Cold weather slows some fishing — but not all

Rich King
Posted 5/13/21

The cold snap dropped the water temperatures which turned some fish off a bit, but it has only slowed them down. Once some of these fish have the feed bag on they don’t care much for water …

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Cold weather slows some fishing — but not all

Posted

The cold snap dropped the water temperatures which turned some fish off a bit, but it has only slowed them down. Once some of these fish have the feed bag on they don’t care much for water temperature changes. The surface temperatures we see on buoys and fish finders are not the bottom temperatures.

The migratory striped bass are still moving north The upper Delaware Bay is still seeing action for the boats A few land casters have landed large bass. Boats are using bunker or bloodworms. Bait is working better in the bay than lures. The surf has seen some in Delaware but more so in Assateague. You have to be out fishing for migratory striped bass, don’t wait for that report — you will miss the action.

Weakfish are finally showing up the spike rout size mostly. Seen some big ones around the back bays of Jersey already too. The state unicorn, will it make a comeback this year? We ask that every year. Probably not, but we have seen bigger catches the past few years. Some are growing up beyond striped bass food. Some would say the reduced striped bass numbers will help the weakies bounce back. I’d like to see that, I prefer eating trout over striped bass any day of the week.

Burrfish are now in the surf — that is another early arrival. Summer rays have been caught too, also early. The burrfish was landed on a bucktail and others on bait.

There have been small bluefish caught here and there, not the big gators, but good to see the four pounders. Great eating size too. Hopefully that action continues into the summer until the cocktails show up.

Black drum action is still happening off the Delaware Bay beaches and the coral beds for the boats. We are just in mid-May so you should see that action for a couple more weeks, at least.

Tautog action is picking up for he structure and reef anglers.

The Cape Henlopen Fishing pier is seeing decent action for the time of year. The cold snap dropped the action but it will pick back up as the temperatures tick up. Even some sand perch have been caught. Another early arrival. Makes you wonder how far behind are the spot and croaker? We will know soon enough. It is still early in the year, plenty of time to get out and fish.

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