It’s winter, now spring, maybe a little fall, summer teaser, annnnd it’s winter again. For a minute, or not. There are flowers popping already. It’s been a mild winter so far for sure this year. We are in that six-week stretch until the spring is supposed to start warming up, or it will snow. I love mild weird winter weather. You can catch crabs in shallow muddy areas around the inland bays on the warmer days.

The shows are starting for the winter season. There are many fishing, boating and outdoorsy shows every weekend all over Delmarva and up and down the East Coast. Shows will have multiple vendors from all over that area or from afar. Some vendors run the Maryland show circuits and others are at shows randomly along the coast. It gets to be a job just keeping up with all the regular show dates and so many new ones to check out, too. A few shows are back for the first time in a few years. Show hopping the coast for me is research, with shopping and fun, but it makes for a longer winter. We all have our hobbies to kill time in winter. You can only freeze your butt off so much for white perch and short bass fun.

My buddy Dave is repainting his 2002 Toyota Sequoia with Monstaliner — World’s Toughest DIY Coating. It is now set up for the beach wear and tear. It’s beautiful but was a tremendous amount of work. If you want to burn up winter downtime, it’s a perfect project for your beach ride. I really like how it came out and am now looking at my beach beast for some ideas to cover some soon to be worse spots. Sand at the beach is loaded with salt. Our aluminum engine parts pit just from the air around here.

Winter is boring at times for anglers. Some will clean their gear over and over again, dreaming of what is to come once the spring fishing starts up. Some folks pay attention to fishery meetings. Not enough pay attention, but if the issue is important to them, they tend to show up.

I heard a few homeowners this week at the Tidal Fin Fish Advisory Council meeting about night fishing with lights, mostly in the Broad Creek area. Honestly that was the first time I ever heard homeowners on an issue for a TFFAC meeting. But I stopped paying attention to fishery issues and meetings. My real job got in the way, unless I have the time, which I rarely do now. My free time is for fishing.

So it seems there are issues with anglers using lights at night around houses. I can see both sides. Anglers, maybe keep the lights pointed down on the water as much as possible and off the houses. DNREC might need to come up with an angle regulation for lights. They aren’t sure but are looking into it. We all know anyone purposely shining lights on a house is just being that guy and will ruin it for everyone. Keep that in mind when you are out on the water. I heard a lot of opinions in that meeting. Two words for both sides: common courtesy.

Also apparently we need a 10% reduction for sea bass per the ASMFC by the season opening May 15. DNREC says they will be pushing through some regulation choices. I think the public will get to comment with input on these options. It seems the end of the season could be shaved off to comply with a 10% reduction. There wasn’t much talk on what they would do because that is one of the things that TFFAC does — helps advise DNREC on fishery issues. It is their wheelhouse. Find your recreational county rep and talk to them. Much like the surf tag issue. It is a tidal fin fishing wheelhouse issue and should be in front of them.

In other words, instead of forming a committee to help them decide how to regulate the surf fishing beaches, they should have gone to TFFAC and asked them to advise them. Parks is DNREC and advising them on tidal fin fish issues is TFFAC’s job as the council. Since you are required to actively surf fish to drive onto a drive-on beach, then the TFFAC is required to advise DNREC/parks on drive-on beach issues. TFFAC would advise if a committee would need to be formed, which they would do internally, like they are doing right now for the night light fishing situation.

Then maybe Fenwick Island wouldn’t become a semi-private beach due to the new reservations system’s loophole. Well played Beach Coalition, well played. Golf clap all around.

All of the above insanity is why I just fish when I can now. I just got my new Assateague pass, haven’t bought my Delaware surf tag yet. I’m not sure it will be worth giving you all my money this year. I do need it for work and it is a write-off, but ... yeah. It’s the point of financing the insanity.

Anyway, fishing is in winter mode, with mild temperatures. Yellow perch are late in some areas and will probably be late here, too, at this rate. Short bass action is fun around structure with lures. Maryland is stocking trout, as usual. Check their website. It is updated constantly.

Fish white perch for table fare, using minnows or bloodworms, if you can find them. Winter flounder season is coming. That’s a rare but fun target to at least fill your life list. They are barely big enough for a full taco. Finding them is the hard part, unless you talk to the old salts who used to net them around the inland bays as kids. There are still some trout in the streams up north, might be some in the trout ponds, too. You never know.

Freshwater fishing is slow retrieve for lures. Check with the local shops for what is working and what baits they have in stock. I saw someone caught a snakehead. It’s cold, and yet I am not surprised. If you go to shallow areas around the inland bays on the hotter days, by the mid-afternoon you can catch crabs. There are also plenty of grass shrimp to catch or scrape off bulkheads.