Capt Harv
04-23-2006, 01:04 AM
Many of our resident Delaware Bay fish that are old enough to join the spawning run have made their way off the flats where they were feeding and begun the long trek to the freshwater tributaries to spawn next month. Luckily their is no lull in the activity as the Delaware Bay complex breeders that overwintered to the south are filtering into the bay now. These schools of fish will come in waves often using the incoming tide to aid their migration run. They will use the sloughs, troughs, and ridges like we use roads to travel along their route. Other stripers that are on their way to the north to reach their river of birth may also spend some time feeding in the upper bay before they begin their migration further north. These fish will work their way onto the flats adjacent to the sloughs to feed, needing many calories to replace those lost by migrating. With literally thousands of areas like this, and with stripers spread across the bay, we anchored up on an unnamed flat in just such an area, with no boats within a couple miles of us. Ronny kept his magic clam chum slick going and the bite turned on on the first part of the incoming and lasted a couple hours. We ended up with five nice sized fish. Two at 38 inches, one 35, one 34 and one 33. The four biggest ones were caught on little Shimano 4000 reels (freshwater) loaded to the hilt with 10 pound test line. The bite was not very aggressive and holding the rods let us feel the taps, after which the hook was set immediately. The charter had alot of fun with this equipment. Quarter spool gone, half spool gone, fish slows up, then pulls off the third quarter of line. Eventually they do slow up and each fish took around 10 minutes to land. Fishing with light tackle is alot of fun but in fairness to the fish, make sure all your gear is in top notch shape so we don't have stripers running around with alot of line hanging out of their mouths. We didn't break off any fish and bigger fish can be chased down with the boat if need be. All the fish were caught on clams, most baits were placed well back in the chum slick. We also added a secret bait. See if you can tell what it is in the photo. Also we caught our first flukasaurus of the year, 23 inches, that was released. Looks like a good year coming up for the Delaware Bay for fluke fishing. Have a great year guys, and see you out there smile.gif
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