Welcome to the first Delaware Bay Report of 2013!

<b>Port Elizabeth</b>

A few striped bass were boated from the bay, said Sharon from <b>The Girls Place Bait & Tackle</b>. But the fishing was a slow pick. One customer’s trip cranked in seven stripers, including three keepers, north of Reed’s Beach last week. Business got off to a slow start this year at the shop, building two weekends ago. Weather was cold this spring, and water temps were “way down,” Sharon said. Lots of small stripers and a few keepers were banked from the surf at Fortescue two weekends ago. Nothing was heard about the fishing this weekend. Fresh clams, fresh bunker and bloodworms were most popular baits for striper anglers. Blackfishing seemed so-so, and blackfish season is open this month. White perch were tugged from brackish rivers, and perch tournaments are under way or coming up, including one with a $1,000 prize. Baits stocked include fresh clams, fresh bunker, bloodworms, green crabs, eels and minnows. The Girls Place, located on Route 47, just after Route 55 ends, stocks a large supply of bait and tackle. It’s the long, one-story, yellow building on the right, with plenty of parking, including for trailered boats.

<b>Fortescue</b>

The <b>Buccaneer</b>, in dry dock, getting readied to fish this season, Capt. Ralph said. Charters will sail for drum in May on the bay, and he was unsure whether they’d sail for striped bass this season. He knew about no stripers boated among the Fortescue fleet, and heard about a few stripers, none keepers, beached from Fortescue’s surf. Charters will also fish for summer flounder when flounder season opens in May. Ralph is a pioneer of drum fishing, and started sailing for them in the 1960s, before any of the charter fleet did. He compares the angling to deer hunting, because the boat is anchored at a likely spot where drum will swim through, and anglers wait for them. A likely spot is where drum were caught recently. The boat usually isn’t moved, unless someone else is into the fish. Ralph’s drum trips fish baits including whole surf clams or shedder crabs on a tandem-hooked rig. The anglers are encouraged to hold the rods, instead of leaving them in rod holders, so they feel the bite. Drum, despite large sizes to 80 pounds, only nibble at the hook. But once hooked, look out. Reeling one to the boat takes effort. 

<b>Avalon</b>

<b>Fins and Feathers Outfitters</b> started striped bass fishing Sunday on the bay, Capt. Jim said. But waters were cold, only 48 to 50 degrees, so the season seemed early for the fishing, and only one throwback was hooked, on clam. The bay reached 51 degrees on outgoing tide, but the trip couldn’t fish outgoing long, because winds picked up, too rough to keep trying. Fish were marked, but what they were, striped bass or blues, Jim said, couldn’t be known. The trip also fished the Intracoastal Waterway on the back bay between Wildwood and Avalon on the way back to port, because Jim figured the waters would be warmer. But the back bay was also cold, and no stripers bit. Fin-S Fish were fished on jigs along the banks, and Jim also fly-rodded there a little. Jim hopes waters just need to warm a little, and thinks the temps might be “on the edge,” he said. With currently warmer days than before, he thinks water temps could rise quickly. He stopped at Avalon Hodge Podge that day, and the shop’s first keeper striper of the year had just been weighed in, caught along the Townsend’s Inlet Bridge. Drum charters are being booked that will fish Delaware Bay soon. Fins and Feathers fishes Delaware Bay in spring and fall and the ocean from Avalon in summer. To fish Delaware Bay, the boat is trailered to wherever is best, like Cape May or Reed’s Beach, whatever launch is closest to the fishing. Fins and Feathers offers a variety of outdoor adventures, including duck and goose hunting. Customers can even enjoy a combo of duck hunting and striper fishing, when duck season is open, over a series of days, on Delaware Bay. The company also offers salmon and steelhead fishing on upstate New York’s Salmon River from Jim’s lodge and trout fishing on Pennsylvania’s streams.

<b>Cape May</b>

Boating for striped bass remained the same on the bay, Capt. Mario from the <b>Down Deep</b> said. Wasn’t much happening, he said, and trips fished clams for them. The boat after this weekend would “be out,” he said, a couple of days, and would resume fishing Wednesday. Mario hopes to report better striper fishing then. Drum charters are being booked that will fish the bay soon. Blackfishing is currently an option. To sail for the tautog, sign up for the <a href=" http://www.downdeepsportfishing.com/ddsf/76-2/" target="_blank">Short Notice List</a> for special open-boat, wreck-fishing trips.

Two charters limited out on blackfish Saturday and Sunday on the ocean on the <b>Heavy Hitter</b>, Capt. George said. The trips fished 7 or 8 miles from shore, both catching the fish to 7 or 8 pounds. Delaware Bay’s striped bass fishing “was on the slow side,” George said. Maybe that’ll change. A couple were caught here and there, he said. George did hear about a drum boated from the bay for the first time this season. His trips have landed them in April, and will probably begin drum fishing at the beginning of May.

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