Henlopen Tomorrow anyone?

[mrggfep]

I have been keeping an eye out for decent fishing conditions this weekend and a new location. I am thinking of giving Henlopen a try. Anybody up for some fishing tomorrow if the conditions are not too bad? It looks like 3-4 foot seas with a 7 second period 10-15 knot winds... so I am thinking it might be a little rough if the winds pick up. but if you have fished here before maybe you can offer some advice. Are keeper tog in yet? the water temp is supposed to be 58F around midnight dropping to 56 by noon... If not Henlopen maybe the Bay side at Ocean City/Assateague...

[thehobielife]

I have been keeping an eye out for decent fishing conditions this weekend and a new location. I am thinking of giving Henlopen a try. Anybody up for some fishing tomorrow if the conditions are not too bad? It looks like 3-4 foot seas with a 7 second period 10-15 knot winds... so I am thinking it might be a little rough if the winds pick up. but if you have fished here before maybe you can offer some advice. Are keeper tog in yet? the water temp is supposed to be 58F around midnight dropping to 56 by noon... If not Henlopen maybe the Bay side at Ocean City/Assateague...

I've heard good reports of a lot of fish be caught. Two weeks ago it was only about 1 keeper for every 15 fish, but water temps should have dropped a little more. And even the non keepers are fun to catch!!

[mrggfep]

If anybody cares, I went out to Henlopen at 7:30am, the winds were screaming so I fished from the pier until 10am. The winds died down and the water was calm by then, but the water was muddy and churned up. Not a single bite, I saw a guy on the pier catch a tiny croaker, that the only fish i saw from 8am-noon. Then I fished from the shore at Indian River Inlet. Togs and blues were biting. Small togs were biting everywhere at the inlet but I only saw 2 legal sized togs come to shore from 1pm-5pm. I saw some nice blues landed maybe 18-20 inches. all the togs I caught were just short of the limit.

[ComeOnFish]

mrggfep,
I am assuming you fished when the wind direction came with alphabet N or E, and the wind speed over 10 MPH. I don't go to CHSP under that wind condition any more.
Thanks for the report. I will try one more time when the weather is perfect before the end of November.

Joe

[mrggfep]

Yes, it was brutal at Henlopen. My estimation was that the winds were coming from the E - NE. The winds were 15-20 knots when I arrived at 7:30am, I did not go out until they died down (around 10:30am) to 10 knots with 15 knot gusts. and the air temp was something like 27 degrees. Now know the importance of wind direction at this location... but how do you determine the wind direction in advance, somewhat reliably? I use several NOAA sites, bouy data , and surf forecast sites, etc but I find that none are more than about 60-70% reliable, meaning if I use their predictions and go out to a location 3-4 times out of ten I find the opposite of their forecast. I have see predictions for high waves and winds but when I arrive to surf/shore fish the water is as calm as can be. I have checked all the forecasts and seen indicators for great weather and upon arrival somewhere 1-2 hours away I get gale warning alerts on my phone literally as I start to unpack.... In this case I was not aware that wind direction was so critical but I was paying attention to the wave height, wave period, wind speed, tide, water temp and it seemed like a good fishing location except for the 10+ knot winds, but I did not think one factor out of many would be a deal breaker... but in this case I was wrong. I think I see the answer but I want to confirm. It looks like you have created a master database of all the conditions you observe. Do you update it daily even when not fishing to spot trends?

[mike o]

Thanks for the report. I fish Henlopen some but without great results so far. I still hope to catch a couple nice tog.