Despite some unseasonable weather and a little more wind than I would like, the fishing continues to be pretty darn good. Sea Bass continues to be the talk of the docks and decent numbers of these tasty bottom fish keep coming in daily. I can’t boast limit catches for everyone or anything like that but pretty much every trip has ended in success with most anglers walking away with a nice catch of fish by days end.

Southerly winds picked up towards the end of last week making the fishing conditions a little less than favorable however nice Bass continued to come over the rails. Limit catches were few and hard earned but most fishermen would land between a dozen to twenty nice sized Sea Bass along with countless throwbacks and way too many Sharks on each and every trip. By Friday the swells were approaching 8 feet and the winds had come around to the Northeast blowing in excess of twenty-five knots. Several folks showed up to fish Friday but Mother Nature wouldn’t allow us to leave the dock. Turns out this was a good call, by midday Friday the waves just twelve miles off the beach peaked out at over twelve feet. I’m glad I was on land.

Saturday turned out to be a much nicer day. The winds came around to the Northwest and started to diminish however with one of the biggest crowds of the year and a huge ground swell left over from Friday’s blow our catch was way off. While not the proverbial “Saturday Sting” our fishing left a lot to be desired. Top hooks would land double digits or more but it went downhill from there. Anchoring conditions were tough and the fish just weren’t biting as well as they had been. Fortunately it seemed that the folks had a much better time than I. I had some really great comments from anglers about Saturday’s trip, but personally, I thought it sucked.

Sunday the fish turned on again with most anglers once again landing anywhere from ten to twenty nice Bass and even a few limits spread around the boat. Yesterday’s catch wasn’t quite as good however the quality of the fish was very impressive with several knot heads weighing in over three pounds. Today 5/22 we had better numbers of fish but not quite as many of the jumbos. This is about the way it’s been the last several trips, some stops are much better than others but all the wrecks have been producing a good number of quality sized Sea Bass and I would expect this to continue for a few more weeks.

The water temperatures are still creeping up despite some cool nights. I have seen surface temps as high as 56 along the coast and the Delaware Bay temperatures as warm as 62. We have seen several big Blues over the past few days some of which have weighed well over ten pounds and we have also seen a few Codfish and several Ling mixed with the catch. Even though I would have to describe the action as pick fishing it has been very interesting with the size of some of fish coming up and of course all of the Sharks mixed in. During some of our best drops on the Bass we have seen the Spiny Sharks chasing the fish all the way up to the surface. Hopefully these nuisance fish will be moving off as the water temperature creeps up and we won’t be chased away from some of the smaller wrecks.

I will continue wreck fishing daily with the All-Day trips sailing at 7:00 a.m. the outlook is good for these Sea Bass as they continue to migrate around the heavy structures. We will certainly be seeing some great catches in the upcoming weeks. Our Half-Day trips will start this weekend sailing at 8:00 a.m. and then again at 1:00 p.m. Half day anglers can expect to see Tog, Flounder, Blues or maybe Sea Bass depending on the daily conditions. We will also be fishing for Drumfish both Friday and Saturday nights departing at 6:00 p.m.

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

Until Next Week Happy Fishing!

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