The Fishing Line

The bait fish are on the move and when the weather finally cooperates, this transitional fishing season will be worth your time.
The Hooked Up II, South Jersey Marina with Captains John and Diane Sowerby managed to get out to try to get on the white marlin troll bite down in the Poorman’s Canyon.
“You should have been here yesterday” really applied on the trip. The bite went from awesome one day to just a few caught and released the next day.
They worked out in the deep where they found large concentrations of birds and bait in about 600-800 feet of water but could not troll because the weeds were so thick baits were getting covered up with them. They ended up the day with some mahi-mahi that were thick along the weeds.
Water temperatures seem to be dropping quickly from the Delaware Bay and out so this may be what kick starts the night canyon bite on tuna and Captain John expects to see some yellowfins, bluefins and longfins showing up in numbers.
The Hooked Up II will continue to run to the canyons all of October and into November if the tuna arrive and the weather permits. They are now booking bunker chunking only trips starting in early November on the Delaware Bay where they will target the bigger stripers. They do not plan on fishing the Cape May Rips at all this coming season.
Captain John is offering a preseason discount on eight and 10 hour full day striper fishing for those that book a trip over the next couple of weeks, call 425-1970, 861-2388 or cavemansportfishing.com.
According to our friends at Sterling Harbor, croakers are all along the beachfront from Wildwood to Cape May. Sea bass are starting to show at the Reef and bait is starting to move out of the back-bays so the surf fishing should improve steadily.
The first day of the Northeast blow, bluefish blitzed the North Wildwood beach for quite a few hours keeping the
surf fishers busy.
In the back-bays a few small stripers are patrolling the Sod Banks in the early mornings and evenings. Bill Myers of North Wildwood had two nice stripers caught on a Mirro lure while trolling the sod banks on his Hobie Mirage Revolution kayak.
Crabby Jack gives the crabbing two claws this week.
Bucktail Willie fishing out of Whale Creek Marina, found stripers up to 30 inches. The fish were hitting trolled bucktails for the most part but two were caught on eels.
Summer flounder are still around but remember they have to be released. There also were small sea bass and porgies along with few kingfish when using a chum pot.
When the weather clears, fishing should really pick up especially for stripers.
Ron Flemming, Cape May Bait & Tackle didn’t see a lot of big fish caught last week but the number of fish, and variety caught was nice. A lot of snapper blues have shown up with school mullet around the jetties at Cape May Point. Most were between 1 – 2 pounds with a few larger ones mixed in. Weakfish are in the 18-22 inch range, caught with floating bloodworms, also at the Cape May Point jetties.
Live lining mullet produced a few weakfish and small bass, but most had been bitten in half by bluefish. Croaker action remains good, with a few larger fish around, caught on bloods and cut mullet.
Kingfish showed up again, most caught on bloods as well. Alexander Avenue jetty and Higbee Beach produced the best for the kings. Keep in mind Cape May Bait & Tackle shop has a weekly prize for the biggest fish brought in of legal size. Ron saw a lot of fish on the beach but no one brought any into the shop. With the mullet showing and the nights cooling off, fishing should continue to improve.
Captain Ray is finding that with the continued algae bloom in the back-bay fishing has been fairly slow. The decent fishing was in the ocean and around the inlet area where the water is a little bit better.
He has seen decent schoolie striper action on popping and mullet flies, with black being the most productive. The best action has been presunset and after dark and with the poor water quality you have to work them slow and close to the surface for the fish to see them. Best night produced 10 stripers on the fly rod. Every week now with the cooler weather fishing should improve as bait leaves the back-bays and the water cools.
Ocean City Surf Fishing Tournament: Some 225 die-hard anglers from New Jersey and Pennsylvania braved a northeast wind, rough surf, a strong current, and an abnormally high tide to compete in the 41st annual Ocean City Surf Fishing Tournament on Sept. 20.
Tournament chairman Bill Daley, president of the co-sponsoring Ocean City Fishing Club, called a halt to the event at 10:45 a.m., before the usual noontime closure.
Sand sharks, apparently as indefatigable as the anglers in the surf, comprised nearly all the fish caught in an abbreviated tournament, which began just before dawn with an incoming tide along six miles of Ocean City beach.
The winning six-member team was Surf ‘N Land’s “A” team, headquartered in Berlin. Its “B” team won second place. Finishing third in the tournament was the Fishin’ Fuzz team, Sea Isle City.
In the women’s category, two anglers tied for first place: Fishlanders team member Jo Llewellyn, of Bensalem, Pa., and Chris Pancoast, Brigantine, Women’s Surf Fishing Club.
Tom Bishop, a Browns Mills resident and Surf ‘N Land member, took home a trophy for catching the most and largest fish. Chris Roberts, of Toms River, won a similar award as an individual angler.
In the youth category, Cherry Hill’s Alex Strassler, a 12-year-old Surf ‘N Land member, received a trophy for the shark he reeled in.
Chris Kazanjian, an Ocean City plumber who was competing with his wife, Pat and a team from French Real Estate, Inc., may have provided the best critique of the day: “It beats working,” he observed philosophically. “For me, it beats crawling under a house and fixing a broken pipe.” Thanks to George Ingram for this report)
Latest entry in the Cape May County Fishing Tournament: Charles S. Davison, Avalon, croaker, 2.02 pounds, Sept. 18 at Shute Shoal on the Wild Turkey.
Oct. 4, Pennsauken Surf Fishing Club Tournament, 7:30 a.m.-2 p.m., register Firehouse, Second and New Jersey avenues, North Wildwood, 6 a.m. Teams and individuals welcome, fee for participants, 856-786-0070 or asaconline.org.
Oct. 11, Great Fall Classic Surf Fishing Tournament, beach at 15th Avenue, North Wildwood, 5:30 a.m.- 5 p.m., daily, fee for participants, 758-1213 or njbba.org.
The 17th annual Governor’s Surf Fishing Tournament, Sunday, Oct. 5, Island Beach State Park. Overall largest fish wins the “Governor’s Trophy,” length of the fish determines the winner, not weight. Register at the tournament. For more information visit njfishandwildlife.com/gsft.htm.
Oct. 18, WSFC Tournament, Sea Isle City, teams and individuals, 264-7754 or fshrwmn2505@netzero.net
Oct. 19, Fishing Flea Market, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., Cape May City Elementary School, 884-9565.
Oct. 25, Anglesea Surf Anglers Tournament, Wildwoods Beaches, register, Firehouse, Second and New Jersey avenues, North Wildwood, 6:30 a.m.-7:30 a.m., fishing 7:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., fee for participants, 856.786.0070 or asaconline.org.
2008 fall trout stocking program has been posted on the NJ DEP Division of Fish and Wildlife website. Stocking is to begin Oct. 7. All fall-stocked waters may be fished as soon as they are stocked. njfishandwildlife.com/trtinfo_fall.htm or Trout Hotline at 633-6765.
The NJ DEP Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Bureau of Freshwater Fisheries has completed habitat enhancement projects in South Jersey. For complete information go to njfishandwildlife.com/artlakeprojects08.htm.
WOW! The Wonders Of Wetlands, educational resource book for teachers K-12th grade, correlated with National Science Education Standards, activity guide, Project Webfoot Kit, and six credit hours for professional development, rain or shine, refreshments and lunch provided, $20, 908- 637-4125.
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