If you are sitting around waiting to hear about better fishing, you might want to head out and just fish. There are fish arriving soon, if some are not here already. Be part of the report, not the one reading it later. There are flounder below us being caught in Chincoteague back bays. The juvenile flounder are moving farther into the bays and out of the estuaries. We are seeing them in crab pots around the inland bays — always a good sign. Mummichog minnows are in the shallows along the mud flats.

There are also black drum now showing up south of us in Chincoteague caught from the surf. It will be days at this point until they are here in Delaware if they aren’t already. There are puppy drum in with the white perch schools around our waterways on occasion. These live here in the winter in our estuaries. Most of the fishing has been producing white perch.

Small tautog, occasional keepers, are around the inlets at Indian River and Ocean City, Maryland. The bridges are holding some, as well as short striped bass. That bass action is getting better but is slow in the surf around structure. You have to put in some time to catch.

The surf has been quiet except for spiny dogfish and skates, with the occasional short striped bass near structure — manmade structure not beach structure. The town beaches have some wonderful storm drain structure, soon to be buried by replenishment. Get that fishing in while you can, before they destroy that fishery by smothering it in sand.

I’ve seen a few snakeheads caught already. The ponds are warming up faster than the big pond out front. The inland bays are tipping at about 52 degrees. The short bass action has been fun in the rips around the marsh banks.

The other night I received a message from Hunter Outten: “We should be able to see the Northern Lights in a half hour.” I ran outside and, of course, you can’t see them with the naked eye, it has to be the camera doing the “looking.” Except on this night for a solid 10 minutes I could see the red haze in the sky. My camera was hammering pictures overtime. In my excitement, I changed my focus wrong. Big thanks to Mike Givens for fixing my mistake later. I am not savvy at editing pictures at all. I don’t know how to use Photoshop, etc., I just push the camera trigger and hope. I took a couple hundred pictures and Mike managed to save four of them.

If you want to get a shot at seeing the Northern Lights, you have to view them before midnight due to the angle. The Aurora Alert website will give you an idea when the intensity will be higher. If the aurora map is showing red and yellow in the burst area, you have a very good chance of seeing the Northern Lights with the naked eye in Delaware. Before you ask, you have to look north.

I would love someone at DNREC or in parks to explain to me like I am 4 years old why the restaurant dumpsters are still destroyed at southside inlet. There has been trash blowing into the inlet for over three months now. The gaslight answer of “people are throwing trash in there” doesn’t fly. Because someone is or should be responsible for cleaning it up. But it seems to be easier to just let it blow into the inlet 60 feet away.

Also, why are the dumpsters next to the water? Wouldn’t it make more sense to put them on the other side of the parking lots, where the winds blows less? Things like this is why DSF stopped doing beach cleanups, among other issues with safety for our people who were being harassed for cleaning a beach. Why should we as a business volunteer to clean a place that the people in charge won’t keep clean? It’s hard to be a caring steward of our environment to the point I am about giving up. It’s a waste of time, energy and effort.

There is upcoming fishery “stuff” — people should really pay attention to this council. They are in charge of a lot of our fishery money. If you want projects done for the fishing community, this is the place to try to get the funds. Delaware’s Council on Recreational Fishing Funding will hold an in-person meeting to discuss the recreational fishing funds accruing and the expenditure of those funds at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 4. The meeting will be held in the Senate Hearing Room, 2nd Floor, Legislative Hall, 411 Legislative Ave., Dover. For general meeting information, including the meeting agenda, visit the Delaware Public Meeting Calendar.