Be aware of regulations for sharks, striped bass

By Rich King
Posted 7/13/23

We are back to very hot and humid afternoons, make sure you are taking water with you everywhere. I carry about four water bottles with me on all trips and there is always one in the vehicle. The …

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Be aware of regulations for sharks, striped bass

Posted

We are back to very hot and humid afternoons, make sure you are taking water with you everywhere. I carry about four water bottles with me on all trips and there is always one in the vehicle. The beach buggy has a five-gallon Coleman dispenser and a ridiculous amount of snacks. Food is important too this time of year. Who doesn’t like a multitude of snacks while fishing?

The bluefish bite has been really random this season — haven’t seen a lot of the summer blues yet but they are around.

The offshore reef anglers are catching a lot of spadefish and triggers. It’s good to see them here in numbers. That means we should see pompano soon if not now. They are the best fish to grill on the beach, whole. Just gut, season and grill. Pick the meat off the bones — they are delicious. We filet the larger ones but the small ones you can just gut and cook, scales and all.

The kingfish bite is better, spot are all over the waterways. The beaches are crowded on weekends, fish weekdays for better results or early predawn weekend days and late evenings.

The reservation system is creating less crowded beaches, which is having a negative economic impact on local bait shops. The people who don’t actually fish are the main part of the crowds out there. We all knew it before, now it is blatantly obvious. Watching fake anglers on our Facebook pages complain about other fake anglers or walk-on actual surf anglers is a funny flex. The only pro for the reservations is people can go out when they want and not feel rushed. But when people leave early for all kinds of reasons, then no one can go out in that space.

When flies are bad, people leave early, leaving spaces open on the beach, all of which a real surf angler would go fill in but can’t. I will give props to the folks canceling reservations and announcing the fact on the DSF group page to let someone else know there is an open reservation, not because they want to complain. We do what we can to deal with a crazy system. Anglers are losing access and they don’t even realize it. Shops are losing money and are seeing the effects. Put up some gates and do one in and one out and we can fish until we want, then leave when we want, and someone else can come on and “fish.”

Summer slot striped bass fishing has been productive. These are the best eating fish, in my opinion. They are young and haven’t marinated in all these polluted waters as long, but still have a consumption advisory. It’s good to follow those guidelines and remove all the fatty meat.

A Shark Whisperer charters client caught a red drum from the surf at Assateague the other night. It’s nice to see a random red bull in the area.

Shark fishing has been productive for sure, especially from the surf. Everyone needs to check the regulations, with an awful lot of beached sharks this year. Recreational anglers are terrible at self-regulation. They are as bad as the commercial anglers they accuse, who have to be on point at self-regulation, or they lose their livelihood.

There is plenty of freshwater action, and top water is hammering fish in the evenings. That’s the best time to fish, it is much cooler out. Just be careful of ticks and chiggers. Tons of lone star ticks are around too, not good. I live in the woods and the chiggers after this last heavy rain have gotten aggressive. I’m staying out of the woods unless I have a Tyvek body suit. I’d rather skip a lot of chemicals on my skin to stop bugs and just avoid the woods for a while. Luckily we don’t have mosquitos, we take care of any standing water where they can breed.

Inlets are producing triggers, sheepshead and some spadefish here and there. Croaker and spot are everywhere. I’m looking forward to dropping these new sand flea glow gold pill floats down there for a hot bite. The new honeybee pattern looks deadly, too, for a good fish scale pattern. They just brought in a whole new line of pompano bullet floats, too. These floats are amazing. They hold up to crabs and keep their patterns for a long time.

Flounder fishing has been decent with offshore action getting better. The upcoming tournaments will destroy that action, especially in the inland bays. It happens every year. Drifting minnows or jigging the surf has been productive. You can go gigging for flounder, just look along some of the bay beaches at night. Lots of flounder lay up in the shallow water at night, looking for food and probably avoiding the sharks in the bays that hunt at night.

DNREC has made gaffing striped bass for catch and release illegal. This is a great thing. I can’t stand watching someone try to gaff a striped bass like nine times with a homemade gaff. After stabbing the fish several times, it gets released. I’ve seen fish stabbed in the fat of the back and the angler says it will be fine. Those fish will not be fine. Much like you wouldn’t be fine with being stabbed with a hook. We usually go to the hospital for removal. Can you imagine if they stabbed you nine more times before they took that hook out?
The only issue will be anglers determining a release or keep on a slot-sized fish. An intended harvest could become a release and now you are in violation. I love these kind of rules, left up to the angler to self-govern. Hence why we have more rules.

The plover nest “failed” on Gordons Pond. A fox apparently destroyed the nest. Assateague has reopened to the state line. That is great because for the past few years it has taken longer to reopen due to plover closure.

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