. Definitely seems like Alex has the fluke dialed in. Great work, and I hope you enjoy all your new friends that want to go fishing with you!
Horace Hockenstien also caught some nice flatties at Indian River inlet this past month. The bite was reported to be an early bite before turning off around noon. David Palencar fished the inlet and was rewarded with small drum and a nice size shad. Small tog and drum are being caught off the rocks at the inlet on sand fleas and crab. Jim Osborne was out with his son Alex and Bruce Carlton. They ended up with two nice 4.5 lb. fish. They were caught on green crab and shrimp. Bruce said there were no small fish caught, all were keepers. John Coffie checked in at Hook’em & Cook'em Tackle at Indian River Marina with a 5 man limit of tog. The biggest were 12, 10 and 8 lbs respectively. A last note... Brian Craig Watt received a citation for his 21” 4.1 lb trout caught at Rittenhouse Park on a trout magnet. Brian is 9 years old and reportedly hooked and landed the fish all by himself. I have a feeling this young angler is going to be one to watch in the future!
Until next week...
Tight lines and fins up §
