Sunday, July 13, 2025

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It was quite a week at South Jersey Marina. Captain John Sowerby and his charter boat Hooked Up II went offshore to the Lobster Claw for blue fin tuna on five separate trips. He found success on every trip with the heaviest blue fin weighing 159-pounds. On Aug. 4 they brought in two bluefin and three dolphin (see photo) and on Aug. 6, six yellow fin.
On Aug. 8, George Pollis of Jupiter, Fla., weighed a 77-pound Wahoo caught on his 30′ Gillikin, with Captain Walt Palmer. This fish was caught at the Elephant Trunk.
The inshore fishing has been hot also. Captain Clint on Common Sense limited out on bluefish and brought in a bonito as well. Slammer, with Captain Joe Lehner had 75 bluefish and 10 keeper flounder on one of his trips.
Captain Ray enjoyed the beautiful weather and was able to get every charter in and even fished one night in the rain catching 11 stripers that night. It was a good week of fishing and it was all stripers.
The best fishing has been at night with the smack-it-jr popping plugs for spin anglers and popping flies working for the fly anglers. Best fishing was in the back bay areas. Shallow water with low light or in the dark is where the bass have been. He’s been catching most fish in 2 to 4 feet of water at high tide and when hooking up with either popping plugs or flies the action has been explosive with the fish making nice runs.
The hot fly for has been a large chartreuse popping fly. The fish just love the big splashing on the surface, says Ray.
The Irish Fly with Captain Ken Kelly, continues to have a steady pick on stripers in the back country off the ICW. Both light tackle and fly anglers are taking fish in the 20-24-inch class on surface plugs and poppers.
Grassy Sound Marina reports sea bass, snapper blues, croakers, flounder, and short stripers are being caught off the fishing pier with a lot of action during incoming tide.
Joey Charlesworth, 13, Court House, caught a 19-inch flounder in Turtle Creek using minnows during outgoing tide and Michelle Charters, Grassy Sound caught two keeper flounder near the N. Wildwood bridge using minnows during outgoing tide. They also caught a number of sea bass.
Fishing off the pier, Al Merk, Philadelphia, caught two keeper flounder using minnows and Jesus Castro, Erma, caught a 19.5-inch flounder during outgoing tide.
Joe Novitski, Conshohocken, Pa. fishing on a rental boat caught three keeper flounder in Turtle Creek using minnows during incoming tide.
Crabbing has been excellent off the pier and in the rental boats.
The news from Sterling Harbor is also good. Flounder fishing is excellent at the Cape May Reef, the Wildwood Reef, the Old Grounds and Reef Site 11. The key is to find a patch of flounder holding the keepers. Snapper Bluefish are everywhere off Cape May Point and the Rips.
Captain Scott Pierce reported a 160-pound bluefin tuna, a 17-pound dolphin and a small yellowfin tuna on the Duct Work out of Cape May. There is a good Mahi-Mahi bite around the Elephant Trunk with an occasional small yellowfin while trolling small lures or feathers.
The Wilmington Canyon and the Poorman’s Canyon have been producing Mahi-Mahi, white marlin, blue marlin and some yellowfin tuna.
The back bay bonanza has begun with small sea bass, spot and croakers. There are still small flounder in the back bays with an occasional keeper. Top water plugging for schoolie striped bass is in gear now along the back bay sod banks and near bridges and dock lights
Bill (bucktail willie) Shillingford fishing out of Whale Creek Marina found a few short stripers this week when a cool block of water was found. Lots of small fluke still around with a few legal fish mixed in. Small sea bass have also showed up in good numbers
Willie received notification of his 900th returned tagged fish this week. He also had an 8-inch sea bass that was tagged in Whale Creek in 2006 re-caught 30 miles off Martha’s Vineyard in July. That’s quite a little traveler.
Willie wants to thank those who take the time to turn in tags. An increase this year in fluke tags recovered that have been out 2-4 years indicates a continued growing population.
Remember all photos submitted appear online at SeeMyBigFish.com. Be sure to send your fish stories to cmiller@cmcherald.com. This column appears first online at capemaycountyherald.com