Cape May Fishing Report Sept. 1 to Sept 30 - Page 2

CapeMayRay · 09-21-2009, 10:46 PM

Monday night left the dock with one of my regular fly clients. He casts good and we have done pretty good on the past trips. We headed to the inlet with the incoming tide and had a decent tidal flow along the inlet rocks. We worked to death all sides of the rocks and never saw one mullet or any peanuts. We only saw a few glass minnows and we never saw signs of any fish or had a decent strike other than 8 to 10 inch blues that kept hitting our flies. We were using decent size flies and were not interested in playing with such small blues. The whole time, we never saw a single bird even with the nice strong incoming tide.

Tried the beach front a bit working some structure and only found the same dinky blues.

With water higher in the back we tried a few spots and had no hits or saw any signs of bait or feeding fish.

Even tried the bridge Shadow lines on the way back to the marina and there were no bait fish or signs of any fish there.

Tough night with good weather and decent conditions. Trying to get a hold of my morning charter to cancel it. Have a limited experienced fly fisherman for tomorrow and don't want to go out and punish him and myself as I do not see anything major changes happening over night.

CapeMayRay · 09-22-2009, 09:11 PM

Couldn't get charter all night on the phone. He had it off and in his back pack for the morning trip so had to get up at 5:00 and meet him at the dock to cancel the trip. Beautiful morning. Too bad not worth fishing.

While waiting I checked the big boat slips where there is deeper water seeing if I could see any peanuts or good amounts of bait. Only saw a few small spearing.

Hope to see either some bait, birds or fish activity soon. Took a ride up to the beach on the way home and all was dead there too.

CapeMayRay · 09-30-2009, 11:16 PM

Last week was a super bad week. I was ready to give up chartering. I had a couple of trips at prime time of day with great tides and I could not get a bass or a decent strike for two fly charters in a row. I couldn't even get them a decent hit to miss. Only thing around was 8 to 10 inch blues. (even on a fly rod they are not much fun). Inlet, beach front and the back were all dead with on a few signs of some glass minnows in the back, with zero signs of mullet or peanuts.

Talked to a couple of my buddies that fish the same areas and they reported the same sad situation. With the lack of normal bait and poor fishing they were giving up until things change.

I ended up canceling the other charters I had during the week rather than take them out for a boat ride. (could of scrounged a few using bait, but flyanglers and plug anglers want the fun of the strike and not interested in bait fishing.)

To make things worse I thought I would check out the beach and the inlet from land. No signs of birds or bait anywhere from one end of Cape May to the other. Went to the point where there are usually guys netting mullet or where you would see some bait running along the beach. No mullet, no bait, and no birds working the rips. Guys fishing with bait were only getting sand sharks and a couple of skates.

Even went out one morning pre-dawn by myself to see if I could find some fish so I could start doing charters again. Nothing other than 8 to 10 inch blues and I felt like I was fishing in a dead zone with no signs of life along the inlet or in the back.

I have never seen a September this dead.

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09-22-2009, 09:11 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: 2,655.6 Occupation: Charter Capt.	Couldn't get charter all night on the phone. He had it off and in his back pack for the morning trip so had to get up at 5:00 and meet him at the dock to cancel the trip. Beautiful morning. Too bad not worth fishing. While waiting I checked the big boat slips where there is deeper water seeing if I could see any peanuts or good amounts of bait. Only saw a few small spearing. Hope to see either some bait, birds or fish activity soon. Took a ride up to the beach on the way home and all was dead there too.

09-30-2009, 11:16 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: 2,655.6 Occupation: Charter Capt.	Last week was a super bad week. I was ready to give up chartering. I had a couple of trips at prime time of day with great tides and I could not get a bass or a decent strike for two fly charters in a row. I couldn't even get them a decent hit to miss. Only thing around was 8 to 10 inch blues. (even on a fly rod they are not much fun). Inlet, beach front and the back were all dead with on a few signs of some glass minnows in the back, with zero signs of mullet or peanuts. Talked to a couple of my buddies that fish the same areas and they reported the same sad situation. With the lack of normal bait and poor fishing they were giving up until things change. I ended up canceling the other charters I had during the week rather than take them out for a boat ride. (could of scrounged a few using bait, but flyanglers and plug anglers want the fun of the strike and not interested in bait fishing.) To make things worse I thought I would check out the beach and the inlet from land. No signs of birds or bait anywhere from one end of Cape May to the other. Went to the point where there are usually guys netting mullet or where you would see some bait running along the beach. No mullet, no bait, and no birds working the rips. Guys fishing with bait were only getting sand sharks and a couple of skates. Even went out one morning pre-dawn by myself to see if I could find some fish so I could start doing charters again. Nothing other than 8 to 10 inch blues and I felt like I was fishing in a dead zone with no signs of life along the inlet or in the back. I have never seen a September this dead.