Tautog and weakfish build as Delaware Bay turns toward fall

What's biting

What's next

Tides run around a 7:34 a.m. high and a 1:29 p.m. low locally today, and with the moon waxing toward full, expect stronger current and better bites at the turns for anglers working bay structure. If the tautog trend Higbee's is reporting holds, that bite should keep building through the week as the bay eases toward the mid-60s.

Further up the complex, The Fisherman — Southern NJ has striped bass feeding hard after dark on peanut bunker and mullet around lighted docks, with fish to 31 inches coming on paddletails, rubber shads, naked bucktails and Mag Darters, and higher tides producing the better catches — a pattern worth watching as bait keeps pushing out of the back bays. The Fisherman — DE/MD/Chesapeake also flagged wind as the bigger story recently, canceling trips to open water; a calmer stretch this weekend would open up more boat days for flounder and bay structure.

Context

Late September is peak transition time in Delaware Bay: baitfish evacuating the back bays are what trigger the tautog and striper pushes anglers are describing, right on the usual calendar for this stretch of the season. Flounder action typically tapers as the open-water window narrows, so a double-digit fish like the Grizzly's 13-pounder reads as a solid late-season catch rather than an early one. Overall the bay looks on-schedule for the fall turn, not ahead of it or behind.