The Fishing Line: All the fish are here

Summertime is fleeting so make plans now to get in on the fishing action. Plenty of rental boats at the marinas, party boats sailing everyday, and charter boats just waiting for you and your friends. Reports are full of action including sheepshead and redfish.
Pier 88 in Sea Isle City tells us that fishing has really turned on. Larry Richards and Crew aboard the Bimini Twist tried their luck at the Baltimore Canyon, and had a very successful trip with 2 mahi-mahi, 2 yellowfin, and saw some white marlin action; all hit on green machine daisy chains. Back Bay flounder action picked up, too, with flounder caught off the beach under the TI Bridge. Looking for kingfish, the outgoing tide while using Fishbites works best. Evenings and early mornings have produced some nice stripers. Try using either plugs or spot. If none of that works, Kristy suggests clamming like Joe and Georgie on a Pier 88 kayak.
Sterling Harbor says back bay flounder fishing remains good, while action at the reefs slow. The back bays and inlet areas are producing striped bass on plugs and soft plastics, mainly shorts but a few keepers emerge. Along the beachfront at Cape May Point, you’ll find kingfish and croakers along with some flounder. Fish Bites for kingfish and white Gulp! for flounder.
Offshore, bluefin and yellowfin tuna fishing remains excellent and mahi are also reported. Crabby Jack says, “The crabbing is good.”
Crabs are doing well on the pier and in the back over at Grassy Sound Marina, too. Their reports include stripers after dark and loads of spot on Sabiki rigs and Fish Bites. Flounder are plentiful on minnows and mackerel, top of the tide being the most productive. Fishing from the Grassy Sound Pier, Steve Boylan, Fair Oaks, Calif., had a keeper at 20 inches on mackerel, top of the outgoing while Sandra Ellis, Warrington, Pa. caught 2 keeper flounder on minnows, incoming tide. Harry Jones, Williamstown, caught 2 keeper flounder to 21” on mackerel, top of the outgoing. He also had some sea bass.
The extreme hot weather slowed up the fishing with water temps along the beach and the back bay waters heating up to 78 to 79 degrees but Captain Ray still found a few weakfish, small just about keeper size. Small fluke and croakers are in the mix. He says you’ll have to work hard for stripers, with the best action in the back bay. He found a few decent size ones including one nice keeper size that was released.
Ray says the invasion of rays has been a bit of a pain. When you hook one you have to chase it all over and then just break it off as they are tough to unhook. In the back bay near shallow creek mouths, hundreds of them were swarming all over. Ray says this happens every few years in the back.
Captain Dan Schafer, Insomniac Guides, got a heads up from a friend that there was a serious sheepshead bite with fish to 12 pounds. Dan called up Brian and headed to the dock. He’s been trying to catch one for a while and this trip would prove to be the day. Brian locked into one and after a battle headed to Smuggler’s Cove to have it weighed. It hit 8.8 on the scales. A few quick pics and measurements for a replica mount.
A couple of days later Dan left the dock with Sean and Gene at first light looking for a top water bite as the tide came in. Not ten minutes that he’s poling the first flat, in a foot of water, the fish makes an odd Z pattern run to even shallower water and digs into the grass beds and escapes without ever getting a good look at it. He poled a long stretch in clear, shallow water and found a current coming through when the boat bottomed out in 8 inches of water. They started casting into the current edge. Sean had one on first, then a follow up. Gene hooked one on his top water plug. It fought it all directions. Then Dan saw the tail. “It looks like we’ve got a population of red fish to fish for now.” They released the fish.
CALENDAR: Last boating safety class of the season Aug. 3, Price Hall, Academy and Seashore Roads, Cold Spring. This class is required by law if you are 16 years of age or older and intend to operate a vessel longer than 12 feet or a personal watercraft. Call 889-2236, Lois Grimes, Public Affairs, Flotilla 86, Lower Township.
NEWS: NJ DEP has suspended the oyster harvest from the Shell Rock Oyster Beds in Delaware Bay as a result of illnesses from the naturally occurring pathogen. The Administrative Order and a map of the affected area, www.njfishandwildlife.com/shelhome.htm on the Division of Fish and Wildlife website.
There’s a free smartphone app that gives updated map-based information on marinas, boating facilities, waterways and inlets along the NJ coast. The app can be found at www.WaterwayGuide.com/superstorm-sandy.
Send your reports and pictures to cmiller@cmcherald.com. Column and pictures are posted online at www.capemaycountyherald.com. Let’s go fishing.