The Fishing Line: Hot August Nights

Don’t start thinking Back-to School just yet. There’s still plenty of time to enjoy a day fishing.
Captain Frank Breakell, Brynnie-B Inshore Fishing, had JW and John Pierron of Bound Brook, out for a back bay trip. They hit Herefords Inlet and a few other back bay areas drifting for flounder and other species. The flounder bite was a bit slow, but small sea bass and a fat striper were willing takers. A couple of days later, Captain took to the beach in Sea Isle with Johnnie Ball and John Thompson and set up during the incoming tide. Tossing out blood worms on Brown Dog Bomb Kingfish rigs, the action was instantaneous and non-stop for about 2 hours; spot after spot, and good sized ones. Later in the tide they started to land good sized blues and some big kingfish. At flood tide the action stopped, but soon picked up again during the ebb. Their final tally on the day was 56 spot, 5 blues, 4 kingfish, a croaker, a short flounder, a doggie, and 3 skates. Quite a day, I’d say.
At Pier 88 in Sea Isle City, the big story has been crabs, crabs and more crabs, big and plentiful. Kristy says the back bay flounder action remains good with many boats bringing back multiple keepers ranging from 18 to 21 inches. Dolphin is starting to make a nice showing with several hitting the filet table. Fishbites are still the ticket for kingfish, croakers and spot along the beachfront and jetties. There’s a lot of bait fish around the lights at night, try there for a nice weakfish or striped bass.
Seems to be pretty much the same over at Grassy Sound Marina. With the outgoing tide, the crabbing is hot. Flounder, weakies, kingfish and croakers can be caught in the back, and triggers reported at the Cape May jetty.
Sterling Harbor reports fabulous fishing in Cape May County including flounder in the back bays, around the inlets, Wildwood Reef, Reef Site 11 and the Old Grounds. Scott Wheeler and crew of Big Bone out of Wildwood came home with 15 keeper flounder from the Old Grounds. The back bays are also showing schoolie stripers around the sod banks, bridges and docks. Along the beachfront, anglers are catching plenty of kingfish and doing well night fishing for sharks.
Offshore the first white marlin of the season have been reported with several caught in the Poorman’s Canyon. Tuna fishing was excellent, chunking and jigging on the 20 to 30 Fathom lumps.
Captain Ray, Tide Runner, Cape May, is seeing the effects of the warm weather and water temperatures, with the best fishing early mornings and late afternoons till dark. He is still catching weakfish, fluke and stripers for spin and fly anglers but he does have to work harder. Most of the fish they are catching are on the smaller size, pretty typical for this time of the year.
NEWS: American Littoral Society is recruiting volunteers for upcoming Project PORTS oyster restoration activities. It’s now time to transplant the bags of spatted shell to a restoration site in the upper bay. Green Creek, Aug. 16, 8:30 a.m. – noon. Give as much time as you can. Snacks and water provided; Must be able to swim. The work requires closed-toed shoes and walking up to 3.5 feet of water, lifting bags that weigh approximately 15 pounds. Children must be at least 10 years old and accompanied by an adult. Contact: Shane Godshall at 856-825-2174 or shane@littoralsociety.org, or Lisa Calvo at 440-4560 or calvo@hsrl.rutgers.edu.
NYSF & RFA are looking for striped bass opinions for the New Striper Stock Assessment Data set to come this fall. If you fish in New York marine waters, go to www.nysf.org/contact and put Striped Bass in the subject field, then add your message.
CALENDAR: Wilmington, Del., Aug. 13-15, Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, Double Tree by Hilton Wilmington, 4727 Concord Pike, 302-478-6000 For online access, enter as a guest at: http://mafmc.adobeconnect.com/august2013/
Send your reports and pictures to cmiller@cmcherald.com. Column and pictures are posted online at www.capemaycountyherald.com. Let’s go fishing.