Happy Thanksgiving. And a Happy Feast it will be because the stripers are here.
Sterling Harbor reports striper catches in the Delaware Bay with excellent reports from the Tussey Slough and 20 foot Slough areas. Striper fishing in the Cape May Rips was spotty at best due to dirty water most likely from Sandy and the midweek Nor’easter.
Surf anglers had an excellent week with numerous red drum from the Cape May and Wildwood Crest beaches. The drum were hitting on cut mullet and also Storm Swim Shads. The North Wildwood surf held bluefish.
The Marina store has green crabs for the tog anglers. Reminder: Tautog limits increased on Nov. 16 to six fish (15 inches)per person.
Bucktail Willie got back in the water but didn’t have a lot of success finding bass although he did pick up one 30 incher on a live eel. He reports the water behind Corsons Inlet continues to be very dirty and doesn’t seem to want to clean up. The tides also have been very high. As tides slow down hopefully the water will clean up and some bass will show up along ICW.
Captain Ray has TideRunner back in the water and has seen a big drop in water temperatures down to 64 degrees in the ocean and 67 in the back bay before the storm. This week it was 50 in the ocean and 45 to 46 in the back and the water in both areas looked like ‘chocolate milk.’ This makes catching on the fly a lot more difficult as fly goes out of sight 6 to 12 inches under the water. He was still able to catch stripers but they were small with no big ones like they are catching up in the bay chunking. Ray used bright colored clousers. He did however catch another redfish on the fly in the ocean on a chartreuse/white clouser fly fished on sinking line close to the bottom. Ray is just waiting for more fish to migrate down and for water conditions to get better.
NEWS: NJ DEP Commissioner Bob Martin signed an order reopening shellfish beds in Atlantic coastal waters from Little Egg Inlet south to Cape May Point, effective at sunrise on Nov. 15. The DEP has also extended the Delaware Bay oyster harvest season until Nov. 30 or until the annual quota is reached, to help oystermen recover losses resulting from closures of beds in the bay. (www.state.nj.us/dep/newsrel/2012/12_0146.htm)
NJDEP Division of Fish and Wildlife reminds anglers that the Winter Trout Stocked Lakes Program got underway Nov. 19. The stocking consists of two-year old trout averaging 14 to 18 inches in length. The fish will be stocked in 23 lakes ranging in size from five to 100 acres and with shoreline access and/or boat launching sites. (www.njfishandwildlife.com/trtinfo_winter.htm)
The Christie Administration has requested a federal disaster declaration for New Jersey’s fishing industry, which sustained significant revenue losses and damages to its fleet and infrastructure as a result of Hurricane Sandy. Such a declaration triggers a federal economic transition program to provide immediate disaster relief for impacted aspects of the industry, including commercial fishing operations, charter fishing operators, processors and owners of related fishery infrastructure affected by the disaster. (www.nj.gov/dep/newsrel/2012/12_0145.htm)
Send your reports and pictures to cmiller@cmcherald.com. All pictures submitted are posted online at www.capemaycountyherald.com.
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