Cape May Fishing Report

[brad regan 01]

good report!! glad to see someone is catching stripers

[CapeMayRay]

It has been the toughest spring I have seen and everyone has had to work super hard for what few fish they could find. It felt good to see hot action and fish spread out over a large area. The lack of a decent amount of bait fish has me concerned. Fish need food to hang around. The little guys can live on shrimp and small crabs but the bigger ones if they come in will not hang around long.

Got a fly club meeting tonight so will not be out again till Friday and Saturday. Will see if it is just a flash in the pan!

[CapeMayRay]

My charter never showed up today. He was watching the weather from up in Philly and just assumed the trip was going to be off. I tried calling him prior to the trip but could not get him.

5:00 pm it was sunny in Cape May with a southeast wind. With no charter I tried to get someone to go out, but with short notice it was me, myself and I.

Left the dock at 5:00 pm. As I passed the inlet to go into the back bay it was getting pretty foggy from the cold water meeting the warm air.

Found 54.4 water in the back flats and the sod banks getting covered up pretty good with us getting closer to the full moon. Caught a quick small bass on a small bunker fly on 8 wt intermediate line.

With the wind hitting that shore pretty good moved to the other side where I could get out of the wind. Here I used a 9wt sinking line as the water was deeper. When I got to the other side a squall line came through. It rained heavy for awhile but then stopped. Worked for about and hour getting two more stripers up to 23 inches.

One had a littoral fish tag in it, which I will send in and see where it was tagged.

Wind shifted from the west and kicked up pretty good so I shot back to the side where I started working sod banks and creeks but the tide had completely covered the sod banks and it looked like water all the way to the parkway. In the next hour I had only one hit and one more small bass.

Finally the tide changed and there was some outflow from the creek I was working. The wind had picked up pretty good but I was able to throw my anchor out and sit at the mouth of this creek and it was like shooting fish in a barrel.

First time this year that I saw fish swirling, some bait jumping along with the fish chasing the bait. Switched back to the 8 wt and a spearing fly and got 7 more stripers 19 to 21 inches. Water on the outflow was 56.2

With it dark, the wind honking pretty good and it drizzling I knocked off at 8:30 I think I could of gotten more bass, but I had enough fun.

[CapeMayRay]

This afternoons one person fly charter was a bit tough. Left the dock at 4:00 pm. and found the water very dirty from the wind that was blowing all day. Tried the inlet and the close to the full moon tides the water was very dirty and 54.6 degrees.

Worked the beach front to get in out of the wind and found the water just as cold but the quality was better, but still no hits.

Shot into the back bay where I fished last night and found the water dirty and cold. 55.4 and the wind kicked up still more. Getting no hits we moved to the leeward shore to get out of the wind.

Wind was now honking 20 to 25 mph and we ran through 2 foot white caps getting to the other side. Found the water much cleaner and 59 to 63.1 Charter decided to use a plug and ended up with 4 stripers to 23 inches in less than idea conditions.

Picture makes it look a lot nicer than it really was. The wind was really blowing the boat all over the place an we were hugging the sod bank as close as we could to stay out of the wind.

We didn't hang around and wait for the tide to change for the out-flow of the creeks as he had dinner reservations. We got a few fish but the wind took a lot of the fun out of the night and we took a bit of spray on the way back to the dock. Didn't see any other crazy people out fishing the back in that wind.

[CapeMayRay]

So much for the light rain and drizzle forecast with rain and wind in the afternoon. Left the dock with one person fly charter at 7:30 am. Light drizzle and hardly any wind.

Decided to work the back bay with the incoming tide. Water was 54.6 to 55.4 and nice an clean. Just as we started to fish the rain started coming down heavy and by an hour into the trip it was pouring and 20 mph plus winds.

We picked two bass and a blue while the tide was still coming in and with the waves smacking over the sod banks we were forced to find shelter in a creek to get away from the wind.

Picked up three more bass and another blue here Water here on the outgoing was only 56.2 and it was cold, raw and wet with the rain coming down side ways. You could see vapor and I had a hard time tying on flies as my hand were numb. Fish actually felt warm when you were unhooking them.

[
Intermediate line with a black bucktail deceiver type fly worked best. I think we did pretty good under the tough conditions. We came in like two drowned rats. We dried off and had a nice hot lunch, which made us feel a lot better.

After coming out of lunch there was no rain and half the wind.

[Dave Sikorski]

You're a better man than I.

My Dad was driving me nuts today to go fishing and I just couldn't muster the desire. We had an East wind all day and plenty of rain. Not exactly fishing weather for me!

Pretty work Ray.

-D

[CapeMayRay]

Dave, the weather is getting old. Can't remember the last time I had a nice calm day for fishing. It has been cold too. Been taking three sweat shirts and foul weather gear for every trip and having to work around the wind. No shorts or short sleeve shirts yet and it is almost Memorial Day. Even had the heat on at the house today. Were is this global warming when you need it.

[CapeMayRay]

They have been a good number of keeper stripers caught in the surf this week and was our typical windy weather. Decided to give it a last minute try. Tried Peter and another friend and ended up going by myself.

Left the dock at 7:30 pm with a still gusty north west wind blowing. The only place to hide from the wind was the inlet or the beach front.

Started on the beach front and found 56.6 water temp and as the sun set it looked more like a fall sunset and was pretty cold. Caught 2 sea herring and a 2 small stripers before dark on yellow/white jiggie on 300 sinking.




No one else was out fishing After dark I decided to work inside the inlet where I could control the boat with the incoming tide pushing me in and the west wind blowing me out. Water here was 51.1 and I had the whole place to myself. Changed to a chart/white deceiver and caught another small bass and a blue.

Decided to try a big fly. Switched to a 450 sinking line and put on a 7 inch big fly that Brad Buzzi gave me at the SJCFAme tying event. It was just like the ones he showed us how to make.

Don't think it was just the fly, but I must of hit the right spot at the right time cause I nailed 4 keeper stripers in a row. First was a fat 32 incher. It hit on the third strip away from the rocks and I knew I had a good fish. Had quite a time getting it into the net with the wind and tide. Actually ended up outside the inlet when I finally netted it.

The next one was a 31, the third a 29 and the last a skinny 33. Again, netting was the hard part with the current and wind. Released the others, even though I have a bonus tag. One is more than enough meat for me. Probably won't keep another for a while as I usually release them all. Quit around 10:15 when the tide was almost high and slowing up.

Was my best night of the year size wise. Just last night I was moaning that I should of had some keepers by now.

Here is the fly that was working.

[brad regan 01]

awesome job ray. keep the reports coming!

[Dave Sikorski]

Pretty work Ray. Congrats on the bigguns.

Purple is my favorite striper fly color. Great looking fly IMO and I think the fish agreed!

-D

[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.