The Fishing Line

Recent beautiful weather has everyone thinking about fishing. No serious fisher is stowing the gear just yet. Unofficial reports tell me the stripers are on the move. Book your trip now.
Ron Flemming, Cape May Bait & Tackle, got out on one of the jetties at Cape May Point and had the misfortune of catching a 28+ inch, fat as could be, fluke, on cut frozen spot. Ron cried as he released it.
Then the snapper blues came in, and he says he lost count after catching 40 to about 18-inches. The next day at the same spot, he was throwing a Tsunami Revereb, and caught another 50+ snappers, two small stripers to 18 inches, and another fluke, also as fat as could be, at 22 inches. Back it went.
Rich, owner of the shop, was out at the point jetties and got a 4-pound bluefish and a few nice kingfish, using bloodworms.
Rumor has it that a bass was caught on eel, at the Toll Bridge at 42-inches, and two more to 30-inches caught on storm swim shads.
A short run on weakfish at Higbee Beach produced fish to 27-inches, caught on shedder crab. Kingfish are still caught around there using bloods for bait.
Along the Point beaches, small weakies to 18-inches and bass to 24-inches are becoming more numerous, caught on cut bait and lures, if you can get away from the snapper blues.
Captain John Sowerby, Caveman Sportfishing Charters went down to Washington Canyon, a 90 mile run from Cape May and had a nice catch of Mahi and a wahoo. He says it was some of the best wahoo fishing he has ever heard of inside the Washington at 35-40 fathoms.
Captain heard of one boat catching some very nice 50-70-pound longfin tuna trolling one of the northern canyons so maybe the offshore tuna bite will happen if the tuna move down the line to within range. Call 425-1970 for some fall discounted trips.
Starlight Fleet sent in an impressive report on their tile fish trip Oct. 10. Matt Sprague, Villas, had four tile fish up to 15- pounds; Tom Whitehead, Wildwood Crest, a 30-pound golden tile; and Larry Rossi, Malvern, Pa., a 25-pound golden tile. (See photos)
Despite the weather, the new Gone Fishin’ is still catching weakfish. They report that the sea bass in the ocean are increasing in size. After another week or two of sea bass, They hope to be seeing some striper. If anyone would like to book a daytime charter out of Utsch’s Marina they should give Captain Mark a call.
Captain Ray, Tide Runner, Cape May, saw water conditions improve so that poor water quality is not an issue any more. He was able to get decent striper and small bluefish action on the fly rod and plugs. Problem is everything is super small.
He had one trip where they caught 15 stripers, 12-15-inches and then over 35 stripers with only a couple over 15-inches. Crease flies, popping flies and white or yellow deceivers worked well for fly rod anglers and swimming and popping plug along with rubber baits worked for the light tackle anglers.
Ray figures that there is only very tiny bait around in the back and along the inlet and so it’s only attracting the smaller fish.
(Bait boats active in the area could be affecting fish movement.)
Bucktail Willie fishing out of Whale creek Marina had a steady pick on striped bass this week, four to six per morning on live spots and bucktails. The fish ranged from 16-30 inches so there is a good mix but when catching smaller bass be ready for a much bigger one as they seem to be traveling together.
The second week of fall trout stocking began Oct. 14. Fifteen lakes and one river will be stocked with 14 to 20-inch trout. Visit njfishandwildlife.com/trtinfo_fall.htm .