Heat wave again — false fall is over. I’m not leaving the air conditioning. It was wonderful in the cooler weather but overnight surf fishing has been fun and will continue into the fall. The fishing has been hit or miss as usual. If the action was constant catching, we would call it something else. Depending on what or how you fish, one can find constant catching. An afternoon on a dock with a cane pole and can of corn and you can catch pan fish all day. Or do you want to drift for a while over specific spots with a small window to present your bait to a flounder? Fishing has many options, and it all depends on the amount of effort, usually. There is that luck, to full-blown skill factor. We all have that one buddy that could catch a tuna in a backyard farm pond in a snowstorm.

Speaking of that one buddy, mine is on his way here for the weekend, so fishing is either about to be much better around here or terrible. Either way it’s getting blamed on him. When Chris “The Whammy” comes to town, I take a week off and we fish every place you can manage to cram into seven, 24-hour days. Then I sleep for three days. We are on a mission for tacos (kingfish) and buckets of large mullet for ice fishing this winter in Wisconsin. No, we are not ice fishing in Delaware.

Kingfish and spot have been active in the surf. Croaker action as always has been all over the place. In some areas they are rather annoying. Skates, rays and sharks are around, of course. A lot of weakfish action for the smaller spike trout but there are some nice catches coming out of Bowers Beach. Everyone is using Fishbites for the ease of catching and cost.

Then there are days of slim to no fish caught. Fish move around — some days they are here and some days they are there. But they never seem to be in the same spot the next day in most cases, especially surf fishing. Changing structure and the constant need to move keeps the fishing in the surf random and active. The ocean is one of the most violent environments for a critter to live in. Imagine being food for something all day, now imagine not even knowing that. That’s a fish.

Flounder action has been decent this time of year. The cooler water offshore has certainly changed up fishing this year, with more fish in warmer waters closer to shore or farther up the Delaware Bay. The surf is seeing decent flounder catches jigging cuts. Soon they will start hitting mullet rigs when anglers are checking their bait. The angler drags that rig through the surf area where the ledge starts and the flounder are just sitting there hunting for food. The coincidental flounder catches are from the fact everyone is using mullet rigs when the bluefish are around feeding on the mullet schools. Flounder are following that mullet around too or at least feeding on the schools as they pass.

Slot striped bass season is coming to an end this weekend. It was a fun time catching shorter bass. They are much better to eat in my opinion — mostly the peace of mind eating younger fish with less contaminants, or at least one can wish. Consumption advisories are not a joke. I do not eat a lot of fish out of our waters. I prefer to buy fish from other polluted places instead.

We shall see what the fall run brings. Delaware is essentially a swim-by state. We get the occasional school along the beaches but we never see blitzes like New Jersey. I will be heading to Jersey this year to fish the Blitzes at LBI for the holiday. Block Island is on the list, too. I have a couple friends that like to travel and fish and I finally have time this year to do some of that.

Pompano never really showed up — the water is a little too cold but there have been some random catches here and there. It’s been a bit different of a year of fishing and it is not over yet. Check your gear, it’s almost time to switch from summer tacos to the fall big fish brawl. I have reels with braided line for the fall fishing and I have reels for summer with just monofilament for catching tacos.