I waited for a good story but I have come to the conclusion that I’ not going to have one for this week. Not a good story anyway. Wind, rain, cold temperatures, and even snow have been the story for this past week and needless to say fishing at the Wharf has been just about nonexistent. My last day out on the water was last Tuesday and much to my dismay most of my time has been spent working at the boatyard sanding and painting, I really can’t report any first hand knowledge from the water on the fishing scene.

The weather took a turn for the worse around the middle of last week and we really haven’t had much relief. The best I can do is tell you what I know. A lot of folks have been calling and asking about the Mackerel. Traditionally this time of the year is all about the Mack’s. Quite frankly I just haven’t been able to get out to even look for them. Given our present water temperature it is quite possible that we may still have a shot on them but my best intel is iffy at best.

Commercial fisherman target these sought after fish hard at this time of the year and most of these guys have been looking at a minimum of 40 miles from the beach for their best catches and in some cases as far as a couple hundred miles. It’s no secret that we had a strange winter. Mild temperatures dominated until late January; perhaps this had a bearing on the Mackerel fishery more so than we could ever understand. This spring so far has been a roller coaster ride with the weather and it’s hard to tell what is going to happen next. I know I have never in my life seen Jumbo Blues caught off of our beach in the middle of January but they were there this year along with the Stripers. I have seen good numbers of Mackerel off our coast in December and January before, but they were migrating south as fast as they could swim. I know at least some Mack’s made it all the way down to North Carolina in February however as of last week Virginia Beach had still not seen the first inshore Mackerel for the spring run north; they are usually hammering these fish a couple of weeks before we see the first of them.

There is good news. Flounder are being caught in the back Bays already and Striper fishing so far this Spring has been very good. Despite the crazy weather fish seem to be on the move and the Delaware Bay is right on par for this time of the year. The outlook is good for the weeks to come for seeing some outstanding fishing for Tog, Stripers, Fluke and Drum and it won’t be long before we see the first Sea Bass flipping over the rails within 20 miles of the beach.

Our schedule is seven days a week now with the all-day trips departing at 7:00 a.m. I will look for the Mack’s providing we have good weather and a few folks until the water gets to warm, otherwise we may be anchoring over a wreck fishing for Tog or we may even fish for the Stripers. Whatever our best shot is that is what we will do. We have one more 18-hour trip scheduled for this Saturday for the Jumbo Bass and there are a few spaces available. After this weekend we will start with our 12-hour trips, which will depart at 5:00 a.m. I will be posting the dates for the 12-hour trips here. Remember reservations in advance are necessary for all special trips.

If you would like any more information about trips sailing out of the Wharf please give us a call at (302) 645-TUNA. Meanwhile please come fishing to get me out of the boat yard!

Until Next Week Happy Fishing!

Capt. Rick Yakimowicz
Keen Lady IV
catchfish@verizon.net