The Fishing Line

Fishing reports continue to be positive so don’t think the summer is over. Get in those last trips before you blame “Back-to-School” schedules for keeping you home.
Sterling Harbor, (foot of George Redding Bridge) reports that flounder are still in the back-bays and stripers are biting at night along the sod banks and near bridges and dock lights.
At Cape May Point there are flounder, croakers, kingfish, small weakfish and bluefish. Flounder up to 8-pounds being caught at the Old Grounds and Reef Site 11. In the Delaware Bay, weakfish are near Bug Light.
Offshore, the bluefin bite moved north to the Lobster Claw area. Tuna are caught while trolling, chunking and jigging. The Baltimore and Wilmington Canyons are producing yellowfin, Mahi-Mahi, and blue and white marlin.
At Grassy Sound Marina, (foot of North Wildwood bridge), flounder, croakers, kingfish, are being caught in the back-bay and off the fishing pier. Weakfish are caught with white bucktails and black twister tail worms at high water. Some stripers are still in the mix. Bluefish remain slow, but herring have moved in.
Len Guthrie, Cape Taxidermy, and Jeff Smith, N.C. caught eight flounder with four keepers to 19 ½ inches and 16 croakers on squid and minnows, on outgoing tide in Nickels.
Bryan Travis, Green Creek, fishing the Grassy Sound Fishing Pier, caught an 18 inch weakie using mackerel during outgoing tide; Rance Strunk, 9, Reading, Pa., caught four sea bass and three short flounder; Joe Pryor, Southampton, Pa. brought in two keeper flounder near the marina using minnows.
Michael Quinn, 7, Glenside, Pa. had a great day catching loads of crabs on the pier.
Ron Flemming, Cape May Bait and Tackle, also reports awesome fishing around Cape May Point. Weakfish are increasing in number and size, with the 15-18 inch range caught on bloodworms or Berkley Gulp (small jighead, slow retrieve).
Fluke catches remain the most numerous, but only one in 20 is a keeper. A few snapper blue blitzes and a couple spike weakfish kept the action hot at the concrete ship. Kingfish and croaker catches are improving in size and numbers, too, with clam and bloods as bait.
The first double weigh in for the weekly prize was Mike Mohr with a fluke,18 ½ inches, 1 ¼ pound, and a weakfish, 20 ¾ inches, 1 ½ pound.
Captain Brook Koeneke, Duke O’ Fluke, Somers Point, reports good catches with a pool winner of 2.6-pound fluke reeled in by Bill Mooney, Marlton. On a charter with the Reilly family, 12-year-old Ben had a 3.2-pound flounder.
Peter Noll, Bloomfield, picked up a 2.4-pounder near Longport docks during the morning half-day excursion; in the afternoon, Mike Woods, a Philadelphia fireman, reeled in a 3.3-pound fish in the inlet.
Taylor Gallihue, 8, Havre de Grace, Md., had a 2.3-pound flatfish, but Jim Starecki, 10, Glenolden, Pa., beat her out to win the pool with a 2.8-pound fluke. Both anglers were using minnows.
Another young angler, Alexis Learner, 12, Galloway Township, won the pool another day with a 2.2-pound flounder.
Charter Boats sailing out of South Jersey Marina are having very good results with inshore fishing. Bluefish, croaker, weakfish, kingfish and flounder continue to top the list.
Offshore trips are even more successful with the canyons heating up. On 10 recent offshore trips, every boat had a nice catch. Top Shelf had one bluefin, four yellowfin and a 21-pound dolphin; Big Game brought back one wahoo and one dolphin, and on another trip they had one wahoo, one bluefin, and two yellowfin.
Charlie Langan, dockmaster says this represents the beginning of a fabulous offshore fishing season. Call 884-3800 to reserve one of their boats.
Captains John and Diana Sowerby, Cavemansportfishing Charters, (SJM) reported some of the best inshore bluefin fishing ever. All were over 100-pounds and they released a decent number over 150-pounds on some trips. Jigs, trolling and chunking with sardines all worked great.
They heard reports of tuna over 175-pounds being caught and even a few over 300-pounds. There is a bite on Mahi-Mahi, wahoo and small yellowfin closer to Cape May and inshore of the canyons. Captain John expects larger yellowfin should be showing up now.
SJ Aids Alliance fundraiser: Win a dream fishing rig including, two rods, two reels, $2 tickets, two drawings 4 p.m., Sept. 14, the South Jersey Sportsmen’s Jamboree, Union Road and Rt. 49, Millville, toward Tuckahoe. Tickets available at Franzwa’s Trailer Sales, 2134 S. Second St., Millville; FIN-ACTICS, 1325 West Ave., Ocean City; Longreach Marina, High Street, Port Norris.
Trout in the Classroom (TIC), supplementary educational activity, NJDEP’s Division of Fish and Wildlife and NJ Trout Unlimited. Hands-on activity that engages students and helps to connect them to real-life water quality, fish and wildlife issues and problems…and inspires them to seek solutions.
The program encompasses science, language arts, mathematics, social studies and art and is easily adapted to the needs and abilities of students in middle and high school. The TIC activity guide is correlated to the New Jersey Science Standards.
For information, call 908-637-4125 or email Jessica Griglak at Jessica.Griglak@dep.state.nj.us. Check out njtroutintheclassroom.org.
The Department of Environmental Protection has temporarily suspended shellfish harvesting from a portion of the Delaware Bay (Maurice Cove to Artificial Island) after officials confirmed two cases of illness linked to oysters harvested from those New Jersey waters. The public notice and map of the affected area is linked at nj.gov/dep/newsrel/2008/08_0042.htm For information on Shellfish in NJ visit njfishandwildlife.com/shelhome.htm
INTERNATIONAL TUNA WATCH
European Union countries launched joint sea patrols in the fight against over-fishing of endangered species.
In its biggest over-fishing campaign yet, it is coordinating the deployment of some 50 patrol boats, 16 aircraft and 30 inspectors to the Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic, to ease the pressure on the endangered bluefin tuna. Participating are Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain.
In another project led by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) scientists, tuna tagging will reveal tuna migratory routes and behavior to enable better recovery plans. According to the WWF, bluefin tuna populations have experienced alarming population declines due to extreme overfishing, poor international conservation management and high levels of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Current annual catches, which often include juvenile fish, are estimated to be in the region of 60,000 tons – double the level allowed by law and four times the amount considered sustainable by scientists.
“Bluefin tuna stocks are on the brink of collapsing, which would be catastrophic not only for the species, but for everyone who depends on these fish for their livelihoods and survival,” said Mark Stevens, senior program officer for the WWF-US Marine Fisheries Program. “This project will help arm us with the information we need to fuel our work to restore tuna populations to healthy levels.”
For more on the Mediterranean bluefin crisis and to follow the path of the tuna, visit panda.org/tuna and for more information on fisheries and WWF’s marine work visit worldwildlife.org/waveforward.
Recent entry in the county fishing tournament: Ashley Lucadema, 16, Court House, kingfish, 1.51-pounds, Aug. 7, in Delaware Bay, on the Osprey III with Captain Roy Lucadema.
Due to early deadlines, results from the Mid-Atlantic marlin and tuna tournament at South Jersey Marina last week will appear in the Sept. 3 issue.
All pictures submitted to The Fishing Line can be viewed at www.SeeMyBigFish.com. Be sure to send your fish stories and pictures to Be My Guest reporter. Send info to cmiller@cmcherald.com.