Black sea bass fishing is pretty basic

May 15 was the opening of black sea bass season. I was all set to go out on the Angler from Ocean City, Md., when my good friend Mike Pizzolatto invited me to join him on the Captain Ike out of Indian River. Normally, I would have jumped at the chance to fish with Mike, but I fell in my driveway and broke my left hip May 2, so I won’t be fishing anywhere for a little while.

When it comes to catching black sea bass, I find a head boat or charter boat the ideal platform. First of all, they are larger than the average private boat, so they are comfortable in most sea conditions. As a general rule, they supply the bait, and some of the larger boats may even have a galley. You can get hot food and drinks, and I have even been on boats where they will cook your catch for lunch.

It is always a good idea to make a reservation when planning to fish on a head or charter boat. Most charter boats require it; some head boats board by time of reservation.

As a general rule, you keep what you catch on a head boat, but what you catch on a charter boat goes into one common pool. Both try to achieve a boat limit before heading home.

Black sea bass fishing is pretty basic. Most of us use two circle hooks with a top-bottom rig baited with clam, squid, cut fish, Gulp! or Fishbites. It is very important to use enough weight to maintain contact with the bottom. It doesn’t matter what type of boat you are on, if your rig is constantly floating around in the current, attracting the other rigs around you, you are going to be very unpopular.

Using jigs for sea bass is becoming popular. Once again, you must use something that will not end up getting tangled with your fellow fishermen’s rigs.

Fishing from your own boat has become much easier in the last few years. Thanks to the money raised from the excise tax on fishing equipment and the Delaware General Fishing License, we have a series of artificial reefs spread from the upper Delaware Bay to the Del-Jersey-Land Reef 26 miles from Indian River Inlet. Those ocean reefs are home to black sea bass.

Back in the day, when I fished with the late Capt. John Nedelka, he had a book of numbers for wrecks and other bottom structure where he could always find sea bass, tog, cod and other bottom fish. Today, DNREC puts out a free book with all the LAT/LON numbers for all the reef sites available to you.

We used to catch plenty of sea bass from the Old Grounds, but due to global warming, the cooler water has moved offshore, and now the best fishing is out at the Del-Jersey-Land Reef. This is a very large structure with plenty of room for boats to fish.

Unlike tog fishing, you don’t anchor up for sea bass. You drift over the bottom.

You also don’t leave your rod on a rod holder. You must maintain control of your rig as you drift along. Braided line has helped with this job. Its thin diameter and low stretch send signals back to the angler as to the type of bottom and structure, so he or she can adjust their line to compensate. I do recommend a shock leader of at least 30-pound fluorocarbon to protect the braid from the rough bottom structure. 

Your electronics will also come in handy. Sea bass have a nice, big swim bladder and show up well on SONAR. When you find them, they light up the screen, and if you are fishing on a spot without seeing any fish, why are you there?

Del-Jersey-Land not only holds sea bass, but as the summer moves on, the water warms, and blues, dolphin and perhaps a bluefin tuna or two may show up.

Several years ago, Larry Weldin, Mike Pizzolatto and I headed there on a hot August day. I brought along three dozen minnows that I bought at Lewes Harbour Marina. The sea was slick calm, the sea bass had lockjaw and I started tossing minnows off the side with one on a circle hook tied to a spinning rod. That outfit soon brought in a dolphin. Larry used the same setup to catch a 15-pound dolphin. Mike caught one the same size as mine. Then Larry wanted to troll.

We trolled all over the reef site and never had another hit. I may have mentioned that we left fish to fool around and not catch fish. However, it was Larry’s boat, so what can you do?