Updated: January 1, 2010
By Eric Burnley Sr.*
DELAWARE BAY The fantastic rockfish run may be over until spring. The water temperature at the mouth of the bay has dropped below 42 degrees and was as low as 38 degrees right after the snow storm. The cold water extended all the way down to Virginia Beach and moved the rockfish bite into North Carolina. A steady diet of northwest wind has kept inshore waters cold and it does not look any better in the foreseeable future.
Tog will be the target species until spring when the flounder and the rockfish return. Head and charter boats will run all winter from Lewes.
INSHORE OCEAN No reports from the ocean over the holiday weekend. Not only is this a historically slow fishing week, the weather was so bad even if you had wanted to fish the opportunity was not there.
Tog will be caught all winter and a few boats may try an offshore trip for tilefish, but with the sea bass season closed offshore wreck trips have been cancelled. You may want to check out some of the head boats in New Jersey and New York for cod trips.
INDIAN RIVER INLET No report from here over the past week as Christmas and the weather conspired to keep anglers away. I am sure the tog fishermen will be back soaking frozen sand fleas on any decent weather day between now and spring.
FRESHWATER The one good thing about freshwater fishing is the fish can’t go anywhere else. The bass don’t migrate out of the pond so they are available all winter along with perch and crappie.
Spillways come into play during the cold weather because they are usually free of ice and hold good numbers of fish. Crappie and perch are the usual winter targets, but bass and even the stray rockfish may be taken during cold weather.
WINTER PROJECTS Don’t know about the rest of you, but during the fishing season my tackle takes a beating. I do clean my rods and reels with WD-40 after every use, but rigs may get tossed into a jumbled mess and favorite plugs may become entwined with each other.
Winter is the perfect time to repent for sins of the past summer and fall. I will take the tangled mess of rigs from the bottom of my tackle box, place them on a table away from the inquiring minds and paws of my wife’s cats and using my less-than-amazing manual dexterity untangle the whole thing.
Once I have all the rigs separated I place them in small plastic bags for proper storage until spring. If I put them back in those same plastic bags after each use I would not have to go through this procedure every winter.
Fishing line is the least expensive part of your tackle set up yet I constantly see anglers with bad line or half-filled reels. Bad line will cost you fish and a half-filled reel will shorten your casting distance and make it more difficult to reel in a big fish. When the reel is only partially filled the diameter of the spool is reduced so you take in less line with every revolution.
If you use monofilament, replace the line every winter. I have found the braided line will last longer unless it has become chaffed. I do replace it at the first sign of weakness and replace the mono shock leader regularly during the season.
While you have the line off, it is a good idea to service the reel. Either do it yourself or take it to a repair shop and have an expert do it for you. I can handle the job on spinning or small casting reels, but usually take my larger trolling reels to a service center.
Winter is prime time for fly fishermen as they build up their supply of offerings. Every Saturday morning a large group of feather merchants meet in the Lewes Harbour Tackle Shop in Lewes to tie flies and tell stories. If you are so afflicted, stop by and commiserate with your fellows.
* Eric Burnley Sr. is a native Delawarean who has fished the waters of his home state for more than 60 years. He has been a full-time outdoor writer since 1978, with articles appearing in most national magazines as well as many regional publications. He has authored two books, Surf Fishing The Atlantic Coast and The Ultimate Guide To Catching
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