Cape May Fishing Report

[CapeMayRay]

Thanks, I love catching all those schoolies that seem to come so easy, but you need a few of the bigger guys to re assure youself that you know what you are doing. The small and bigger fish have been super slow in getting here this year. This was the longest I have gone into a season without keepers on the fly for me personally and is not for lack of trying.

Here it is Memorial Day weekend and the water along the beach is still 55 to 56 degrees. Won't find me swimming in the surf this weekend.

Tomorrow I am going fight it out with the 50,000 others in the inland waters behind Wildwood. There should be should be atleast 100 boats per mile of intercostal channel, so it should be fun to watch.

[CapeMayRay]

Tried for a repeat of Thursday night. Left the dock earlier around 6:45 pm. with a lot less wind. Started on the beach front with 55.1 degree water. Started off just like yesterday. I got two small bass and two sea herring on a yellow/white jiggie on sinking line.

It was a strange night. The first striper I got had a plug in its mouth when I caught it on the fly. First time that had ever happen to me.

My second bass of the night had a big hole in it's side. It was very deep and you could put 2 fingers in it. When looking inside you could see all the way to the internal organs. Very weird.

Peter caught a nice 23 inch bass that was normal. He was using a sinking line and a chartreuse jiggie fly.

Around sunset the wind died down and conditions looked great for a repeat of last night with super conditions setting up. Right after dark we moved to the inlet where Peter and I each caught another small bass and a few more sea herring. Pete's bass had only one eye. Seemed like it was mutant night

Could not get anything going. With all the strong west winds for the last couple of days the inlet water was very brown and it must of had a blow out effect on the tide as the tidal flow was very weak coming in the inlet. It was not nearly as strong as the night before. We worked it for a while with neither of us even getting a hit and there were no signs of life.

We checked out the bridge before heading in and found the water 55.0 degrees and dirty with no signs of fish or bait so we called it a night around 9:30.

[CapeMayRay]

Kept the weekend pretty free with family coming down. Saturday did a morning fly charter. We were hoping to get a weakie or nice striper. Left the dock at 5:30 am and worked the inlet and beach front. We had high hopes but only managed small schoolies stripers 16 to 22 1/2 inches and some sea herring using yellow/white and spearing type flies.

Weather was perfect as it could be and we did see one nice weakie caught on rubber bait by a boat next to us.

Thought we would finish off the trip and try to put a fluke in the box using bait. Dam, this baitfishing thing is hard. It was a slow bite we never got a fluke and never saw one caught by the 10 or 15 boats fishing around us.

Later in the day I took my wife and daughter out to fish and it was the same story, a slow bite. With the fishing so slow we went joy riding with all the other crazy people out in their boats. Even with the price of fuel there were a ton of boats out, but not as many as previous years.

[CapeMayRay]

Forecast was calling for Thunderstorms starting at 1:00pm and going into the night. Looked a threatening early afternoon but was OK when I left the dock at 5:00 pm. with my one person fly charter.

With the tide 3/4 out we tried the inlet and found the water a bit brown 59 degrees with a good strong breeze out of the southeast. Got no hits. Went out side to see if it was possible to work the beach front but found pretty good seas, white caps and a strong breeze. Moved inside again and picked up one blue and with no signs of bait or decent action I decided to try the back bay.

Found one point break with 3 to 5 foot of very clean 60.3 degree water, where we picked two blues and a 19 1/2 inch striper.


Moved to a flat drain off area with a water dept of 2 to 5 feet of clean water were we could see bottom.

Using intermediate and sinking lines and Chart/white Jiggies, surf candies and a Bob's banger was able to pick away catching 7 blues a 21 inch striper and one nice 25 inch striper.


Action was pretty good until the tide stopped. With the tide dead switched to popping and swimming plugs looking to locate some fish. With the wind dying, the sun setting and no hits we decided to hit the inlet with the incoming tide.

Caught one more blue along the rocks and with it getting nicer by the minute tried the beach front out past the breaking waves getting zero hits. Turned out to be a beautiful night and we were in by 9:30

[CapeMayRay]

Out with one fly and one spin fisherman today. Left the dock at 2:30 pm. which was a bit earlier than I would normally go, but charter didn't want to get home late tonight.

Worked out very well. There was a stronger northeast wind blowing than was predicted so we went to the back bay to work the last of the incoming tide. Spotted some tern active near a sod bank and saw some swirls.

Worked a 300 yard section for the last of the incoming and the outgoing for about 4 hours. Water was 60 to 66 degrees and pretty dirty from the wind and a fair amount of weed but the fish co-operated. We ended up with 7 stripers 19 1/2 inches to 25 inches with the fly angler catching the largest.


Fly angler was using intermediate line on 7 wt rod with a 4 1/2 inch bunker fly and only had one bit off.

Got 19 blues as they were around in good numbers. Fly angler had a lot of misses as the blues would hit the back of the fly.

Plug angler missed a really nice, what looked to be a keeper striper on a smack-it-jr popping plug. All our fish were caught in 3 to 5 feet of water and we were back to the dock by 7:00 pm.

[CapeMayRay]

Disappointing morning. Left the dock at 5:00am with one person fly charter and it was dead calm. Went to the back bay to work some out going flows where I have been catching and got 3 small bass 20 to 21 1/2 inches and 8 blues using sinking line and 4 1/2 inch bunker flies. The water was 60 degrees and crystal clear. To clear as you could see bottom in 6 foot of water and as the sun got higher the bite shut down.

Tried the inlet and the beach front and the water was really dirty muddy looking from all the wind and you could only see your fly down about a foot. We caught three blues there which were smaller than the ones in the back.

No signs of bait or birds anywhere.. Too nice a day.
Had breakfast with the charter and will be going out with him again this afternoon on the top of the incoming hoping to find some nicer fish.

[CapeMayRay]

Afternoon trip was tougher than the morning one. We left the dock at 4:00 pm., early again to try and duplicate yesterdays action. It was suppose to be a light wind but it kicked up into the teens when we left the dock.

Where we had crystal clear water this morning. it was 59.4 degree dirty water like we found in the ocean this morning and loaded with snot-grass.

We did find some terns working bait along a sod bank and started picking away at blues on a bunker fly on intermediate line catching one 20 inch striper.

With the wind picking up into the 20's we moved to a creek to get out of the blasting wind and white caps. Found 63.4 degree water and caught one blue and and 21 inch striper.

Decided to brave the nasty conditions again in hopes of getting some stripers but the bluefish were very thick with two and three fish trying to eat the same fly.

With no stripers being around and tough conditions, it wasn't a whole lot of fun so we headed in and hour early.

[CapeMayRay]

Another super windy afternoon. Left the dock at 4:30 with husband wife charter. He wanted to fly fish and she would plug. Just like yesterday there was a good wind blowing out of the southeast.

Last of the incoming tide found some tern action again. Both started throwing Smack-it-jr popping plugs and we had a steady pick of nice size back bay bluefish got one small 21 inch striper.

Just like yesterday, as the tide started out the wind picked up. With it getting windy with white caps we shot to sunset lake area to hide behind some dredge spoils that blocked the wind. Worked it and found some more bluefish activity and charter decided to try the fly rod, just as the wind picked it up a notch.



Just as we were getting ready to go to another sheltered spot he actually caught a blue on a canary yellow tarpon fly.

We tried one more spot and the wind kicked up even more. I told him lets bag it, that I would charge him for half a trip. It was really nasty and all the way back to Cape May harbor it was gusting wind and whitecaps.

I am really getting sick of all this wind.

[Dave Sikorski]

Nothing will make a man shoot line like a champ like a 20 knot tail wind.

Either than or make a man look like a woman with a shiny new clouser earing

Pretty work on the steady results in the crappy conditions Ray.

-D

[CapeMayRay]

Those pictures were taken before it really got windy. Same area when we came back had 2 foot white caps.

Cancelled this mornings husband and wife trip. High winds. Have not gotten the Thunder Storms called for yet.

Looks like this afternoon's charter will be a no go too as it is to blow all day and severe storm called for.