Delaware Oct. 8: 44-inch surf drum, sea bass mostly short of 12.5 inches

Surf and jetty fishing beat the boat bite in Delaware this week. Eric Burnley Sr.’s Delaware Fishing Report for the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, dated Oct. 8, 2026, says the weather was fine on land and still unsettled offshore.

Old Inlet Bait and Tackle told the report that drive-on beach access reopened Saturday, Oct. 3. Delaware Mobile Surf-Fishermen president Shaun Smith caught a 44-inch red drum, and Jr. Griffith a 38-inch fish, at 3Rs Road in a rainstorm with northeast winds of 10 to 15 knots. They were fishing an incoming tide with spot chunks on 8/0 or 9/0 circle hooks and fish-finder rigs.

Boats that reached ocean structure on Wednesday, Oct. 7, found a different story. Aaron at Lewes Harbour Marina, and Burt at Hook ’em and Cook ’em, both reported lots of black sea bass and very few over the 12.5-inch minimum. Inland, Steve at Smith Bait in Leipsic said yellow perch were available at Garrisons Lake, Masseys Mill Pond, and Silver Lake in Dover on live minnows. Dan at Dan’s Tackle had a customer with a keeper flounder from the Broadkill River on a bloodworm, plus croaker in the river and on Broadkill Beach.

This is a The Gillnet news desk summary, not a reprint.

Source: DNREC — Delaware Fishing Report, Oct. 8, 2026 (Eric Burnley Sr., Oct. 8, 2026).