The dogwoods are beginning to bloom, the Laughing Gulls have returned, and normally those events signal that weakfish will be caught on hook and line. Commercial netters have had sea trout in shallow water near Delaware Bay's shoreline the past couple weeks, but true to form, we had the first trout taken by surf fishermen brought in this week. Chris Burke and his nephew 8 year old Tom Burke were casting from Broadkill Beach just before dark Monday evening when they connected with a pair of beautiful tiderunners that weighed 6.1 and 6.2 pounds. Hopefully that's a sign of what to look forward to when the water finally warms up. Broadkill Beach fishermen also found a few stripers willing to bite bloodworms, bunker and clams. Small stripers have been active at night around the Cape Henlopen Pier. Anglers on the rail caught rock ranging 12 to 22 inches while working a variety of artificials, including speck rigs, Fin-S-Fish and Gulp! Short striped bass were also caught along the Lewes Canal marsh bank by tossing 3 and 4 inch Storm Shads during early morning tide changes. Some decent flounder were pulled from Lewes Canal on days when the water was clean. Jesse Billings brought in a pair of nice flatties he hooked using pink Gulp! Rod Ross reeled in a 3.5 pounder that also fell for a pink Gulp! Anglers on the rail at Cape Henlopen Pier also had flounder while working speck rigs and other small jigs tipped with fresh cut bunker or shad at night. The Canal Flounder Tournament takes place Friday May 16th. Check the Lewes Harbour Marina Facebook page or call 302-645-6227 for complete details. Tautog action has been pretty good at Reef Site 10 in the Ocean, but Delaware Bay toggers have started to enjoy success over the past week. Reef Site 6 at Brown Shoal was productive, but blackfish have finally started to bite along the Breakwaters too. Captain Brent's toggers on Katydid captured a 21 fish limit in short order at the Wall this morning. The largest was Ken Seltzer's citation 7.1 pounder. Larry Frati landed a 10.34 pound brute of a tautog on a recent trip board Katydid.