Fishing Reports Cape May July 16 to July 31

[CapeMayRay]

Got Brad Buzzi (fellow SJCFA member and well known fly tyer) and his young son Alex out Thursday night. Left the dock at 4:30 pm. to catch the last of the out going tide in the back bay. They started out using popping plugs and we started catching blue fish.

Young Alex wanted to try the fly rod and hooked up a small blue on a spearing fly using intermediate line on an 8 wt.


With the little bit of wind and weed Alex found it easier to use the popping plug. We got a number of blues and a 22 inch striper and as the tide died we headed out to the ocean to work the beach front and inlet.

Found a little wind but not too bad, but had heavy surf and very brown water. The surf made it impossible to get in close enough to get fish. We did have a couple of little hits but no hook ups so we worked the jetty rocks with the incoming tide and got zero hits.

Moved back into the back bay again to work the incoming tide where we got more blues and a nice 26 inch striper that really took a couple nice runs in the 2 feet of water that we hooked him in.

Fun night for everyone and the weather co-operated.

[jemche]

ray,

whats up w/ the camera in the first pic?

[CapeMayRay]

protective cover on the camera stuck half closed. Too much salt on it I guess.

[CapeMayRay]

Left Friday afternoon at 4:30 pm. with a light tackle charter. Father and son from Texas and nephew. They just wanted some action and the son had some trout fly fishing experience with a fly rod so I brought a couple along.

Started in the back bay looking for some top water bluefish action on the outgoing tide. Bite was slower than yesterday but we manage 8 and missed one small striper.

Young guy wanted to use the fly rod but the snot grass was as thick as I have seen it. We were picking up a lot on the poppers and anything below the surface was impossible.

When the tide died we headed to the beach front and found clean water and the swells were less than yesterday, making fishing a lot easier.

Started catching small weakies on small rubber swimming minnows. Two of which were keeper size and at the end of the night we let the biggest one, that I had in the live well, go after taking a picture.

Had a huge pod of bunker swim by us along the beach. Fellow cast a small rubber minnow into the pod and caught a bunker and the minnow was inside its mouth. Sure did not look foul hooked. Maybe they will hit small stuff once in awhile.

Back at the dock by 9:00 pm. Kids had a good time as they said they never catch any fish when they go fishing at home and lure fishing was a lot more fun than using bait.

[CapeMayRay]

Had a late Saturday morning charter. They wanted to leave the dock at 7:00 am (which is much later than I normally do.) We tried the out going tide in the back with popping plugs, but neither could cast, so not getting the proper action we move to the beach front where we could fish differently.

Along the beach we found Small 7 small weakfish, 1 bluefish and 4 sea herring that were all caught on swimming rubber baits.

Tried some back bay fluking for the last hour in the back bay and caught two shorts and found a ton of sea weed.

Downer for the morning was when male fisherman accidentally broke two of my fly rods that were tucked in the rod racks under the gunwale while trying to put his foot up. (now I have to send two more rods back after just getting one back last week) Not a good morning!

[CapeMayRay]

Saturday afternoon the wind picked up just in time for my one person fly charter. We left the dock at 4:00 pm and went to the back bay to hide from the wind and try and get some action with the outgoing tidal flow.

Wind was really making fishing tough. Wave, wind and boat wave action were all working against us. For the first few hours it was painfully slow.

We made a move to a creek were we found some small bluefish and a small striper and then moved back to where we started as the wind started to settle down a little, where the water was 70 degrees.

Here we managed a few more blues and I ended up catching the nicest fish of the day, a 26 inch striper. Overall it was slow and it really got cool as we headed in for the night.

[CapeMayRay]

Was very windy all Sunday Afternoon and just before we were to leave the dock with father and son fly charter the thunder storms came and canceled us out for the evening. Heavy rains and lightning made the decision very easy.

They were disappointed as I do not have any more free nights this week and were looking forward to the trip.

Used the time to tie up a few flies and package up the two broken fly rods from yesterday, so I can mail them to be fixed.

Nasty day tomorrow. Have to run to Baltimore tomorrow just to be electronically finger printed. My capt. license is up for renewal this fall and because of national security, they do not start the renewal paper work until they have your prints.

Crazy. Have to drive 3 1/2 hours all the way down. 5 minutes to get printed and then drive back in time for evening charter. Can't get printed locally and get them sent in. (That is our efficient government.)

[Dave Sikorski]

That's a crappy drive.

Just think, some of them want to run our health care system

Drive safe, and keep up the great reports.

-D

[CapeMayRay]

Back in time for charter tonight. 315 miles 3/4 tank of fuel, $20.00 tolls, $7.00 for parking and processing fee $95.00. 7 hour round trip and spend 18 minutes in the building.

We better catch some fish tonight.

[CapeMayRay]

Another non fly fishing trip but at least there is some action.

Monday night was as beautiful as it gets and I had a great tide for taking a dad and his two boys out fishing. We left the dock at 5:00 pm and the boys had only freshwater fished before and they did not have much casting experience, but they progressed very well and were really starting to get the lure movement down by the end of the night.

Started out with the tide up and no flow so we decided to search around the back flats.

It wasn't long before we got into some top water action.

then we got his brother hooked up.


The action was not hot and heavy in any one spot but we had good action as we moved along getting hits and picking a fish here and there.


We even found a few bluefish along the way.



The kids had a ball as we missed three times as many fish as we caught (it was tough for the kids to keep a tight line while popping their plugs and then they would get all excited when the fish would whack the plug) Overall they did a great job and we ended the night with 9 stripers to 24 1/2 inches and 3 bluefish. All caught on popping plugs and were back into the dock around 9:00pm.