Rockfish starting to make way over to Delaware
The rockfish action is beginning to spread out a bit. While fish are still being caught off the New Jersey ocean coast and close to Cape May on the Jersey side of the bay, we are beginning to see more fish on the Delaware side and from the ocean as far south as the lump off Bethany Beach.
Trolling with Stretch type plugs and MOJOs has been very popular and productive. More fish were caught on live eels at the Valley last week as well.
When the fishing is good, limits are caught; when it’s slow, nothing is caught. As in all types of fishing, first you have to find the fish, and then you have to feed them something they want to eat.
With these fall-run rockfish, the best fishing is going to be when the rock are actively feeding under birds and around whales. When this is going off, you can toss an old shoe out there and something will eat it.
So what to do when the birds are sitting on the water and no whales are in sight? I will usually work the rips and lumps where I have caught fish before. I use my SONAR to look for bait and fish, and if don’t see either I will keep on looking. I don’t care how many 50-pounders were caught there yesterday; if you don’t see bait and fish on the screen, they have moved to another location. I have said this a thousand times, when you don’t see fish on the SONAR and no one around you is catching fish, why are you still there?
I will probably troll around looking for good sign, and if I see bait or big fish, I will work that area for awhile. I also have friends out there, and we will use our cellphones to let each other know if we find some action. Cellphones are more discreet than VHF radio, but if I see a couple of boats suddenly pull up stakes and start running at full speed in the same direction, I just may follow them.
While boaters are having good luck, shore-bound surf casters are not. The big rockfish have not made an appearance along the beach or at Indian River Inlet. While the occasional small keeper has been caught on bloodworms or cut mullet, larger rock so far have been no-shows.
Other action
Tog fishing remains good in the Delaware Bay and over reef sites in the ocean. Last weekend the Rehoboth Star out of Indian River had some limits on fish to 12 pounds on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. According to Capt. Scotty Gold, Saturday was the best day while Sunday was the slowest.
Deep-water fishing was very good. Capt. Brent Wiest on the Katydid ran out to the deep and returned with a boat limit of blueline tiles and black sea bass along with some big bluefish and triggerfish.
December crabbing
Never thought I would be writing about crabbing in December, but I received an email from Tom Jones, no not that Tom Jones, this one lives here, and he and his friend Bill Clineff have been running a 1,200-foot trot line in Love Creek and catching more than a few crabs. On Dec. 7, they had over a bushel, and on Dec. 13, they had 26 nice blue claws. I have never heard of crabs caught in December other than with a scrape. I think this is another result of global warming.
On the commercial side, Richard Hand Jr. was arrested for 93 violations including fishing crab pots after the potting season closed; using an unregistered boat, truck and trailer; not having a commercial crabbing license; not tending his crab pots every 72 hours; and not having the proper color panels on his boat that matched the colors of his pot floats. He pleaded not guilty and was released for a later appearance in court.
New reef material
The Division of Fish and Wildlife has sunk another ship on the Del-Jersey-Land Reef. This time it is the Shearwater, a 200-foot former Army freighter, Navy survey craft and finally a menhaden boat. It went down in 120 feet of water at 38 31.200/ 074 30.800.
While the Shearwater is one-third the length of the USS Radford, it does have a height of 38 feet, and if it landed topside up, the ship will make a very big target on SONAR. I would expect marine growth to begin almost immediately, and by next summer there should be some good fishing there.
Delaware’s artificial reef program is the best in the country, and in no small measure due to Jeff Tinsman, who has been leading the program since it began. Another job well done.
Eric Burnley is a Delaware native who has fished and hunted the state from an early age. Since 1978 he has written countless articles about hunting and fishing in Delaware and elsewhere along the Atlantic Coast. Eric can be reached at Eburnle@aol.com.
