Fisherman’s Wharf Fishing Report November 5th, 2004

As November rolls in the fishing front has been heating up. The Westerly winds of this past weekend have finally leveled the pesky ground swells that have plagued our area for over a week and the fishing has once again returned to normal.

Anglers fishing for Sea Bass, Striped Bass, Bluefish, Croakers, Trout and Tautog have all had reasonable success over this past week. The ocean has finally calmed and water temperatures are gradually dropping. The hard running currents that we have seen from both the full moon and the high tides that we have experienced lately have also slowed. These seem to have been the ingredients that we have been looking for.

Charter boats and private boats alike have enjoyed the best Striper and Tautog fishing so far this year with countless citation sized Stripers and Tog hefted in over these past several days. Weekend boat traffic slowed the action for some folks fishing for Stripers, however boats that were able to stay away from the melee of activity fared very well. Several Stripers of 25 pounds or larger have been brought to the scales just since Sunday.

Wreck fishing action over the weekend was similar to that of the rest of the week prior. Good crowds and spotty action made for a difficult day on Saturday with the Sea Bass once again biting best late in the trip. The production of Sunday and Monday’s trip however restored my belief that Mother Nature controls the catch. These fish have just been severely affected by the huge swells and swift currents. The ground swells were gone and we caught fish all day long on both Sunday and Monday with most folks ending up with a limit of 25 nice keepers.

The 12-hr. trip on Saturday saw somewhat of the same scenario. Capt. H.D. was at the helm and reported catching Sea Bass best late in the day as deep as 120 feet and also reported catching several Bluefish. This is the first sign so far this fall that the fish are beginning to move to deeper waters offshore and are biting at these depths. Several Spiny Dogfish Sharks have also been caught in the depths from 60 to 120 feet over the past several days.

Sea Bass and Stripers were not the only fish that pleased anglers over the weekend. Capt. Mike Cerchio ran the Thelma Dale IV with a private charter on Sunday and fished over one of the hard bottom ridges of the "old grounds." Croakers up to 21 inches and a good number of Trout and Blues came over the rails all day on this trip and Capt. Mike was cleaning fish for his party well after dark Sunday evening! These were some of the biggest Croakers and Trout that I have seen all year. This fishery seems to be going strong now with very little effort from hook and line fishermen. I suppose most anglers are more interested in catching trophy Stripers, or have just had their fill of Croakers and Trout for this year.

If Stripers are in fact your game this is the time to fish for them. We will be running the Thelma Dale IV for Stripers daily at 8:00 am. until the middle of December. These fish are coming on strong now and the action should continue until well after Thanksgiving. Monday’s headboat trip landed 17 Stripers with the biggest fish weighing in at just under 30 pounds! These are all big fish, with the ones reaching just 28 inches still tipping the scales at around 10 or 12 pounds.

Our Wreck fishing Schedule has dropped to just four days a week now, we will be sailing on Friday’s, Saturday’s, Sunday’s and Monday’s departing the docks at 7:00 am. We will also have 12-hr. trips sailing every Saturday morning at 5:00 am. These trips will be seeing mostly Sea Bass however it is likely that we will see some Porgies, Triggerfish, Tautog and Blues also. We do have a couple more special trips for Tautog scheduled this month. These 10-hr. trips will sail on Wednesday mornings at 6:00 am. and will return to the dock around 4:00pm.

If you are interested in making a reservation for one of these special trips or you would like more information about trips sailing out of the Wharf this fall please give us a call at (302) 645-TUNA.

Until Next Week Happy Fishing! .


Until next time Happy Fishing!
Capt. Rick Yakimowicz
fishing@fishlewes.com
Keen Lady IV