Fishing Line: July 10

It’s starting off as another busy week with reports rolling in almost as soon as the last column was being completed. No matter where you like to fish, everywhere seems hot. This weekend will provide another big flounder tournament, so if you’ve delayed entering it is now crunch time. Let’s get started and see what happened.
Grassy Sound Marina concluded their 13th Annual Flounder Tournament with two local anglers taking the top two spots in the boat division. Karl Errickson took first with a 28-inch, 7.7-pounder while Kevin Mitchell with a 4.5-pounder grabbed second. Both are from Court House. Third went to Tom Gill (Deptford) with a 3.7-pound fish. The three-heaviest combined, totaling 8.3 pounds, went to Terry Simpson.
The women’s division was won by Barry Mastrangelo, of Court House, with a 2.7-pounder while Bill Whildon (Villas) won the youth title with a 3-pound entry.
The kayak division went to Rob English with a 2.6-pounder while the Pier Division ended with Manndel Mobley (Rio Grande) in first place, while second went to Joan Thornton, and third was claimed by Kevin Owles, who also won the Bill Kinsley Award.     
Sailor’s Delight Back Bay Fishing has been sailing three trips daily, including their evening trip, and has been rewarded with plenty of action and a nice amount of quality keepers. The action has been scattered across all the trips so you just need to decide what trip works best for you.
Cathy, from Sterling Harbor, which happens to be the sight of this weekend’s 26th Annual Duke of Fluke Tournament, starts by saying that fluke are being caught from the back bays as well as the local reefs. Jason Bailey landed a 4-pound, 9-ounce flounder from the Wildwood Reef while Joe “Smitty” Smith caught a 5-pound, 5-ouncer while fishing at the Old Grounds. The back bay fluke, which require you to pick through a lot of shorts to find the keepers, are also being visited by some nice weakfish. 9-year old Brian Harbaugh “landed his first ever weakfish,” a keeper of 17-inches. The local jetties also have some weakfish around them.
A check offshore reveals that the local canyons still have “plenty” of Yellowfin Tuna, Mahi-Mahi and the occasional White Marlin.
Bluefin Tuna can be caught inshore “around Massey Canyon or the 19 Fathom Lump.” Fourteen-year-old Isaac DeHaven “weighed in his first ever Bluefin Tuna that tipped the scales at 72.5 pounds.”
Crabby Jack bestows 3.5 out of 5 Claws on crabbing this week.
Entry forms are available in the shop or at sterlingharbor.com for the previously mentioned tournament occurring this weekend. Call 609-729-1425 with any questions.   
Nev-R-Enuf Sportfishing, in Avalon, reported that Erick “Turk” Otto hooked, fought, and landed a 58-inch, 55-pound cobia during a recent ocean venture. Captain Mike described it as an “amazing catch.”   
Tammie, from Avalon Hodge Podge, says there are “weakfish galore in the surf by the 8th Street Jetty.” The “school of fish is large” even if the fish, basically a lot of 10-inchers, making it up, aren’t. It still provides a lot of fun and is good for sharpening your skills.
The Avalon Invitational Off-Shore Tournament recently occurred and “a lot of tuna,” including Yellowfin, Bluefin, Longfin and Big Eye, were weighed in. The “Island Girl” with Captain Frank Bowen and a 153.2 pound total took first place while second went to Captain Dave Cook on the “First Born” with a 118.4 pound total. Money raised went to support the cure of Neurofibromatosis Type II.
The Avalon Lady has been putting their patrons on keeper flounder, kingfish, and triggerfish. Adding some fun to the mi have been some sharks, sea robins, and rays. Catch one of those and you might think you have a huge flounder on. They are also catching some tasty crabs on their crab outings.
The Miss Avalon had a nice week catching flounder, kingfish and triggerfish, while waiting for the next season of sea bass to arrive. It’s here now and they will be added to the target list of cooler fillers for you to catch.
Boulevard Bait and Tackle had a busy time as Cameron said the “local flounder fishing is heating up both in the back bay and at the reefs.” With that in mind, Jerry Rau hit an unidentified reef and managed three days of limits over the week while Allura (19.5-inch) and Dean Mel (23-inch, 4.94-pounds) caught nice fish in the back. Paul, Bill, and Cameron had 4 keepers to 24-inches in the back on an after-work outing, while the Flynn group caught flounder and a “bonus” weakfish during their trip behind Avalon and Stone Harbor.  A young angler named Mike got his limit of flounder while fishing the inlet, while “big” triggerfish are around the local jetties, and kingfish are hot on the beaches of Sea Isle and Strathmere. Finally, if you troll the inshore lumps be ready for Spanish mackerel or bluefish to take your offering. 
The Sea Star III had action with flounder, weakfish and sea bass. Unfortunately, with sea bass out of season during this time frame, they had to be released. Now that they are back in the action, the fish in the coolers should increase. Elsewhere, Joe Torres caught his three flounder limit, including a 2.95-pound pool winner. Other fluke pool winners and their weights went to Dennis DiLodovico (3.25), Harry Theurer (3.5), and Joe Venezia (2.25). Weakfish won pools for Dan Breslin (1.5) and Sherri Bolognone (1.70).
The Miss Chris is staying busy by putting their patrons on flounder, kingfish and sea bass. Scott Stahl caught some nice kingfish recently, while on another trip Jordi Ferrer walked off with the pool after catching the biggest fish, a flounder, of the trip.
The Porgy IV has been bringing in the fluke recently. A fat 7-pound specimen was a recent pool-winner, and part of a limit, for Carl Davis. This same trip produced two, 5-pound flounder for South Philly Joe and a 4-pounder for Rob Campbell.  Others winning pools this week were Steve McGarvey with his 23-incher, Mike Jung with a 21-inch fish, Jim Olszewski who landed a 21-incher, and George Schmidt who closed out the list by winning during his outing.
The Hooked Up II had productive charters as the Clean Earth Inc. company had “nothing short of great Yellowfin fishing” as they caught 24 fish. They kept 13 “of the largest tuna of the season for us.” The group called it a day early as they “had all the tuna they wanted.”
The first inshore trip of the season provided “almost nonstop action for about two hours.” They had “a great trip” while “keeping our legal limit and releasing some quality tuna.” They wrapped the trip up by 10 a.m. and returned to Cape May.
Off The Hook Bait and Tackle reported that Team Overkill “had a good day on Bluefin” that were caught on the troll. The crew on the Harvester caught a nice Bluefin, as did Eric who weighed in a 72.3-pound Bluefin of his own that he caught while on the Miss Jaxx.
The Fishin’ Fever had a “great day on the Bluefin grounds”. They had “4 unders and  4 overs” for the day. They kept their limit to 65-inches and 160-pounds.   
Libation Charters took a recent party to “the edge.” While tuna fishing was slow, the Marlin were biting. They started their first Blue Marlin of the season but lost it due to boat traffic. They landed, then released, one White Marlin while missing another. They finished up their trip as they “boxed” a couple of Yellowfin tuna.       
From the Mailbag: A nice 3-pound, 10-ounce flounder was caught by Dave Appenzeller aboard the Tide Runner. Special thanks to Frank McLaughlin for sending that in.
Busy times these are. Get fishing, good luck, and let me know how you did.
Submit your fishing news and photos to mrobbins@cmcherald.com