Spring is going to pop earlier than later, so get your gear ready. For those of us that never stopped fishing, we just change up our gear, with heavier line and setups for casting lures for bass and blues in the surf and inlets.

Check all the surf rigs for sharp hooks. That is key. I don’t care what kind of rig brand you are using, but if the hooks aren’t sharp — or don’t stay sharp — you aren’t catching as many fish. DS Custom Tackle customers constantly tell me, “We love supporting that company. The rigs last years if we keep them clean after trips.”

DS Custom Tackle owner David Okonewski says, “By using superior hooks, our rig endures for years with proper care from the angler. We frequently receive comments from satisfied customers who express their desire to purchase more gear to support us, but our gear is so durable that they seldom need to. This was precisely our aim when developing our tackle, and we take pride in achieving it. We, too, dislike using dull hooks while fishing.”

A key thing for all your fishing gear, even your warm/dry clothes, is keeping it clean, especially with all the saltwater exposure. Just hosing everything down at the end of every trip keeps hooks from rusting faster and gear breaking down. I admit I barely clean mine. I am hard on stuff and my gear gets trashed in the truck. It still does well catching fish no matter how much I beat it up and that is one of my jobs — product testing things to their limits. They came to the right guy, I’m a hot mess with good gear. You need something broken? Just hand it over for a second.

We clean the vehicles out from the winter fishing mess and buildup of warm gear. I think I have 20 hats and gloves in the back under the seats, old snack packages for days, too. Last year’s sand can be vacuumed out now. It’s always good to carry around all that floorboard sand in winter for any ice traction needs, though this year was a bust, and it’s also a great excuse for not cleaning your fishing vehicle, except maybe once a year. It’s about an inch deep still, time to get out the sand blower and shop vacs. Honestly, you can probably get more sand on your feet in my truck than walking the beach. I’ll be building a dune in the driveway later today.

Crab pot season is upon us! Get your crab pots ready for a 24-hour soak. Turtle guards are required. The galvanized are cheaper, but last maybe a couple years. The plastic ones last much longer. They are available at all tackle shops in their crabbing supply sections.
Watch out when cleaning those winter stored pots. A friend of mine found a skunk in his. That was fun to see him try to get that out, from a distance, and no we are not helping you. Let’s just say eventually the skunk left the crab pot when he was good and ready. Skunk 1, Homeboy 0 and smelly.

The white perch bite has been getting better or more people are finally fishing. The netters are finding shad up in the Delaware Bay, fishing for rock and perch. That is good news. Earlier action this year and the resident striped bass are feeding heavily now.

Spring is getting ready to go off, probably all at once. Get out and fish, don’t wait to hear about a hot bite, be there for the hot bite. I have said it for years, you miss the hot bites because you don’t put in the time. You can’t get on every bite but you can fish and see what happens. That to me is the whole point of fishing. What are we going to get into today? A bunch of fish and fun or a skunk in the cooler?

Short striped bass wrangling is firing up soon in the surf. I love schoolie rat wrangling on light gear.
The Point is closed for the season in Cape Henlopen State Park. It closes every year at the same time for migratory nesting birds. We will see her again in September. Even the birds have a reserved area on the beaches.

If you are just getting into kayaking and any water sport like that, keep in mind this time of year, the air is warm to hot and the water is not. Falling into this water and not having the proper gear can still be deadly in these colder water temperatures. It only takes about a 20-degree difference for hypothermia to set in.