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A boating quiz, and fishing for ‘bridge beasts’

The Broadkill River begins at the base of Wagamon's Pond spillway in historic downtown Milton. A picturesque small town started by the Dutch in the 1600s. The Broadkill is a peaceful little tidal river that meanders for many miles through the forests and fields of southern Delaware all the way to the coast ending up near Broadkill Beach on the Delaware Bay. At times the river banks are covered with beautiful blankets of yellow honeysuckle, filling the air with their sweet scent as you navigate the river. Largemouth bass and crappies near town, and stripers and weakfish (northern ...

Enjoying Grand Slam Invasive Species Day!

Tuesday was Grand Slam Invasive Species Day.Once or twice a month, I throw a few lite rods in the truck, some canned veggies, usually corn, and an assortment of tiny jigs, flies, floats, 3-inch pieces of nylon rope, a few tiny Mepps spinners and hit several spots throughout the northwest and northeast Cape with the goal being to see how many invasive species and oddball fish I can catch in one morning.The second half of the day is dedicated to the air gun shooting sports and the eradication of iguanas that are an interesting species to observe or to make a pet of, but can quickly become ...

Safe Boating Week 2020

May 16th to the 22nd was Safe Boating Week, did you miss it? With the pandemic dominating the news it seemed to pass unnoticed. Normally by early May all the states have reported their annual boating accident statistics to the United States Coast Guard for compilation into a national report on what happened on the waters in the previous year. At that time, it is an opportunity to look at the trends around the country. Unfortunately, year after year not many changes.The leading cause of deaths on the water remains the same, drowning, that is because in a boating accident you will likely ...

It’s time to grab the live bait and become a drifter

With tarpon and spring snook stacked up in and around the passes, it's time to break out the live bait and become a drifter. If the work and mess of live bait is a turn off and you're not a caster, there's always trolling.It's as simple as hanging some bait on a hook and making repeated drifts through the pass or just towing some lures, right? Well, yes and no.Better, it's about making educated efficient drifts or trolling passes through high percentage areas and keeping your baits in the right spots -- the right equipment, rigging, baits or lures and boat control, all guided by a good ...

Tarpon can be found around the world

The two species of tarpon, Megalops atlantics, and its Pacific brother, Megalops cyprinoides, range widely throughout the world. Come May, a middle-aged tarpon wintering somewhere below Key West might show up in the Keys milling around the 7 Mile Bridge or Islamorada where the early spring angling action using live mullet is amazing. With migration on his mind, he'll decide to take a trip up to the Ten Thousand Islands then on to Boca Grande for a big get-together with the rest of the gang.Many of his migrating cousins will decide to stay the summer living in the deeper waters of ...

With water back under the mangroves, pitchers, flippers and skippers will do well

Now that there's water under the mangroves again, accurate shoreline pounders that have perfected at least two of the three close-up shoreline casting arts -- underhand pitching, flipping and skip casting -- will score on wise old snook and redfish that got big by being cautious, maybe even caught as a young fin, and usually aren't accessible to the "outside edges only" cautious shoreline angler.If you can't pitch a jig into a coffee can every time from 20 feet away or skip cast a soft plastic an inch or two off the water at least the length of your bay boat, practice is required.Having ...