It's an official heat wave. For most of the East Coast inhabitants this week we've been dealing with blowing winds from the south and extreme hot air temperatures. It all started last week when I was up in the Vineyard and hopefully crests today or at least by Friday. We're heading south to Hilton Head Friday night and last year when we were down there it was the same weather with air temps around 100 and water temps so warm you had to take a cold shower to cool down. And then, by the first week of July the weather went the other way, with torrential rains. Locally, five people were killed a mile or so from our house during a July 7th flash flood. So get ready for that pattern to repeat itself soon.
And as far as the Delaware River? You shouldn't be fishing it, or at least targeting striped bass. The river is down to 4510 cfs, which is the lowest I've seen it, and the water temps are coming it at 84 during
the day and 80 at night. I can't imagine a striped bass surviving the fight in water that warm and without any salinity. Surely those fish are catch and sink to the bottom. There are other species to target that don't mind the high water temps, snakeheads, smallies, and catfish.
Upriver, the NYDEC announced some additional trickle releases to keep the system cool, which really may only help down to Lordville if anything. The West Branch is cold, Stilesville and Hale Eddy at 45 degrees this morning and the East Branch at Fish's Eddy is 72 degrees. They say it's time to target carp if you're looking to fish trout water above 60 degrees. Grab a thermometer before you go.
So I picked up Joe at 4 am and we headed east down to Deal. It's been 20 years since Joe hit the sand and rocks around there so it was kind of a homecoming trip. Joe started with some topwater larger
plugs before emptying his bag throwing everything he had for either bass or fluke. Before we started I had to re-install the Posi-Grip studs back into my boots. I had taken them out as I didn't need them up
north because the rocks there are sticky and I didn't want to damage the SS Archer's deck. When I hit the water I could feel the cold water through my waters. The water was 58 degrees which is like a ten degree drop from normal. That's caused by the upwelling from all the south winds we've had. I worked
the beach and troughs on the start of the outgoing tide with a series of crab flies before changing out the trailer to a chartreuse Clouser. I stayed with it and then jumped up on the rocks to see if anything was waiting for a meal to pop out on the pulling tide. We shared the beach with Two-Rod Mike fame from
stripers online and he talked about his ongoing stuck due to the rapid drop in water temps and the shitty southerly winds. Even the bugs couldn't find a fish. So we called it a quick morning and made our way back to the truck. Joe hadn't been in waders and on the sand for a long while and his back and joints could feel it after walking in the soft sand. Mike made his way south and I said to Joe, "If there's a fish
down there he'll find it. Later in the day I went onto Striper's Online to see his report and was kind of relieved, selfishly, that he hadn't found them while we drove west in the air conditioned truck.
