We made it out again over the weekend for another long-range trip. This time we had some big shoes to fill after the success of our trip the first weekend in March. If you follow my reports youÂ’ll already know that last week we had one of the best trips of the season with big Blue line Tilefish and some nice Sea Bass. This week however was a different story!

have this saying sometimes out on the water when things get tough and the spirits are down that often brings a smile, it goes like this ”could be worse, it could be raining” Well I couldn’t even use that statement this past weekend because the rain started before we ever left the dock and didn’t really let up all day. The soaking kind of rain where you think it’s not too bad until you go out in it and find out how wet you get. That’s the type of rain that we endured this past Sunday.

As far as the fishing was concerned my best description would have to be a little disappointing. DonÂ’t get me wrong there were folks on this trip that caught a fine kettle of fish and thought that the trip was just fabulous however that was really not the case for most anglers. We struggled out of the gate. The area that just a week earlier had been so plentiful with beautiful fish was now mostly covered with Spiny Dogs. We did catch a few quality fish both Bass and Tiles but the frustration of the Dogs would ultimately take over and we would have to keep moving. The fish were just not adding up for most anglers the way they should have been.

As the day progressed and after several different location changes on the anchor we finally managed some decent pick Fishing on a couple of our stops. Nothing special but when you looked around there were some nicer fish and some smaller fish constantly coming up around the boat. By days end top hooks would somehow manage a limit or near limit catch but most anglers would end up with just enough cover the bottom of the cooler and perhaps a few more. At least it wasnÂ’t rough!

We did see a quite a few quality fish on this adventure we just didnÂ’t have the big numbers that we have seen on a few of our outings. We also saw a little more variety this time with a few Red Hake being landed and even a Pollack in the mix. We even saw several Chain Dog Sharks and some world class Conger Eels pulled from the depths. Perhaps the water temperature dipped just enough to make a difference. Our surface temperatures offshore were around 49 degrees on Sunday a good degree or two cooler than last week. Inshore temperatures are much colder hovering around 39 to 40 degrees. This really is a little cold for this time of year.

As the spring season approaches we will continue running these offshore trips on just weekends and we will resume with our regular All- Day Trips on Saturday March 28th. For the start we are just going to run on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday for a few weeks before we resume our daily schedule late April to early May. These trips will depart the docks at around 7:00 a.m. and will usually return around 4:00 p.m. We will be anchoring over wrecks fishing for Blackfish (Tautog) unless the Mackerel show up close to shore in numbers that we can work on. I donÂ’t expect many Sea Bass on the regular Full-Day trips until early May. The long-range trips will be your best bet for the Sea Bass for several more weeks.

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

Until Next Time Happy Fishing!

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