New Jersey Fishing Reports

Capt. Ralph Conrad from the Buccaneer, Fortescue, started chartering for black drum on Delaware Bay in the early 1960s, when hardly anyone from the fleet sailed for the boomers. Now they all fish for the bay behemoth in spring.

Ralph was born and raised in Pennsville along the Delaware River in South Jersey. He taught health and physical education for 35 years at Pennsville High School, Eastern Regional High School and Pennsgrove High School, and he coached high school baseball and football, before retiring.

His family came from Nova Scotia, where Ralph’s dad was a mariner, fishing at places such as the Grand Banks for cod and such. His dad traveled to South Jersey for work, met Ralph’s mom and settled there.

Fishing must be in the family’s blood, Ralph guessed. He grew up fishing with his dad, mostly on Delaware Bay, and became a party boat captain in Cape May, running trips like nighttime bluefishing at 5-Fathom Bank and the East Lump. Then he switched to chartering from Fortescue in 1961.

The Buccaneer’s charters target all the major runs of fish on the bay: striped bass, drum, flounder, weakfish, croakers and blues.

Ten-hour drum/striper combos
are available for $500. Up to six passengers can sail. Rods, reels, tackle and bait are provided on
all trips.

Call: 856-678-3563

Fishing can be about the fight, the lessons learned, the outdoors, the beauty of the fish.

With Delaware Bay drum fishing, anglers get the first three out of
the four.

It’s got the fight. Any finned friend that weighs 30 to 80 pounds, like a drumfish, is a contender. A walk on. An honorary degree holder.

In the sport of tug of war.

The fishing’s got the lessons. Nobody connects with a load of drum by chance. Many fail when trying.

And the sport’s got the lure of the outdoors.

Bobble-y-bob, up-and-down, beyond the sight of land, at midnight, no less. Drumfish swim past along the bottom. Boom, boom, boom, they bellow. The creak of the boat, blow of the wind, another boat’s lights, your lonesome thoughts.

Only an outdoorsman could love that.

But beauty -- that isn’t the word for the fish.

Behemoth is.

The word behemoth was written at least as early as the Old Testament’s Book of Job.

The description fits. Can you play with him, like a bird? the story asks. Lay your hand upon him, it says, and no need to recall other conflicts!

Rows of scales are on his back. So joined together, they can’t be parted.

Steam issues from his nostrils. Terror leaps before him.

Okay, maybe a drumfish isn’t
that scary.

But it’s no rainbow-colored,
delicate trout.

Is he not relentless when aroused? the story asks.

When you hook into a drum, you’ve got your hands full, said Capt. Ralph Conrad from the charter boat Buccaneer from Fortescue, arguably the fishing capital on the bay.

Ralph started chartering for drum from the port in 1961, when almost nobody else from the fleet sailed for the boomers, he said.

By now, they all fish for drum in spring.

When the dogwoods bloom, the drum go boom, the saying says.

The Buccaneer’s drum charters begin in May and run through mid June. No particular water temperatures turn on the fishing, and it’s more about time of year.

To understand Ralph’s overall approach to drum fishing, the first thing to know is that Ralph runs 10-hour trips for them.

He wants to fish both tides, though many only fish one.

In Ralph’s years of fishing for drum, he’s learned that there’s no predicting the stage of incoming or outging tide when they’ll bite. Catching them is a matter of setting up where he knows they usually swim through, and waiting.

It’s like deer hunting, he said.

He anchors at a likely route where drum are known to travel to feed. The location of a likely place is a matter of knowing where other anglers have been catching them lately.

Nobody knows exactly when they’ll come on a given day, but if the fish have been swimming through lately, they’ll probably arrive sometime. They’re sort of habitual.

The drum are feeding, grubbing clams, crabs and such food, on the move.

You’ll hear them arriving, Ralph said, because they’ll keep booming to communicate with each other

About the only time that he might move from his original spot is when someone else lets him know that they’re catching a bunch.

The Buccaneer’s drum charters begin at 1 p.m. The crew will anchor the boat on the grounds, and the anglers will fish through dusk until the middle of the night.

Fishing for drum at dusk into darkness is popular, but that’s not because drum only bite during low-light hours, Ralph says. The hours are unpredictable. The theory is that farmers used to target the fish when they could, after work.

Some say that small drum swim into the bay first during the season. Ralph disagrees. One never knows what sizes will show up first, he says. But in June smaller fish seem to school up and become prevalent.

The drum migrate to the bay for spawning, and afterward many swim offshore and live at the canyons on the Continental Shelf. However, some remain in the bay all season, and anglers in the know catch them all summer long at certain holes near the Elbow.

Ralph’s anglers fish a large surf clam on a tandem-hooked rig made to hold lots of bait. Two clams might be used, or a clam and a shedder crab might be impaled. These are the sorts of baits that drum forage on.

The rig is a fish-finder or a sinker-slide. The hooks are Gamakatsu sizes 9 or 10, non-offset, non-circle hooks. But that’s just Ralph’s preference, and he says many types of hooks could be used, including offsets and circles.

The tandem hooks are tied on an 80-pound fluorocarbon leader. Some anglers use 100-pound leaders on drum.

The Buccaneer’s anglers fish with 50-pound line on 4500 or 6500 Shimano Baitrunner spinning reels.

That’s heavy line, and the purpose is for the anglers not to lose fish. But private anglers can use lighter outfits, 30- or 40-pound line, for maximum sport, if they choose.

Ralph uses spinning reels because many charters enjoy spinning tackle more than conventional. But anglers
can use conventional reels like sizes
4/0 or 3/0.

Medium to heavy, 6-foot Ugly Stick rods are used on the Buccaneer.

On the Buccanneer, anglers hold the rod instead of placing it in one of the rod holders while fishing. That can be a long time to hold a rod, but the funny thing about the giant fish is that they bite lightly. Anglers are likely to miss bites if not holding the rod to feel them.

When a bite is felt, the angler waits a moment until the line comes tight. Then the angler comes back with the rod, sets the hook, holds on. For dear life!

Landing any giant beast like this is a challenge. The crew on the Buccaneer teaches anglers during the fight to remain calm, let the fish run, let it take line when it wants. Allow the drag to work, wearing down the drum.

The angler should patiently pump and reel when the fish allows, and then the fight will be won without wearing down the angler so much.

Drum typically begin biting either near Bug Light or the nearby sloughs on the Jersey side of the bay or at Slaughter Beach on the Delaware side. During last year Ralph’s drum fishing finished for the season around Miah Maul Lighthouse.

But the general areas where drum appear throughout the season is unpredictable and changes year to year. It can also change during the season itself.

Striped bass are often mixed in with catches. Big, spawning, “tiderunner” weakfish, like 14-pounders, used to be among the catch. But the tiderunners were scarce in recent years.

Some people eat drum, and some let them go. No need to explain
the point of catching them without eating.

Who dares stand before him? the Book of Job asks about the behemoth.

Delaware Bay anglers -- the ones who seek the ultimate sport and art
of fishing -- they do.