Short striped bass, tautog, perch are good bets

By Rich King
Posted 11/18/21

The short striped bass, aka surf rat, action is picking up more and more. White is the best color as usual for fall, and darker colors at night around the inlets. Striped bass will hit just about …

You must be a member to read this story.

Join our family of readers for as little as $5 per month and support local, unbiased journalism.


Already a member? Log in to continue.   Otherwise, follow the link below to join.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Short striped bass, tautog, perch are good bets

Posted

The short striped bass, aka surf rat, action is picking up more and more. White is the best color as usual for fall, and darker colors at night around the inlets. Striped bass will hit just about anything when they are feeding heavy in schools, but matching the current food makes for more hook-ups. 

Fishing along the grass banks around the bays and creeks is an easy way to find a school by boat or kayak. Just don’t spook the school by running into them. Cast to the grass. 

If you are on land, cast along the shoreline, not straight out. If you aren’t hooking up along the grass line, try deeper. Depending on the tide, the fish will move with the bait. At low tide when the mud banks are exposed, they move deeper looking for food. When the water is in the grass, they are up against the line feeding.

Some keeper tautog have been caught at the Indian River Inlet. The big catch down there was by the rangers, who were getting anglers for undersized fish Wednesday. Not sure how many people they caught, but some folks saw a couple people getting tickets. The Indian River Inlet is a problem area for constant poaching. If any place needs a full-time officer to just keep an eye on the anglers, it is that place.  

The boats are doing well offshore for tautog. Migratory striped bass fishing will be on the menu soon. Boats will start running to Cape May. Will big bass come in to Delaware’s coast? We will see. The resident striped bass action has been great. 

Perch fishing has been great for many anglers. The usual fall into winter fishing has begun and the usual spots are producing. Shorty bass are mixed in with the perch. They are fun to catch unless you are concentrating on table fare, then the bass are annoying.

Catching grass shrimp for perch fishing is simple: Just scrape the grass with a small net. Any area that will hold grass shrimp is easy to scrape with a small net and catch them for bait. I keep a small fish tank full of them in the shop. A simple set-up just like for goldfish will keep grass shrimp alive for a long time.  

The holidays are coming. Many like to shop early. Before you buy what you think is the perfect gift for the angler in your life, I have some advice: Find out what they want or need. We are given so much “neat” stuff for the holidays that is useless for catching fish. Granted, it is the thought that counts, but we don’t need gear we can’t use.

Anglers, save your friends and family a lot of hassle — tell them what you need or like to use. Hinting you need a new reel is fine, until they purchase you one without asking you what you use. Now you have push button Zebco 303 for your 10-foot surf rod.

Let them know your favorite bait shop. A gift card does well for bait for a few trips. Let them pick their own gear out and fill holes in their tackle boxes. Also, a gift card purchased directly from a tackle shop does them better than the Visa gift cards, since there are no fees.

There have been a couple cases of vibrio due to fish bites and puncture wounds from fins. One case got really serious. Carry a bleach solution with you when you fish. A small cut doesn’t seem like much. Then, 12 hours later, a doctor is telling you they might have to remove your foot. Just dousing a small cut or wound in a bleach solution can stop any problem before it starts. Vibrio acts fast and kills just as fast if not checked. I mix a gallon of water with a quarter-cup of bleach and put it in smaller bottles for the truck. It stings, but it is better than the alternative. 

Water temperatures are dropping — keep that in mind when you are kayaking. This is the time of year temperatures change fast. Getting stuck and not having the proper gear can lead to hypothermia. 

Pay attention to the tides. The neap tides are much lower this time of year, stranding small boats in low water areas.

Members and subscribers make this story possible.
You can help support non-partisan, community journalism.

x
X