Hard to believe it's the end of December already. The year has flown by. There's still fishing activity when weather permits. Yesterday, Captain Carey on the Grizzly set up at Site 10, where his anglers put 27 tog in the box, and released several more. Captain Pete's toggers on Top Fin also had a good trip to Site 10 yesterday, returning with 22 keepers. Captain Brent togged at 10 the day before, and his guys aboard Katydid captured 23 keeper blackfish. Brent squeezed in one last seabass run yesterday, before the season shuts down December 31st. His bassers picked through a bunch of undersized fish, but ended up with 45 good sized blueheads. Sea bass fans will miss out this winter, since the season will be closed, but tog will provide opportunities inshore, and cod and tilefish will be available for offshore bottom bouncers. Captain H.D. Parsons at Fisherman's Wharf has special headboat trips lined up most weekends throughout the winter. You can check the schedule at 302-645-8862. Steve Kiibler and Daryl Mergenthaler fished one of the excursions yesterday, and combined for 26 beautiful bass and a blueline tile. Stripers are still moving down the coast, but there hasn't been much going on with rockfish in Delaware Bay the past couple weeks. Ocean going linesiders have been located under kamikaze Gannets within a couple miles of the beach as they make their way south. Rock continued to stage on structure between Indian River and Fenwick, although they were often found working on bunkers in open water. The lumps off Sea Colony remained productive, but the fish don't seem to be as thick there as in weeks past. Mike and John Davis trolled Stretches and Mojos off Bethany yesterday for 3 quality striped bass, including John's 32.4 pounder. Before Christmas, Stanley Smith and Jeff Griffin intercepted a school of stripers pushing bunkers to the south, north of Indian River, about 2 1/2 miles off the coast. They pulled Stretches and umbrellas among diving birds for their 4 bass limit, and released 10 others before calling it a day. If water temps don't drop too much, rockfish might be in the area much of the winter. Anglers have plenty to look forward to in the coming new year. Weakfish seemed to be making a comeback, and trout of varying sizes were taken throughout Delaware Bay. There were more red drum around than ever before. A couple bountiful year classes produced a bumper crop of redfish, and they seem to be pushing farther north in search of forage each season. Lewes Canal produced some decent flounder action, and the 2013 Canal Flounder Tournament had the largest turnout ever. The date for the 2014 Canal Tourney has been set for Friday May 16th. Although flounder fishing in Delaware Bay was kind of disappointing, boaters who learned how to present bucktails and bottom rigs on the Old Grounds in the Ocean between DB and DA Buoys had a banner summer with flatties. Croakers were small this past year, but spot of jumbo proportions were extra plentiful, and those tasty panfish will certainly be welcomed back. The same goes for kingfish. There was a resurgence of kings, and many Delaware Bay anglers enjoyed double digit catches of these delicious members of the drum family while anchored on Bay coral and other live bottom. Black drum didn't seem as thick this past spring, but Broadkill surf casters and boaters anchored on the Coral Beds still caught good numbers. Some real heavyweights were landed on light tackle when the big boomers grabbed small baits intended for trout. The largest we checked in tipped the scales to 93 pounds. Tuna fishermen were treated to some of the best action in a long time. Yellowfins hung out with bait and whales in Washington Canyon for most of the summer, and the bigeye bite was the hottest in recent memory. It was not uncommon for crews to boat multiples of the titanic tunas between 150 and 300 pounds while trolling at first light and just before dark. The offshore crowd will certainly get excited with the prospect of that happening again in 2014. Stripers were late in arriving in great numbers at the Delaware Bay entrance this November, but when sandeels got thick mid month, so did the rockfish. There were many quality trophies caught, and trollers seemed to do better than bait fishermen. All three winning fish in the 2013 Lewes Harbour Striper Tournament weighed over 40 pounds. Evan Falgowski's 47.2 pounder took the top prize. Mike Ambler landed the largest of the season, a mammoth 50 inch 49 pound bass, but he unfortunately wasn't entered in the Tourney. Quite an accomplishment none the less. The anticipation of all the fishing possibilities ahead will help get anglers through the doldrums of winter. Amanda, Phoebe and I are doing our own doldrum prevention thing by heading for the Florida Keys to do some fishing ourselves. We'll hopefully have some good catch pictures to share in the website photo gallery, and on our Facebook page, so stay tuned. I'll resume regular web fishing reports when the store reopens full time in April. Lewes Harbour Marina will be open Friday, Saturday and Sunday through the winter. The Saltwater Fly Anglers Of Delaware meet every Saturday for a fly tying session at the shop, where members, and guests, swap tips and techniques and, of course, fishing tales. Stop in and check them out. Thanks for following us this past season, and we wish you the best of success in the coming New Year!