Brrrr, well looks like we are going to jump right into cold weather and skip fall all together. The boats that are getting out these days are doing well on sea bass and catching some migrating flounder. The sea bass action is very productive when the weather and wind permit boats to get to the deeper wrecks and reef sites. Del-Jersey, site 11, and wrecks in 100-120ft of water are being most productive. Clam, squid and even sand fleas seem to be the baits of choice right now.

Over the last week or so, some of the local charter boats and head boats have been heading to the deeper waters in search of Tautog, but the fish haven't begun to show up in numbers yet, possibly due to the water temps still being very warm. Some keeper tog have been caught but mostly anglers have been weeding through the shorts to get a keeper. Hopefully now that we have had some very cold nights, the fish will begin to come out and start to fill their bellies.

The outer wall has had a lot of anglers start to fish for the tog there, but the reports haven't been good as far keepers to shorts. Anglers are reporting catches of 30-40 tog with maybe 1 keeper out of the lot. This cold weather should jump start the bigger fish into eating.

The pier out at Cape Henlopen state park is still giving up some snapper blues, and the occasional keeper flounder. The spot seems to have disappeared, but some triggers and sheepshead have been caught around the pilings on sand fleas, and Asian box crabs. The small stripers are still keeping it fun at the pier as well. I am still very optimistic that this could be the turn-around year for a very productive striper season. The bait fish are still loaded up all over the area. This is one key component to the big linesiders taking that left-hand turn to the bay or even off the beaches here in Delaware. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that we will have a great striper season this year.

Until next week, stay warm and tightlines everyone, Tommy Serbin.