This rain is no fun. It is the end of May and we had the heat on yesterday. It will be nearly in the 90s next week. You have to love this time of year — you never know what you are going to get for weather. Hurricane season starts June 1. I highly recommend if you live near water to get a prep or go bag for any emergencies. You never know when you might have to bail from bad weather.

The bluefish action has been fire for most anglers. A friend of mine the other day said, “I moved four times today to get away from the bluefish.” When you are trying to catch kingfish for tacos, bluefish will get in the way of that action, mostly because they are eating the kingfish. The blues are gator size down to snapper. The smaller ones make for better filets, the larger one make great dip. If it is hours-fresh out of the water, any size is good to eat. Mullet on mullet rigs are working well for bluefish, surf rigs with cut bait as well. We also use the fireball rigs with J hooks for bluefish. Their teeth can’t cut the hook shaft. Bluefish will hit anything that moves out there so spoons, Deadly Dicks and Stingsilvers are great lures, but soft plastics like swim shads will get destroyed.

Black drum action is still happening as far south as Assateague. The Delaware Bay is seeing good action for the boats. Clam is the best bait. Some red drum have shown up around the southern part of Assateague. Striped bass are still on the hit list as well. That action has slowed down a bit but is still happening.

Sea bass action has been good for boats getting out. Some are limiting out before lunch. That makes for a quicker day fishing and allows the anglers to go target other fish on their way back to port. Check with your local charter captains for available trips.

Spot action is picking up and they are small but that will change as time passes. Right now those little ones are striped bass and flounder candy. A buddy of mine fishes at a local boat ramp. He catches a spot then goes to the other side and drops that in along the bulkhead for a flounder. Usually, he does pretty well. There’s nothing like fishing for your bait then fishing for your dinner with the bait you caught. You can’t get fresher spot than that and you don’t need a minnow bucket. Spot are hard to keep alive in captivity like that anyway. They need round “pens” or they get stuck in the corners and die.

Croaker action should pick up more and more soon enough. Those little hard heads make a great meal too.

A huge shout-out to Parks for yet another opening year of an epic failure of the reservation system. On Saturday hardly anyone went to the beach because of the weather. Meanwhile a hundred-plus anglers that I know couldn’t get a reservation on Tuesday because they sold out in five minutes. These anglers all wanted to go fish on Saturday. The beaches were empty most of the day. The state parks are hampering the bait shops here making any money with this reservation system. Do better, get gates and make it fair for everyone. There are many anglers that cannot make reservations on a Tuesday. Gates take that issue out of the equation. The excuse is always it was a holiday weekend. The reservation system gets hammered every week in no time — it is annoying for people who actually fish. I keep telling the bait shops they should open a liquor store to offset the bait and tackle sale losses. Fake anglers don’t buy tackle and don’t support the shops like people who actually fish.

Flounder action is picking up offshore and inshore. Anglers use multiple techniques or baits. Minnows on the drift, Fishbites fight club, and Gulp are the choices for baits. A small spot makes excellent flounder bait. Jigging the surf along the ledge will produce flounder too.

The summer season is upon us and we are looking forward to fun in the sun, as soon as this rain stops. Be careful out there and keep your bait fresh. Fishbites has a new mullet strip bait out you definitely need to try. The new formulas are fish killers.

Horseshoe crabs are spawning en masse. Be careful along the Delaware Bay beaches, they will be done soon enough. It gets heavier around full moons. If you plan on flipping any over, do not grap the telson (tail). That spike is actually a rudder they use to help them steer along the bottom. Picking them up by it can break it off. Grab them by the side and just flip them over. The claws do not pinch.