The Fishing Line May 4

This weekend started with a gloomy, rainy Saturday, but that didn’t deter those that wanted to go do some fishing. Reports of weakfish, flounder, drum, stripers and blackfish poured in pretty steadily. Sunday was much better, and the good fishing continued. Stripers are still slow here, with most of the action remaining up in the bay. The bigger blues are around, but not in a steady pattern. The one fish that is really producing now is the tog, or blackfish. They are being caught from Cape May to Sea Isle. I know first-hand about the blackfish success in our area, and I’ll use these fish to get our report started.
We’ll check the results down at Utsch’s Marina in Cape May. Captain Tom Daffin of the Fishin’ Fever starts us off. He has been on the blackfish recently and the results show it. On Saturday April 23, his charter had three fish over 10 pounds. Two went 10.5 pounds, and the third went 14.5 pounds. For the trips previous to Saturday, they limited out on all of them. Results like that are good to hear about.
Full Ahead Sport Fishing also had a good Saturday trip. They had a charter of fishermen who were new to the blackfish scene. They brought about 70 fish over the rail, had the fair share of keepers, and topped things off with a 12 pounder. Not bad results for a group new to this fishery, and with results and action like that, I’m sure they’ll be hooked. Yes, pun intended.
A third boat out of Utsch’s Marina brought in the first drum fish of the season. The Gone Fishin’ with Captain Mark Elliott, Jr. returned with a 70.1 pounder after a recent outing. This strengthens the old saying about gnats and the budding of dogwood trees. The tree in the front yard started to bloom last week, and on Saturday I noticed the first gnats of the year. Later that day I heard of this catch, and so the legend lives on for another year. 
Still in the Cape May area we find the Sea Star III, led by Captain Chuck. They have had a very productive series or trip recently. He found fishing the wrecks to be “challenging,” but they were rewarded with blackfish on every trip. Keepers, many shorts, and even the occasional “monster” came over the rail. Congratulations to Gary Agness who caught the boats largest blackfish so far this spring, a solid 11 pounder. Chuck will use the final week of April to pursue more blackfish, then on May 1 will switch to the bay to fish for drum and striper.   
Continuing our look at blackfish, we next check in on the Miss Avalon with Captains Irv and Brandon. They ran trips recently over the weekend. The results were excellent, as I can directly attest to. The Saturday trip resulted in Renee Troxel being the big winner of the day. She beat out her husband and father-in-law for the family prize and bragging rights. The Sunday trip included the local 4H fishing club, Tight Lines, of which I am an assistant leader. We had a limited turnout of club members and family, but with the other patrons on the boat we were able to land a good number of keepers. Two of those were mine, with one going 5 pounds, 10 ounces. It was the pool winner that day, and leads the April “Togzilla” contest. That is for the largest blackfish of the month. A good time was had by all, and we would like to give a big thank you to both Irv and Brandon for a very good time, and a productive trip.
Another blackfish catch was reported by Ryan Morse. He caught a 15 inch tog recently while fishing in North Wildwood. Ryan mentioned that he likes to fish the jetties in the area, so hopefully he’ll be making some more catches, and let us know how he’s doing.
Captain Skip on the Stalker II had another successful trip last weekend as a charter of six each showed up in the picture with six nice stripers. He reports that fishing has been pretty good with stripers “topping” out at about 30 pounds.
Welcome back to Captain Zig and First Fish Adventures of Sea Isle. They were contributors to the column last year, and we’re happy to have them back. They had a nice trip recently catching 11 blues. Over the past weekend, angler Tom Brazil caught an “extra-large weakie,” some throwback flaties, and some “tackle buster blues.” Thanks for the word on a good start to your season.
Captain Ray from Tide Runner Charters is next. He reports that it was a good week for very small stripers, as well as blues. The short stripers are “along the surf line in five feet of water or less.” Blues are patrolling along the line looking for the little stripers. Captain Ray, a fly fisherman, had to resort to wire leader to cut down on the bite-offs. In the belly of one of the blues that they kept was a nine-inch striper. Two unusual catches were a sundial flounder and a 24-inch needle fish. As the water temperature increases, Ray is hoping more weakfish show up, as well as some bait fish so the bluefish stop eating the stripers.
I saw a picture recently posted by a tackle shop of a 55.6 pound striper that was caught in the Delaware Bay on bunker. It didn’t say where in the bay, but needless to say it’s nice to see some bigger stripers in the bay. Hopefully the bite frequency and larger fish like this will become a regular occurrence.
Good luck if you get out, and keep me informed of your success.
Submit your fishing news and photos to mrobbins@cmcherald.com.