The Fishing Line: Labor Not Day, Go Fishing

Fishers don’t get the Back-to-School Blues because we know that fall fishing is just around the corner. And there’s always plenty of action then. So stay with us. The fishing season has a long way to go.
Sterling harbor reports that flounder action has improved with some anglers catching their limits at the Cape May Reef, the Old Grounds and Reef Site 11. Frank Gregorio of Medford, and crew limited out on flounder to seven pounds at the Cape May Reef; Bill Laxton of Audubon, weighed in a 4-pound, 1-ounce sea bass caught at Reef Site 11 and reported a nice catch of flounder as well.
Flounder are being caught in the Delaware Bay from Bayshore Channel to the Point with lots of throwbacks and some croakers in the mix. In the back bays there are still plenty of short flounder and schoolie stripers are being caught on topwater plugs, mainly in the mornings or evenings.
Crabby Jack gives the crabbing 5 Claws this week and says the Crabs are large and plentiful, so get in on the action.
Inshore trolling around 4 FB and inside of the East Lump is producing mahi-mahi with an occasional wahoo while trolling small feathers, cedar plugs and the like. Some nice yellowfin tuna are being caught from the 30 Fathom Line out to the Canyons. In the Canyons there remains a good white marlin bite.
Grassy Sound continues to report nice flounder caught off the fishing pier mostly on minnows. They are catching kingfish, sea bass, croakers, and stripers. Several tog and sheepshead have been reported along the sod banks.
This week the 12th Annual Big Jim Adair Fishing Tournament was held on the Grassy Sound Pier. There were approx 50 family members and friends fishing in honor of Big Jim Adair, Philadelphia. They caught fish all day, incoming and outgoing tide; flounder, kings, and sea bass.
Nine-year-old Dylan Sangmeister, Glenolden, Pa. caught a 13-inch croaker on clam during incoming tide off the pier and Steve Crane, Pierces Point, caught some short stripers in Jenkins Sound with clam during incoming tide on a rental boat.
The Royal Flush, Wildwood, reports that the croakers are officially here. Croakers, as well as flounder, sea bass, snapper blues, and kingfish are being caught on all trips.
On another note, I am hearing that some water around Jarvis Sound and the Cape May area is not as clean as it was. Keep your eye on this and let me know what you are seeing.
NJDEP’s Division of Fish & Wildlife’s Bureau of Marine Fisheries biologists conduct several surveys each year to study the status of species populations in the Delaware Estuary. One of these surveys is the Delaware Bay Finfish Trawl Survey. The data collected in these surveys allow biologists to develop abundance estimates and length frequencies of estuarine dependent finfish which helps in predicting future fishery trends and harvest potential.
Over the years a total of 76 different species have been identified, with the five most abundant being bay anchovy, Atlantic croaker, weakfish, blue crab and Atlantic herring. For more information on the survey, http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/artdelbaystudy10.htm on the division’s website.