Pretty good weekend of fishing here at the Wharf as far as I am concerned, great weather and biting fish dominated the weekend allowing for some rod bending action and lots of smiling faces all the way around.

We got out three days in a row with our regular All-Day trips this past weekend and each trip met with equal success, limit or near limit catches with Tautog for just about the entire boat on each and every day! I had a pretty good idea that after some of the conditions that we had endured last weekend while still managing to catch some nice fish that all we needed was a little break in the weather and we would see some fabulous fishing for the Tog. Turns out I was not far from being right it was definitely a good weekend to be fishing for Tautog in the mouth of the Delaware Bay. The bite was on and some of these fish were big.

While the average fish landed in our three days of fishing was in the three to four pound class we had several brutes that would tip the scales over five and six pounds and I personally weighed in eleven citations between Saturday and Sunday with fish we had caught that were over seven pounds, the biggest of which was nearly twelve pounds! We had some pretty fish!

In typical Tog fishing fashion there were times that the fish made us sweat it out waiting for the bite to turn back on but for the most part is was just a casual pick, pretty much all day with a mix of throwbacks, keepers and keepers that were thrown back because they were either full of roe or anglers were being selective. I had made a statement last week that shrimp was a bait of choice and on Friday we certainly had a lot of fish fall for this bait but as the weekend progressed the fish seemed to be turning their nose up at the shrimp and taking the more traditional crabs from our hooks and not touching the “secret weapon” shrimp. I was accused of just trying to get a bunch of shrimp on board the boat so we could barbeque them out on the back deck and have a shrimp feast but I assure you this was not the case. Shrimp was definitely the bait of choice on several of our recent excursions but this past weekend that was just not the way it played out.

Air temperatures climbed up to the mid seventies for quite a while this past weekend and as a result we saw water surface temperatures rise to as warm as 53 degrees in the lower end of the Bay with the calm seas. Even on Sunday when the wind started to kick back up out of the East and churning up the waters, we were still reading above 51 degrees on the top, the waters are definitely warming up now. With water temperatures climbing and some of the hard running currents we have seen lately some fish seem to be on the move. This was the first weekend in several weeks that the Striper Fishing was less than spectacular up in the shallows of the Bay. While a lot of these fish were landed each day, the big numbers of the last several weeks were just not available for those that targeted these linesiders by weeks end. These fish have been in fairly shallow water and perhaps they are chasing food to a little deeper depth now with temperatures rising. The first few Drumfish were also landed hook and line this past weekend proving that things are indeed changing. If the Striper and Drum fisheries follow the suit of last year there will be some outstanding trophy fishing opportunities in the next several weeks.

The good weather also allowed our Long-Rang trip to get away from the docks on Saturday and by all accounts this was a good trip. Sea Bass was the catch of the day with several anglers landing limit or near limit catches of Jumbo Sea Bass. Most anglers were in double digits to mid teens with Bass that would weigh two and three pounds on the average on this trip and there were also several Jumbos landed in the four to five pound class with the biggest of the day weighing in over seven pounds! Even though the Tilefish would ultimately be a disappointment on this offshore trip with only a handful of them being landed, the big Bass made up for it. Our next Long Range trip will be this coming Sunday April 26th departing the docks at 2:00 a.m. There are still spaces available on this adventure so reserve your spot now. These Long-Range trips will likely continue to be your best bet for catching Sea Bass for a couple more weeks until they begin to turn on in numbers inshore.

What you might expect in the next few weeks?? I will continue anchor fishing shipwrecks and artificial reefs for the Tautog with my regular all-day trips until the fishery shuts down completely during the second week of May. We should start to see a few Bass mixed in the catch very soon and after the Tog Closure we will be targeting primarily just the Sea Bass. We are running seven days a week now departing the docks at 7:00 a.m. and we will continue with this schedule until late fall. Look for our Drumfish trips to start running around the first weekend in May. These will be evening headboat trips and will depart the docks at 6:00 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. I will post any other mid-week dates or changes for Drum fishing.

If you would like any more information about trips sailing out of the Wharf or you would like to book a private charter or reserve a spot on one of the upcoming special trips please give us a call at (302) 645-TUNA.

Until Next Week Happy Fishing!

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