Variety catches have given way to what I can best describe as our most productive Sea Bass catches so far this fall. Don’t get too excited, it’s all relative, a few weeks ago we were wondering if we were even going to see a decent fall run now we seem to be in the middle of what may be it. After my pleasant surprise of good Tog fishing on the special trip last Wednesday our next several days have all been spent anchoring over structure picking away at Sea Bass, Porgies, and Triggerfish.

Cooler temperatures over the weekend allowed the water temperature to make the first significant dip that we have seen so far this year. Now instead of 72-degree surface temps we are looking at more like 68 degrees on the top. Good weather, calm seas, and ideal anchoring conditions have all helped out in making for some pretty decent fishing trips just recently. Some lucky anglers have actually come close to that magic number of 25 Bass in the past few days however I would have to stick with an average catch of 8 to 15 nice keeper fish per angler for a more realistic number to post. We have seen some beautiful Bass weighing in the two to three pound class with the biggest one weighed in this past week at a whopping four and a half pounds. We have also seen some stud sized Porgies that have approached the 2 lb. class along with several Triggers and yes still the occasional Flounder.

For the most part our action has been pretty good, most trips just about every wreck or piece of reef structure we have parked over seems to be holding a few quality fish. While it is true that the vast majority of these Bass will still fall short of the required size limit we have been doing a lot of measuring here of late and those that constantly measure close will end up with quite a few by days end. As far as the variety catches with the Croakers and Trout mixed in I have really not been trying them since the Bass fishing has picked up. If I tried to do both, and the Croaks and Trout don’t cooperate we loose valuable fishing time that it takes to keep the numbers of Bass adding up by the end of the day. A few weeks ago we could catch everything in the same area, now the Trout and Croaks seem to be much closer to the beach and the Bass are a little further offshore.

It’s anybody’s guess how long these Sea Bass are going to last or just how good the Bass fishing will be in the next few weeks but with the water still being so warm I would have to guess that we will continue to see some decent catches of Sea Bass all the way into December. I just can’t say how many we will be able to catch. I am pretty certain that we will be sticking with the anchor-wreck fishing program unless we really get in a bind. Drift fishing is all but done for the year I suspect, however days like today 10/17 make me wonder; no good excuses but undoubtedly the worst trip on the Bass in almost a week. You just never know, most anglers struggled just to get supper and we never really had the throwback action that we have been seeing. Top hooks had just double digits.

Striper fishing really hasn’t taken hold yet. Again the warm water is to blame for has making Striper effort almost futile. There is an abundance of fish still in the back bays, creeks and sounds and it is just a matter of time before some of these fish start to push out into some of the more traditional fishing grounds where we would normally see them at this time of the year. There is a big Striper Tournament in our area this upcoming weekend and if the weather is decent I suspect the first linesiders will be brought in from out in the Bay or in the mouth of the Bay. The weatherman is once again promising a cold front for the upcoming weekend with possible Gail force winds Friday into Saturday so watch the weather close.

I will continue running the Full-Day trips daily at 7:00 a.m. basically wreck fishing for Sea Bass. The Striper boat is prepared to sail daily at 8:00 a.m. and they will likely be drifting live bait. Special trips will be Wednesdays for Blackfish (Tautog) and this is a ten-hour trip with reservations required. We will also be running 12-hr wreck trips for Sea Bass on Saturdays this also is a reservations required trip which will depart the docks at 5:00 a.m.

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