Fishing Reports Cape May Sept 15 to 30

[CapeMayRay]

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Seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. Last night, Left the dock at 4:00 pm with one person fly charter with incoming tide just starting to move. Water was still ugly in the harbor and even with the dredge not working the inlet it still looked bad. I figured with the extra high water push with the full moon there would be a good chance of cleaner water.

With a west wind I decided to work the beach, figuring it would be flat. Here we found best water I have seen in awhile. About foot and a half of visibility with a few small pods of mullet running along the beach but nothing hitting it.

Only hits were coming from pathetic little blues 8 to 10 inches long and using bigger flies for stripers we were not hooking them.

Around dusk the wind died to zero and we had a beautiful sunset. Move to the Jetties and found a fair amount of small bait fish along the rock. Flies would spook them but again only some hits from the dink blues. Did get one 8 incher on a 4 inch fly.

After dark we saw a few pops along the rocks and managed to hook up one decent striper on black silicone mullet fly. Looked to be a good fish as it put up a better fight the the normal schoolie. Had it on for awhile but the leader broke in the mid section. (Might of had a nick in the mono from one of the previous hook ups on the rocks) When fishing the inlet most of your hit will come from zero to 10 feet from the rocks so you do get hung up once in awhile at night.

With it being such a beautiful night we stayed out a bit and looked at the light line of the bridge. Water quality was not very good (only a foot of visibility and only those dink blues were around so we called it a night.

[CapeMayRay]

Had a decent night Wednesday. Decided to do a personal exploratory trip. Left the dock at 6:30pm to work the cleaner incoming tide. With a northeast wind blowing and an incoming tide I tried the north of the inlet along the beach and found mostly dink blues 8 to 10 inches chasing bait with a few bigger ones mixed in. It was a little difficult working with the wind and waves but I managed a couple of 16 inch blues.

Before dusk I moved to were I saw bait yesterday and worked long section of rocks where I worked super hard and managed to pick catch 4 stripers to 23 inches, missing one other. One on yellow mullet fly, two on popping fly and one on a black silicone fly.



Again it was a perfect weather night. Wind died to zero and the water was flat calm and made working the rocks easy. Never saw any bait or fish popping and all fish were taken close to the surface within 6 feet of the rocks. Water was the poorest that I have seen with a close to full moon tide. One and half feet is all you could see down into the water. Water seemed to get worse as the tide came in higher which is really weird. Water was 71.5

Fished till 9:30 and checked the bridge on the way back to the marina and visibility was poor there, maybe one foot at best and only a few super small blues working the Shadow lines.

Still feel like I am in the twilight zone. Even though I got some fish, things still just don't feel right with the water, the bait and conditions. Back at the marina there were no bait fish under the lights or sounds of fish hitting bait around the docks like normal for this time of year.

[CapeMayRay]

SJCFA instead of our monthly meeting we decided to meet at Corson's for some fly action. Had about 20 members show up. Strong northeast wind but very fishable. Water quality was the issue. Very brown, lots of baitfish but no decent fish around. Algae bloom looks to be effecting even that area. Just a few small fluke and sea bass caught on clousers. Most anglers never got a strike.

Some of the anglers that showed up.

[CapeMayRay]

With the water still ugly and the wind out of the northeast strong I canceled charter for today and made arrangements to have my lower unit oil changed. Was to meet up at the public ramp to have boat pulled. Got there around 7:00 am, about a 1/2 hour early.

While waiting I notice some mullet being chased, so I whipped out a rod and started throwing a mullet popping fly. Had a fish hit it three times in a row and on the fourth hit hooked up and landed a 25 inch striper. (Not bad for a non-fishing trip.)

About 25 casts later had another hit and miss and my trailer was there.

Before heading back to the dock I decided to check out the inlet. With a good northeast wind there was decent wave action but it looked fishy, until I looked at the water. About 1 foot of visibility was about it. Saw a few very small pods of mullet (10 to 20 in each) but got no strikes.

Figured while I was out I would scout around the back bay flats and creeks to see what kind of bait or fish activity I could find. Covered about 5 miles of sod banks and creeks and saw zero mullet and very little bait and only saw 3 little splashes of dink blues on some small bait.

Water quality was 6 to 12 inches still. Normally it should be fairly clear this time of year and loaded with small blues chasing bait everywhere.

[CapeMayRay]

Best night in ages but mixed feelings. After watching the Eagles game and eating dinner I notice that there was no wind outside. I checked out the forecast and they were calling for 2 mph winds out of the south east. Even with the surf being ugly brown earlier in the day I decided it would be a good night for a night trip.

Couldn't get another crazy to go out with me so I did a solo trip. Left the dock at 10:30 pm and went straight to the inlet. Conditions were perfect weather and wind wise. Water still looked bad but with the incoming tide I had almost 2 feet of visibility and the water was 68.9 degrees. Really nice to fish with no wind, no boat traffic. For safety I wear my inflatable life jacket and put a boarding rope ladder on the side cleat and try to stay centered in the boat. This time of year water temps are not going to kill you, but later in the year I have to be even more careful.

Started getting hits and fish right away and all hits came right close to the rocks, with some coming just after the fly hit the water. I don't think I hooked a fish further the 6 feet away from the rocks and with the wind so light I was able to keep the boat about 20 feet away and cast parallel to keep my fly as close as possible.

All the fish were small. Around the Inlet rocks I got 9 stripers 19 1/2 to 24 inches but the action was good. Black silicone, black popping fly and black dear hair flies worked well with the Silicone the one that caught best. I had too many misses with the popper. Key was to work all flies very slow and keep it near the surface and close to the rocks. I was using floating and intermediate lines.



Action was good until around 1:30 am when the tide stopped. When it stopped the fish stopped bitting. Only tough thing about fishing at night is that the rocks ate 3 flies. Moon did not start to putting out some light till about midnight.

With the tide dead I went to the bridge lights and caught one more small striper on a all yellow buck-tail deceiver. Water there still looked very bad with maybe 12 inches of visibility and very little bait fish. Can't ever remember it being so lifeless.

Still on a fish catching high and not feeling too tired I went to my go to creek mouths in the back of the flats anticipating some hot action on the out going tide. Fished till 4:00 am. in prime locations on a prime tide with perfect conditions and could not even get a strike. Never saw or heard any bait or fish in the back and water quality was as poor as ever.

If I couldn't get fish back there then, there are not to be caught. I am declaring it dead till further notice. Only decent fishing I have had in the last 6 weeks has been in the inlet or in the ocean. It is just sad in the back, which should be really good at this time of the year.

Again, around the boat and the lighted docks around the marina I saw no signs of life.

[CapeMayRay]

With the brown water, forecast for rain I thought it best to cancel charter this afternoons charter before they made the drive down.

Early afternoon I went down do work on the boat a bit and decided to take a quick trip out to the ocean and check the water and conditions first hand.

Seas were not bad for getting out the inlet but still big surf on the beach front. Water was still very brown everywhere from the past three days of northeast winds.

Decided to fish a bit even with 1 foot of visibility and managed only one bite and was lucky to hook it up, catching a 21.5 inch striper which hit right next to the rocks. Must of got luck and hit him on the head.

Weather looked a bit iffy but never came into the area.

With it being pretty nice I decided to scout out the back bay sod banks a creeks to see if there was any bait or fish around. It was very barren. Only saw a few small gatherings of very small bait and saw no bluefish or stripers spooking anything anywhere.

Can't ever remember seeing the back this dead for so long, especially in September when there is usually great schoolie and bluefish action.

[CapeMayRay]

Had two person fly charter out today. Had a perfect tide as we started at the inlet rocks. Water was better than Sunday with no signs of any bait or birds anywhere. Worked it hard and never got a single strike.

Moved to the back bay flats to work some points and creeks. Saw just a small amount of bait and a couple of very small blues chasing some bait. Guys got tired of throwing flies and switched to plugs and one 20 inch striper was caught. It was the only strike of the trip.

Still feel like I am fishing in the dead zone. Still see no signs of bait in the marina.

[hubris 1]

you should write a book. great pictures, stories too. it takes time to do, i think i like yours the best.

[Dave Sikorski]

I agree w/ hubris Ray.

I haven't been able to get out fly fishing in over 7 weeks and love reading your reports.

-D

[CapeMayRay]

Got to have some fish around to catch them and have to catch some to have some stories. Almost ready to give up fishing and buy a racing sailboat and get back into racing as we seem to always have wind.