The heat wave coming for the weekend is not going to be fun. Stay indoors if you can’t take excessive heat. Stay hydrated as much as possible.

The pop-up storms are getting in the way of afternoon fishing. They have been wild with lots of water dumped around the state. It’s nice when it is cooler after a storm but it never lasts long. Always fish before storms.

The summer surf fishing is slowing down due to warmer water along the beaches. We are catching better in the early mornings, late evenings and overnight. Those trips are my favorite. Staying up all night catching fish is fun and much different than the daytime. The only issue is to keep the dew in mind when you have a lot of stuff set up. No tents are allowed on the beach, but some still set them up for dew cover. We use an EZ up if we need it, but it is hard to escape dew in the moving air.

Also FYI about tents: Flaming marshmallows onto a tent are a bad thing. That was an amazing scene — a marshmallow flies off the stick someone is playing with and right onto the tent wall. Instantly the tent bursts into flames. It was something right out of a movie, with 8/10 entertainment value, however I highly recommend not ever doing that again on a park beach.

The kingfish and spot bite in the surf is decent at the right times, then it shuts down. There are a lot of fish tacos to be had in the surf. Again it is summer, the bite is strange this time of year and the beaches are more crowded than ever. Weekdays are still rather quiet but around the weekends, Friday and Monday are busy. A lot of people seem to be on weeklong vacations more than ever.

Croaker are all over the inland and Delaware bays. The slot striped bass action has been fun for anglers, too. Flounder action is decent for the soon-to-be bathtub temperature waters. Offshore will be better action soon than inland bay for flounder. The Delaware Bay is seeing good action.

The Cape Henlopen fishing pier is seeing decent action of many species. Check with the shop for a report. The warmer water will slow that down a bit. A spade fish was caught with chicken last weekend. My yard birds better start dropping more eggs or we are cutting bait.

Chicken became a “secret” bait back in the day. Some used peeler oil to soak the chicken. Cut up small pieces of chicken breast, let it sit in the sun for a bit to get a little hard coating. That helps keep it on the hook. You can put peeler oil on a small piece of dense sponge (household) and do about the same.

There are sharks, skates and rays for days in the surf this time of year. Use cut bait and a DS Custom Tackle WiFi rig for easy casting. The 150-pound mono rig with sinker slider and glow beads is easy to cast, usually with a chunk of fish and typical weight up to eight ounces.

Novice surf anglers, check your rod rating before you cast out large baits. Also keep in mind the bait adds weight to the gear you are using. For some reason, many forget that detail. A couple extra ounces of a fish chunk is weight.

There are red drum, big bulls, hitting spot at Assateague at night mostly. This is a run that has occurred the last few years. They are probably moving out of the Chesapeake or smaller bays to cooler ocean water. It would be nice to see this continue for years to come. Spot is the preferred bait. You just have to pick through a lot of skates, rays and sharks using fish for bait.

Hunters, as you get ready to prep your areas and stands this year, be aware the ticks and chiggers are awful. Go nuclear on that spray and whatnot. I live near the woods and I will keep mentioning this until I don’t get bit anymore. It has been horrible working near the woods on projects. It’s been a weird gardening year, too. Anyway, September is coming soon and hunters will be prepping and baiting areas. My chickens eat deer corn and scratch it out of the runs. The deer and turkeys like to visit my chickens daily for possible snacks.

Offshore anglers are doing well on all species. Check out your favorite charters for a trip. The head boats have been seeing regular action for this time of year.

My truck has been down for five weeks. I’m glad the transmission blew up in the driveway and not the beach the day before. I get it back in the next day or so and I am going to disappear on some beaches for awhile. Walk-on fishing is great, but I need my tackle stash on wheels, not to mention the boxes and boxes of snacks.