It’s hard to believe that April is here already but it sure enough is. Things on the fishing scene are changing just as rapidly as the days on the calendar. Water temperatures have been on the rise and fish have been on the move. Just a week ago I was seeing water temps as low as 42 and today I was seeing 46 to 47 degrees all day in the Ocean and I even saw close to 50 degrees in the Delaware Bay on the ride home just today. Stripers, Drumfish, and Flounder have all been caught with rod and reel just this past week proving waters are warming.

At the Wharf we started with our daily schedule this past Friday with hopes of some decent Tog fishing before the spring regulations took effect. The Fish had a better idea. Friday’s trip was certainly not what I had expected. Even though we did catch some fish as big as 11 pounds there just weren’t enough of them for my liking. Saturday we were out in full force Capt. H.D. was on a Mackerel mission and I was back at battle with the Tog. Bad news for those seeking the Mack’s…. none yet, time will tell. Tog fishing was much better on Saturday but still left a lot to be desired as far as I was concerned. Top hooks would land half a dozen or better and it went down from there. One thing that was cool though was that we had anglers who had never fished for Tog catch their first ever and we also had anglers that have fished for them “forever” catch none!

We will be sailing every day from here on out now and at least we now know that we don’t have to run 25 miles to catch a fish this is good news for those days when only a few folks show up. As far as the Mackerel go we will be on the lookout for them on each and every day with all available resources, water temperature is the key and we are real close to where it needs to be. I know of a lot of Mack’s caught this past week by commercial fisherman however these fish are way way way out of our reach. It is very likely that there will be an inshore run of these fish and if there is we will be on top of it. I can only remember one year in over thirty years of fishing that we didn’t have a shot on the Mackerel so I am certainly holding faith that we will get our chance. I just can’t say how long or how good or even if, but we do have a chance.

Full Day boat sails daily departing at 7:00 a.m. this time of the year we have been known to “drag our feet” so don’t be surprised when there is only a few folks around that we leave a little later. We have two more 18 hr. trips on the schedule this spring one this weekend and one next. Reservations are required for the long-range trips. We will have a few 12hr. trips scheduled after that.

If you would like any more information about trips sailing out of the Wharf or you would like to reserve a space on one of the special trips please give us a call at 302-645-TUNA.

Until Next Week Happy Fishing!
Capt. Rick Yakimowicz
Keen Lady IV
catchfish@verizon.net