We are in full winter mode. I’m going to get really tired of saying that, too. All the rig-making crews are in the shop working on this coming season’s gear. The woodstove is blazing and a lot of lies about fishing (catching) are flying around the room. It is a typical winter off day in the fishing community. We might go perch fishing later, for the warmer part of the day — that one-hour window — because it is just way too warm in the workshop.

I have a small amount of snow left in the woods, and the dog is hoping for more to play in. He might get his wish and on his birthday week. He still doesn’t know why he got a mashed potato and beef cake.

Perch fishing has been producing, with small jigs or bloodworms. Catch grass shrimp along banks and bulkheads for bait. Short striped bass are around structure and rips. The surf is skates and dogfish.

The biggest worry from surf anglers (I use that term lightly) is when they can get their tags. The panic would be almost comical if I wasn’t fielding 20 questions a day to which there is no answer. It is amazing how many solutions are suggested that would benefit only that particular user group. Can you bill the state for your time?

Boats are still heading out for striped bass near Jersey and other areas. Tautog is still a catch. The shore catching for tautog has been slow due to the weather conditions. Huge waves the other day washed out the beaches flat. A great time to go is at low tide to read a beach for future fishing trips. Just mark the spots on your phone’s GPS.

Get your gear checked out for the coming season. Support your local bait shops. Despite fishing numbers being up as far as anglers, sales for local shops are down. This is one reason it is hard to find fresh bait on weekdays. A shop can’t carry something they will end up tossing half of to keep anglers fishing. It is not a good business model. Go buy some bloodworms — you can keep them alive for a week in the fridge.

The dead low tides around the Inland Bays are exposing all the sand bars that built back up over the summer. It’s going to be an interesting and entertaining spring for some boaters. Delaware really needs someone to come here and offer to clean up the Inland Bays. Dredging small areas only works for a season or two, if we are lucky. These areas fill right back in and quickly. Millions are spent for maybe two seasons of use.

The benefit of the low winter tides are helping one group collect ghost crab pots.

Ghost Crab Pot Round-Up Day One

Ghost crab pots are a hazard around the Inland Bays. If you’ve never had the pleasure of your day ruined by snatching up a ghost crab pot with your lower unit, then are you even boating around the Inland Bays?

Ghost crab pots are not only a boating hazard they are detrimental to aquatic life, especially diamondback terrapins. One would think the fact the old pots become like reefs full of life they should remain in the water. I’ve caught my biggest flounder near new and ghost crab pots. The problem is, these reef life encrusted crab pots are still cages of death for many creatures.

Also many don’t think about this, but cutting yourself on a ghost crab pot in the dead of summer is a great way to get vibrio. Even a cut from a new pot infected a gentlemen with vibrio a few years ago. So that’s another good reason to remove ghost crab pots in the dead of winter.

Delaware Sea Grant and the University of Delaware, with the help of the Center for the Inland Bays, gathered at Warwick Park on Thursday for day one of ghost crab pot removal. DNREC Fish and Wildlife sent their folks to help out and be on-site so the crews can legally pull these pots. Yes, the crab pot rules still apply to ghost pots — a little crazy but understandable. The DNREC crews worked as hard as the volunteers. Big thanks to everyone for volunteering.

There are specific areas that have already been scanned for ghost crab pots. The volunteers, some with boats, teamed up with sonar boats and removed ghost crab pots. The sonar boats would confirm locations already scanned to be sure. Then the volunteers move in with grappling hooks to remove the ghost crab pot. The pots are checked for wildlife and all findings are catalogued. Then they are taken to the piers at Warwick Park to be cleaned and stacked on a trailer. Crab pots that can be salvaged are used in a giveaway program Kate Fleming runs. You may have seen her at the Delmarva Outdoors Expo with the ghost crab pot display.

I helped remove ghost crab pots a couple years ago and I still have mud in places I didn’t know existed. Despite that, it is rewarding to get these ghost crab pots out of our waterways. Huge shout-out to Kate Fleming for organizing this. I know many are involved but it is Kate that made this happen. Many of us have been trying for years to get all these ghost crab pots out of the Inland Bays.

The folks who volunteered last week are all concerned with ghost pots in our waterways. Two of the crews had cranes they made for specifically removing ghost crab pots. Apparently one crew had that set up last time and now it is a contest to see who makes the coolest ghost crab pot crane. These crane rigs look just like the set-ups the oyster farmers use to pull aquaculture cages. They also had either tarps or boards mounted to the top of the gunnel on the crane side to protect the boat’s fiberglass.

Boats were packed with ghost crab pots, volunteers and mud, lots of mud. It all cleans out real quick with a four-inch crash pump.

Thursday was a dead calm morning at low tide, with the incoming tide starting soon. That was day one. They had to reschedule day two and three due to weather. Hopefully we are back at it soon. The weather is looking worse and worse each week, with a day or two here and there that might be OK.

The critters trapped in these ghost crab pots aren’t just fish and terrapins. There is plenty of shellfish that get “caged,” not that it is detrimental to their existence but they are literally stuck in one spot.

We found clams, and cyrtopleura costata, or the angel wing clam, that obviously grew up in that pot and couldn’t leave. Some of these found were huge!

There is a new ghost crab pot removal program in place now. Boaters can sign up for a permit to remove ghost crab pots on their own. This has to be done by the end of February due to federal regulations and aquatic life and aqueous bottom regulations. Much like dredging regulations, one can only disturb the bay bottoms during the dead of winter. Collection of the ghost crab pots will be coordinated at the University of Delaware Lewes Campus, again by Kate Fleming.

I’m looking forward to the next clean-up. I am finding all kinds of bait for fishing. The bonus of volunteering — crushed barnacles for chum bags and polychaete worms (bloodworms) are numerous.