With winter approaching, the type of bass seen around the First State is changing.
DNREC Fisheries Administrator John Clark says this time of year colder weather starts to have an impact on how one popular bass species behaves.
“When people talk about the bass fishing ending for the year, they’re referring to largemouth bass because once the water really gets cold, they’re going to be slowing down and pretty much sitting tight for the winter,” Clark said.
The gamefish tend to travel to deeper waters. Clark said the cold water makes them sluggish and they won’t feed as heavily.
This doesn’t mean anglers won’t see them. Clark said anglers will still be able to catch largemouth bass, though likely fewer in numbers.
But avid anglers can hope for an influx of striped bass coming into Delaware waters over the next few weeks, thanks to their coastal migration into the Delaware River and Chesapeake Bay when winter hits.
“Last year they never really came in the way they had in the past,” Clark said. “People did catch some of the big ones in-shore and they did come into the bay a bit and there were even some catches up in the river, but just not in the numbers we normally see.”
Though the number of striped bass was down a year ago, Clark said a colder winter could bring more through Delaware.
