The Fishing Line: Fourth of July Fireworks and Flounder

Fourth of July fishing will surely be something to celebrate. Fireworks, optional.
Bucktail Willie fishing out of Whale Creek Marina found fluke but had to work through the shorts to find a keeper. Bigger fish appear to be moving towards the inlet. Best bite for stripers has been just before sunrise and just after sunset. Willie’s tagged 300 plus fish so far this year. The data is critical to assure we can get decent regulations from real data. Willie reminds us that if you catch a fish with a tag, send in with the appropriate information. Yellow tags are American Littoral Society and red tags are US Wildlfe.
With the water warming up in the ocean, Captain Ray is seeing more smaller weakfish and less of the larger Tide Runner size. This is expected this time of the year. Fluke are hitting pretty good and the action in the back bay has been mostly schoolie size stripers with some bluefish here and there. Ray says you’ll see the best action topwater using floating fly line and popping flies from 3.5 to 6 inches long, in 2 to 5 feet of water.
Sterling Harbor reports flounder, weakfish and schoolie stripers in the back bays. Flounder fishing is heating up at Reef Site 11 and the Old Grounds with some nice sized fish being caught. A few kingfish and croakers are showing up at Cape May Point along with some small weakfish and small flounders. Shark fishing remains good and yellowfin tuna up to 60 pounds were reported from the Poorman’s and Baltimore Canyons along with some mahi-mahi and the first white marlin of the year.
Grassy Sound Marina says water quality and temperature are excellent with peanut bunker and spearing showing up. Fantastic fluke fishing and a 7 pound weakie weighed in. The fishing pier has a pet population of stripers that are fearless following crab traps to the surface in broad daylight.
The Hooked Up II had the two best trolling trips for yellowfin tuna that Captain John has ever experienced in over 30 years. His first offshore trip of the 2014 season with a group from Covington, KY lead by Dan Hunter down to a southern canyon and caught an honest 40 yellowfin and kept 22 plus 6 nice size Mahi-Mahi and released a small Mako shark. Almost all tuna were in the 50-70 pound range.
The Atlantic Star made another tile trip with excellent results. Larry Baxter caught a limit of golden tile plus 8 blue lines. Mark Lentzewski also had a limit of golden that included a 25 pound pool fish. High Hook honors were claimed by Kwan Oh, whose catch totaled 27 golden and blue line tiles. Tile trips will resume in September.
NEWS: NJDEP Division of Fish and Wildlife 11th Annual Teen Angler Youth Day, July 19, Pequest Trout Hatchery and Natural Resource Education Center, 9 AM-1 PM, rain or shine. Open to anglers aged 12 – 20, free. Rainbow trout over 6 pounds can be caught (bring a cooler with ice if you want to take your catch home). Free drinks & hot dogs for lunch. A parent or guardian must accompany you. You must be wear sunglasses or use theirs. Barbless hooks only. Please bring worms for bait. Visit www.facebook.com/NationalTeenAnglers.TeenAnglers to register. To donate to this event, contact Robert Konya at Konyakonehead@optonline.net .
The Fishing Line runs year round so keep sending your reports and pictures to cmiller@cmcherald.com. Column and pictures (many which did not make it into the print edition) are posted online at www.capemaycountyherald.com and on Facebook. Check out epektales.com for info on Miller’s book, “Counting the Fish in the Sea: the Story of the NEAMAP Trawls.”