Those that did not slam the stripers yesteday do not feel too bad as neither did we

[Caveman Sportfishing]

Well we did our first striper trip of the season and it turned out for us nothing but slow and slower. We took the 55 Hooked Up 11 to the rips for the first time in two years on the rips as we have opted to chunk instead but with the great reports from late last week we had to give it a try. Still a pain to run a big boat on the rips unless you have a hard running tide with the wind as the wind will blow the boat backwards instead of thru the rips but it is what it is. After all the glowing reports from late last week I thought the rips might be on fire but it was not. We brought 30 live spots with us and maybe had one or two bites maximum with virtually saw only a few no nets going in the water by any boats around us plus no positive reports from any of the charter boats we talked we decided that 3 hours of pounding all up and down Prissy Wick was enough drift fishing for stripers for one day. We threw the towel in by 10:45 am as our charter got tired of making short drifts up and down the main rip lines without any bites fishing with live spot only and we opted to go up the bay try some chunking for the rest of the day. Do not know if that was a mistake or not as I have not heard how others did yesterday that spent the whole day fishing various rips. One of my summer tuna customers that fishes inshore on his own small boat called me last night for a fish report and could not believe we did not catch one striper yesterday morning as he and his friends had well over 25 stripers the other day with only one under size throwback all on live spot but it cost him $3.50 a spot on that trip and it gets a little costly at that price. From what I was told to me by my bait supplier spot could become in short supply in the near future and become difficult to find but I have no real information how other tackle shops are in their spot inventory. Heard on the radio a few stripers were caught on some of the rips further to the south where the cleaner water was and hopefully those that moved found some fish later in the day somewhere on one of the other rips. Around 4:30 pm we heard a boat talking that he was only one of a couple of boats fishing the big rip and he had not done anything but one of his friends did catch one and one of my good friends was going to move from chunking to the rips around 5:00 pm and fish the remaining income tide with spots until the tide ran out. I have not found out yet how he did.
We had 30 very nice bunker I picked up from Captain Tates in the early am prior to our departure Friday morning and off we went looking for a choice location to start chunking. Well I could not believe my eyes as there were numerous large fleets of boat everywhere across the horizon all anchored and chunking. I do remember so well not that many years ago when we used to fish Brown Shoal and the rip in front of Brandywine we would see just a few boats anchored and chunking for as far as we could see up the bay. Boy have things changed over the years with the ever increasing numbers of anglers that have gotten in on the chunking craze and only hope the bass population can survive this much pressure over the long term but that is another issue. Every location that has produced for me in the past had boats anchored on it in the lower bay so I stopped at a couple of lesser spots pretty much away from any fleet but never got a touch and ended running way up the bay in the general location of one of the popular lighthouses where there were a few stripers caught by a small fleet of just a few boats but it was a long run from the rips where we started the day. We did catch a couple of stripers up there along with a few dog sharks in 20 feet of water on the drop-off from the flats but it did not produce like we had hoped for after making the long run up the bay. We then moved way back down to the lower bay to a location that had a hundred of boats earlier in the day but had thinned out in the late afternoon and finished the trip there but never had a bite although one of my friends did catch three within a half mile from us but he was the only boat as the boats anchored by him were skunked there all afternoon. The only location I did not try was in the skinny water up close to the beach but you can only fish so many areas in one day and wonder if there was a good bite in the shallow water but fishing in close always concerns me on a falling tide as our boat draws 5 feet and do not want to do any damage similar to the shallow spots on Prissy Wick.
I read this morning where some boats had banner days at least chunking and did not hear anything about a good drift bite in the afternoon but possibly some did find some fish but it was nothing like a few days ago when the first wave of stripers moved in. I think we will see more fish coming down the beach and moving into the Delaware Bay and I really believe or maybe hope is the better word that this upcoming full moon with the hard running tides gets the rips back on fire next week.
Overall it was quite slow and a long day on our boat but at least our charter could watch the View and Oprah to past the time waiting for the few striper bites we did get. Not the way I had hoped our first striper trip would turn out but we tried like heck and ran all over the bay looking.
PS: I hate the View and not real big on Oprah either but we had no X rated DVD’s on board and I only wish I could have put the group on more stripers on yesterday’s first striper trip for us but I did not.