A look back at fishing in 2014

I hope everyone received everything they asked for yesterday. Once again Santa disappointed me by not delivering a 70-foot Spencer or a fully restored 1968 Corvette. I guess they were too big to fit in the sleigh.

As the year 2014 closes out, I would like to look back at what sort of year it was for Delaware sportsmen and women. As always there were pleasant surprises and a few disappointments.

On the top of my list for pleasant surprises was the excellent flounder fishing we had in the ocean. It was the best in my memory, and that goes back quite a while.

The Old Grounds and the rough bottom along the Buoy Line provided the best action while the inshore reef sites also held a fair number of fish. This was deepwater fishing, so the weather had to be pretty good in order for anglers to keep a bait in the strike zone. Light winds and currents were the ideal fishing conditions.

As good as the flounder fishing was in the ocean, it seemed it was equally bad in the sheltered waters in Indian River and Rehoboth bays. Since most of the anglers who ply these waters have small boats that cannot safely reach the Old Grounds 13 miles east of the inlet they were left out of the flounder fishery.

Flounder were caught in the Delaware Bay, but only by anglers who learned how to fish the reef sites. The old days of just drifting along open bottom are over since flounder have taken up residence at the artificial reefs.

The Broadkill River and the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal saw fair flounder fishing in the spring, but it was all but over by June. A few keepers were caught all summer, but most of the flatfish left here were shorts.

While flounder may have been a bit difficult to catch in the bay, nothing could have been easier than filling a cooler with croaker. These popular fish showed up in early May and were still around in October. A fair number of kings were mixed in with the croaker as well as the occasional trout and bluefish.

The largest croaker I caught all year were in the Broadkill River and the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal. I used light freshwater tackle and bloodworms to score numerous fish, but only kept the largest ones for the table.

The fall run of croakers in the ocean was very good, but with most anglers keyed in on flounder, croaker became an unwelcome guest on the end of the line. I did go on one unproductive flounder trip where everyone on board was thrilled when we found a school of big croaker at the end of the day.

Keeper-sized trout were caught in the spring with Roosevelt Inlet providing many of these fish. An early morning high tide seemed to be the prime time to connect with a solid five- or six-pounder. While the number of fish taken was small, at least we saw a few more than in the past 10 years.

Sea bass fishing was a bit disappointing in the summer as the Old Grounds and inshore reefs and wrecks did not produce. The bass seemed to have moved farther offshore, and runs of 30 miles or more were required to find enough keepers to make the trip worthwhile. I had a report in late December from a boat that ran to the edge of the canyon to load the coolers with limits of three- to five-pound knotheads.

Keeper striped bass are becoming harder and harder to find. It seems to me that since Superstorm Sandy blew through, the rockfish have moved farther off the beach not just here, but up and down the coast. I can’t believe that a storm three years ago could still be impacting the behavior of a fish species, but I do suspect the ever popular excuse for everything - global warming.

As many of you know, my favorite form of fishing is from the beach. Delaware surf fishing is never going to keep anyone fed, but at least it used to provide a few fish for the table. Not in 2014. At least not for me.

In spring and fall I devote all of my surf-fishing trips to rockfish, and this year I scored a big fat zero. During the summer I did catch small blues, but nothing large enough to make the trip home with me. I had reports of some good runs of kingfish, but not when I was on the beach.

And so another year goes by and now we have another year ahead. I certainly hope all of you have a great new year and we all catch lots of fish in 2015.