Big tog may be caught during the winter. SOURCE: KEN NEIL
Eric Burnley December 19, 2020
Winter is the worst time for outdoors folks in Delaware. First of all, it’s cold, so time spent outdoors requires a considerable amount of clothing. I much prefer a pair of shorts, a T-shirt and boat shoes, but in the winter it’s several layers of heavy shirts, underwear, and jeans, and that is all covered in Gore-Tex or Grundens and finished off with deck boots or clunky hunting boots. The final outfit depends on whether you are hunting or fishing.
There are two firearm deer seasons in January. Shotgun season runs Jan. 16-24 and muzzleloader runs Jan. 25-31. Archery season is open until Jan. 31. Waterfowl seasons are a bit more complicated and require a study of the regulations in the Delaware Hunting and Trapping Guide.
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Eric Burnley December 12, 2020
Tom Martone shows off the 26.75-inch red drum he caught on a green crab at the Outer Wall off Lewes. As water temperatures rise, these fish could increase their range into Delaware. PHOTO COURTESY OF LEWES HARBOUR MARINA
Just as we were getting used to sheepshead, triggerfish and pompano, red drum and speckled trout begin to show up in Delaware. While not in great numbers yet, their presence is just another example of the rising water temperatures in the ocean and bays.
The red drum, or channel bass, are also the result of a very successful conservation program that has increased their biomass to the extent that they are expanding their range. Some may remember the craze for blackened redfish that swept the country and resulted in a concerted effort by commercial fishermen to fill the orders they had for all the red drum they could catch.
Conservationists are raising concerns that horseshoe crabs and the shorebirds that feed on them could become unexpected casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic.