It is summertime, it’s hot and sticky out now, and the weekends are crowded unless the weather is bad.
It’s tough because we prefer less crowds to fish but we need the crowds for the economy — the irony of tourism. That’s when we become tourists ourselves and either head elsewhere or make the weekends workdays and the workdays weekends. Monday is the new Saturday.

I spend a lot of time exploring new areas with the new job, and fish where I can along the way. There is many an out-of-the-way place to drop a line for a few hours and enjoy the day.

The crowds are tough on weekends but even then if you pick your place and time you can get a break. Most of the summer crowd people call it a day for dinner and go out at 5 or 6. The beaches and waterways are nearly empty by then. Evening fishing is preferred on a hot day anyway.

Bluefish are good action in the surf and at the inlets. Striped bass are still around — the migratory and of course the resident schooling bass. Lures are the best to use at the inlets. At the beach, we use mullet rigs for bluefish. Use bunker chunks or clam for striped bass.

Flounder fishing has picked up and the surf has been rather active for anglers jigging for flounder. Drift minnows in the back bays in the boats or offshore. In the canals you can drift but it is easier to jig around structure to keep from snagging up flounder rigs instead. Fishbites fight club or Gulp is working for flounder.

Red drum action at Assateague has been good for several anglers. That’s just like fishing for black drum. Kingfish heads make an excellent red drum bait or the entire carcass. Because we all filet kingfish for a taco. Big bull reds are fun to catch from the surf.

The best part of summer fishing with warmer water is now Fishbites works much better and there are many new formulas to try. You should get a small container that seals to store your Fishbites and keep it refrigerated for freshness. Make sure the packs are sealed — they have a heavy duty ziplock on the bag.

I prefer Fishbites due to the cost advantage over some baits, especially bloodworms. I can carry a variety of formulas that I precut for my trips to use a wider variety of baits without carrying around several pounds of bait in a cumbersome cooler. My precut variety pack fits in my pocket and would last for two days if necessary. This way my precut pack stays in the truck and the main packs are in the garage fridge.

They need to make a bunker formula, that would be amazing. Also check out the new pro series baits. These are larger chunks of their bait formulas that offshore anglers can use for larger bait needs. You can cut these down to make strips too or whatever your needs.

Bowers Beach has a nice mixed bag of fish to catch. The other day, Bowers Bayside Bait and Kayak Rentals wrote, “The boaters had a great day! Captains Lady had a nice catch and other boaters reporting lots of blues, weakfish and flounder! Had kingfish, spot, croaker, rockfish and flounder from land!” The shop is also hosting Saturday evening kayak trips for those interested.

The surf has a variety of catches; kingfish, weakfish, puffers, sharks, dogfish, rays, skates, bluefish, spot and croaker are around. Everything in the pan fish sizes will get bigger as the summer progresses. Spot are a fine meal when they get bigger in late summer.

A lot of catfish are being landed in our area waterways. Bass are active. Evening fishing, again, is preferred over the heat of the day.

Watch out for the ticks and chiggers. They have been brutal.

Get out and fish. The weather hasn’t been great but that makes for a less crowded day.