The Fishing Line: Big Flounder Beg for Attention

Recent successful flounder tournaments ought to have you chomping at the bit to get out and catch some of your own. And there are still some stripers, kingfish, croakers, weakies, blues and spots around. Tog are legal, now, too.
The 20th Annual Duke of Fluke Tournament had 116 boats and 33 kayaks registered. First place, single heaviest fluke, went to an incredible 13.60 pounder, a tournament record. Five Heaviest Fluke winner was Captain Adam Crouthamel, Adam Bomb III, 23.44 pounds. In the kayak division, first place went to Glen Bowen on a Hobie Revolution 13, 4.26 pound flounder.
Junior Angler Award Lyle Rutty, 6.13 pound flounder; Duchess Award, Missy Gattone, 4.93 pound flounder; Heaviest Sea Bass Joseph DeLio, High Hopes, 3.84 pounds and Heaviest Bluefish Frank Arnold, 0.70 pounds.
Seventh Annual Grassy Sound Marina Flounder Tournament saw 63 boats and 25 Fishing Pier entrants. Winners were: first place, Tom Dunleavy, Villas, 5.75 pounds; three heaviest combined, Jerry Lynch, Millville, 10.7 pounds, Women, Diane Casey, N. Wildwood, 3.65 pounds; Children, Gary Spreckley, Philadelphia, 2.82 pounds; Daisy Mae Award (11th heaviest flounder)Bill Michels, Mullica Hill, and Steve Haubois, Court House. Fishing the tourney off the Pier: first place, Joe Ditullio, Cape May; Bill Kinsley Award (first flounder caught), Dylan Sangmeister, Glenolden, Pa.
The Calvitti crew, Stone Harbor brought in two nice sheepshead; the larger weighed in at 11.3 pounds. Sheepshead are being caught on clams at the incoming tide in Hereford Inlet and outgoing tide in front of the marina.
Nine-year-old Logan Kreudl, Barnegat, fishing from the Pier caught a 20 inch flounder on squid & minnows, top of the outgoing tide and Laurie Higgins, Huntingdon Valley, Pa. caught a 21 incher on minnows, incoming tide.
Reports from Pier 88, Sea Isle City are hot, hot, hot. As the water and weather heated up, so did the flounder fishing. The flounder hot spot is the Intercoastal waterway from Coast guard station down toward the Townsend Inlet Bridge; bait of choice seeing the most action is top and bottom rig with GULP! and Minnow. Don’t be afraid to use pink, it works. There are still some nice stripers around, especially in the evening hours. Bunker head and mackerel chunked was the ticket for Kelsie Massini as she landed this beautiful 31inch striper.
Captain Frank W. Breakell, Brynnie-B Inshore Fishing, fished with John Thompson of Ocean View on a night trip behind Avalon and Sea Isle. Drifted some sod banks during the outgoing tide, they landed 4 short stripers, and a cow nose ray (snagged accidentally). Captain saw loads of small bait and a lot of fish, just couldn’t get them all to bite. A few days later, Captain hit the beach in Sea Isle to see what was going on. Using bloodworms on the incoming tide (using a new Brown Dog Bomb Kingfish rig with size 8 Owner circle hooks), he managed 17 spot, 3 nice kingfish, and one croaker.
Captain Ray had another good week of fishing for fly and spin anglers. Ray is seeing smaller weakfish but did have a couple of nicer ones with the biggest at 25.5 inches, caught on a fly and released as were all the other fish Ray caught this week. Water was so cold the fish felt like they were came off of ice in cooler when we were unhooking them.
Even with the cold water in the ocean, weakfish and sea herring provided most of the action with only a few fluke caught. Again it was the chartreuse/white clouser flies fished in sinking line and gulp baits on jig heads that produced. They did catch a few stripers in the ocean but found better striper action in the shallow backbay area. Ray says, “It is really exciting for charters to catch on surface baits as the fish sometimes hit like polaris missles jumping clear out of the water on the initial strike.”
Captain Franz and the LIBATION took three generations of the Greenlee family (Texas)on their first offshore Tuna/Marlin trip out to Massey’s Canyon. Grandfather, Father and Son all shared the thrill of catching Bluefin Tuna, Yellow fin Tuna and two Mahi-Mahi. These fish will be consumed shortly, but the memories will last forever. Catch the fever. Charter a boat from South Jersey Marina in Cape May.
The Jersey Shore Beach N Boat Fishing Tournament has over $30,000 in cash and prizes for the biggest fish in 8 categories, through Nov. 30. Fee $20. You are automatically entered into a drawing to win a $1500 plus a Kayak. Visit BeachNBoat.com/sign-up-now/ for more information.
Send your reports and pictures to cmiller@cmcherald.com. Column and pictures are posted online at www.capemaycountyherald.com. Let’s go fishing.