The Fishing Line: August Promises Come True

The middle of August and it’s a mixed bag of reports. Some great catches are had but you’re going to have to work for them. How patient are you?
The 4-hour Starlight had a good week with mixed catches of kingfish, blues, croakers and some big flounder. Some pool winners included Erin Lester, Raleigh, NC, who celebrated her birthday catching a pool-winning 5 pound 5 ounce flounder, Megan Koren took the prize with one at 5 pounds, and Harry Wiegner, Lincoln University, made 2 trips and took the pool on each one with a 5 pound flounder and then with a 2 pound 9 ounce kingfish. The week’s high hook honors went to Leo Parker with a nice mix of blues, kingfish and weakies.
Grassy Sound Marina reports another healthy mix including croakers, sheepshead in greater numbers, king fish off the pier and stripers. The kids are having fun with the snapper blues; double headers one right after the other. Still plenty of nice size flounder coming in and crabbing continues to be strong.
Flounder fishing was excellent with fish being caught in the back bays, around the inlets and at the Reefs, so say reports from Sterling Harbor Marina. The Cape May Rips are providing a lot of action for snapper bluefish, croakers and kingfish. The offshore hotspot was the Wilmington Canyon with bigeye tuna, yellowfin tuna, mahi-mahi and white marlin. The lumps inside the canyons are still producing nice catches of bluefin tuna while trolling, chunking and jigging.
There are plenty of schoolie stripers being caught in the back bays around the bridges and sod banks. Anglers have been catching them on soft plastics, top water lures and while chunking sardines. A few kingfish are being landed from the surf and the bait of choice has been bloodworms. Crabby Jack gives the crabbing 4 Claws this week and says there are some nice size crabs right now, just not in large quantities.
It was another good week of striper action and weather for Captain Ray’s fly and light tackle charters. A new group of stripers worked their way along the ocean front and into the back bay. This batch had some better size fish. All trips were late afternoon into the night with the best fishing after dark. Ray even had a couple of nice size blues which was a surprise as with the warm water they have been pretty scarce. Chartreuse/white clouser flies and popping flies caught well for fly anglers and popping and swimming plugs worked for the spin anglers.
Stray Cat Charters is crushing the Bonito and blues with Little tunny and Mahi mixed in, trolling on the 5 hour trips and boating 300 fish plus. Blue fin tuna and yellow fin have made mad runs on the AC ridge and just outside the Tuna lump off Sea Isle. Huge Cobia have been hanging on the buoy lines. Black eels and a white bucktial will work.
The Royal Flush fishing out front in the ocean is catching founder, sea bass, snapper blues, weak fish, kingies and croakers, and a few triggers, creating an aquarium of fish. Croakers are making a big appearance on night trips.
CALENDAR: Tomorrow, Aug. 14, Ocean City Fishing Club Open House, 6 to 8:30 pm. Visitors will have an opportunity to learn about the club’s history, stroll out on the fishing pier, extending 635 feet into the ocean, and take photographs. They are also encouraged to bring non-perishable food for the Ocean City Community Food Cupboard. Meet Martin Z. Mollusk, the ever-popular mascot of the City and Regional Chamber of Commerce. Club members will give casting demonstrations. Call 398-0534.
The Fishing Line runs year round so keep sending your reports and pictures to cmiller@cmcherald.com. Column and pictures (many which do not make it into the print edition) are posted online at www.capemaycountyherald.com and on Facebook. Check out www.epektales.com for info on Miller’s book, “Counting the Fish in the Sea: the Story of the NEAMAP Trawls.”