Looking for something to do on these hot muggy days? No place is cooler than being on the water. You can’t beat fishing for the perfect hot weather activity and it’s all good news this week on the fishing scene.
Tog season opens today, one fish at 15 inches, until Nov. 15 and the flounder season has been extended until Sept. 24 adding eight days to the schedule. Go get them.
Captain Ray, Tide Runner, Cape May, saw decent amounts of small bait fish in the back and some striper action where there was bait. Fish were scattered and they had to search and work hard for the stripers they did catch. For fly anglers surface popping flies fished on floating line caught best with deceiver patterns fished on intermediate line doing second best. For the spin anglers smack-it-jr popping plugs did the trick. The fish were a little bigger than normal but still no keepers. They had one keeper size fish that threw the plug before they could net it and another really nice fish completely swallow the plug; its fine teeth scraping the line and it broke.
Over at Grassy Sound Marina flounder, croakers, kingfish and loads of spot are being caught. The kids couldn’t reel in the spot fast enough and were catching two at a time. Michael and Mary Bohrer, N. Wildwood caught four keeper flounder to 3.4 pounds in Turtle Creek on minnows, top of the tide while nine-year-old Jack Duffy, Haddonfield, caught a 20.5 inch flounder behind N. Wildwood, outgoing tide. Vincent Marino, Pennsauken, had 2 keeper flounder, a croaker, and a kingfish on shrimp from his kayak at the mouth of Turtle Creek, incoming tide.
Fishing from the Grassy Sound Pier, Eric DeLellis, Aston, Pa., caught his largest, a 22 inch flounder on minnows and mackerel and an 18.5 incher on the outgoing tide. Then the next day he had a 19.5 flounder and 2 kingfish. Gia Rodriguez, 11, Lyndhurst, caught 4 croakers on Fishbites and an18 inch flounder on minnows, outgoing tide. She also took home a nice bunch of crabs.
Reports from Sterling Harbor Marina, Shawcrest, give a thumbs up for flounder fishing in the back bays, at the Reefs, and around the Inlets. Larry McConnell and crew of redator out of Cape May had 10 keepers at Reef Site 11. Frank Gregorio, Medford, reported 14 keepers at the same spot. In the surf, kingfish are the leaders right now, with plenty being caught on rigs with small hooks and Fishbites bloodworm baits. Croakers and a few weakfish are showing up along the beachfront.
Bill (bucktail willie) Shillingford fishing out of Whale creek Marina had an excellent week with striped bass. Early morning bite with live spots and eels produced bass between 24-32 inches including 7 over legal 28 inch limit. All but one released and tagged with American Littoral Society tag to be caught again.
Libation Charters out of South Jersey Marina went on their first overnight trip of the year with the Moran party. Adam Hedbavny caught the heaviest bluefin tuna weighed at the marina to date, 112 pounds. They fished mostly at the Hot Dog where they released two other bluefin and one hammerhead shark. The next day, Libation took the Dunn party for a 14 hour offshore trolling trip and 14-year-old Charlie Wilson landed his first bluefin tuna, 85 pounds.
Captain Frank Schafer, Insomniac Charters has been on the water getting an update of what’s happening in the back water. On the lights at night with flys and plugs, every area was loaded with fish of all sizes. Captain says it was a blast watching three or four fish chase the surface flys under the light and seeing larger ones charge and slam it on the surface.
NEWS: NJDEP Division of Fish and Wildlife is informing the public that recently signed legislation (A4036/S2726) has established new licensing and monitoring requirements for NJ’s commercial Atlantic menhaden fishery in 2013. The significant changes in how menhaden will be managed this year result from the implementation of the ASMFC’s Amendment 2. Details at www.njfishandwildlife.com/news/2013/menhaden_regchange.htm
Send your reports and pictures to cmiller@cmcherald.com. Column and pictures are posted online at www.capemaycountyherald.com. Check back next week for results of the flounder tournaments. Results too late for deadline. Let’s go fishing.
Cape May – Last week I witnessed a woman helping a man who seemed to be having difficulty getting up in the water. the next thing I saw was she also was injured. My Uber ride was there to take me to the…
