FISHING REPORTS CAPE MAY JUNE 15 TO 30TH

[CapeMayRay]

Had a pretty good Saturday night. Left the dock at 4:30 pm. with father and son light tackle charter. With the near high I decided to try back bay flats. Within the first hour we worked up 2 small stripers and a blue on popping and swimming plugs in 72 degree water.

Then we were lucky and found one little area where stripers were feeding and we caught 6 more, mostly on popping plugs and missed a good number of hits.


Decided go to where I have had a good bluefish bite the past few days, to see if we could get a few for dinner. Picked up one last bass and had a few small blues hit our plugs. Water here was 66 degrees.

Best striper night in awhile. Good but still not like it should be and still seeing very limited bait and fish activity.

[CapeMayRay]

Sunday morning was another tough fishing day. Left the dock at 5:00 am. with one angler fly plug charter, with perfect wind conditions (zero) and 68 degree water. With similar tides to last night except for less volume and lesser flow I decided to work the area where we caught the night before. In the first half hour missed one bass and caught a 20 inch bass using a popping plug and thought it was going to be a great morning. From there it was all down hill.

Moved to another area where we found the water super clear. Found some small bluefish, but for the most part the area looked dead.

Moved to the inside of the inlet where the water was so filled with weed and snot grass that we couldn't use fly or plug.

Worked the outside in big swells and tried working the beach front but heavy swells and large surf prevented that.

Frustrated I tried one last creek area in the back and could not even generate a hit, so we ended the charter a little early.

Still only seeing only a small amount of bait fish anywhere in the back bay or along the rocks. Best bait activity is under docks at marina.

I suggested, with the fishing in the mornings so bad, that we don't even try to do his second trip tomorrow morning as I do not see any way it can improve. Right now it seems like the best shot at getting any fish is evening or after dark. Over all fishing is poor. Still able to get some fish but, have never had to work so hard for so few.

[CapeMayRay]

Weather man shot me down last night. My charter was coming from Philly and early afternoon asked if we were on or not. We had a pretty strong Southeast wind 17 to 20 mph and fishable but they issued a severe thunderstorm watch with a 60 percent chance of storms.

Told them not to come and we had a beautiful night with no storms till around midnight. Can't Win!

[CapeMayRay]

End of the month and new moon tides brought in some bass to the back bay. Left the dock at 5:00 pm. with a dad and his two sons for a back bay trip. Brought along bait as I didn't know if they could cast plugs or not but never needed it.

Had a super good night. Water coming in the inlet was 58 so we shot into the back bay where I found 70.2 degree water on some flats. Turned out that they all could cast fairly well so we started with top-water popping plugs and we got two blues.

Moved to another area where close to the new moon tide was just about covering the sod banks and nailed a couple of stripers.

Started to look like thunderstorms coming our way so I moved us a bit closer to the marina. Found two more areas where we picked up two more blues and a mess of stripers. Water here was 62 to 66 degrees.


We ended the night with 15 stripers to 22 inches. We lost 4 that came unhooked during the fight and missed a good number of hits.

10 minutes left to fish and we saw a couple of major lightning bolts and heard thunder so we shot back to the dock just as it started raining.

Was one of the best nights of fishing this year and they all caught their first stripers and blues, so it was a fun night for all. Hope I can find the same action tomorrow night for my father and son fly charter.