The Fishing Line: Ready, set, go fish

It’s very clear from the reports and pictures sent in that the fishing season has begun…and it’s all positive.
The Charter Fleet at South Jersey Marina “beat the drum” with Captain John Sowerby on the Hooked Up II. One night he returned to the dock with nine keepers in the 45-60 pound class and reported several releases.
Captain Bill Bittmann of the Top Shelf went to the bay and had six keepers. They fished on the incoming afternoon tide for only six hours and Captain Joe Lechner on the Slammer caught a total of 15 keeper drums.
Captain Joe Pritchard, Big Game, Schmeldey Charters, had a group out and fished the Pin Top area, catching drum fish in the double digits.
There are bound to be many more fish like these out there. Call South Jersey Marina 884-3800.
Sterling Harbor saw some great drum coming back to the dock, too. The heaviest was caught by Maryann Severance of Haddon Heights, at 79-pounds.
First ever black drum catches were weighed in for Ralph Durrant, age 72 of Wildwood, 60-pounds; Edward Kotyk, of Wildwood, 48-pounds and Frankie Brown, age 15, of Madison, 49 pounds.
SH also reported good sea bass fishing at Cape May Reef and the inshore wrecks and the surf fishing remains excellent with stripers up to 46-inches along the North Wildwood and Cape May beaches. Small stripers are being caught around bridges and docks while casting with chug bugs or on clam bait.
Flounder season opened May 23 with plenty of them caught in the back bays. Fish ranged in size from 2 to over 6-pounds. Suzanne Smith of Philadelphia had a 22-inch flounder caught while fishing on her Hobie Mirage Outback Kayak.
Grassy Sound Marina also reports an excellent opening weekend for flounder. In fact a wide variety of fish were caught: stripers, bluefish, snappers, puppy drum and some very nice flounder, all in the Grassy Sound area.
Joe Sandefur, Philadelphia caught three stripers to 30-inches using clams during outgoing tide and Thamson Florisma, Court House, managed to bring in a 20-inch flounder and 29-inch striper both using mackerel during the incoming tide.
William Carlberg, Bensalem, Pa. had a 28-inch, 6-pound bluefish using squid; Sonny and Billy Carlberg, Yeadon, Pa. caught 14 snapper blues; and Mary Bohrer, North Wildwood caught a 5-pound flounder using minnows–all on the outgoing tide.
Ken Kang, Cape May and John Bondiskey, Oceanview, caught six keeper flounder on opening day in the Turtle Creek area.
Marc Fineberg, Jenkintown, Pa. caught his first flounder of the season near Stone Harbor toll bridge using minnows and squid and Jim Adair, Marcus Hook, Pa. was busy catching nine blues and three keeper flounder using mackerel and minnows near the Stone Harbor free bridge.
Steve Crane, Eagleville, Pa. caught six stripers to 28-inches and some puppy drum using clam. Morgan Novitski, Conshohocken, Pa., 9 years old, caught her first keeper flounder from the Grassy Sound Fishing Pier during incoming tide using mackerel.
Don’t have a boat? Rent one at Grassy Sound Marina right under the North Wildwood bridge.
Eighteen boats participated in Cape May Marlin and Tuna Club Memorial Day tournament targeting drum, striper, bluefish and flounder.
Covert Mission made a strong showing of drum fish at 72 and 70-pounds placing them second and third, but first place went to Ditch Digger with angler David Wiscott’s 81.4-pound drum. Dreamer captured first place for stripers with a very nice 37-pound fish.
Serenity pulled in a flounder at 3.5-pounds to win that category and Raging Bull moving 30 miles eastward brought home the bluefish win at 12-pounds.
The next tournament is June 20 when member boats with heavy gear and big baits compete in the shark and tuna tournament.
Captain Ray, Tide Runner, reported a good week of fishing for both fly and plug anglers with most of the action around the inlet rocks and the beach front.
Yo-zuri crystal minnows and storm shad baits worked great for the spin anglers and clousers and Spearing imitation flies fished on sinking line caught for the fly anglers.
They landed some sea herring and some nice 2-pound blues.
Instead of their monthly meeting, South Jersey Coastal Fly Anglers decided to meet and fish Corson’s Inlet Park. About 25 fly anglers showed up on a breezy night and caught 30 fish in three hours including stripers, bluefish, fluke and sea herring. (Much better than a meeting, I think.)
Atlantic Star sent in an impressive deep water tile report again. Mark Kaminski, Plainview, NY, five tiles; Kil Song, Englewood Cliffs, four golden tile and a 20-pound wreck fish; Greg DeFelice, Egg Harbor Township, two golden tile, one blueline tile, and a wreck fish at 15- pounds.
Jung Pak, Lambertville, with two golden tile up to 40-pounds, tied for the pool with Ryan Hickey, NY.
On the next trip, Atlantic Star came in with Rejnaldo Dedios, Queens, NY, and his three golden tile; Antonio Pierdipino, Mespin, NY, three golden tile and one white hake; Dennis Mulenforth, Hockessin, Del., five golden tile; Rich Bernahrd, Queens, NY, one wreck fish, six black belly rose fish; Had Birchmire, Cherry Hill, four golden tile and 10 black belly rose fish and Mike Jung, Queens, NY, three golden tile including the 50-pound pool winner.
Their six-hour season got off to a good start producing the first flounder of the season caught by Tony Wilde, Edison, at 4.75-pounds.
Other big fish this week were taken by Bob Steinmetz, Havertown, Pa. who had a 3-pound 11-ounce sea bass; Joe “Hitman” Gallagher, Drexel Hill, Pa., had one at 2-pounds 9-ounces; and daughter Gina Cramer, had a 2-pounder.
Surprise of the week: Jim Walsh, Wildwood Crest, boated an 8-pound cod. High Hook honors to Tom McNamee, Erma, who ended his day with 18 keeper sea bass.
Check out SeeMyBigFish.com for all the photos submitted this week, too many to put in print. Be sure to send your fish stories to cmiller@cmcherald.com. This column appears first online at capemaycountyherald.com