Cape May Fishing Report Aug 1 to 31 - Page 2

CapeMayRay · 08-11-2009, 01:29 AM

Had no charter tonight so after dinner I decided to go out for some fun. No one could make it on short notice so I did a solo trip.

Left the dock at 6:30pm and headed out to the inlet with a incoming tide. While working the rocks I got some small bluefish and one 15 inch bass.

Before dark I shot to the back bay and using that same chartreuse Popping Fly, that has been catching, on floating line I quickly got three blues to 18 inches and another small bass.

Not wanting to get my popping fly too chewed up I switched over to a silver and maroon Bob's Banger catching one more blue and a 19 inch striper before heading in at 8:30.

I was hoping to catch some bigger fish, but that's fishing and had a good time on such beautiful night.

CapeMayRay · 08-12-2009, 12:06 PM

Left the dock at 6:00pm with Freshwater fly fisherman from Denver and his buddy who used spin gear. Tide was just starting in so we headed to the inlet to see if we could find some blues. Spear fishermen had two sides of the jetty tied up so we had limited area to fish. Again it was dead calm without a whisper of a breeze and stinking hot.

Fly angler using a chartreuse/white clouser caught a small striper on his fly rod using floating line.

He also had a blue and lost the clouser to a bite off. Spin angler had a blue.

With the tide coming in we shot to the back bay where we found decent bait in 2 to 3 feet of water. Fly angler switched to my Chartreuse Steroid Rattling Gurgler. It didn't take long before we found some activity. Fly angler got 4 more stripers and a number of blues before my gurgler got pretty chewed up and bitten off. None of the bass were bigger than his first one.

Spin angler was using a smack-it popping plug and it took him awhile to get use to not pulling the plug away to fast when the fish would hit. He got two bass and a number of blues.

It was another really calm beautiful night for fishing. Thought we might have to call it early as there was a nasty thunderstorm over in Delaware that we could see but it never came our way. We only had a little rain as I was cleaning up the boat.

CapeMayRay · 08-12-2009, 10:03 PM

Went out this afternoon on a family trip with bait. Tons of sand sharks, throwback fluke, oyster crackers and along with some small blues. Not very exciting but charter was happy with all the action.

Not use to the daytime hours. I couldn't handle a steady diet of day trips. I was lucky it was not all that sunny and we had a couple of light showers but the fish gunk and bluefish blood still dried like glue. Must of taken an hour to get the boat clean. At night it all just washes off with the hose with no scrubbing.

CapeMayRay · 08-14-2009, 12:11 AM

Tough tide Thursday night so we decided to head out early and catch some of the outgoing tide. Rain stopped and was suppose to be light Northeast winds. Left the dock with one person fly charter and found 15mph plus winds.

Decided to work the back bay flats. Got there and wind was too strong for angler to fly fish so he used a swimming plug where got one small striper and a blue. With a heavy chop and a lot of weed we moved to the inlet to find a lee shore so he could fish with the fly rod.

Found shelter on the south side of the jetty and worked it into the beach. Decent amount of bait but no fish. Worked the beach front hard and found only a couple of small blues.

With an hour of fishing left we moved back to the inlet and found blues blitzing bait fish on the surface. We were the only boat out fishing and had them all around the boat. Using jiggies and intermediate the angler had not stop bluefish, catching one on every cast and he landed about 20 of them as we went through 4 flies that got chewed to death. As I un-hooked them they were bringing up spearing and squid, making a mess of the boat.

Right as it got dark and near the end of the trip, with the tide now coming in, he got a 25 inch striper to salvage out the night. Wind never stopped blowing and it looked like more rain coming as we headed in. Almost felt like fall as it was damp and cool and the sky had that fall wintry look.

CapeMayRay · 08-16-2009, 10:25 AM

Slow couple of days. Went to visit my daughter Friday for her birthday. While she my wife went out shopping for the day I headed up to The Sportsmans Center to pick up some fly tying materials so I could make more Steroid Rattling Gurglers.

Also took fly rod and headed up to Washington's Crossing. Never wet a line. Water looked like mud from all the rain. Not that I would of known how to catch but I would of given it a shot.

Last night had a regular fly client out. He could only fish for three hours as he had guests down and he had to be in by 8:00 pm for dinner, which ment we would miss prime time. We left the dock at 4:30pm right as the tide was starting out. He missed a couple of small bass in the back bay. The water there looked a bit brown from all the boat traffic and wave action at low tide. Water was also 80 degrees from all the hot sun.

Moved to the ocean where we found only a few small blues before we had to head in. Normally I would head back out after dropping him off, but didn't feel like it last night with all the boat traffic still out on the water.

CapeMayRay · 08-17-2009, 01:31 AM

Left the dock at 5:00pm right at the top of the incoming tide and headed to the back bay with two plug fishermen. Found the water in the back 79 to 81 degrees. Started out slow. First two hours of throwing popping plugs we had two hits and misses and then found a small area with some bait where we picked up 3 really small bass to 18 inches and two blues with one being pretty good and going almost 24 inches.

Made one more move where we started picking more small bass fishing a shallow cut leading onto the flats and had an interesting experience.

We hear this twin engine dry exhaust offshore race boat cranking down the inland water at 60 or 70 mph throwing a 50 foot rooster tail of water behind it. Then it turns up into the area where we are fishing with is about a 150 yards wide. With all this room the have to pass by us while we are fishing. They came so close that their spray almost hits us. We are fishing in 3 1/2 feet of water. (I think they just did it to be asses) I was hoping the would hit bottom in some of the shallow water back there, but at the speed they were running they were only needed about a foot of water. After running around in the back for a bit they came roaring back out and had to run right by us even closer than the first time. When I saw them coming I moved closer to the shore to give them even more room, but it seemed like they wanted to get as close as they could. If I was thinking faster I should of taken a picture and called the marine police as it was dangerous boat handling.

The noise along with the tearing up of the water did put a damper on the fishing for awhile but the fish came back and we ended up with a total of 12 bass on the night up to 21 inches and 4 bluefish. A fun night but bass were really small with most 16 to 18 inches.

CapeMayRay · 08-18-2009, 12:45 PM

Another tough fishing night with ideal conditions. Left the dock at 5:00pm. with a Fly and plug fisherman as the last the of tide was coming in. Instead of reworking the area I had the last two nights I went to another normally good area. Conditions looked great, we had bait, 78 to 79 degree water and a perfect tide.

My fly angler is a freshwater fly angler and this was his first saltwater fly trip so I was anxious to put him on his first fish. I started him off with popping flies and he was doing a great job of casting as was the plug angler but it was very slow.

Again the first part of the trip, it was very difficult to get any bass or blues to co-operate, but did get a bass for each and small blue.

When the tide changed we worked the areas that are normally good and that were hot yesterday but found them dead other than one small blue. (Conditions were as good as you could ask for with text book rip lines or flows) Just no fish.

Made one last move where I found some small blues that would hit almost every offering. Small clousers worked well and we had a couple chewed up with one bite off. With a bite on I gave them more time to make up for the slow night and one of the last casts of the night the fly angler caught the last bass, which was a good way to end the evening.

Being only use to freshwater fish he was impressed with the power of the blues and bass for their size.

CapeMayRay · 08-19-2009, 08:11 PM

TUESDAY NIGHT

Headed out with a one person charter. We left the dock at 5:00 pm. to fish the last of the incoming and the start of the outgoing tide. Weatherman blew it. Was suppose to be 9 to 12 mph winds.

We left the dock with the flags straight out. First spot we tried in the back bay, it was difficult to fish. The wind was blowing in the mid 20's and with the wave action it was not going to be fun.

Moved up three creeks trying to hide from the wind, but with the new moon high tides they did not give us much shelter.

After 1 1/2 hours of struggling to control the boat and only two bass hits and misses we called it an early night instead of fighting mother nature and would do another trip with better conditions, another day.

Wind finally died down a bit about 9:00 pm but we were well done by then.

WEDNESDAY MORNING

Took a father and 12yr old son out this morning for the son's first saltwater fishing trip. After heavy thunderstorms over night and rain we got a later than normal start. We left the dock at 6:30 am.

The dad want his son to just catch some type of fish to experience what saltwater fishing was all about. I thought it would be easy to get some blues on plugs this morning as they have been outside the inlet most every morning. (not today) Worked the inlet for a bit catching one super small bluefish. With action slow we moved to the back bay where they got a couple of small blues and missed two stripers on plugs. Conditions looked great but the fishing was super slow.

Had to go to the old standby (Bait). Anchored up and put out clam and herring baits and picked up some small blues, a fluke and a 26 inch striper.

The kid was really excited with the size of the fish and their power and the nasty teeth on the blues and fluke. He had only caught little sunfish in a pond before today. He is now hooked on saltwater fish.

Overall the fishing was fairly slow as the swift new moon outgoing tide was really moving and there was tons of weed, but they got enough fish to have a fun morning. The kid can't wait to get the pictures of his first striper.

CapeMayRay · 08-20-2009, 01:21 PM

One of the more difficult mornings of the year. Left the dock at 5:00 am with a one person fly charter to fish the incoming tide. Found the harbor packed with the offshore battle wagons parading out for the bit tournament here this week. (Knew I didn't want to fish the inlet with the washing machine effect of all the boats going out.)

Went to my favorite flat and it was dark and dead clam. Put on popping fly for charter. All we got were a some small bluefish up to 18 inches. We were fishing in 3 to 4 feet of water and there was a lot of bait around. Normally there would be good striper action here, maybe not big, but they would be there. No signs of them today and the blues were not very aggressive at all.

Made a move to the inlet area and found fairly good ground swells, great looking water and no signs of any fish, bait or birds, so we shot to the back again to try a couple of other areas.

Same story, just small blues, just barely wanting to take a fly and we had switched to bay anchovy patterns with it starting to get bright.

Could not figure out why there were no bass. Water was 73 to 74 degrees and lots of bait. It could of been that they fed all night on the dark new moon extra high tides. All I know is it was very dead for such good conditions.

First trip in a long time with great conditions where I couldn't get at least one bass.

CapeMayRay · 08-21-2009, 08:27 PM

Ran over to pick up electric motor today from Dover Delaware and was looking forward to fly fishing trip tonight. Had to cancel as wind was honking pretty good out of the south east and there were still big ground swells coming in from Bill. Even in the back bay the wind was going to make it tough at best. Tomorrow they are calling for 50 to 60 percent chance of thunderstorms all day.

IT COULD BE A LONG WEEKEND.

08-17-2009, 01:31 AM	#16
CapeMayRay I think Admin is going to let me have this space Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Cape May, New Jersey Posts: 1,112 Credits: 2,655.5 Occupation: Charter Capt.	Left the dock at 5:00pm right at the top of the incoming tide and headed to the back bay with two plug fishermen. Found the water in the back 79 to 81 degrees. Started out slow. First two hours of throwing popping plugs we had two hits and misses and then found a small area with some bait where we picked up 3 really small bass to 18 inches and two blues with one being pretty good and going almost 24 inches. Made one more move where we started picking more small bass fishing a shallow cut leading onto the flats and had an interesting experience. We hear this twin engine dry exhaust offshore race boat cranking down the inland water at 60 or 70 mph throwing a 50 foot rooster tail of water behind it. Then it turns up into the area where we are fishing with is about a 150 yards wide. With all this room the have to pass by us while we are fishing. They came so close that their spray almost hits us. We are fishing in 3 1/2 feet of water. (I think they just did it to be asses) I was hoping the would hit bottom in some of the shallow water back there, but at the speed they were running they were only needed about a foot of water. After running around in the back for a bit they came roaring back out and had to run right by us even closer than the first time. When I saw them coming I moved closer to the shore to give them even more room, but it seemed like they wanted to get as close as they could. If I was thinking faster I should of taken a picture and called the marine police as it was dangerous boat handling. The noise along with the tearing up of the water did put a damper on the fishing for awhile but the fish came back and we ended up with a total of 12 bass on the night up to 21 inches and 4 bluefish. A fun night but bass were really small with most 16 to 18 inches. Last edited by CapeMayRay; 08-17-2009 at 01:32 AM.

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08-12-2009, 12:06 PM	#12
CapeMayRay I think Admin is going to let me have this space Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Cape May, New Jersey Posts: 1,112 Credits: 2,655.5 Occupation: Charter Capt.	Left the dock at 6:00pm with Freshwater fly fisherman from Denver and his buddy who used spin gear. Tide was just starting in so we headed to the inlet to see if we could find some blues. Spear fishermen had two sides of the jetty tied up so we had limited area to fish. Again it was dead calm without a whisper of a breeze and stinking hot. Fly angler using a chartreuse/white clouser caught a small striper on his fly rod using floating line. He also had a blue and lost the clouser to a bite off. Spin angler had a blue. With the tide coming in we shot to the back bay where we found decent bait in 2 to 3 feet of water. Fly angler switched to my Chartreuse Steroid Rattling Gurgler. It didn't take long before we found some activity. Fly angler got 4 more stripers and a number of blues before my gurgler got pretty chewed up and bitten off. None of the bass were bigger than his first one. Spin angler was using a smack-it popping plug and it took him awhile to get use to not pulling the plug away to fast when the fish would hit. He got two bass and a number of blues. It was another really calm beautiful night for fishing. Thought we might have to call it early as there was a nasty thunderstorm over in Delaware that we could see but it never came our way. We only had a little rain as I was cleaning up the boat.

08-12-2009, 10:03 PM	#13
CapeMayRay I think Admin is going to let me have this space Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Cape May, New Jersey Posts: 1,112 Credits: 2,655.5 Occupation: Charter Capt.	Went out this afternoon on a family trip with bait. Tons of sand sharks, throwback fluke, oyster crackers and along with some small blues. Not very exciting but charter was happy with all the action. Not use to the daytime hours. I couldn't handle a steady diet of day trips. I was lucky it was not all that sunny and we had a couple of light showers but the fish gunk and bluefish blood still dried like glue. Must of taken an hour to get the boat clean. At night it all just washes off with the hose with no scrubbing.

08-14-2009, 12:11 AM	#14
CapeMayRay I think Admin is going to let me have this space Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Cape May, New Jersey Posts: 1,112 Credits: 2,655.5 Occupation: Charter Capt.	Tough tide Thursday night so we decided to head out early and catch some of the outgoing tide. Rain stopped and was suppose to be light Northeast winds. Left the dock with one person fly charter and found 15mph plus winds. Decided to work the back bay flats. Got there and wind was too strong for angler to fly fish so he used a swimming plug where got one small striper and a blue. With a heavy chop and a lot of weed we moved to the inlet to find a lee shore so he could fish with the fly rod. Found shelter on the south side of the jetty and worked it into the beach. Decent amount of bait but no fish. Worked the beach front hard and found only a couple of small blues. With an hour of fishing left we moved back to the inlet and found blues blitzing bait fish on the surface. We were the only boat out fishing and had them all around the boat. Using jiggies and intermediate the angler had not stop bluefish, catching one on every cast and he landed about 20 of them as we went through 4 flies that got chewed to death. As I un-hooked them they were bringing up spearing and squid, making a mess of the boat. Right as it got dark and near the end of the trip, with the tide now coming in, he got a 25 inch striper to salvage out the night. Wind never stopped blowing and it looked like more rain coming as we headed in. Almost felt like fall as it was damp and cool and the sky had that fall wintry look.

08-16-2009, 10:25 AM	#15
CapeMayRay I think Admin is going to let me have this space Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Cape May, New Jersey Posts: 1,112 Credits: 2,655.5 Occupation: Charter Capt.	Slow couple of days. Went to visit my daughter Friday for her birthday. While she my wife went out shopping for the day I headed up to The Sportsmans Center to pick up some fly tying materials so I could make more Steroid Rattling Gurglers. Also took fly rod and headed up to Washington's Crossing. Never wet a line. Water looked like mud from all the rain. Not that I would of known how to catch but I would of given it a shot. Last night had a regular fly client out. He could only fish for three hours as he had guests down and he had to be in by 8:00 pm for dinner, which ment we would miss prime time. We left the dock at 4:30pm right as the tide was starting out. He missed a couple of small bass in the back bay. The water there looked a bit brown from all the boat traffic and wave action at low tide. Water was also 80 degrees from all the hot sun. Moved to the ocean where we found only a few small blues before we had to head in. Normally I would head back out after dropping him off, but didn't feel like it last night with all the boat traffic still out on the water.

08-18-2009, 12:45 PM	#17
CapeMayRay I think Admin is going to let me have this space Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Cape May, New Jersey Posts: 1,112 Credits: 2,655.5 Occupation: Charter Capt.	Another tough fishing night with ideal conditions. Left the dock at 5:00pm. with a Fly and plug fisherman as the last the of tide was coming in. Instead of reworking the area I had the last two nights I went to another normally good area. Conditions looked great, we had bait, 78 to 79 degree water and a perfect tide. My fly angler is a freshwater fly angler and this was his first saltwater fly trip so I was anxious to put him on his first fish. I started him off with popping flies and he was doing a great job of casting as was the plug angler but it was very slow. Again the first part of the trip, it was very difficult to get any bass or blues to co-operate, but did get a bass for each and small blue. When the tide changed we worked the areas that are normally good and that were hot yesterday but found them dead other than one small blue. (Conditions were as good as you could ask for with text book rip lines or flows) Just no fish. Made one last move where I found some small blues that would hit almost every offering. Small clousers worked well and we had a couple chewed up with one bite off. With a bite on I gave them more time to make up for the slow night and one of the last casts of the night the fly angler caught the last bass, which was a good way to end the evening. Being only use to freshwater fish he was impressed with the power of the blues and bass for their size.

08-19-2009, 08:11 PM	#18
CapeMayRay I think Admin is going to let me have this space Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Cape May, New Jersey Posts: 1,112 Credits: 2,655.5 Occupation: Charter Capt.	TUESDAY NIGHT Headed out with a one person charter. We left the dock at 5:00 pm. to fish the last of the incoming and the start of the outgoing tide. Weatherman blew it. Was suppose to be 9 to 12 mph winds. We left the dock with the flags straight out. First spot we tried in the back bay, it was difficult to fish. The wind was blowing in the mid 20's and with the wave action it was not going to be fun. Moved up three creeks trying to hide from the wind, but with the new moon high tides they did not give us much shelter. After 1 1/2 hours of struggling to control the boat and only two bass hits and misses we called it an early night instead of fighting mother nature and would do another trip with better conditions, another day. Wind finally died down a bit about 9:00 pm but we were well done by then. WEDNESDAY MORNING Took a father and 12yr old son out this morning for the son's first saltwater fishing trip. After heavy thunderstorms over night and rain we got a later than normal start. We left the dock at 6:30 am. The dad want his son to just catch some type of fish to experience what saltwater fishing was all about. I thought it would be easy to get some blues on plugs this morning as they have been outside the inlet most every morning. (not today) Worked the inlet for a bit catching one super small bluefish. With action slow we moved to the back bay where they got a couple of small blues and missed two stripers on plugs. Conditions looked great but the fishing was super slow. Had to go to the old standby (Bait). Anchored up and put out clam and herring baits and picked up some small blues, a fluke and a 26 inch striper. The kid was really excited with the size of the fish and their power and the nasty teeth on the blues and fluke. He had only caught little sunfish in a pond before today. He is now hooked on saltwater fish. Overall the fishing was fairly slow as the swift new moon outgoing tide was really moving and there was tons of weed, but they got enough fish to have a fun morning. The kid can't wait to get the pictures of his first striper.

08-20-2009, 01:21 PM	#19
CapeMayRay I think Admin is going to let me have this space Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Cape May, New Jersey Posts: 1,112 Credits: 2,655.5 Occupation: Charter Capt.	One of the more difficult mornings of the year. Left the dock at 5:00 am with a one person fly charter to fish the incoming tide. Found the harbor packed with the offshore battle wagons parading out for the bit tournament here this week. (Knew I didn't want to fish the inlet with the washing machine effect of all the boats going out.) Went to my favorite flat and it was dark and dead clam. Put on popping fly for charter. All we got were a some small bluefish up to 18 inches. We were fishing in 3 to 4 feet of water and there was a lot of bait around. Normally there would be good striper action here, maybe not big, but they would be there. No signs of them today and the blues were not very aggressive at all. Made a move to the inlet area and found fairly good ground swells, great looking water and no signs of any fish, bait or birds, so we shot to the back again to try a couple of other areas. Same story, just small blues, just barely wanting to take a fly and we had switched to bay anchovy patterns with it starting to get bright. Could not figure out why there were no bass. Water was 73 to 74 degrees and lots of bait. It could of been that they fed all night on the dark new moon extra high tides. All I know is it was very dead for such good conditions. First trip in a long time with great conditions where I couldn't get at least one bass.

08-21-2009, 08:27 PM	#20
CapeMayRay I think Admin is going to let me have this space Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Cape May, New Jersey Posts: 1,112 Credits: 2,655.5 Occupation: Charter Capt.	Ran over to pick up electric motor today from Dover Delaware and was looking forward to fly fishing trip tonight. Had to cancel as wind was honking pretty good out of the south east and there were still big ground swells coming in from Bill. Even in the back bay the wind was going to make it tough at best. Tomorrow they are calling for 50 to 60 percent chance of thunderstorms all day. IT COULD BE A LONG WEEKEND.