The Fishing Line: Bait and Switch

The first hurricane and her rains have come and gone reminding us what an impact weather has been making on this early season. Despite the havoc, reports are solid inviting you to make plans and get in on the action.
Bill (bucktail willie) Shillingford fishing out of Whale Creek Marina found a decent early morning striped bass bite with bass up to 31inches. The fluke bite slowed a little but will pick up again as we get closer to the moon. Willie reports plenty of 15-18 inch bluefish roaming around and a few weakfish, especially at night.
Jenkins Channel was hot, according to Grassy Sound Marina, and produced some nice flounder and weakfish. Incoming tide was the ticket there. Minnows have been scarce but the fish are biting on plenty of other baits. There are reports of flounder with spot in their bellies and spot behind Stone Harbor. Kingfish made a showing off the pier during outgoing tide on clam and squid and a few early evenings had about 20 stripers caught with some keepers mixed in. Flounder, weakies, and blues too. A pod of porpoises went past the marina at dusk this week.
Steve Toye, Voorhees, caught 3 keeper flounder in Turtle Creek, outgoing tide on Gulp while Carol Boyle, National Park, outfished her husband with her first keeper flounder of the season. Mike Ciarlante, Philadelphia, caught 4 keeper flounder with the largest at 20.5 inches. He was fishing the incoming tide behind Sea Isle with minnows.
Fishing off the Pier, Joe and Kathy Sandefur, West Deptford, caught 2 keeper stripers at 31 inches and a bunch of throwbacks. They also had a drum fish, a few kings and some flounder fishing the incoming tide using clam. A few nights later the Sandefurs caught 3 more stripers with 1 keeper at 32 inches. They also had 3 flounder with 1 keeper at 23 inches. The early evening hours have been very productive.
Captain Ray had another great week of fishing when the weather allowed. Weakfish continue to be the big story and he has been catching more of them than the other species with fish in the 24 to 26 inch size. For the fly anglers it is still the chartreuse/white clouser fished on sinking line and for the plug anglers mirror lures have worked well. Ray even had a couple of double hooks. He is releasing just about all of them even though they have all been well above the legal size.
Paul Kerlinger of Cape May caught a biggest fish of the week, landing a 35 inch striper on a clouser fly and releasing it after a few photos. The blue fish have been the second most abundant species with most in the 18 to 22 inch size. Still seeing sea herring on the fly, mixed in with the weakfish. The unusual catch of the week was a large cow nosed ray that took a fly. At first they thought it was a large striper or drum as it took off on a couple of long runs. Ray says it gave a fun battle and must have weighed 25 to 30 pounds.
The Sea Star III with Captain Chuck reports the Bay is heating up with fluke, weakfish, blues, kingfish, croakers, and a lot of drum fish. The reefs are producing some nice sea bass and ling.
Check out Cape May’s Annual Harbor Fest this Saturday including a blessing of the waters, water-taxis, street vendors, scallop cook-off, and more.
Send your reports and pictures to cmiller@cmcherald.com. Column and pictures are posted online at www.capemaycountyherald.com. Let’s go fishing!