The Delaware Outdoor Expo was a great time. We had a blast meeting everyone and talking about fishing all day.

Thank you for attending we look forward to seeing everyone next year, and don’t forget to visit the Delmarva Outdoor Expo April 28-30.

Despite the weather we had a huge turnout of over 3,000 people for the Expo.

Record setter

Congratulations to Thad Palmer, of Seaford, on his pending Delaware State Record catfish catch.

The catfish measured 37 inches and weighed in at 24.65 pounds by Taylored Tackle Shop. He landed the beast in the Broad Creek on bunker chunks. After having the catfish checked out by Fish and Wildlife, he released it back into the Broad Creek. Taylored Tackle stored the cat in its live bait tanks until DNREC could make it there.

So there won’t be any blackend or fried state record catfish this week and the beast will live for the next angler.

Fishing report

Since the weekend we had a couple OK days to get out and fish before that front came in heavy. The nor’easter really put a damper on things for people up north with freezing rain.

Before the front moved in, the fishing was decent. Anglers fishing for freshwater bass in the Broad Creek and near Phillips landing started catching large striped bass that are moving into our waters to spawn. Nothing like the surprise of a 20-pound striped bass when you are using light gear and crank baits for large mouth bass.

The Chesapeake bay has been hot and heavy striped bass action near the warm water outfalls of the power plant. Not a huge secret when it comes to warm water out fall winter fishing.

White perch and yellow perch action is still good in the tidal creeks and rivers.  The waters have cooled off a good ten degrees forcing the fish deeper.

Woodland Beach and some of the Delaware Bay beaches had decent action for short striped bass on bloodworms. The cold weather snap will shut that action down.

Like winter again

With the snow up north and the colder temperatures in Sussex County. the waters will shut down for a few days until next week.  Melting snow and cold runoff rain will cool the tidal waters off a great deal and force fish to deeper water and slow them down.  It will almost be like winter again for a few days until we warm back up after the weekend.

The storm has one group excited and that is the surfers.  We had some beast waves hit the coast on Tuesday and the best of the best surfers in Delmarva didn’t hesitate to get out there and hit these rolling crushers. The waves look like something you would see on the west coast, not Delmarva.

Rich King’s outdoors column appears Thursdays in the Delaware State News.