The weather calmed down a bit, minus all that flooding in localized places from pop-up storms. This break from the insanely high humidity was needed. Cooler summer nights are here and it is time for overnight surf fishing trips. But first I have to check this pond for some fish. I have a box of gear someone sent me to test out. I get to play with new tackle all weekend. Spinning baits, and some wild looking bucktails that aren’t meant for freshwater but I can see the action really well in gin-clear water. Mountain water just looks different.

Surf fishing has been hot for kingfish for many anglers. Fishbites formulas are producing as well as bloodworms, squid and shrimp. Croaker and spot are biting. Some pompano were caught at Assateague. Time to get the grills fired up for kingfish tacos and fresh grilled pompano. I’m looking forward to many beach meals through the rest of the summer.

Some giant butterfly rays and whiptail rays have been caught. Be careful with those big rays, especially that whiptail. I wear boots when we target those big critters. I’m not losing my ankle to a leg sweep or worse. A large wet towel will keep the tail in place. Do not cut them off with a shovel — that is not only cruel, it is detrimental to the creature’s lifespan.

Sharks are biting as usual this time of year. Remember these aren’t shark infested waters, they live here. and tigers and such use the Delaware Bay area for pupping grounds. That is one reason we see a lot of sharks along our beaches. In the summertime they are having their babies, “pupping.” Huge sharks will come close to shore to drop their babies. Ever see the little dogfish with the yolk sacs still attached?

Flounder action is typical for the inland bays this time of year. Offshore is seeing larger fish. Inland bay anglers will pick through upwards of 50 fish for a single barely legal keeper. I say just lower the amount people can keep for a couple years and the numbers will bounce back. North Carolina opened flounder up for a week or some ridiculous timeframe. But I get it, everyone wants to catch these fish. No one wants to take the responsibility to say “I’ll stop fishing for flounder for a couple years so we can all have more.” I stopped flounder fishing years ago, after picking through 70-odd fish for two keepers. All we were doing is beating up a lot of fish to keep two fish. The fish overall would have been better off had we kept the first two and went onto something else. That was one reason to lower the size limit so the average size would be caught and kept so anglers wouldn’t beat up too many fish getting their limit. Maybe lower that limit.

Freshwater action has been great the past week. Two invasive species state records have been set, including a flathead catfish, at 33 pounds, 15.68 ounces, caught by Jason Wise from Bear. This is the first state record set for this species. Dyllan Rust from Harrington caught a 15-pound, 8-ounce northern snakehead, measuring 31.5 inches. He broke the record set a month ago. Well done gentlemen.

Kill all invasive species. I toss blue cats I’m not going to eat into the bushes. I dispatch all my fish that I keep because not doing that is cruel. The other reason is to keep the meat fresher. Dispatch any fish you plan on keeping. Ice only keeps dead fish fresh, live fish foul the meat when they slowly die, even on ice.
Be careful around the Indian River Inlet south side, there are sections closed for the sand relocation dredge system.

Have a great weekend. It might feel like August but we are still in July so summer is rolling right on by. Stay safe out there. It gets crowded and a little crazy this time of year.