The waters are warming up faster than usual again after a mild winter. The peepers out back at the house, despite the colder temperatures, have been singing every night. Now it’s just a fun guess when you should start fishing for different species. When will the striped bass run, how far did they run south this winter?

You should be out fishing every day at this point when you can, or start blowing off work. Everything is going to be early this spring.

Massey’s Ditch in Long Neck was 50 degrees the past three tide cycles. This rain is cooling her down a few ticks but not too much. Forty-nine and a half isn’t too bad of a drop from fifty and three-quarter degrees.
There were some bluefish caught in the surf in the Outer Banks. That’s a good indication we should all be out fishing our surf soon. There are striped bass hitting bloodworms in the Delaware River along the beaches. That always indicates the schools are moving around and feeding. Start fishing the Delaware Bay beaches. White perch are around the bay beaches. It doesn’t take long for fish to get more active after a mild winter. The snakeheads are even feeding inland in some areas.

Get your crab pots ready and make sure there are turtle guards. Every tackle shop usually has a bin or two full of turtle guards.

Crab pot season has started but the crabs have not, unless you are in the back bay areas that get really warm on a cool spring day. The fiddler crabs have been out in force in many marsh areas. They are great bait for the flounder bite this summer. Fiddlers are easy to catch, it just takes a minute or half a day. Using blue crab knuckles is a good bait alternative many don’t use. Nobody ever likes wasting a legal-sized crab for bait. There are many a decent fish caught with crab knuckles.

Grass shrimp are easy enough to catch along the bulkheads and the mud banks. It will be a lot easier when the grasses grow back in along the banks. Scraping mud and metal bulkheads is hard on a net at the boat ramp. Mussels and oysters make good bait, as well, that many overlook. The fun part is tying them to a hook. It’s like gluing snot to Jello.

The trout ponds are still stocked rather well. The weather kept the crowds down a bit, but it was still rather busy. The kids had a lot of fun and that is what it should be about — not aged anglers getting twisted up over a stocked fish in a barrel.

If the pond trout here aren’t satisfying, hit up Maryland for their trout stocking program updates. They are constantly stocking state waters.

There are a lot of great little day trips you can make around Delmarva and do some exploring. Fly fishing is calling your name, or just stick to spinners or Powerbait. I like disappointing challenges, so I try to fly fish more often.

Delaware has set the summer flounder limit and scup: “For summer flounder, the size limit will remain at 16 inches from Jan. 1 through May 31, with the size limit increasing to 17.5 inches from June 1 through Dec. 31. The daily summer flounder possession limit will remain at four throughout the year. For scup, the daily possession limit is reduced from 40 to 30.”

The reasoning for a scup limit reduction, I would guess, is that fishery could come back a little more and maybe they want to get ahead of that possibility. I like proactive fishery management better than “big gubmint taking mah fish.” And honestly, I could research exactly why but it is raining, and I am working on some new rig designs in the shop.

The change in flounder is to comply with the ASMFC reduction. It’s not much of a change when you can still keep four fish, but I am a broken record on that approach.

You can cook those 16-inch flounder in the toaster. We call them Pop Tart flounder. Just lop off the head, clean them out and season to taste. Cook on medium to dark toast. Pro tip: It works better if you turn the toaster on its side.

Get your gear ready and start fishing if you haven’t done so. Everything will be earlier. It’s more fun to see what shows up next than to read about it. Fish around and find out.