Our last long range 18hr. wreck trip for the spring sailed this past weekend. Anglers were treated to an ocean that couldn’t possibly have been any calmer, and to one of the nicest weather days so far this year. As for the fish, well I’m sure that some of the patrons were a little disappointed with the end results, however we did catch some of the biggest Sea Bass you will ever have the chance to catch and just about everyone walked away with supper and some great memories.

Even though by days end, coolers were not overflowing with fish, the action on this trip was almost addictive. I personally fished just about the entire trip and there were times that I just couldn’t get my line back down to the bottom fast enough. We fished in about 200 feet of water and our biggest problem would have to have been the hard running current. Even though the ocean was mirror-like in appearance anglers were pressing as much as a pound of weight or at times even more on the end of their lines just trying to hold bottom with this swift moving current. Fishing with this much lead will bring even the toughest of anglers to their knees on a calm day!

Jumbo Sea Bass was the catch of the day. Just about every Bass landed would tip the scales between 3 to 6 pounds. We also had an amplitude of bait stealing Cunners and Spiny Dogfish Sharks biting just to keep things interesting.

Tae Joon Park from Baltimore Maryland had the honors of catching the big money fish landing this Jumbo Knot Head Sea Bass, which would weigh in at just shy of six pounds. There were many other fish that were equally as impressive. Dennis Muhlenforth of Hockessin landed these contenders that would both weigh in over four pounds. I estimate that there was somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 to 30 fish landed on this day that tipped the scales weighing in over the four pound mark. Just about every fish caught would reach the three pound minimum size limit for a Delaware State citation! These were beautiful fish. This is the one thing that stands out the most on these long-range deep-water trips. Even though it is not uncommon for us to see Bass that weigh this much on our normal 8 or 12-hour days, we seldom catch this many Jumbos unless we are in the depths of water that these long-range trips will allow.

Our bottom-fishing schedule is changing now; our special wreck trips will all be 12-hour trips departing the dock every Saturday morning at 5:00 a.m. until May 14th. I expect for the next few weekends that on these trips we will concentrate mostly on Tautog (Blackfish). It would seem that given our present water temps this is going to be our best option. Blackfish are now in depths from 60 to 120 feet, which should allow plenty of fishing time on these trips fishing within 15 to 30 miles from the beach. Reservations for the 12-hour trips are required.

I think it will be a few more weeks before Sea Bass in any numbers will be within striking range of our 12 hr. trips. The Daily 8 hr. schedule will resume this Friday March 25th for Mackerel. It looks good for the Mac’s at this time. Commercial fishermen targeting Mackerel are loading up their boats between 25 and 40 miles from the beach. As water temperatures climb these fish should be as close as 10 to 12 miles. Even at 40 miles they are well within our eight-hour range with cruising speeds of 18 to 20 knots. As long as we can muster up enough folks to pay for the fuel we should be able to produce some Mackerel.

The best water temperature that we encountered over the weekend was in the neighborhood of 46 degrees however this was almost 90 miles from the dock late in the day with a slick flat calm ocean and a full day of sunshine. Temperatures for the most part in our working area have been only around 41 degrees. I am sure that these temps will climb fast with the weather that we have in our immediate forecast. I fully anticipate being able to catch Mackerel within the next couple of weeks!

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