If anyone would be interested in a very good book about some local Lewes history there is one entitled “My, But The Wind Did Blow” by James E. Meehan. It portrays the March storm of 1962 when our area was hammered by a persistent Nor’easter and gave Delaware some of its worst storm damage in history. If I were a writer I would have no problem filling a few pages about some more wind in Lewes that was a little more recent!

Fishing during the month of October was challenging at best. “My, but the wind did blow.” Just about every day from one direction or another we have been plagued with not just moderate winds but most of the time these were the real deal winds, many times blowing well in excess of 30 knots forcing us to stay tied to, or come back to the docks early. Of course we did have the occasional “Victory at sea!” October proved to be, at least for me the windiest late season month I think I have ever seen. There were too many days that even a 110-foot boat seemed small. Despite all the wind and nasty weather we did manage to see some good fishing.

Since my last report we have seen some of the roughest sea conditions and also some of the calmest conditions of the whole month. As Wilma passed our area early last week the Delaware Light Ship Buoy had reported waves as high as 22 feet as quick as 8 seconds. Now that was a chop! We did manage to return to our daily schedule on Thursday after scrubbing Wednesday’s special Tog trip and we found that the Sea Bass were a little rattled. They did bite but we had to make several stops and they were only biting during the strengths of the tide. This finicky bite continued through the rest of the week but we did manage to put a decent catch together including lots of limit catches on each and every trip. As the week came to an end, of course the winds picked up again making things a little more difficult. We did catch fish but it was not without pain. Saturday I had to fish seven different wrecks to feed about 30 people. Sunday we had the absolute biggest crowd of October and it became obvious early on that the inshore wrecks weren’t going to produce enough fish on this day. Despite 30-knot northwest winds and some damn big seas I decided to push further offshore to fish over wrecks that had not yet been fished during this fall season. Sometimes you have to have a little faith in the forecast, besides the waves were all on our tail. This proved to be a good move we caught a lot of very nice fish and the seas calmed down for what would be a 35-mile ride home.

Monday and Tuesday proved to be much of the same, inshore wrecks (15 to 20 miles) just were not producing enough keeper fish and I once again had to push off the beach a little deeper. Results were good, plenty of Sea Bass with a good cull of keeper fish. We also saw a smattering of jumbo Bluefish mixed in to keep things interesting. Double headers of 15 inch Bass were common! Spiny Dogfish Sharks have also made an appearance over my last few trips. Sea Bass fishing is good however it seems as though depths that just a week ago produced well are now not quite as good. Time will tell whether this is related to the nasty weather that we have had or if there are just not as many fish moving in these depths. With the Sharks showing up things are certainly changing.

Water temperatures have been on a steady drop for over a week now and fish are definitely on the move. Striper fishing has finally taken off with several Stripers being landed in just these past few days. Our daily Striper boat has fished every day since Saturday and has landed some very impressive fish. All but just a couple of these beasts landed so far have been weighed in at over 20 pounds with the biggest so far at 27. Keith Gardner from Laurel was the first patron to catch his limit of Rock on the headboat this fall. Keith landed two big linesiders on Monday both weighing in over twenty pounds. This fishery will only get better over the next few weeks with many trophy-sized fish being taken. Remember that we will be running a boat exclusively for Stripers every day at 8:00 a.m. until after Christmas. Weather does not seem to play as much of a role with these fish, sometimes they bite on the nastiest of days. Remember we are also fishing fairly close to home for these fish, many times only being a few miles from the inlet.

Wreck fishing will also continue daily until the 18th of December at which time I will be ready for a nice holiday. I will continue to target these Sea Bass as long as we can make a good day of it and so far so good. I am not real fond of the fact that I have had to go so far offshore these past few days but I think it is mostly weather related and that we should still see good Sea Bass action within 20 miles of the beach. It is also very possible that with a light crowd I will be staying close to the beach targeting primarily Tautog. Tog have been biting quite well in the past several days for those targeting them and I will not hesitate to take advantage of this option.

If you would like more information about trips sailing out of the Wharf this Fall or you would like to make a reservation for one of our special trips please give us a call at (302) 645-TUNA or check out our website at fishlewes.com

Until Next Week Happy Fishing!

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