Fishing Reports Cape May Oct 1 to 31

[CapeMayRay]

Got out this morning with a plug charter on the incoming tide. Caught one small schoolie striper and missed one. Bluefish were around in good numbers but no signs of any bait fish. All the action was along the inlet or outside the inelet.

On a good note the water in the inlet and outside looked cleaner than it has in weeks. Only saw one small pod of mullet swim by the whole morning.

Took a look in the back bay on the top of the tide and found the water there still ugly brown with the algae look to it and no signs of life.

[livetofishnj]

what kind of plugs/patterns have the bass been eating lately? Mullet?

[CapeMayRay]

They will hit any swimming bait plug. Yo Zuri mag darters in small and larger size, the crystal minnow. Bomber swimming plugs and the Rapala x-raps will work too.

[CapeMayRay]

Nice weather and had to go fishing. Peter and I headed out this afternoon to fish the out going tide. Water was 68 to 66.9 with a wind out of the north. Worked the inlet rocks for about 2 hours and I was lucky and caught two super small stripers. (Even if you added both of them together they would not of made one keeper) Both were caught on a bright yellow epoxy head fly on sinking line.


Water quality was good and conditions looked great. Just no signs of any bait at all and no fish or bird activity anywhere.

We worked the beach front for about and hour and I caught about a 8 inch blue on a pink/white jiggie.

Right before sunset we shot to the back to see if we could scrounge another fish somewhere on the last of the out going.

Went to a small point break where in 15 minutes Peter caught 3 small stripers on a crease fly and I caught three more small stripers and a 17 inch blue fish, which was the biggest fish of the day. Mine where again caught on the bright yellow epoxy head fly.

It was a very strange after noon. Our smallest striper was 12 1/2 inches and our largest was only 15 1/2 inches. Very weird to be getting such small fish this time of year.

[brad regan 01]

nice job on the stripers

[CapeMayRay]

I have used bigger fish for bait than the stripers we caught. They were the smallest stripers I have caught all year. Guess with no bait around that is all you can expect.

[CapeMayRay]

Good numbers today but quality the pits!

Went out this afternoon with Pete again. We had beautiful conditions. We fished the outgoing tide at the inlet. Pete caught this striper 21 1/2 striper (Best fish of the day) that had a blue fish hooked on the fly as it hung out the gill of the fish when I netted it. (Never saw this one before.) we only saw a small patch of bait and there were a fair amount of small blues around.


With the fishing slow we went into the back bay and found a spot where we caught 14 stripers in about and hour, but just like yesterday the were all very small. 12 1/2 to 15 1/2 inches. We also caught a few blues.

Fish were taking deceivers on floating line but most were taken on popping and crease flies.

Never have I seen so many super small stripers. Haven't caught this many total in all the years fishing down here combined. Even though there were a number of fish around, there was very little bait. What we saw was very small.

We had a fun afternoon but disappointed with the quality of the fish.

[CapeMayRay]

Don't know how much fun we had today. Pete and I decided to try the last of the incoming tide today. Left the dock with a good southeast wind blowing. Worked the leeward sides of the jetties only picking a few small blues and I had a nice size one bite me off half way to the boat. Pete had best luck with white deer hair mullet and I used spearing and baby bunker flies.

Water looked very good, nice color but none to very little bait and no bird activity along the beach front or the inlet.

Went to the back bay and found the water there the best I have seen since August. It actually looked like would have some fish.

We found a grass area that was holding some really small bait and managed to pull out 5 super small stripers. 12 to 14 inches and a few blues. As the tide started out the wind picked up a few notches and only small fish and fly casting getting tough we called it an afternoon.

Very strange to see all these super small stripers, with no normal schoolie size ones in the areas where past years there were always a mixture of schoolies and keeper size fish.

Hard to get excited catching stripers smaller than snapper blues.

[hubris 1]

i was going to say, that water looks beautiful.........but no fish to match the hatch. so i have this question...........what kind of sandwich did you bring? Ill be there saturday night. In kitty. hope i see you.

[CapeMayRay]

Another disappointing night. Left the dock around 6:30 pm. Light northeast wind and tide on the way out. Shot out to the inlet where small bluefish were to be found, but I was looking for stripers. Caught a few blues on a yellow epoxy head fly and decided to make a move.

With a fair amount of boats around me not catching anything, but blues, I moved to the beach front were I picked up two super small stripers. 13 1/2 and 15 inches along with about a small blue.

Was treated to a beautiful sunset, but saw no bait at either location and no signs of any fish or birds anywhere.

Decided with a perfect tide and darkness to try in the back bay where I worked a couple of creek mouths and point breaks. It was bad. Only saw a few small bits of bait and never had got a strike, heard a fish pop or saw any signs of life.

On the way back to the marina stopped at the bridge lights and never even saw one bit of bait or fish in the Shadow lines. With the water still 66 degrees there should signs of life all over the place.

With is so slow I called it an early night.