Cape May Fishing Report

[Dave Sikorski]

Gotta love when one spot makes all the difference.

We had one drift yesterday that brought 4 fish all over 28".

only 6 other fish in the other 5:45 of fishing.

Gotta get then while you can!!

Keep the reports coming Ray

-D

[CapeMayRay]

Dave, I would love to see a few decent fish. Fishing has been super tough. Even all the boats using clam, eels, bunker and everything else are finding tough fishing. It is a very unusal year. By now they are hammering them like crazy and we have a good pick of stripers with a few decent ones mixed in. Not this year!

Pete and I decided to give it a shot Monday afternoon. We thought we would work along the beach front looking for weakies. Left the dock at 4:00p.m. with the tide already coming in for two hours. The water at the inlet was 56.3.

We should of come out earlier as with the New Moon tonight and the highest tide the water was rolling in the inlet like a rapid. Even along the beach front the tide was zipping.

We started with clousers and spearing type flies. Pete was using intermediate and I was using sinking. First we got a few herring and I caught two small stripers on a yellow white clouser. We thought we found a little honey hole and where going to have a great night with small bass, but the fast moving tide changed things fast.

As we worked a long we picked away a few herring and decided to make a move inside the inlet to work the rocks. Here we picked a few more herring and a few blues but the action was slow. We worked it hard and we saw a fair amount of bait but the fish just weren't around.

We had a fun little trip and were back to the dock by 7:30 The wind stopped, it was a bit cold as the sun set and so much water came in with the new moon the sods were flooded all the way back to the Parkway, making fishing in the back impossible till the tide went out a ways.

[CapeMayRay]

Couldn't fish Tuesday night so Pete and I decided to give it late morning outgoing tide try. Left the dock around 10:30 a.m. Hit the inlet first and found it fogged in with 56.6 degree water. Water was super clean and you could see almost to the bottom of the jetty rocks. We worked it for about 3/4 of an hour and saw no signs of life or bait and we had only one hit.

Shot to the back bay where I fished on Saturday and picked a few stripers. The creek hat 59 to 62.5 degree water. I got a nice blue on a small bunker fly with some flash using sinking line. Pete got a small striper on this little fly and he was using intermediate line.

I got this little guy on the same bunker fly as the blue and we both had a couple of hits and misses.

Fish were caught in about 5 feet of water in the deeper middle sections of the creek. I think we were helped by the dirty water created by the heavy new moon tidal flows as most everywhere else you could see straight to the bottom. We caught are bass between 11:45 and 1:00 and it was bright and sunny once we got to the back out of the fog that hung along the ocean. Back to the dock by 1:30.

[Dave Sikorski]

The big ones will be there soon. They're finishing up down here and guys are catching a few on the beaches.

Keep the great reports coming!

-D

[CapeMayRay]

Dave, I hope so. Last year the new moon was a week later and on the heavy tides we had Stripers, blues, and herring chasing bait all around the inlet for 3 days straight. Winds were 25 to 40 mph but the action was hot and heavy.

We are all hoping that anyday it will happen and we will have all four of the above. Right now the weather is looking to be more of a problem. Got rain and thunderstorms with high winds starting tomorrow into the weekend. Got three fly charters scheduled in the next three days. Not a good mix for fly fishing and not much fun to fish in those condition even if you are a diehard.

Hope the weather man is wrong.

[CapeMayRay]

Early this morning I canceled this mornings fly charter, before they drove down. Was spitting out and the wind was blowing pretty good and it was raining in Atlantic City and we were suppose to have showers too. Told him to stay in Philly as this afternoon looked even worse.

About 10:00 the sun came out bright and sunny but the wind kicked up more. Decided I would go out and give it a try myself.

Got down to the boat as it started clouding up and the wind was 25 to 30 mph and the whole harbor was white caps with 2 foot waves. Commons sense kicked in and I went home.

[CapeMayRay]

Friday woke up to heavy rain and some thunder and lightning with a fair amount of wind. Around 1:00 pm the rain stopped and the wind died to nothing. Check the weather radar and it looked like a bout a 3 hour window of clouds with no rain.

Called Pete and we headed down to the boat. Tide had only been going out for a little while. Left the Dock at 2:30. We headed straight to the back where we have had luck on the out going.

Got there and found the water 61.4 degrees and off color from all the rain. Just as we started fishing a big squall line came up with a strong northwest wind. We worked the creek in the rain and wind for about 1 1/2 with just one strike.

Tried two other spots before heading to the ocean but the wind made them difficult to fish.

With the northwest wind we figured we could be sheltered on the ocean beach front. Water in the inlet and ocean was 58.9and the water was nice and clean. Tried to work the beach
front but there was big surf coming in so we settled for working the inlet rocks.

We ended up with 2 blues and maybe 15 nice sea herring which we caught on jiggies and surf candies using sinking lines. After fighting the wind and rain all afternoon we quit around 6:00 pm

[CapeMayRay]

Got a fly charter in today. Fly fisherman and his wife plug fishing. We left the dock at 2:00 pm with the tide just going out for about an hour. Talked to Ken Kelly who was working the back where we were going to start and he said it was dead.

We decided to fish the inlet rocks and beach front. Found the water clean but not as nice as yesterday. Worked along the rocks and had 56.8 degree water. Saw some nice splashes along the rocks but they were big tog spawning.

We picked away at sea herring with most taking a jiggie on sinking line. My charter wanted to try shrimp pattern that he had. I put the thing on one of the clips that I use. I think my clip was larger than the fly. It didn't matter, we keep hammering the herring to the point we decided to leave and look for bigger fish.

Worked the beach front and got a herring here and there and his wife picked up a nice 25 1/2 inch striper on a rubber Spro Swimming bait.

The weather was perfect and the sun even came out for awhile and we had very little wind. We fished till 6:00 pm and called it a day.

So far it has been a tough start to the season and we have really had to work hard for every striper. Action should be a lot better than it is. Only saw a fluke and a blue landed all afternoon by boats fishing near us.

[CapeMayRay]

Pete and I were supposed to go fishing this morning but Pete was Exhausted from laying on the couch watching golf yesterday, so I went by myself.

Left the dock at 4:30 am Wanted to work the beach front for some stripers or possible weakie. Found calm beautiful conditions. Water was 56.4

Started with a spearing type fly and sinking line. Just before sun rise I spotted some fish sucking what looked like shrimp off the surface of the water. They turned out to be small stripers and I caught a quick 4 bass 19 1/2 to 21 inches.

As the sun came up the bite stopped and I started catching sea herring. I caught about 10 and then around 6:30 am the tide stopped flowing and that bite stopped. I worked the area for another hour catching only one more herring. Not wanting to wait for the tide and the sun getting higher, I quit and was back at the dock at 7:30 for a breakfast.

[CapeMayRay]

Almost didn't go fishing. Reports from yesterday said the water looked like mud and there were no fish. Checked out he surf this afternoon and it was still brown with heavy wave action and the guys I talked to had no bites at all.

Pete decided he didn't want to give it a try with the poor report and our sunny day turned into heavy cloud cover with a pretty good southeast wind and it was getting pretty cool.

Being the die-hard that I am, I decided to give it a try by myself. Left the dock at 5:30 pm. Headed to the inlet and found the water 56.5 degrees and still very brown with waves still breaking on the north jetty pretty good. (was starting to feel like maybe I should of stayed home).

Shot to the back bay looking for some warmer clean water. Found the water a little cleaner way back on the flats but only a degree warmer.

Started working a creek and after making about 10 casts I had one striper, one blue, one missed fish and one bite off. I got my first two fish on yellow/white jiggie using intermediate line.


It took a number of casts before I got my next fish. I picked a fish here and one there now using a small bunker type fly. I left the first creek with 5 bass and one blue and felt I had a heck of night already.

I moved to another creek, much smaller and very shallow. (about 3 feet deep) Here there was a nice current flow coming out. First cast and almost every cast thereafter I got a bass. Water was very shallow and there was no signs that there were fish there. No bait, no swirls.

Moved to two more shallow creeks and had the same action plus 2 more blues.



After dark I moved to a current point break and picked up another bass and decided to call it a night at 8:30 pm.

Fishing action was as good as it can get in the back. Had a total of 16 stripers and 3 blues. Stripers were from 18 to 23 1/2 inches with 4 over 22 inches. The water was pretty cool for this time of year. The best water temp I found all night was 59.8 with the only clean water in the creeks and way back on the flats.

Guess the northeaster brought in the needed fish into the back. The question is whether the fish will stay in the back without a good supply of bait. Only thing I can see for them to eat is shrimp and crabs as I have not seen any type of bait fish back there.

All the fish were nice and healthy and looked nice and chunky. Hope they we be around for fly charter action this weekend.