Delaware & Maryland Coastal Fishing Structure

Book excerpt: Told by a former artificial reef manager, recreational boater, and sport-fisherman with a foreword by Lenny Rudow, this is first and foremost a book for fisherman that provides practical methods to find and prospect bottom features that attract bait, striped bass, redfish, cobia, sea bass, tautog, sheepshead, and other sportfish. It also draws on lessons from the author's Coast Guard service and Chesapeake Bay restoration and fishing experience to encourage boating and fishing safety. This first book of a multi-volume Mid-Atlantic fishing reef series covers from the Delaware Bay Entrance south to just below the Maryland-Virginia border. It provides a detailed look at wrecks, obstructions, natural formations, and Delaware's ocean artificial reefs with layout illustrations. It identifies locations of reef sites managed by the Ocean City Reef Foundation in Maryland's coastal waters, and advises how to obtain current information about ongoing reef deployments and specific locations. Designed for jump-starting the acquisition of local knowledge about light-tackle fishing structure by casual and journeyman sport fisherman, there are jewels of information inside for sportfishing veterans as well. The narrative not only shows and tells where to look for structure, but also includes graphics from hydrographic survey data and sonar images to show what is actually there to inform fishing strategies and tackle selection. Geographic coordinates are included. A selection of color graphics used to produce the greyscale images in the book are found on the Facebook page for the Author's works, "Chesapeake Bay Fishing Reefs", and in excerpts by the author posted on the FishTalk Magazine "Where To" webpage. A special chapter developed with a docking pilot and marine pilot discusses boating and fishing safety in relation to commercial ship and tug and barge operations. A step-by-step illustrated guide shows how to access and use the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's Bathymetric Data Viewer and its links to National Ocean Service Descriptive Reports that document results of hydrographic surveys.