Fishing Reports Cape May Nov 1 to Nov 30

[CapeMayRay]

After a few days of blasting winds it was good to get out on the water again. I left the dock at 12:30 pm with my 2 person fly charter. One was an experience fly fisherman and his brother was new too it an had never caught a striper on fly rod.

With a pretty good wind blowing I was going to work the back bay on the out going tide, but as I left the dock I got a call from Ken Kelly (Irish Fly) He was personally fishing out by the inlet and he was getting some bass.

We shot out the inlet and worked along the rocks next to Ken. It was a bit difficult as the wind and the waves wanted to keep pushing you toward the rocks and with just the electric motor it was difficult to keep the boat in good position for two fly anglers to cast so I had to just use the gas motor.

We started off slow, the water was 52.7 degrees and we watched Ken land two fish before we had our first strike. I had one angler using a bunker pattern on 300 sinking and the other was using his own 7wt with a pink/silver/lavender clouser. They each had a few hits but no hook ups. I finally got them casting into the zone and strip setting with out lifting the rod tip and we started hooking up.

Mixed in with the bass were a number of good size sea herring. They were all taken on the clouser.

Finally got the brother who had never caught a stripers on the fly his first, then a second and so on.


He ended up catching the most for a total of 8, including the biggest 26 1/2 inches.

The older brother was fighting a nice bass about 25 or 26 inches and I kept warning him about high sticking as I was trying to net his fish, and bam! it happen.

He was able to get all the broken piece but broke off the fish while hand lining it in. High sticking lesson hard learned.

I then set him up with one of my 8 wts and reminded him again about high sticking. We caught fish and had hits during the out going tide until the dirty water from the bay swept in and dropped the visibility from about 4 feet to 1 foot. Also the sun came out and the wind dropped off.

With the action slowing up we moved to the back bay where we caught two more bass before calling it a day. Total of 14 stripers to 26 1/2 inches. Fun and productive day for all.

Lent the one who broke his rod my 8wt so he could fish tomorrow morning down at the Point.

[CapeMayRay]

After yesterdays good fishing I decided to go and get a few fish for myself. Called a fishing friend who doesn't fly fish and we left the dock around 1:00 pm hoping to hit the same tide and fishing as yesterday.

Wind was blowing from the east at 17 to 20. Water at the inlet was 52.7 and there were some good waves at the end of the inlet. We made it out through the breaking waves and slop, but were concerned about when the tide started going out against the wind just how bad it would get on the way back in.

We decided to go back in and work the inside rocks. Controlling the boat with the electric motor was a full time job and making fly fishing difficult. We worked the inlet for about an hour, fighting the wind and wave action, with no strikes on fly or plug.

Headed to the back bay with the top of the tide and worked a dozen good areas for an hour and still no strikes. Water back here was 49 to 52 degrees and looked great.

With the wind still honking we fished an exposed area with a good rip line. Here I hooked a schoolie striper which jumped and threw the hook. About 15 minutes later I hooked and landed the only bass of the day. A fat little 22 incher.

Cold a little discouraged we headed back to the dock at 4:30. Not quite the day we hoped for but still fun.

[CapeMayRay]

Had a young couple out today. We left the dock at around 11:30 am. It was cloudy and wind with the wind blowing from the worst possible direction. Just like Sunday, it was honking about 20 mph and coming right down the inlet, making boat control a problem.

He wanted to fly fish but it was to windy for his skill level (he had only used a 3 wt before.) His girlfriend had never fished before and didn't know how to cast a spin rod so I would cast it out an let her wind it in. It was cold and she was doing it with mittens on.

Started working the inlet rocks with the water 51 to 52 degrees and the water very murky. (Only 1 1/2 feet of visibility)

Under tough conditions I was able to get 5 stripers for them. He caught 3 and she got 2. They were all small but they had a fun time.



As the day progressed it got nicer, the sun came out here and there and the wind started to die. They could only fish for 3 hours as they had a dinner reservation and had to get on the road early.

As I was cleaning up the boat, the wind died to zero. Almost thought about heading out myself but had some things to do at home.

[CapeMayRay]

Got the old skunkeraroo this morning. My brother from Florida was on his way to visit his wifes family for holiday had time for a hit and run fishing trip for 2 hours.

Couldn't of picked a worse tide. Left the dock at 10:00 am, with dead low tide at the inlet at 10:30. Still a decent wind blowing out of the southeast, water in the inlet looked like mud with about 1 foot of visibility. The water was 51.7

Whole north jetty was covered with toggers. and the whole the south one had boats tide up everywhere togging. The ocean was still stirred up with some good swells and chop.

Worked the inlet and for about an hour and no hits on plugs or flies.

Decided to go in the back bay even with the super low water just to find some that was pretty clean. Water here was 50.6 degrees. We worked a shallow cut coming off of a flats area about 4 feet deep.

I got zero hits on the fly, but my brother hooked up a nice keep size bass striper. It was the biggest one I have seen back there in awhile and looked to be around 34 to 36 inches. It splashed and thrashed in the shallow water and ran all over the place. He had it about 20 feet from the boat when it threw the plug on one last surface head shake. That was the only hit for either of us and we were back to the dock by noon.

We had a good time catching up on the latest with our families and it was around 60 degrees making for comfortable fishing.

[CapeMayRay]

Was going to do a morning trip with a friend on his 42 footer. The plan was to anchor off the beach front and clam for some bass. Was going to be about 7 people including some women for a little fun morning.

Forecast for this morning was 15 to 20 gusting to 25. We canceled. Got up this morning to nice and sunny and it looked more like 10 to 15. Took a look at the ocean and still big swells and a lot of white water on the tops of waves so it was a good decision with mostly novices. The extra chum really would not be needed.

Have had some great trips in the past with calm waters on turkey day and they always give me a corner of the stern to play fly rod games.

Just going to enjoy the turkey and football. Hope everyone has the same great day.

[CapeMayRay]

It was 31 degrees when I left for the boat this morning and lucky the wind was down to about 10 mph. Left the dock at 7:00 am and it was down right cold. The water was 50.7 as we headed out to fish the inlet rocks.

Had one fly fisherman and one plug fisherman on todays charter. We started getting hits right away but no hook ups. Fly angler was use to lifting rod tip to set the hook from trout fishing so it took a while to get him into hand strip set.

Other guy using a plug, couldn't figure out why he couldn't hook up. Hooks were sharp and everything else looked good. We missed the first 7 fish in a row that hit.

Ken Kelly came out a while after us. with his fly charter and we watched them land at least 6 bass.

Finally my fly guy hooked one on a bunker fly using 300 sinking line and we broke the ice.

After some more misses the bites stopped for both Ken and us and we both headed to the back bay as the water was getting dirty with the out going full moon tide.

Here we missed the first 4 fish in the back. I made one short move and with the same fly and same plug, we hooked up 5 out of 7 hits.



Put in an extra hour of fishing as I wanted them to get a few fish.
Can't remember a day with such a poor hook up ratio. They had fun and landed 6 stripers and it was probably in the 40's and felt warm when we got to the dock.

To add insult to injury we had a full moon blow out tide. I just barely got in my slip using the electric motor and before I could finish washing the boat I was hard on the bottom.

[CapeMayRay]

Had fly charter this morning with SJCFA member Steve Miller and his son. Left the dock at 7:00 am. It was not nearly as cold as it was yesterday and less wind. We went out to the inlet and worked the rocks. Water was 50.9 and nice and clean.

Steve's son Steve caught the first bass on a bunker fly on 300 sinking line. It was his first striper on a fly rod and he was pretty excited.

His dad got a 25 inch bass on his rod using a sinking line and a pink/white clouser fly. It was his biggest striper on a fly for him.

Thought it was going to be a great day, we had a few hits and misses but the action never came and it was very difficult to work the rocks as there were a lot of Coasties fishing from the rocks and about 12 boats tied up along the jetty no making for much room to work it with the fly.

We went into the back bay where we had good action yesterday and worked three prime spot. Everything looked great, but we could not buy a hit.

With conditions so nice I really thought we would do a lot better, but they were happy with there personal best striper catches.


SECOND TRIP OF THE DAY

Second trip was not a fly charter and I thought it would be more difficult to get bass as we did not have as good a tide and my charter was two older gentlemen in their 70's who didn't know how to cast a spin rod and who wanted to catch on lures rather than bait.

Knew it was going to be tough when the came down lightly dressed even though I told them to dress warm as it could be cold.

Charter worked out pretty well. Weather was pretty nice and it was relatively warm at 1:00 pm. when we left the dock. We worked the inlet rocks and beach front and slowly picked off 10 stripers up to 26 inches using swimming plugs. Only lost three plugs to the rocks and only had to undo line out of trolling motor twice.

They had a great time and we did better than I expected as it was difficult for them to cast lures into the strike zone.

[CapeMayRay]

Disappointing afternoon. Helped a buddy get his outriggers ready for winter. It was windy when we started and calm when we ended around noon. We decided to go out and give it a shot with the tide only going out for a little while.

Left the dock around 12:30 with the water 51.7 and went to the back bay and worked 3 normally great spots with perfect tides. I was using fly rod and he was using a spinner and neither of us got a hit.

Went to the inlet rocks and found a clean patch of water where he landed two small bass on a YoZuri Mag Darter and missed one at the boat. I only had one hit and missed it.

With the tide going out the water got real dirty and the short bite stopped. With the tide getting low and the water dirty we quit.

Not too bad for a hit and run 2 1/2 hour trip.

To make things worse we barely had enough water to get back in our slip and found they just blew out the water lines, so there was no water to wash down the boat and the rest of the year there will be no more fresh water.

[CapeMayRay]

Helped a friend take his 42 footer up to the Maurice River to be hauled. Strong southwest wind and 5 foots seas all the way up to the mouth of the river.

Lots of white water on the tops of ugly brown water. Saw only 5 boats chunking on the way up. They were all about 25 foot boats and it didn't look to be too comfortable the way they were bouncing around on the hook.

Wind honking out of the west today and not looking like a fun fly fishing day. Hard to get use to looking at the weather to see if it is nice enough to even try to fish. Water even in the harbor on high tide looks ugly brown from all the wind. Looks like I will be another sitting on the dock of the bay day.