The Fishing Line: It’s All in the Bag

There seems to be a sense of urgency as folks realize the summer is quickly leaving us but fishers know that these last days of the month can be the most exciting ones.
Sterling Harbor is tracking flounder from the Cape May Reef, Wildwood Reef, Reef Site 11 and the Old Grounds. There are many undersize fluke to pick through to get the keepers but the action is steady. Keep your eyes open as mahi and a few cobia are swimming around the reefs, too. A few keeper flounder are still being caught in the back bays, closer to the inlets. Along the beachfront kingfish and croakers are being caught on bloodworms and Fishbites. The Cape May Rips is red hot for snapper blues. Offshore tuna were caught at the Wilmington Canyon and white marlin were also reported. Mahi-mahi are being caught anywhere from the inshore reefs out to the canyons.
Grassy Sound Marina has flounder in the back. Kings on mackerel and clams, croakers and snapper blues, two at a time. Watch your minnow buckets, the otters are out in full force. Adam Meyer and crew, Lansdale, Pa. caught 56 croakers, 1 keeper flounder and some sea bass on mackerel and clam in their 2 days of fishing Turtle Creek. Adam reported the most luck during top of the incoming both days.
For Captain Ray, this is a tough time of the year to catch stripers on flies and lures. With the water temperatures into the 70s, the stripers spend their daytime hours in the deeper holes and channels where the water is cooler and has better oxygen levels. Ray advises you fish before the sun rises, as it is going down, or during the night. During these low light conditions the fish come out of the deep and search the shallow back bay flats. Ray is still catching small schoolies size stripers, but they are more spread out and you have to search an area where they are feeding in order to put a good catch together.
Gobs of seaweed and a lack of fish did not deter 133 youngsters who competed in the 38th annual Boys and Girls Surf Fishing Tournament on Aug. 9. The free event was co-sponsored by OC Fishing Club and the City’s Department of Recreation. During the two-hour tournament, boys and girls ages 8 to 16 reeled in a grand total of 21 fish, 19 flounder and 2 sharks. Most fish caught by a girl, Lauren Hazewski, 14, Avondale, Pa., three fish; Largest fish by a girl, Madison Schwartz, 10, EHT, 17-inch flounder; Most fish by a boy, Reese Dawson, 13, Maple Shade, two flounder caught during his first-ever surf fishing experience; and Largest fish by a boy, Ayden Cherry, 12, of Brooklyn, NY, 18-inch flounder, the minimum legal limit. Twin brothers Jonathan and Alexander Logie, 13, Cupertino, Calif., said they return every year to fish the tournament with their cousin, James Willis Logie, 13, of Taneytown, Md. The club will co-sponsor a Surf Fishing Tournament for teams and individuals, Saturday, Oct. 18, along the Ocean City beaches.
The Royal Flush is fishing out in the ocean catching flounder, weakfish, king fish, snapper blues. croakers, and a few triggers.
Aboard the 4-hour Starlight daytime trips have been seeing more flounder, with blues and kingfish. The croaker catches at night have been great.
DO-AC Beach N Boat Fishing Challenge, three-day event, $1,063,000, Aug. 22–24, deadline noon Aug. 19. Details at www.beachnboat.com
The Fishing Line runs year round so keep sending your reports and pictures to cmiller@cmcherald.com. Column and pictures (many which do not make it into the print edition) are posted online at www.capemaycountyherald.com and on Facebook. Check out www.epektales.com for info on Miller’s book, “Counting the Fish in the Sea: the Story of the NEAMAP Trawls.”