Happy New Year! After a long winter of relentless coastal storms, way too much snow and countless weeks of seeing waves that were measured in double digit heights more often than not, it's finally time to start thinking about fishing again.

It's no news flash that the weather ultimately prevented most fishing efforts over the past couple months, seldom around here do you get to know the guy that keeps piling up the snow in front of your driveway by a first name basis! Hopefully all of this winter weather is behind us now and we can get down to business and start catching some fish. Water temperatures and nasty weather have made us reluctant to try and start anything for a while but with the trend that we seem to be in now, I think it's time.

We will start fishing with our regular All-Day Trips next Friday March 19th and will try and sail four days a week until we can get the ball rolling and resume our seven day a week schedule later in April. We will fish every Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday departing the docks at 7:00 a.m. and returning to the dock around 4:00 p.m. Anchoring over wrecks is how we will start and Blackfish or Tautog will likely be at the top of the menu. It is also likely that we will see some Ling and a few Codfish on some of the inshore wrecks given the cooler water temperatures we have had. I know that there are still quite a few of the old school diehard Mackerel fisherman out there hoping to see some of them this Spring (self included) and it is entirely possible that we might. While I'm not going to hold my breath waiting to see these fish, if they do show up I plan on taking full advantage of this fishery while they are around. The past couple years what seems to be left of the inshore run of Mackerel has passed us by out of our reach but you never know there could possibly be a run of fish within our striking range for a couple weeks this Spring.

Current water temperatures along our coast are hovering around forty degrees and up in the Delaware Bay right now we are seeing temperatures as warm as forty-four . A little cool but not at all that uncommon for this time of year. Surface temperatures will raise much more quickly than the cooler bottom temps in the upcoming weeks. Some fish are already on the move. Commercial fishermen are starting to see a good sign of Rockfish in their webbing fishing some of the warmer shallows on both sides of the Bay. It won't be too long before you will see some of these big Linesiders caught hook and line!

As long as the weather cooperates and we can muster up a few willing participants I think that we will be able to see some decent fishing this Spring. If you would like any more information about trips sailing out of the Wharf or you would like to book a private charter please give us a call at (302) 645-TUNA. Hope to see you soon.

Until Next Time Happy Fishing!

Capt. Rick Yakimowicz
Thelma Dale V
catchfish@verizon.net