Fishing reports always seem to go a little easier for me after we have had a good week of fishing. That is just what we have had! More good weather, calm seas and some favorable conditions have all come together for pretty decent fishing and in some cases some downright fabulous fishing over the last seven days!

I did miss a couple trips late last week but we were back out in full force over the weekend. What we saw was mostly Tog. Some anglers of course seemed to make out much better than others with these crafty bottom dwellers but for the most part all went well and most folks went home with more than enough for supper. We have also seen our first significant catch with Sea Bass so far this year with the regular Full-Day trips just this past week. Nothing major but one trip saw a few lucky guys landing close to double digits with nice Bass. I’ll take it as a good sign with hopes that it will improve more each day.

The first of the week we saw some of the best Tautog fishing of the year. If you were planning a trip these last few days and decided not to come you screwed up! Limit catches were landed my last three days out on the water in fact today 5/2, with just a small crowd we had all the fish we needed by noon and were catching and releasing keeper sized Tog until the tide ran too hard, then back to the dock and all cleaned up by 2:00! If only it were that easy every day. Yesterdays trip was similar we had all our Tog by 10:30 in the morning, we actually tried for Stripers for a while (they didn’t bite) then we caught a few Sea Bass and our fist Slammer Blues of the ’07 season along with more Tog that had to be released. We even had a keeper Flounder, the second one I’ve seen this week.

Capt. Benny ran a charter with the Lewestown Lady this past Saturday and was treated to an awesome day with the Stripers. Fish up to twenty pounds were caught and released almost all day long. Capt. Benny wasn’t certain just how many Stripers they actually caught but he told me the action was literally nonstop for quite a while with multiple hookups several times.

The water temperature has been climbing almost on a daily basis. Surface temps in the Ocean have been around 52 degrees and I have seen it as high as 54 degrees while the Delaware Bay has shown as high as 56 and up these last few afternoons. It’s no surprise that we have already seen our first Blues of the year and the good news is that it’s only going to get better.

Here’s the way it’s going to shake out; our best Tog fishing for the most part has been within three to six miles from the beach making it perfect with the smaller size crowds. Most of the Sea Bass landed so far this year on my All Day trips have been out a little further meaning that we need a bigger crowd to make the run. I would expect that this weekend we will be putting a good effort towards the Sea Bass as long as we have the weather and the people but it is entirely possible that we may make a stop “inshore” for the Tog if conditions are right. We will just have to see how it goes. I do expect more good fishing in our immediate future and I anticipate some good Sea Bass catches any time.

I will continue to sail every day at 7:00 a.m. fishing over wrecks for several more weeks, Tautog and Sea Bass will be the target until the big numbers of Sea Bass arrive at which time the target will be mostly Bass with fewer Tog mixed in. We will also be running Night Trips for Drumfish every Friday and Saturday evening at 6:00 p.m. We were out this past weekend but no Drum were landed. This fishery should be red hot as soon as the water temperature is right and believe me it is real close. There have been a few Drumfish landed so far this spring but they really haven’t gone bonkers yet.

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 for 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