Like a flash in the pan the 2006 Spring Mackerel run has come and gone. At least as far as I am concerned. Less than a week ago I had reported very good catches of Mackerel with hopes of maybe a week or two more of catching them, however warm sunny days coupled with warm nights have pushed the ocean surface temperatures up that few crucial degrees, and now with the Bluefish right on their tail, the Mack’s are all but gone. That will teach me to give totes full of Mackerel away just knowing there are more to come. I never even brought home a batch to smoke this year!

Saturday was the last day that we tried for the Mackerel and the end results were less than spectacular. Top hooks would end up with a handful or two of fish and several folks never even caught one. Friday’s production was much the same. In light of this turn of events I decided to pull the plug on this fishery as of Easter Sunday.

Now the good news. Wreck fishing at this time for Black fish (Tautog) is about as good as it gets. Loaded with a bucket full of clams and a bucket full of crab we ventured up into the mouth of the Delaware Bay to try and catch some of these crafty bottom dwellers and catch them we did. Everyone on board had his or her limit of fish and we were back to the dock and cleaned up in time for Easter supper! It gets better. The majority of these fish were well over the required 15-inch size minimum and in fact there were several citation-sized fish landed and many a heavy roe laden female released to fight again on another day!

I fished for the Blackfish again today with the same results, everyone on board catching a limit of Tog up to 11 ½ pounds and releasing many more! Not much of a variety though Tog, Tog and more Tog. We did have a bunch of Spiny Dogfish Sharks yesterday mixed with the catch however we only caught a couple of them today. I’m sure the Sharks will be keeping things interesting though in the future.

Wreck fishing will pretty much be the program now with our regular All-Day trips. I would expect to see good numbers of Tog for the next couple of weeks at the very least, as time progresses we will start to see more and more Sea Bass in our catch. I think it will be a couple of weeks before we see any big numbers on the Sea Bass with the regular 8-hour trips. No guarantees on this one folks but there have also been days in recent years when we actually limit everyone out with Blackfish and then catch a bunch of Stripers as a bonus. These trips are normally on an exceptional day and with a light rail and you never really know when it’s going to happen.

Stripers are around now and the preferred method fishing for them now is on the anchor fishing in some of the warmer shallows of the Bay. Private charter boats have had great success with them over the past few weeks. This is a patience game though as you can spend a lot of time sitting and waiting for the bite to start. There have also been several Black Drum landed by boats targeting the Stripers. The Lewestown Lady is booking Charters now for Stripers and Drum if you are interested.

I really expect to see some great days on the water catching fish over the next several weeks. The life in the Delaware Bay now is exceptional given the present water temp. of 52 degrees. I think I have seen more fish on my scope in the last couple days in the mouth of the
Bay than I have seen in the last three weeks running out front! Bluefish are starting to make a show in the surf and there are several confirmed reports of Flounder haven been taken from our waters, along with reports of Sea Trout and Croakers in the webbing.

Remember that we will be sailing every Saturday at 5:00 a.m. with a 12-hour wreck trip until the middle of May. These trips do require an advanced reservation. I will also be sailing daily at 7:00 a.m. with the regular all-day trips fishing over wrecks. If you would like more information about trips sailing out of the Wharf or you would like to book a charter or reserve a spot on a 12 hour trip please give us a call at (302) 645-TUNA.

Until Next Time Happy Fishing!

Capt. Rick Yakimowicz