The long awaited Sea Bass have finally made an appearance. The lucky day of Friday the 13th was the first day that I could say we made up a catch of Bass. Even though we did not have limit catches or anything close we did have some real nice fishing. The size of the fish was more impressive than the numbers caught, however we did have several folks well into double digits of keepers and groups with some nice looking coolers full of fish.

With each day the Sea Bass fishing seems to be showing some signs of improvement. With the exception of the typical Saturday sting we have managed to make up a decent trip on each day. I don’t know what it is about Saturday’s but more times than not it just seems more difficult to please everyone on this day. Despite the size of the fish caught on Saturday’s trip they were just spread too thin. Amanda Markel from Mount Wolf Pa. is pictured here with one of the citation-sized fish that she landed on Friday’s trip. Amanda and her father Paul landed a nice box of big Bass Friday and she also won the fish pool with a chopper sized Blue.

The early part of the week I spent most of my time close to the mouth of the Delaware Bay catching predominately Tog. As most veterans know these fish can be somewhat temperamental and very frustrating to catch. This has been one of the best Spring Tog runs that we have had in a while. We will certainly see more Tog in the days to come over some of the wrecks that are fished but with the advent of the Sea Bass, most of my efforts will now be with finding and catching them. Edward Harrison from Bettsville Maryland was pleased to catch this pool winning 12 lb. plus Blackfish early last week. Edward also landed a citation sized Sea Bass of just under 5 lbs. Young Jacob Windon-Druck from Red Lion Pa. landed this citation-sized knot head Bass late last week creating a memory that will no doubt last him a lifetime. We had many other citation fish, I guess somewhere around 20 or more that made the minimum 3lb. size required by our state, just over the weekend.

To say that the Sea Bass fishing is good right now would be a stretch. We are catching them and the size has been good, but the numbers have not been up to the usual standards of this fishery for this time of year. Remember however that just two weeks ago we hadn’t seen the first one yet. We are getting there. Water Temperatures are slowly climbing and with any luck this is the needed key for those limit catches everyone is hoping to see. Capt. Benny from our charter boat Lewestown Lady had local boys Chris Cheesman and company from RC carpets out for a wreck trip over the weekend and ended up with a real fine catch of Sea Bass for a small group with fish up to four pounds. Capt Bennett has several open dates available now and is taking reservations for inshore as well as offshore fishing trips.

We will start with the Night trips this weekend sailing on Friday and Saturday nights at 6:00 pm, it will be entirely up to Capt. H.D. as for what the targeted species will be, but my guess is that this weekend Drumfish and Stripers will be first up on the menu. Our 12-hr. Wreck trips are done for now until they start up again in the fall. Even though some nice fish were caught on these offshore adventures, the trips ended up being a big disappointment this spring with the sour weather and lack of Bass on the offshore Wrecks.

I will continue to fish over wrecks with the regular all-day trips for several more weeks sailing every day at 7:00 am. these trips will be at least eight hours in length. Sea Bass will continue to be the target. I doubt that there will be many days that I concentrate on Tog for now unless it is a weather situation that keeps us close to the beach. If you would like 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 or check out the website at fishlewes.com

Until Next Week Happy Fishing!

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