FISHING REPORTS CAPE MAY JUNE 15 TO 30TH

[CapeMayRay]

Was going to fish Friday, but had a long day and just didn't feel up to going out last night at 10:30 pm. We were planning on hitting the outgoing tide late night.

Attended Harbor Feast here in Cape May. Had a great time lots of neat stuff and activities. Looks like they had thousands of people that attended.

Was excited about going out with my fly charter Saturday night but just as we were undoing the dock lines we heard thunder and then shortly afterward saw blinks of lightning coming our way.

We waited for about an hour and it looked like the worst might skirt us, but by then the wind piped up into the 20+ mph and the skies still looked bad to the south west where the first storm came from so we canceled for the night. 8:00 pm the wind is still honking. Just took a look at the ocean and there is a lot of white water on the ocean.

Hoping it settles down for tomorrow mornings fly trip.

[CapeMayRay]

Painful morning on the water. Fly charter wanted to leave the dock at 5:30am and fish till 8:30. Hit the inlet with the tide starting in. No sign of birds or bait and we got no hits. Water temps were a cool 58.4

Moved into the beach and started picking away at sea herring using yellow/white jiggies. Fairly good swells coming in and we could not get as close to the beach as I would like with the bigger surf. Did not get any weakies today.

Worked the incoming tide on the inside of the rocks and got zero hits and never saw a sign of life.

After dropping off charter I decided to head out and check out some areas in the back bay, with the higher water. Found no signs of life at all the spots I checked.

Decided to check out the beach front again. The water was much cleaner than early morning but the waves were much higher. In frustration I decided to pound to death the inside rocks with the incoming tide.

I caught two pretty nice bluefish on two casts in a row but probably made 300 casts working down the rocks. Both blues were about 4 lbs. The first bit off my jiggie getting him in the boat and the other I kept and cleaned and dropped off to my morning charter as he loves bluefish.

It is like the being in the twilight zone. There are very few boats out fishing. I talked to 3 boats that were out this morning and they got nothing but skates, and sharks and not other type fish.

It is just plain tough fishing!

[CapeMayRay]

Fishing is still tough!

Left the dock at 5:00am with one person fly charter, with about an hour more of outgoing tide. Water 58.4 Light wind from the south but very thick fog. Tried the inside of the inlet rocks with no luck. Then tried the Cape May beach front. Using yellow/white clousers and jiggies we were able to pick away at sea herring, catching one weakie and one blue.

We had a pretty good ground swell and my charter was feeling a bit sick so we moved on the inside of the jetty but the sea swell was still getting too him.

Moved to the back bay sod banks where there was no fog and the water was like glass. Water here was from 61 to 67 degrees. Here we had one small striper and another swirl on an olive/white clouser.

Other than one small pod of bunker along the beach front I did not see any signs of bait anywhere until I got to my dock. Only bait I am seeing is under the floats.

[CapeMayRay]

Had to struggle again to catch a few fish.

Had thunderstorms and rain all afternoon and was close to canceling tonights charter. Checked the radar map and the last storm was heading to sea. Left the dock at 5:30 pm. and headed to the inlet with the last of the outgoing. The water was 62 degrees as we tried to work the beach front. Found it difficult with a good southeast breeze and lots of sea weed and junk pushing in where we wanted to fish.

We caught a few herring on flies and rubber baits and worked the inside and all around the jetties only taking one small blue.

Water on the incoming was around 58 degrees so we decided to try to find warm water. When into the back and up a shallow creek where we had 73 degree water. We only got one blue here.

Around dusk the wind died to a dead calm and we worked a sod bank in 2 to 4 foot of 67 degree water and managed some small stripers to 22 inches and had a good number of misses.

The calm did not last very long the wind started filling in from the west and just as we ended the trip at around 9:30 we could see some major lightning coming our way off in the distance. We were lucky to squeeze our trip in.

[CapeMayRay]

Just when you think it can't get any worse. Left the dock at 5:00 am. with my one person fly charter. Same guy that I had out yesterday who got sea sick. He used dramamine today.

Was a very light wind from the south west when we left the dock. With still a fair amount of out going tide I decided to try a 3 to 6 foot drain off area of a large flat in the low light.

Was able to get him 4 nice blues and a number of misses. He was catching on a popping fly so it provided good visual action.

The blue action in the 63 degree crystal clear water lasted to about 6:00 am when the wind started to pick up.

We moved to the ocean beach front and managed two sea herring on jiggies but the wind was into the teens and there was still a large sea swell coming in and the water was very brown. Within a half hour the wind was in the high teens gusting into the 20's making fishing difficult at best.

Tried hiding in the back bay, but with close to low tide and no place to get out of the wind we ended the trip an hour early. On the way back to the dock the inter harbor had all white caps.

Beautiful clear day, but gusty winds.

[CapeMayRay]

Canceled fly charter tonight. Were to leave at 5:00 pm but the wind was still blowing strong and with near low tide conditions there was no place to hide from the wind. Since he was a freshwater fly fisherman and not use to casting heavier weight lines he would of had he a tough night.

Asked charter is he wanted to go out later near dark as the wind was suppose to ease up or tomorrow morning, but he is down on vacation with three super young kids and this was the only time slot he could squeeze in without causing a problem. Plus he didn't feel good about fishing at night.

8:30 wind has died down to almost nothing. Thinking about doing a late nighter but I have been burning the candle on both ends and could use a good nights sleep.

[CapeMayRay]

Had a free night so Pete and I decided to give it a shot. Left the dock around 5:30 pm. with outgoing tide a good southeast wind blowing. Decided to work the back bay where flat drains off into the inter coastal waterway. Water here was 67 degrees and very clear. We managed some blues, I was using sinking line with a natural spearing fly and Pete was using a popping fly. Strong wind was making fishing tough and with the water getting low we moved to the inlet.

Even with the southeast wind we decided to try working the beach front and along the outside of the rocks. Water was 63 and nice and clean all the way in to the beach. The wave action made it a bit sloppy but fishable. We had one hit between the two of us and we worked it hard.

Last move was to work the inside of the inlet. Here we picked up 2 herring, one 20 inch striper and Pete had an unusual catch on the fly. He caught a tog. Think the tog thought his clouser fly looked like a crab.


I have caught a few tog on the fly at the Point before, fishing from the beach, but this was the first I we got in the boat.
Pete hooked another fish that acted like another tog but never got it in as it got bitten off.

Did see a few pods of bunker moving in the inter harbor but there was nothing on them. They were the only signs of any bait that we saw all night.

We really had to work hard for what few fish we got. Only saw one about 4 other boats fishing. Makes you feel like you are fishing the dead sea, with no signs of life in the usual areas and nothing swimming along the rock. We saw no bird activity either.

[CapeMayRay]

It was another challenging night. Left the dock at 4:30 pm with a dad and his son and young daughter. Had a pretty good breeze blowing. Went to the back bay where I have had blue fish action in 5 to 7 feet of water. The water was very clear with a lot of weed and 65 degrees on the outgoing and got to as high as 69 at the bottom of the tide.

The blues were there but it was hard to get them really bitting. We had a number of hits and misses and twice we caught two blues on one plug, yet the blue bites were few and far between
and we only had 8 blues in total.

We did manage one 20 inch striper in the same spot.

We also worked the inlet rocks on all sides with out a single strike and could not get into the beach area to fish as there was a pretty good sea swell making it difficult to fish where we wanted.

Around 8:00 pm the wind died to zero and the gnats, black flies and a few green heads came out and it got warm and we had to spray down.

Again, not seeing any bait fish in all the areas we worked.

[CapeMayRay]

Wild thunderstorm early afternoon. High winds and hail from pea and marble size with a few around quarter size. Temperature went from 95 before the storm to 65 during the storm. Then back up again when the sun came out.

Tried to get out with my fly charter for tonight. Left the dock at 5:00 pm. Got about 3 casts in and heard rumbling off in the distance and saw some blinks. Raced back to the dock and just got in the car when it started raining hard with good lightning and thunder.

By the time I got home it was looking clear to the west, but radar still showing possible storms off to the west.

[CapeMayRay]

Beautiful conditions this morning. Maybe too good. Zero wind with outgoing tide when we tried the back. One throwing a fly and his girlfriend throwing a popping plug. There were only a few fish around and they were very finicky.

Fly angler using intermediate and spearing fly hooked a bass and lost it before I could net it. He also had a fair number of swirlers behind his fly in 3 feet of water. Had him try popping and gurgler flies and still had swirlers and no takers.

His girl friend had swirlers on the popping plug but they would not aggressively strike. Finally hooked one small striper after it hit at plug 5 times.


As it got a little lighter we moved to a little deeper water and picked some small blues on yellow/orange jiggies but action was far from hot with only a strike here and there.

Moved to the inlet and beach front were we found fog and good swell coming in. After getting some herring action, one of the anglers was feeling sea sick so we where forced to move out of the fog and back into the back bay where it was calm where we caught one more blue.

Overall it was a very slow morning with such beautiful conditions.
Again, not seeing any real signs of bait. The blues seem to be feeding on super small baby bunker and super small sea herring. I am seeing zero signs of spearing or bay anchovies at all of the normal spots where I have seen them. Even this morning as calm as it was we never saw a hint of bait.