The ocean water has been unusually cold for bathers in recent weeks, but Captain Brook Koeneke, of the Duke O’ Fluke pontoon in Somers Point, sees a silver lining for back-bay anglers. “On the incoming tide, temperatures have been as low as 56 degrees,” Koeneke reported. “It’s very unusual for this time of year. But we’ve had a lot of action, with one to two keepers per trip.”
Koeneke believes the chill is keeping summer flounder in the shallows, where temperatures are more agreeable to flatties. The area off Kennedy Park in Somers Point has been one of the better areas.
Word from Sterling Harbor is that flounder have shown up at the Old Grounds and Reef Site 11 and action in the Delaware Bay had nice catches at the Punk Grounds area over near the shipping lanes.
The Bluefin Tuna bite has turned on at 19 Fathom Lump and Massey’s Canyon, especially while chunking. Some fish were caught while trolling, but the chunking bite was red hot. Gaffer dolphin are mixed in with the tuna.
At Five Fathom Bank between FFB and 4 FB are all the bluefish you want while trolling Clark Spoons.
Mike Lobianco and Billy McFetridge reported nine yellowfin tuna, eight dolphin and eight tilefish from the Wilmington Canyon on their Carlyssa out of Wildwood.
Crabby Jack gives the crabbing three claws this week.
Bucktail Willie Shillingford fishing out of Whale Creek Marina, had a pretty good week on stripers with two fish better than 30 inches, several in 26-28 inch range along with several smaller. Most were caught on surface poppers on last of outgoing and first of incoming tides. Fluke were numerous but legal fish were scarce. The bigger fluke are definitely moving towards the ocean. Bluefish are still roaming around in the 16-20 inch range.
South Jersey Marina captains are reporting very good trips. Captain Bill Bittmann took a family from Cincinnati, Ohio for a bluefish trip on his boat Top Shelf and 7-year-old twins, Nate and Nick, managed to catch 42 of the total bag caught near the Cape May Reef.
Captain Joe Lechner, the Slammer, headed off to Massey’s Canyon where he caught two bluefin tuna, one dolphin and several bluefish of the larger variety. The Jen & Tonic and Top Shelf had two bluefin tuna each on a trip to Massey’s Canyon.
Captain Joe Pritchard aboard Schmedley Charters, Big Game reports that the bluefin tuna have been snapping quite well and as the water warms, the Mahi-Mahi are joining in.
Any charter boat that looked for bluefish came back with a full load of those small, very edible species.
Stronger than normal new moon tides helped make fishing good, according to Captain Ray on the Tide Runner, Cape May. Warmer outgoing tides were best in the back-bay where the sun had warmed up the shallow areas.
The hottest action was pre-sunset with some of the best action after dark. Lure and Fly anglers were catching schoolie size stripers up to 24-1/2 inches and nice bluefish. The best evening brought a father and his two sons 15 stripers and five bluefish, using popping plugs.
Fly anglers were also catching using floating line and popping flies in a blue/silver pattern. After dark the all black popping flies and black gurglers were deadly.
Fishing continues to be productive with flounder and stripers in the Grassy Sound area and crabbing is picking up there, too.
Dan Nichter, North Wildwood, using minnows at the top of the outgoing tide caught a 24-inch flounder and John Toska, Rockledge, Pa. caught two keepers using minnows and squid at high and turn of the tide. Both were fishing off the Grassy Sound Fishing Pier.
The next day Toska came back and had a 20 ½ incher and 22 inch fish about slack tide. Dimitri Baralos, Wildwood, caught a 30-inch striper using clam during incoming tide off the same pier.
RaeAnn Dolan, Philadelphia, caught three keeper flounder, the biggest 23 inches, using minnows and squid near the marina. Steve Crane and crew from Court House caught nine stripers to 27 inches using clam in Jenkins Sound during outgoing tide.
Mark Jones, West Wildwood, using herring near the marina during slack tide caught a 24-inch flounder and Ken Kang, Cape May, caught a 27-inch flounder using minnows in Turtle Creek.
The Gone Fishin’ out of Utsch’s Marina took a captains’ trip out for tuna and had a great day bringing in one nice bluefin and enough sea bass to keep everyone happy.
Recent entries in the Cape May County Fishing Tournament: Bruce Fish, Rio Grande, summer flounder, 5 pounds, July 5, and Andy Beccari, North Wildwood, flounder, 4.58-pounds, July 1, at 9 & 10 Buoy on the Handy Andy.
The NJ Fish and Game Council has temporarily closed Lake Audrey, located south of Millville, to all fishing to allow time for the lake’s fishery to fully develop. Visit njfishandwildlife.com/news/2008/lakeaudreyclosed.htm for details.
Check out www.SeeMyBigFish.com and be sure to send your fish stories and pictures to Be My Guest reporter. Send info to cmiller@cmcherald.com.
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