We have had another good week of fishing here at the Wharf! The Tog have continued to bite with several fish close to ten pounds and bigger hitting the decks along with a few real easy days, Sea Bass are finally making a showing within 20 miles of the beach and Stripers and Drum are being brought to the docks regularly.

Capt. Benny and is mate Dave had another one of those dream trips for their private charter on the Lewestown Lady this past Saturday landing ten Stripers, the biggest of which was 28 pounds they also landed five Drum on the same trip two of which tipped the scales at a whopping 77 pounds! Congratulations on a super fine catch! I am including a few pictures from this outstanding charter trip in my report this week; I figure it’s time to look at something different than Tog and remind readers just what is available with a private charter. If you were one of the several that had pictures taken of a big Tog or Sea Bass last week I’m sorry that I didn’t get them in but I will try and post them in one of the upcoming reports.

Most of my week was spent fishing for the Tautog close to home. With small crowds and favorable tides this worked out perfect, we even had a couple more of those days where we left them biting and had caught all that we were allowed. I ventured offshore a little on Friday and Saturday in search of the Sea Bass. Even though I was a little disappointed with the total numbers landed, we did have our best Bass fishing of the year with the regular full day trips. Top hooks would land as many as fifteen nice Sea Bass both Saturday and Sunday but the numbers went down from there with some folks only landing just a handful or more by days end. I will take this as a good sign though for things to come, with some of the fish we caught on Saturdays trip weighing in over three pounds I think the spring run is finally on!

Mother Nature lashed back at us on Sunday for all the nice days we have been having. A coastal low forming off the beach to our south coupled with high pressure to our north resulted in a tight pressure gradient which generated 30 to 40 knot Northeast winds throughout our area both Sunday and Monday. Needless to say we stayed tied to the docks. On Saturday the Ocean looked like a millpond and at one point Sunday we had 14-foot waves rolling in just a few miles off of the beach. We were back out today 5/8 with moderate winds and seas and I was pleasantly surprised with biting fish. Both Sea Bass and Tog cooperated with all anglers landing well into double digits with a couple guys even close to a limit of nice Bass and several limits of Tog mixed in with the catch to boot, and get this, we were fishing only about nine miles from the beach. When I left the dock I wasn’t even sure if anything would be biting but you just never know. Often a blow like we encountered will push fish around and make them seek the structure hopefully this is just the case that we encountered today and we will have many more trips like this. Time will tell but I do expect some excellent catches with the Sea Bass from here on out.

I will continue running the All-Day trips departing the docks 7:00 daily. We will be strictly anchoring over wrecks, rocks and reefs for several more weeks. If I had to guess I would say that the Tog will be winding down some and much more effort will be put toward catching Sea Bass however either or both is still possible. The Drum fishing is really just coming on now and the Stripers should be around a little longer with the cooler water temperatures. Both of these fisheries are perfect for small charters as the pictures prove. We will also be sailing for Drum with an open boat every Friday and Saturday night for several more weeks departing the docks at 6:00 p.m. If you can’t get a group together the headboat is a perfect choice.

If you would like any more information about trips sailing out of the Wharf or you would like to book a charter please feel free to e-mail me or give us a call at (302) 645-TUNA.

Until Next Week Happy Fishing!

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