If you don’t have hypothermia from stepping outside this morning, then you are doing better than I. Whoever made Mama Nature mad needs to apologize, pronto! This quick snap might affect fishing a bit, but the water temperatures were already on the rise. The inland bays were increasing a degree a day on each end of the scale.

No worries, the fish really don’t care. They are on the run with the feed bag in mind, or a little frisky. The spawning bass and black drum have one thing in mind. Then it is run more and feed. The questions is, where do you fish? Black drum will hang around to the end of May or a little longer. Same for migratory striped bass. As it gets later in the season, the catches are really random.

Striped bass are leaving the Delaware Bay and the Chesapeake Bay. We are betwixt that, but they run north, so your best bet is Chessy bass heading up the coast. Hitting the Jersey side around the DOD is good, too.

Assateague National Seashore is seeing some nice migratory striped bass catches as well as the big black drum. We have a lot of short striped bass action around the inlet and the surrounding beaches. For the best action, hit the fish barrel on southside. Walking and casting to structure in town beaches (storm drains) will produce the schooling bass. Swim shads, spoons and bucktails in tandem are some of the preferred lures. Can’t go wrong using a leader with a teaser for shad, spoon or single bucktail.

Many fish hit the teaser, it mimics food competition. The teaser appears to be an easier meal being chased by your lure (another fish). Fish are not as smart as people think, but also not dumb. An easier meal expends less energy with a greater return. A large fish will not waste time with a tiny fast meal, it wastes more energy than gained. They go for the fat and slower meals. Think about that when you are reeling lures.

Trout anglers are still doing well in the rivers. Just a heads-up, but I have heard tell that trout heads make great striped bass bait up there. Bunker heads do the same along the coast — just an idea for you to get a little more out of that trout stamp. Essentially any cut fish is bait, but sometimes fish get used to a “new” food source. In this case, striped bass are finding that stocked trout are a fine food.

There is a river near a McDonald’s where friends of mine fish (doesn’t matter where, the point is the catch). The trout are numerous and will not hit anything tossed to them. Nothing traditional works, because for years the Mickey D’s customers have been feeding these fish ... wait for it ... french fries. To the point that is all they want to eat. If you tie up a french fry fly or put one on a hook, you will hammer these fish all day. Food sources are conditioned responses.

The surf is slowly coming alive a little more for catches beyond skates and dogfish. Northern puffers are being caught using bloodworms or Fishbites. The formulas or flavors working are bloodworms, clam, crab and sand flea. These are also working well for black drum combined with live sand fleas. A couple of kingfish have been caught.

Sand fleas are easy to dig up now. At low tide, look for the little holes in the sand and dig. The fleas are not moving with the water like in summer just yet. Put a couple large fleas on a hook, I’ve even stacked them on mullet rigs like a kabob. Stupid stuff you try when bored and nothing is working — it worked.

Bluefish are showing up finally, near the Indian River Inlet and Delaware Bay sites. Not those monster gators, don’t get too excited. Actually, get excited, because the bluefish numbers are down so much. Last year’s action was horrible. You don’t have to ask an angler to confirm that either. Ask any tackle manufacturer or bait shop. What was the least-bought rig last year? Mullet rigs for bluefish. Literally one of the most popular rigs purchased in Delmarva for the surf.

Flounder are more frequent in the inland bays and Lewes Canal, but action is still slow. Even the Cape Henlopen fishing pier saw a couple flounder over the warmer weekend. Short striped bass are all over the old pier structure. That flounder action is really slow right now. Put in the time.

The pier is one area this temperature crash will affect due to the flats being more shallow this year and shoaled in around the pier. At low tide there is a whole new beach. Every time they rebuild the beach at Cape Shores, all that sand washes in and fills in the flats and the ferry terminal. Seems to be a little bit backward. Maybe dredge it back onto the beach. They want to buy sand, we can get it for them, DNREC has the gear. You can charge them to put their sand back each year and dredge out our fishing pier for the win.

Freshwater action is picking up, the cold snap shouldn’t be a big deal.
Lot of big cats being caught or at least seeing more frequent catches.
Clamming has been decent but cold — wear waders. Seasonal clamming is over. Crabbing is starting to produce around the inland bays.

Kayakers, there aren’t any sharks in the surf yet. Stop kayaking out baits without a PFD in 53-degree water. Day drinking and yaking out baits in these conditions is a good way to never make it back to shore. We watched that this weekend — the yaking, not drowning. I’ll give an A for effort, but an F for safety, smarts and legal.

Just a heads-up for the newer surf anglers handling fish for catch and release at the beach. If you catch small fish in the surf, walk down to the water as you reel and lift the fish out of the water. Do not drag the fish up the beach along the sand, especially the dry sand. That is the equivalent of dragging it across rough grit sandpaper. This removes the fish’s slime coat which protects them from disease.

Leave them on the wet sand, not dry sand if you do land them on the beach. Yes, as they wallow in that wet sand they will get covered with sand. You can wash them off real quick for that pic or place them back in the water. The wet sand won’t be as bad as the dry sand in that case for a fast release.
Big fish you can work in the over wash wet sand area. Do not pick them up by the gill plate.

If you plan on harvesting your catch, you can drag it through all the sand you want. Wash well before cleaning or you will be eating sand.

If you want another way to think about this ... do you like going home with sand in places you didn’t know existed?

Make sure you measure your striped bass correctly or you could be in violation. Striped bass, or rockfish, have to be measured to overall length. Pinch the tail together and measure from the closed mouth to the end of the pinched tail. Make sure the tail is stretched out as far as possible when you pinch it together. This is a straight line measure so it is recommended to use a measuring board or lay the tape on the ground. Do not measure along the body of the fish, the curve will skew the actual length. Also, the DNREC boys in green are on to the whole trim the tail to make the slot size.

The surf tag update at the TFFAC meeting was eye opening. We were informed at this meeting that the vehicle capacity of Delaware State Park drive-on beaches is 2,800 to 4,000 vehicles. At. One. Time.

If they manage to crunch in that many vehicles. Yes that word, crunch, was used, I nearly passed out. Assateague is 149 vehicles for 12 miles of beach. We are doing wrong by our beaches, and not protecting our resource.

In 2023 there will be 28,000 tags in circulation due to a huge increase in sales of two-year tags. I have always said if everyone just buys a two-year tag then every year people aren’t fighting over a limited tag. Yes, I am a little proud of that increased number. Grass-roots modern problem solutions.

The limit needs to be on the sand, not the access permit. Protect the resource, not people’s feelings. I gladly pay $200 a year for Assateague because they allow me the space to do whatever I please. Oddly some of the same people saying Delaware can’t raise their prices, I see surf fishing at Assateague.

Delaware can do the same thing, just not as extreme. I keep saying that COVID 60 feet (20 yards) rule was glorious for space. Base the limit on those numbers. Well until somehow it got changed to 20 feet from yards, then it was terrible.