Welcome to Bass Chaser Fishing Guide Service 2023

Delaware River Fishing Report Page

Delaware River fishing report page is dedicated to fishing reports on the Delaware River for the Philadelphia, Buck County, Mercer County, Flemington, New Hope, Frenchtown, Stockton, Trenton, and Burlington county area of the Delaware River. The fishing report on the Delaware River will highlight different tactics, patterns, skill a sets, and other relevant information like weather effects pertaining to the Delaware River and its Fisheries. We focus on Striped Bass aka stripers, American Shad, Smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, snakeheads, flatheads cat fish, channel catfish, perch, and more. This page is for fishing guide reports, if you would like to contribute to the fishing reports please check out www.DelawareRiverStripers.com .

February 17th

Everyone has the itch with the weather being so mild. You have a right to have the itch but you are much better off fishing for fish that live here rather than visit to spawn like the American shad and Striped bass. 

The Shad and Stripers are on their way, no doubt about that but from where? The bay fish will be here in no time, the fish in VIrgina and North Carolina are sitting on some hefty amount of bunkers and they not going leave them. So unitl the bunker schools move the ocean fish wont abandon them. Now if a school of herring or shad go by they will leave the bunkers and chase the herring and or shad right into the rivers. 

Is the water warming up like the warm days makes us think?

Lets look at this. Warm days are great for people but the nights are still cooler and some darn right cold. We had the warmest 3 day stretch right now as I right this with days in the mid 60's and warm rain. Warm rains are a major driver of the water warming up early as is warm wind, but what always trumps warm days, wind, and rain is cold nights. Cold nights can drain the 4 degree warm up over 3 days and take another 2-3 degrees with it, so essentially you are down 7 degrees. 

Fear not we have more days in the 60's coming in February, these mild winters remind me of the 10 year pattern we had warm winters in the 2000's.

So wheres the water temperature compared to last year?

Pretty damn close!

February 8th 

Winter is over, ground hog was wrong. If the spring holds true the American shad are on the way to the Delaware River right now with the Striped bass on the tails. Refer the chart that have for winter spring fishing times. Contact me for more information and when the best time could be to get into striped bass action. Jr@delawareriverbass.com

 You will not want to miss this season!

2022 Recap 

Striped Bass:

2022 striped bass season was nothing short of epic! Bass Chaser's fishing guide service has amazing percetages having a month long period where 95% of the fishing trips yeilded at least 1 fish over 40 inches with majority of the trips having multiple fish over 40 inches to 47 1/2 inches weighing up to 44 lbs. We had a 45 day period with 90% of the trips with a fish larger than 37 inches. We caught large fish up to 35 inches all the way to July. We ended the main striper targeting season earlier then usual affecting our numbers with only 860 striped bass over 28 inches to chase snakeheads. Once you get the bug for snakeheads it becomes one of the most addictive types of fishing. You can read more on snakehead fishing the Delaware River here in the FULL GUIDE to Delaware River Snakehead fishing

American shad:

Last year the shad came in ultra early and it was spotty to spectacular but our main focus was and is striped bass. We had one skunked day, one day with a single fish and numerous days with 50-70 fish days. 

Snakeheads:

Amazing year on snakeheads! Every year will just get better and better with the growing population. Largest fish was 13 lbs at 33 inches, a very round, fat, snakehead that smoked a swimming frog.

Flatheads:

Several large flatheads were caught last year the biggest being over 40 lbs. Some crazy nights with multiple fish. Smoking hot action from mid-August all the way through December. We caught over 15 fish up to 20 lbs jigging for flatheads which is a spectacular way to catch them

The questions everyone wants answers to.

When will the stripers start Biting on the Delaware River in 2023?

Well if the weather continues to be mild it will be an early year, if we going into a deep freeze as I suspect. February will bring it will be a normal year and time-frame.. 

When will you start booking?

Our booking opened January 15th, we book online 100%, everything can be done on the website and all the information that I can provide you with to make an informed decsion at the time of booking will be found on the website. Unlike most fishing guides in the industry I share as much infomation as possible. 

How to book?

100% online, right here online booking for Delaware River Fishing Trips

I called but got no answer?

Honestly, I am really really busy with several things at once, if im on the boat I will not answer my phone to book a trip because it is that customers time. When I am at home its my daughters time so chances are I'm not answering. My family will always come first. 

Email me at jr@delawareriverbass.com or text 215-840-3093 with your name and questions but in all odds i will refer you back to the website www.delawareriverbass.com. 

I will update this report page in time but I will go dark when the fishing is hot, not to bring added fishing pressure.

2022 Delaware River Fishing Report 

September 20th

From the last two weeks of August to now the fishing for snakeheads and flatheads have been absolutely insane! We had a cold front come through last night so flathead fishing should continue to get better and better. Snakeheads will wind out by end of October. The striped bass fishing for left overs has heat up with some solid 34 inch fish being caught. The time is now to fish, boat will be back on the trailer soon to fish smallmouths up north but in the mean time we been beating up on the smallies where the boat is located.

Big discounts on 3 hour snakehead trips $125 off and $75 off flathead trips!

August 3rd

Nearly a 30 inch Delaware River Snakehead weighing 13.27 pounds on the scale. The snakeheads have been a bit fussy becasue they gorging themselves on shad fry all day and night. These fussy fish, when you get them to bite are the fattest they have been since the early spring spawn. Typically we get several encounters and bites bit you have to uses your fishing skills to entice them out of the cover and most importantly set the hook! The drangon was a craxy good fight for Jake who had nver fished before with artificials lures. Quick teaching season and this 12 year old was off to the races. 

July 24th

July 21st

The Delaware River is one of the healthiest eco-systems out there. What amazes me is in the section that have the most snakeheads and probably the biggest flatheads the Sunnies, white perch, yellow perch, walleye, largemouth darters, dacies, river minnows, herring, shad fry preliterate. There is more bait in a 3 mile stretch then a 20 mile stretch from New Hope to Upper Black Eddy. It is absoultly mind blowing how forage fish and small game fish are in such close proximity to Snakeheads, sometimes feet. Everything you have read about snakeheads being the great destroyer is not true or at least in the Delaware River system. Snakeheads are a fantastic game fish addition to the Delaware River, though that are not classified as a game fish yet, they certianly should be. 

July 20th

Mike with a well deserved Snakehead. After dropping about 6 fish to hooksets Mike keeping going and put in the time to get his first snakehead. Congradulations Mike!

July 17th

July 16th

Had the Delaware River Smallmouth slayer Nic  out today trying to check off a bucket list fish . We checked that box with a 29.5 fatty dragon that was 12 lbs on the scale.

Experience pays off, after seeing about 5 snakeheads that wanted nothing to do with his bait we settle into a pad field. Nick made a cast into the shade and watch the snakehead approach him, pausing his bait and then ripping, the dragon slammed him and he patiently waited to drive cold steel into his mouth.

I think it’s safe to say Nick is now addicted to the hunt for snakeheads. 

July 16th

Bredan was out for the Saturday Snakehead Trip. Right off the bat Brendan had two snakeheads bite. The first one Brendan pulled the trigger way to quick and pulled it right out of the snakeheads mouth. The next cast he was working on a redemtion of that fish and a monster that was around 34 inches followed his bait from the reeds all the way to the boat. He played it perfect to get the snakehead to bite and he in inhaled his bait, Unfortunalty he was still too quick on the draw and pull the bait right out of his mouth. We ended up seeing another 9 fish but they wanted nothing to do with us. 

The key to catching snakeheads on topwater baits is to give them a second after they bite to reposition the bait in their mouth then set the hook. Snakeheads have teeth they use to hold baits and they typically make a second motion they throws the bait a little futher down their mouth and thats when you want to set the hook. Now every bite is different and they vary in the voracity in which they attck the bait. If they come full speed and slam the bait they typically are ready to be hook the time it takes you to drop you rod tip and lift it back uop on the strike. But their are those times when they will inspect a bait and follow it in slowly then slurp it up. This when that extra bit of time is criticail. Too early and the bait rips out of their mouth, to late and the snakehead release it hold on the bait and it opulls out. When you go to set the hook you need to drive it home, their mouths are boney and you need hook penatration.  

Below is an image a snakehead fry ball with no parents guarding it, a bass was eating the fry. This same fry ball I saw a few days before was significanlty larger then what is in the picture. 

July 15th

It's been a while since the last website update, you can see all the recent updates on Bass Chasers Fishing Guide Service Facebook Page.

Snakehead fishing has been taking off, we have gotten several big fish and it has been pretty consistent fishing. The water has warmed up to the low 80's and the snakeheads are just starting to strike aggressively and chasing baits down from a distance. The snakeheads have been moving around alot so we have been able to drop in on a pile of fish one day in a location and then nothing in that location. It takes a little bit of running around to find them again but we generally can find them within a 4hour trip and if the cards line up on a 2 hour trips. The longer trips (4,5,6 hour trips)  fishing through the tides definitely provide the best chances to get snakeheads. 

if you want to learn more about snakeheads here is an article series I wrote (still need to edit thoroughly) Comprehensive Guide to Snakehead Fishing the Delaware River 

Customers have had their challenges hooking snakeheads, over the last two weeks we have had over 20 early hooksets not waiting that extra second for the snakeheads to completly take the lure down or reacting to sight and not weight on a top water bite. 

As for the stripers, we caught stripers all through June into July. The cooler water temperature kept the fish around alot longer then usual and then in July the warmer weather pushed a lot of big fish back down and we able to catch solid mid-thirtys inch fish through mid-July. Right now I am running schoolie striper trips fishing light tackle for 12-22 inch fish, very similar to smallmouth fishing.

As for the stripers, we caught stripers all through June into July. The cooler water temperature kept the fish around alot longer then usual and then in July the warmer weather pushed a lot of big fish back down and we able to catch solid mid-thirtys inch fish through mid-July. Right now I am running schoolie striper trips fishing light tackle for 12-22 inch fish, very similar to smallmouth fishing. So far we are well over 860 striped bass for the season

June 15th

Its been a long time since I have updated the website. Bass Chasers fishing Guide Service's page on facebook has the most current reports for Striped bass. I will update with a recap soon, we are at 838 stripers for the season. 

Snakehead bite is heating up. Trips are booking fast and there is limited opportunites. $50 4 hour trips for a very very limited time. 

May  24th 

Fishing has been consistent to Incredible, if you missed it so far book a trip now. $50 off 2 and 3 hour plugging trips. 

May  17th 

Our trips this year have been absolutly amazing. If you were looking for big fish, this was the year. From April to May 15th 85% of our trips caught fish over 40 inches and from April to May 16th 96% of our trips caught fish over 37 inches. 

I want to thank everyone that came out this year for striped bass season is was one for the books. I will be posting a video or pictures soon. 

Dates I have open for Striped bass fishing for the next two weeks are:

May 25th 5:30-7:30 am or 6-8 am

May 29th 5:30-10:30 slot is open

May 30th 5:30-9:30 am is open

May 31st 5:30-8:00 am

 June 1,2,3,4 5:30-8:00 am

 June 6,7,9, 10 5:30 -7:30 am

June 11th Am and PM    

May  13th 

Fish have move down the river. We were able to catch our 63 rd 40 plus inch fish, way south. Tons a fish on the the Altantic Coast especially in Altlantic City where the eel bite was on fire last week and has continued to produce a lot of big fish. These fish are the fish from the Delaware River, majority of the other fish are moving south quickly. I know where and how to catch them so no problem for me.

Moving towards Summer we have great oppurtunities for Snakeheads, Flatheads, Largemouth bass and smallmouth. 

May  9th 

Spring outlook, the Delaware River is approximatly 53 degrees, this is the first time in early to mid May that I can remember this happening. The River breifly hit 60 degrees last week and plummeted from the cold front and storm over the weekend. As we move passed spring we have some really great fishing opportunities for the rest of the year. 

First being Snakeheads, these aggressive fish have propagated and proliferated in the Delaware River and offer anglers a test of their skills to try and hook and land one of these frog eaters. These trips start in June either targeting them alone or with Striped bass. From there we offer trips for snakeheads only, or with targeting both Largemouth bass and Snakeheads.

After we kick off snakehead fishing we have another predator that has made their home in the local waters of the Delaware River, Flathead catfish. This monsters of the river grow more than 60 pounds in the Delaware River and are great fighting fish. The emmergence of flatheads give you an opportunity to catch big fish all summer and fall. 

We also offer simple trips for catchfish targeting channel cats and bullheads. 

So far 2022 has been a great year for big fish, maybe this is the year to land your personal best. 

May  4th 

Paul has become the buzzer beater king. He came out for one his last days of spring break and desperatly wanted to beat his 38 inch fish he caught on the last trip. We caught a bunch of dinks and a 28 inch striper. The clock was just about out of time and on the last cast Paul sunk cold steel on this beauty. The Striped bass dragged us down the river a 1/4 mile and came to the boat 5 times and made long hard runs. The fish stayed deep 90% time, typical of monsters. When netted the fish and the hook fell right out of his mouth, upon closer inspection the hook was almost straightened. We fish barbless hooks for the health of the fish and sport of it. Paul was able to keep his composer and land this 44.5 inch fish! Great job Paul. 

May  3rd

May we have another??

May 2nd 

May has arrived. The water temperature for the Delaware River over the weekend hot the magic 55 degree number and this pulled the schools of feeding striped bass south to what I could imagine was for is to spawn. I believe we are now looking a the post spawn season for all the fish that were in the river. The fish still coming into the river would not have spawned. It seems odd to me that they would spawn on the new moon but I do not think this is out of question. The herring are sparse in the river right now, the ones that were in the section have moved north to stage for their spawning. Plenty of herring, I hope will still becoming up of the Delaware River. 

We have been steady into large fish all of last week and Saturday was the first signs of slowing down.  This was coupled with Internet heros posting pictures of nice size fish 37 inches onto several public pages, tagging the location to 30 thousands of his closest friends. The open call changed the river drastically! Friday night 3 boats were fishing the area, Saturday morning 2 boats including myself, we caught 13 fish upto 41 inches. Saturday afternoon 17 boats and 14 surfcasters and Sunday morning 23 boats. The guy said he was trying to" help" people catch fish, the only thing he did ws shut down the fish for everyone. All he wanted to do was inflated his ego. We still managed about 18 fish on the saturday evening into Sunday morning in the 28-33 inch range, as well as a 42 incher that dragged us down river about 1/2 mile. People who fish once a month and blow up fishing locations, are real fishermens worst enemies. 

I really hate that it has come to either not posting pictures or blurring the backgrounds. I have been very cautious over the last few years not to destroy the areas I am fishing. This makes it extremely hard to do business. I have been operating for 15 years and with with social media, cell phones, and loose lips I have seen locations get trashed, ruined, closed, and extreme fishing pressure that shuts everything down. This weekend I saw a huge increase of  boats and license plates from out of state like New York and I alot of guys from the Susky coming out to fish. Hopefully with Maryland being open season now, flounder fishing opening, and the 1st big push of breeders heading south the traffic will normalize. 

I'm not against other fishing and having fun, hell thats what I do for a business. What I am against is dealing with unnecessary pressure that shuts fish down from report chasers. With migratory fish you either put your time in and understand what doing and where the fish are moving or you're taking a shot in the dark. If you hit a bulleye in a location you are new to, you don't blow it up. Others have put in countless hours of work there and why would you want to ruin it for yourself. We live in one of the most highly populated locations with major citys surrounding us. We not talking about sending pictures to your buddys were talking about posting in large forums and groups with 30K members just to be a Facebook hero. If you say your an experienced fishermen and knowlying blow up a bite during the biter it shows the lack of experience you actually have. 

April 27th

Yardley, Yardly. Yardley. We fished Yardly yesterday and today and the bite was on but not non stop. This morning on a 2 hour trip we picked up a 43 3/4 striped bass that was low 40's upper 30's, lets call in 38 lbs. A 41 and a 42. Yesterday on a trip we caught 8 fish biggest being 43 1/4 and most fish just about that minus 1-3 inches. We found a pair that was 33 and 36 in the middle of no where using casting metal.

The Yardley railroad bridge was the place to be but right below the Yardley Boat ramp was good and 95 produced the bigger fish. Scudders falls was good too but not like it was 2 days ago. Fish are moving follwing the herring, I will be following the fish north. 

People that come from the north to fish for stripers a literatlly driving over a massive school of fish that started 3 weeks ago and are well on their way to the Delaware Water Gap. The Delaware River is filled with stripers, all you have to do is fish just like your smallmouth fishing but for stripers. 

Very limited openings. I was trying not to do triple trips in a day but I have opened some new slots. I already feel like its late May the amount of fish we have caught and my hands are not healing. Every trip the fish, the anchor, or something is ripping them apart. 

April 25th

Striped bass fishing has been absolutly insane and so has the boat traffic. Yardly PA, 295 old 95 bridge has been absolutly stacked with 20, 30, and 40 lbs stripers. Unbveliveable bite. Scudders falls had even more fish on both sides of the falls. I have never seen so many fish in one place. Non-stop action. Even the slower section below the ramp was full of fish. After non stop, I mean non stop striper fishing I floated from washington crossing to scudders falls and it was every cast. I could not believe how amazing the fishing was,. So glad I opted to gewt away from all the boats. Best decsion I made all season. lost count at 67. Have a great day.

April 22nd

3 boat sank in the river in the last 2 days, one being another guide. Respect the river, get some experience and dont do things you shouldn't do for fish. I have 15-20 years fast water experience and even I sat out the first day of the shad tournament because of conditions. Just because you can go fishing doesn't mean you should. Just because you have a heavy water anchor doesn't mean your boat should be anchored in heavy water or that you have the skills to get the anchor out without taking the boat down. All the boats sank or flipped for different reasons but the main reason is they did not have enough respect for the Delaware River. 

We are still on them. 

April 18th 

Hoping everyone had a great Easter. The 202 early moring bite was insane. The stripers have followed the buck shad pretty far north to above the New hope area. We put in at Bulls Island and drifted down. The Results paid off. Unfortunaly with the 1 inch of rain coming this will change everything. I will be dark on the public reports for a while other than conditions. We landed well over 30 striped bass in 36 hours of fishing, double digit 40 plus inch fish double digit 37 inch plus striped bass.. While other guides are sleeping were out there creeping, when their catch bait fish where catching river monsters. 

April 12th 

Coming off the flood we are looking at a rapidly dropping river that is still stained and flowing at 46,000 CFS. The flow has been droping at a considerable amount each day. 

April 11th 

The river crested Saturday evening and it now coming back down. The conditions are still unfishable where we fish with heavy currents. I do not expect this to normalize until late this week. Pulling down river maybe the only option to ctach some bass. 

The weekend starting with Friday was out of control fishing for Striped bass. 60lb fish, 50 lb fish, 40 lbs fish and lots of them. These fish were down on the southern range of the Delaware River. 

Im am running my trips this week, any early week to mid-week trips I would advise pushing back a day or two to let the flow pull back a little bit. 

April 8th 

The river is pretty high, its going to take a few days to get back to a clean level where we can target Striped Bass and American Shad. Some areas saw 4 inches according to reports. I very suprised how well the river took all the rain over the last three days but there is not stopping the raging water, I think it will hit almost 90,000 CFS and clean out all the river banks sending debris, trees, and everything else down the river this weekend.

The Good news, go get some bait and drive south. There is tons of BIG striped bass in the river and they want to eat. I have seen fish over 50 lbs taken and countless 30 lb fish. All on bait, generally blood worms and chuncks. 

As far as trips, if you have a trip booked with me over the weekend we will be moving them, I havwe blocked several time frames for rain postponements. 

April 7th 

The muddy water has blown through the section of the Delaware, the water is looking pretty good. The bad news is we have heavy storms coming today and time lag from the storm Tuesday night into Wednesday morning  with a decent amount of water coming down from the north. 

Looks like around .75 inches of rain today. If this is spreadout through out the day it will not be as critical but from the gauge prediction in the graph above it shows a critical amount of water coming from wither the north or the rain today or a combination of the two.

The effects is hard to say. 2 days, 5 days, 8 days. Its really bad timing there are tons of fish along the entire river.  I have seen several 50 inch striped bass on the south end caught and countless 40 inchers.

April 6th 

Fished in early morning in the rain. River looks goods. The rain was spread across the entire night going into morning, expecting to stop by 10 am. So as of now there is no blowout. Ill continue to montior the river upstream and the next storm. 

Update: Rivers edges are mud center of the river is clean, meaning as of now localized mud.

April 4th 

We are now in the first week of April and this fishing in the Delaware River in the tidal section has really picked up, particularly on the south end of the River. April 1st to 3rd saw many large fish over 40 inches caught on blood worms and other baits. The Non-tidal section and just below it was pretty much blown out from the rain that we got on Thursday into Friday morning. I had a tough trip Saturday with raging waters moving 30k and full on trees coming down the river. We pushed down to some wintering holes and did some jigging, we ended up with a 20lb flathead. 

Now for the no so fun stuff. As I said in the other paragraph the Delaware River was muddy and raging. Well the forecast is not looking so good with about 2 inch of rain coming our way and second storm lined up on the west coast to move towards us. 2 Inch will absolutly destroy the river for 10 days. The only option will be fishing with bait if the river gets blown up, But this is common in spring. Business wise between last weeks cold front and heavy rain and this upcoming forcast you looking at 14-21 days washed away or another words 1/3 of the migratory fishing season gone. Last year I was able to get 70 plus striper trips in averaging 14 fish a trip. Some trips way way better than others and to put this in prespective that 14 fish on an aver trip length of 2.5 hours. 

On the positive note, the large fish can makeit  up the river with less harshment from fishermen and really get to where they need to be to spawn. If they miss the April moon then we have fish around for a while if they do spawn on the April moon a large majority of big fish will exit the Delaware River and continue the migration north to the summering grounds.

March 31st

Its the last day of March, we survived the artic blast but threats of tornados and 60 mph winds have forced me to the pull the boat for the day. Overnight heavy rains are expected with up to .5 inches of rain. Hopefully the river is in good enough condition now to handle the rain. On the positive side of the weather a warm front today up to 74 degrees with winds could warm the river us nicely, the rain overnight should again help the river gain some temperature. 

During the cold front this week the fish still snapped on the lower end of the river and the bay. This is great news and means the fish were already in route for migration. Once there on the move nothing will stop them, they my not be eager to bite butthey should be moving north and heading to the spawning grounds. 

I am optimistic about a nice even temperatured spring like we had last year. I have a few shad and split species trips to get out of the way before moving into 100% dedication to stripers. Morning and Evening trips are available. If your looking for moring 2 hour trips 6-8 am and you do not see it open give me an email and I'll confirm the avaibaility of the time slot jr@delawareriverbass.com 

March 27th

As predicted 5 days ago the cold front is here and will last until  the 31st. Night time temperatures in the 20's are going to greatly affect the Delaware Rivers water temperature. We may see low 40's even dip back down to the 30's. It does seem like the fish have made their way into the bay and parts of the river. The southend has seen some really nice fish and lots of Striped Bass  in the 30 inche range.

We had a few good trips laying a couple handfuls of keepers on the deck before releasing them. Despite guys catching a few shad since the colder weather the shad fishing has been ok. I alot of shad guides promoting the conditions as if its on fire and thats just not the case. The shad are definitely in the river but they are far from agressive and eager to bite. I personally am canceling all my trips this week because know what I know about fishing and cold water, it would not be honset to take people out to sit on the river for 1 or 2 fish. 

I do plan on fishing the up tick, once the fish are in the river all you need is 42-44 degrees to make things happen. Especially if that 44 degrees is 4 degrees warmer than the day before. Conversly if its 48 degrees and drops 4 degrees it makes fishing that much harder. Now the end of the spring that is completely the opposite, the cool downs are a big turn on for the migratory fish.

March 23rd

Overview of the Delaware River

As the cold front take over the region this will slow down the progress of the Delaware River getting to temperature. Yesterday the water hit 53 degrees and quickly fell back to 48 degrees. This hopefully was engough to spark the main run of stripers to enter the river systems. Large activity has been spotted along the south Jersey coast and the northen section. Typically this is the tip of the spear of a school that enters the river system. The forcast for the next two weeks looks cooler with snow in the forcast for the begining of April, long range forcast are not accurate so only time will tell. Tonight heavy rain is expected and this could blow out the river for a few days. Needless to say fishing will slow until the river regains some warm and continues to trends to a spring temperature. 2020 we had a very warm February and March but was followed by the coldest April I could remember. The Delaware river water temperture plunged into the low 40's and we did not see 50 degree water until the very last week of April. Last year it was a cold start and very mild spring that kept the water cooler but not cold for almost the entire spring. Trying to understand the migration of striped bass and otther migartory fish is always an evolving model. There are so many factors that come into play, such as the volatile spring weather, water temperature, moon phases, tides, bait sources, water flow, and the pressure systems, this doesn't even include the actually fishes behavior or stock level. Just when things look like they are aligning to be a perfect week or a perfect bite one of the variables comes along and screws it up. Fishing is about overcoming the obstacles, putting time in on the water, and figuring out all the patterns so you can repeat it day in and day out. 

American Shad

Shad action has been a decent pick with better numbers everyday. 

Striped Bass

The action is still on the south end of the river but there has been more and more bass caught above the Philadelphia city limits. The lack of a major push of fish or the colder river temperature has the entire region with a slow bite with exceptions of a few warm days where the flats have warmed up to 55 degrees.  

Catfish

Catfish action has been spreadic through out the warm up but it was encouraging seeing the catfish being caught again including some really nice flatheads.

Snakeheads

The Snakeheads typically start biting in the 50 degree range, this is normally a float and minnow operation until the water warms a bit. The good news is there is plenty of them in the river roaming around right now on the shore lines and coverage areas. 

Smallmouth Bass

The smallmouth which almost really did not fade with the exception if january and the first bit of febuary has been taking off.

Largemouth bass

Are starting to move into the spawning areas to prepare for a spawn. The water of the main Delaware river needs to warm up but the fish seeking small streams and creeks have already moved into them. Lake fishing has be excellent over the last 2 weeks with smaller bodies of waters warming up making the fish active. 

Angler Minute

What the new generation of anglers are failing to understand is what everyone who has ever  been a hands online learn already knew. You need to actually do it and not read about it. You have to learn from failures and expercience. You have to have days your skunked, you have days your stumped, and you have have days you stop and think about why. Once you can start to analyze why you can start to figure out where. Where the fish are, what they want to eat, and how to get them to bite. I have countless hours of recon and exploration work. All the work pays off, trust me. When is does pay off keep it to yourself. In the world of Dm's, facebook, twitter, text messages, youtube, shitty apps like fish brain and tictok all your work can get washed away by heavy traffic and pressure by the next day. 

March 20th 

Striped Bass.

The Delaware River is warming up nicely. We have a cold front coming but the River is approaching the right temperature that the Run has been triggered in the bay and the south end of the river. The resident striped bass have started to bite and good numbers of fish have are being caught down by Salem and DOD. Nice fish activity has being happening down by the Airport and where the Schuylkill River and Delaware meet. 

Shad

American Shad are in the river with fishing being caught verifibly on a 40 mile stretch just south of Easton. As I write this the first school of shad are mostly likley passed the Delaware water gap area. What is 50 degrees and the action should accelerate from here on out 

Snakeheads

Snakesheads are out of their wintering areas but not eager to bite anything but an minnow under a float, a few more degrees or finding the warm pockets of water will help produce bites. 

Flatheads 

Flatheads are biting in the smaller "creeks and rivers" that dump into the Delaware. Most of the flatheads are being caught on chuncked gizzard shad right now. 

March 5, 2022