By Dr. Ken Neill, III
Bluefish are in the bay and inside of Rudee Inlet in particular. Anglers fishing inside of Rudee are managing nice catches of blues, some speckled trout, some flounder and croaker.
The wind has really slowed down fishing activity. When anglers can get out, tautog action is excellent on structures inside the bay and on the ocean wrecks on out to the Triangle Reef area. The tog season closes at the end of the month so you only have a few more weeks to fish for them.
Croaker catches in the bay have not yet taken off. Some have been caught in the Hampton Roads area. We need a few days of calm and warm weather and that fishery should take off. What has taken off with a bang are crabs. So far, crabbing has been excellent this spring.
There have been some flounder caught inside the seaside inlets of the Eastern Shore. They have begun to show inside of Back River and other shallow haunts on the western side of the bay. Both black and red drum are likely here but the weather has kept anyone from giving them a try yet. Like croaker, we need a spell, maybe a week, of calm and mild weather to get this fishery going. It should really take off by April’s full moon. Offshore, warm water has been sitting over the 100-fathom curve from the Washington Canyon on down to the Cigar for more than a week now. There should be tuna in it but again; nobody has been able to get out there to try it. The wind has to calm down sometime.
The recreational trophy bluefin fishery is closed as of 11:30 pm, April 10. This is in Atlantic waters south of Great Egg Inlet, NJ. This is for bluefin 73 inches or greater, which recreational anglers can keep – one per boat per year or until the fishery is closed. This southern quota is smaller than it used to be, since a portion of it was given to the Gulf of Mexico. It is illegal to target bluefin tuna in the Gulf of Mexico as it is the prime spawning ground but, with logic that escapes me, it was decided to transfer quota there so that bluefin tuna that are “accidentally” captured may be kept. As long as you catch them without trying to catch them, you are OK. If federal regulators think that this makes sense for bluefin tuna, maybe they could apply the same reasoning to striped bass in federal waters. Keep it illegal to target them but if we catch them by “accident”, we can keep them. Heck, how about cobia?
Nags Head
The piers are catching Blowtoads, Sand Perch and Sea Mullet, reports TW’s Tackle in Nags Head. An inshore boat fishing caught some shad. The winds are SW at 12 and the water temp is 55 degrees. It’s warm and cloudy. Nags Head is expecting a front to come through later. Currently, the water is pretty flat with a weak swell.
Hatteras Surf
Red Drum reports on Monday: We went from winter to a beautiful spring day. South Beach had blow toads. The Point had plenty of skates, one 33-inch puppy drum, and nice bluefish caught on metal. The Jetties had bluefish and blow toads. A lot of guys on the Point tonight are fishing for Big Drum. High tide is a little late, but the wind is perfect. The ones that fish late tonight will catch a big drum. Tomorrow should be a good day also for fishing with the wind coming out of the SW.
Tuesday report: Sounds like there were around 20 or more big drum caught at the Point from 10 pm last night until 3 am this morning. Even “The Speedo Bandito”, Dan Willard, caught 3 fish. Our good buddy Zack had 8 drum and there were others caught as well. Hopefully they’ll show again tonight before the wind changes back north. Sea mullet, bluefish, and blowtoads were reported.
Hatteras Offshore
Boats were finally able to sail again on Monday with good catches of blackfin tuna, some dolphin and wahoo.
Inshore boats fishing around the inlet had good catches of bluefish. There was a school of red drum spotted. One that was released went 48″.
Lots of blackfin tuna citations were reported from several different charter boats. The largest tuna went 30 pounds, caught by Alfred Gabel of Middleburg, PA aboard the Good Times.