School’s Out. Fish are here. What are you waiting for?
Captain Ray, TideRunner, Cape May reports a pretty good week for fishing. Stripers, bluefish, weakfish, sea herring and fluke all took clouser and deceiver fly patterns in a variety of colors with chartreuse being the number one color and pink being the second best. Most of the action was in the inlet and along the beach front just outside the surf line in the early morning or near dusk, using sinking fly lines to get down closer to the bottom. The stripers, blues and herring seemed to like the longer fast strips and the weakfish and fluke preferred the slower short strips.
Ray went with a Bachelor Party aboard the charter Down Deep and had a fun day fishing offshore wrecks and got a good amount of sea bass, ling, and some cod mixed in. Everyone took home a nice bag of tasty filets.
Insomniac Charters left the dock with Don at first light to hit some creeks during the last of the outgoing tide. Fish appeared right away, following the top water plugs right to the boat then turning off at the last second until they found a bass with a creek all to its own. The bass smashed Don’s plug hard then somehow come unbuttoned. They saw some huge southern sting rays swim around the bow of the flats skiff , Florida Keys style.
Brynnie-B Inshore Fishing took Bob Heiman of Warrington, Pa., and his family out in their boat drifting around Ocean City Reef and then hit a wreck. The reef was slow, with only the skates biting. The wreck had more to offer. Sons Alex and David landed nice sea bass, both shy of keeper size. Little Andrew landed a nice legal weakie, as did mom, Maria. Bob had the catch of the day with his tiny Bergall.
Later in the week Captain Frank had Rich Selover, Eldora, out in the back bays fishing around structure and the sod banks. Rich was the hot hand early nailing 6 bluefish and 2 Atlantic herring on metal and a fly teaser. Later he nailed a short bass on a Berkley Jerk Shad.
Sterling Harbor says, “Cape May County fishing is on fire right now…with some of the best shark fishing we have seen in years.” Offshore, yellowfin tuna were red hot at Spencer Canyon with multiple hook-ups and boats with double digit catches.
Flounder fishing has turned on at Reef Site 11, the Old Grounds and the Cape May Reef and back-bay fluking improved now that we are past the full moon. A scattering of weakfish are also being caught in the back bays and near the Point. Remember the limit is one weakfish. Some nice sea bass were caught at the wrecks in the 20 Fathom range and mixed in with the flounder down at the Old Grounds.
Grassy Sound Fishing reports fewer fish with more keepers in the mix. Off the pier, Robert Haines, Palmyra, fishing the outgoing tide, caught a keeper on minnows and Khyri Lewis, Bridgeton, caught 4 flounder with 1 keeper during outgoing tide. He was using chartreuse Gulp and squid. Lisa Roberts, Glassboro, caught a 20 inch flounder on her first fishing trip. Their crew had 12 total with 5 keepers fishing Hereford Inlet at the top of the tide with white Gulp.
South Jersey Marina held their annual Shark Tournament June 8 & 9 and 114 boats competed for nearly $265,000 in prize money. The weather was perfect and the fishing was productive with Mako, Blues, Threshers, Dusky, Brown, Tiger, and one Great White Shark. Catch Summary: 32 landed, 214 released.
Send your reports and pictures to cmiller@cmcherald.com. There are terrific pictures coming in but not room for all of them. All pictures submitted are posted online at www.capemaycountyherald.com.
