The Fishing Line: It’s a Reel Good Season

Can’t you hear it? The fish are calling your name. Why aren’t you taking advantage of the great fishing in Cape May County?
Flounder, kingfish, and crabs galore in Grassy Sound right now. Sea bass are also showing up. Jenkins Sound and Hereford Inlet are also producing some nice flounder mostly on minnows. Sabina Maxwell, Englewood, Fla. caught a 19-inch flounder, incoming tide near the Stone Harbor toll bridge on minnows and Jennifer Wills, Greenville, SC caught 19-inch and 23-inch flounder on minnows fishing the outgoing tide near the Stone Harbor toll bridge.
The Joe Quirk Family, Philadelphia, (six kids ages 7 and younger) had a fantastic crabbing the outgoing tide in Turtle Creek and 31 pounds of crabs for the Brown Family from Philly, Buckingham, Pa. and Maine. They were crabbing near the West Wildwood train trestle and had a fantastic catch.
Kathleen Devine, Cape May Court House, caught a 19 ½” flounder and 2 sea bass at the top of the tide across from the marina on minnows.
Sterling Harbor Marina reports plenty of flounder, but only a few keepers being caught at the usual spots like Old Grounds, Cape May Reef, and Reef Site 11. Flounder are starting to bite off Cape May Point. Surf action is on the slow although some kingfish are being caught along with some flounder.
Offshore Mahi are scattered all over and the tuna bite remains fairly consistent at the Hot Dog while chunking or butterfly jigging. The white marlin bite is good in the Baltimore Poorman’s and Wilmington Canyons.
South Jersey Marina’s, Capt. Mark Adams, Noreaster II, continues to catch yellow fin tuna and Mahi-Mahi in the warm inshore waters. He has his favorite locations and he keeps returning to them for more success.
Cape Queen and Capt. Mike Brocco have really been doing well with black sea bass and blue fish. Two of the sea bass weights set a new season high record for the marina. Not t be outdone, Capt. Clint Clement on the Common Sense and Capt. Bob Shumann on Fetchin also had had their charters worn out from cranking in those inshore species.
Stray Cat Charters says the fishing is great. They fished the wrecks for sea bass with 22 keepers and two fluke, then trolled for Mahi and boated 17.
It was another good week of fishing for stripers and bluefish even with the warm weather, says Captain Ray. Blues were easy to find with a fair amount of bait fish in the ocean. He had to work for the stripers with dawn and dusk being the prime times but if you stick with it you can find some. Swimming plugs and flies produced well. Ray did get some stripers in the back bay but the action is very slow .
It was another great week aboard First Fish Adventures. Nine-year-old P.J. Papahanges, West Deptford, caught 2 flounder, a bluefish and 2 crabs. The Mullaney Family of Springfield, Pa., caught a couple trigger fish and some keeper flounder up to 4.5-pounds and Nick Smith of Haddon Heights, caught a 20-inch flounder. Nicholas Pizagno, 6, Court House, caught several flounder on his first ever fishing trip with his Dad, Ed.
RFA NEWS: The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) voted to begin public comment period on menhaden protection along the Atlantic Coast. Draft Addendum 5 will soon be discussed publicly in hearing rooms up and down the East Coast from Maine to Florida and will present five different management measure options, ranging from status quo to overall harvest reductions by as much as 45% from 2010 levels. Check their Website for more details.
Send your fishing reports and pictures to cmiller@cmcherald.com. All pictures submitted, if they don’t make it in the print version, can be seen on the Herald’s Web site www.cmcherald.com, click on community, then fishing and boating.