It’s April and the first drum fish was caught with a rod and reel on April 8. It is about a month early. Yes this report is confirmed.
The stripers have been starting to show in the Delaware Bay – a lot of shorts – but there were a couple keepers mixed in. These are all good signs. The drum was caught on the Jersey side just north of Bug Light. They were striper fishing with clam. Let’s hope we’re heading for a good season.
The weather was lousy on Saturday but didn’t stop the drum from taking a clam bait. Maybe an early season. Back on land the Herring have been at Smuggler’s Cove in Stone Harbor for the last week.
Sunny and I got a few the other night. We had the wrong tide. You want an incoming tide. We were using shiny rigs – yellow was working best. We saved a couple for flounder bait because we all know that the spring flounder want meat. Strips are best for flounder and chunks work good for stripers. Talking about stripers, a couple was caught off the Wildwood beach. Back to the herring, we got talking about herring and if they would be good for crabbing bait. I was chatting with our crabbing contributor Fiona (AKA Fe Fe.) She said she tried them and bunker and chicken, bluefish and mackrel, but the best bait is flounder corcuos.
I had a little trick handed down to me from an old friend whose uncle gave it to him. He would get a piece of wire and string about a half dozen minnows to it for crab bait. It makes sense to me because we all have been flounder fishing and the crabs won’t leave the minnows alone. I think it’s worth a try. Have any ideas or suggestions for crab bait? Love to hear from you. Have a great Easter, and tight lines.
Fishing news can be e-mailed to Lerario at sunny2@fcc.net
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