Spring can’t get here fast enough. Mother Nature is in a rush this season. Slow down, lady, we have plenty of time. Winter keeps trying to come back in, but she isn’t having any of that.

My peepers have been singing all day and night now in the woods. There are more osprey arriving. Gannets are a few hundred yards off the beaches diving on baitfish schools.

Striped bass anglers are catching the schooling back bay striped bass, and these are starting to move into the surf zones a little. That action is slow but it is occurring, and will get better each week, despite a cold snap next week.

Fish near beach structure and moving water. Bloodworms are the bait of choice for striped bass this time of year. A swim shad will do well, too.
The Delaware Bay beaches are seeing decent striped bass action, again resident schooling bass. The migratory fish are on the move farther up north. We will see once again how this season turns out.

Don’t forget striped bass are a slot limit in Delaware — one fish per angler at 28 to 31 inches. Make sure to pinch the tail when measuring your bass. DNREC is looking for trimmed tails if you get checked.

Steve Smith at Smith’s Bait and Tackle last week said, “It is picking up early this year. I can’t keep minnows in stock, everyone is wearing out white perch. I’ve seen some large striped bass caught, too. I keep telling people hurry up and fish, it is starting early.”

His great little bait shop is in Leipsic on Route 9. They, like all the local shops, are stocked to the gills with new gear for the season.

I could hardly get into the door at Captain Bones the other day, too. “We are getting a lot of the new lines in for the bass and snakehead anglers,” Sean Foley told me.

DS Custom Tackle owner David Okonewski said, “We will be starting our Fresh Bait Friday posts up this week, it is time to fish and we have been stocking shops earlier than usual. We put out who has the fresh baits from our retail partners every Friday morning on our social media pages.”

DNREC has finished dredging the Indian River below Cupola Park. Well it’s not really done, but the permitting time has run out. The Indian River has been reduced to a small stream that flows through a silty mud flat. Navigation back there will be nearly impossible this summer. In aerial shots you can see the Cupola Park area or head waters of the Indian River is like a large pond that empties across a mud flat into the rest of the river. It’s sad for an area that used to be host to a myriad of aquatic life. The smell from the dredging has been biblical, too, from decades of silt and treated sewage buildup. The low tide rotten egg smell is a dream compared to that dredge smell.

The first flounder for the season in Chincoteague was brought to the docks by Captain Tim. It’s good to see that starting early. We are never too far behind once Chincoteague starts producing. Soon the inland bays will produce flounder. The question this year will be how many throwbacks I will go through for a single keeper. Flounder fishing got so bad around the bays many of us gave up fishing for them and switched to other fish, mostly to help the fishery and to avoid the aggravation. Even using our secret weapon rigs and baits, we are only getting the occasional keeper. Those little “Pop-Tart flounder” can’t hook up on these rigs no matter how hard they hit. When you want to avoid the little fish you go big.

Get your surf fishing gear ready. Start looking at days to blow off work and fish the less busy weekdays. Summer insanity is coming, and it gets worse each year. Be prepared to fish the beaches early and have to leave early to come back later in the day.

No, I have not bought a Delaware Surf Fishing tag this year and I am probably not going to either.

Assateague will do for me with the little time I have off now. If I am going to take a day off to fish and enjoy myself, it will be on beaches that are regulated properly so we can actually fish and catch something. I’ll never understand forcing people to surf fish, but not allowing or providing the space to do so.

Boaters beware: The inland bays around Massey’s Ditch are really filled in and new sand bars are appearing. That’s great news for the boaters who just like to park and drink in the middle of the bays, but extra sand bars are not so good for the health of the bays. There aren’t any bathrooms out there so the bay becomes a toilet on the weekends for thousands.

That being said, be prepared for any vibrio issues this summer. We always carry a bleach solution with us upwards of 5%. Even a minor cut can be deadly in hours. It’s best to nuke it with a bleach and water solution. I mention this a lot and will continue to do so. DNREC has warnings on their websites. The inland bays are under a 24/7 swim advisory.

There is an eclipse in April and we will be able to see a partial in Delaware.