Fishing in the Delaware Bay can be adventurous and bountiful. You should gather information about where the fish are biting, tides and how the water is running before heading out on a fishing trip there. Areas can be over-fished and the sounds of boat motors can clam up the hungriest of fish. Find a place away from the crowd if you hope to catch flounder, fluke, drum, stripper (trout), sea bass, perch, sea trout, kingfish or porgy.
      Having the appropriate equipment is essential. You would probably not choose a braided line, as it frays against the shells and old coral on the bottom, snapping when you set the hook. Individual tastes in rods and reels vary. You need to choose a six or seven foot rod with a soft or hard tip. Graphite rods tend to have more sensitivity to movement. Reels are often spooled with 30 pound monofilament line. Many fishermen use a bait runner so that when the fish is coming toward the boat, you can spool the line fast. Most leaders are made of 15-20 inches of 40 pound line. In a strong current, you want to keep the bait on the bottom, where it would be naturally. Many fishermen use the biggest hook they can, but will vary the types of hooks on different rods in the boat. Some of the lines have been cast long, and others short or closer to the boat.
      Chunking bunker is simply baiting the hook for large bass. Ebb tide is best for intermittently baiting large-sized bass. Use a circle hook pinned in the nostrils of the bunker head (bait fish) when the tide is running fast. The use of a thinner gauge hook is used in the same way to keep eel bait livelier. Always bait and rig according to the winds and tides.