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Fishing Reports Now Featured Article
Short But Sweet
Delaware Bay's Spring Striper Season

By Capt. Tom Daffin, Fishin' Fever Sportfishing, Brigantine

Fishin' Fever
Sportfishing,
Cape May &
Brigantine

Capt. Brian Rice

Cape May: Spring striper and drumfish charters on Delaware Bay. Fall striper charters at the Cape May Rips and on Delaware Bay. Sailing from Cape May during spring and fall and from Brigantine from late spring to early fall.

Brigantine: Wreck fishing for sea bass, tog and flounder; bluefishing; inshore sharking; offshore canyon sharking; inshore tuna, offshore tuna day trips or overnight tuna.

1 to 6 passengers
31’ JC Provincetown

Capt. Tom Daffin.
Home: 856-468-5102
Boat: 609-517-2394

Visit Fishin’ Fever Sportfishing’s Web site.

As the spring weather warms, and
the days get longer, hardcore striped
bass anglers keep a vigilant eye on Delaware Bay's water temps.

When the waters warm above
44 degrees, striped bass --
both “resident,” juvenile fish that
live in the estuary until they mature,
and large, adult "migrators" that
arrive from down south  --
start to feed along the shallow flats.

The flats, 3 to 15 feet deep, are near
areas such as the Maurice River Cove, Thompson’s Beach, Reeds Beach and Deadman's Shoal.

In the shallowest, about 3 to 7 feet,
stripers can be fished with surf clams,
or skimmers, or artificals, such as
Bomber plugs, swim shads or
anything else that mimics herring
that arrive in the bay in spring.

These areas are the starting points,
the earliest places we fish, from mid
to late March and even through the
first week of April.

As April progresses, and water temps rise, we move farther from shore to areas such as the Punk Grounds, the Horseshoe, the Banana Peel and Miah Maul Lighthouse.

These waters start to produce better, as the fish travel the edges and sloughs on their spawning migration to the Delaware River.

In these areas, we begin targeting the linesiders exclusively with clams.

Simple rigs are fished: a fish-finder, a snap swivel,
a leader and a hook. The leaders are 2 feet of 40-pound mono. Fluorocarbon is overkill. A 7/0 J hook is used.

It’s as simple as that.

As far as tackle goes, 12- to 20-pound Star Handcrafted Spinning Rods with a 4000 Shimano Spheros reel is our choice. The reels are loaded with 30-pound braided line.



At first in spring,
large numbers of stripers --
both smaller, resident fish
and larger, migrating ones --
mob the bay.

The braided line really helps not only with feeling the bites better, but it also allows less weight to be used on the fish-finder.

The fishing lasts until about the beginning of May, a somewhat short time.
But it can yield very high numbers of fish, in excess of 200 on a single trip!

After all the fish move up the Delaware River, creating a lull for a week or so in the bay, we get back on the bass, start targeting the larger, post-spawn cows that leave the river to pass through the bay on their way to the ocean for summer.

We fish these stripers very similar to the earlier spring fish, with the exception of bait.

Bunker chunks are definitely the bait of choice for the larger fish.

The bay is chock full
of pods of adult bunker
by May and June.

Fresh bait is the key to catching the fish. We go
out of our way to find the freshest bait possible.

Forget about using any-
thing older than 24 hours or bait that’s brined or frozen.

Don’t even bother leaving
the slip. It just makes that much of a difference.

Livelining spot, herring or eels in the shallower rips off Cape May Point is another way to catch the larger,
post-spawn bass.


After a brief lull in the bay,
when the stripers swim up
the Delaware River to spawn, big,
lunker bass return to the bay
after spawning, making their way
to the ocean for summer. A 52-pounder
is creamed with Fishin' Fever.
The rigs used both for chunks and livelining are almost the same used with clams. But beef up to a 10/0 J hook.

But the tackle is usually upgraded for the larger fish. We switch to conventional outfits with Star Handcrafted Rods in 20- to 30-pound with Shimano TLD 15’s loaded with 30-pound braided line.

If you really want a legitimate shot at a trophy bass of a lifetime, the late spring fishing from Cape May is definitely the place to be!

The fishing earlier in the spring is more about numbers, also awesome.

The seasons for the two types of fishing are relatively short.

But man, they’re sweet!