DMS surf fishing tourney goes on despite poor weather

In spite of a less-than-stellar weather forecast, the Delaware Mobile Surf Fishermen held its 10th Annual Surf Fishing Tournament last weekend. I give a lot of credit to those who fished in the poor conditions and even more credit to the volunteers who worked to make the event a success.

The top three winners in the Overall Division were first, Drew Stuchlik; second, Ted Clock; and third, Shaun Smith. The top three in the Ladies Division were Anita Chandler, first; Amy Ferguson, second; and Allison Stuart, third. The Youth Division was taken by Jace Griffith with a nice flounder. The largest fish of the tournament was caught by J.R. Griffith and was worth $750. The Bluefish Calcutta was taken by Amy Ferguson, who walked away with $1,860.

Muzzloader season

Last Friday was opening day of muzzleloader season, and I was fortunate to have an invite to hunt on the land of a friend who lives between Georgetown and Seaford. He has a stand on the edge of a field that if it had water and electricity I would move in full time.

I was up at 0500 and in the stand about 15 minutes before shooting time at 0630. It was overcast and since I was looking into the woods I really couldn’t see much until around 0720. When the light did come up there was a deer standing about 30 yards inside the woods. I never saw or heard it move in, but there it was.

The doe was facing me and didn’t seem to be in any hurry to leave as it munched on corn and crab apples so I sat there and waited for her to turn and give me a better shot. Finally, she moved more to the side and I thought I had a good shot on her shoulder. I touched off the old smoke pole and true to form there was plenty of smoke that obscured my view. When the smoke cleared I fully expected to see a dead deer lying on the ground. I could already taste the fresh venison liver I would have for dinner and my world-famous mild, yet flavorful venison chili that would keep me warm on those cold winter days. But lo and behold, the main ingredient for all those wonderful meals was nowhere to be seen. Could it be that I had missed a deer at 30 yards? Apparently so.

I stayed in the stand until around 0930 in case another deer would come in view, but alas, none did. Once out of the stand I searched the area where the deer was standing by going around in ever-increasing circles looking for any sign of hair or blood. None was found.

I had to stop by my friend’s house and admit I had missed the only deer I saw. Fortunately, he too is a lifelong deer hunter who has also, on rare occasions, missed his target.

He did mention that it’s not easy to miss a deer at 30 yards. I agreed. I mean, anyone can miss at 100 or 150 yards, but to miss at 30 yards takes special talent.

Always looking on the bright side, I could now head home, clean the rifle, take a nap and have the rest of the day off. No gutting, skinning or butchering required.

Fishing report

After the weather we have had for the past several weeks, fishing reports are rare. There were small blues caught from the beach and out of Indian River Inlet. Both areas saw hit-and-miss action. I do believe all this east wind will hold the mullet back for a bit so when they finally run out of the inlet and Delaware Bay we should have some good fishing.  

I had one report from Ocean City where two men fishing the surf had a flurry of puppy drum and flounder. In spite of the short time frame, they were able to catch keeper flounder and drum along with a few shorts.

Flounder fishing seems to be in a state of flux. Before the bad weather, action in the ocean had dropped off, leading some to believe the fish had moved toward the edge of the shelf where they spend the winter. Then we had reports of flounder caught out of the surf and from the end of the Cape Henlopen Fishing Pier.  If and when I ever get out on the water again, I think Reef Site 10 would be a good location to at least give the flounder one more try.

Tog action in Delaware Bay was fair the last time anyone gave it a try. The inside of the Outer Wall produced well as did a few Lower Bay reef sites.