Cape May Fishing Report July 1 to 31

[CapeMayRay]

Couldn't pull any magic off Friday afternoon. Had a father and his two sons that wanted to go out for stripers. They didn't want to go prime time, early morning or sunset. I told them it would be tough unless we tried clam on the bottom, that we could fluke fish and have a better shot, but they wanted to try for the bass.

I wanted to catch the start of the outgoing tide at around 11:00 but they insisted on 1:00pm. I told them that would make it tough but they said catching fish of any kind would be good.

With an extra strong tide it was tough fishing we caught tons of sand sharks and a number of croakers. (first I have seen for the year) The seaweed was as bad as it could get. With all the croakers we couldn't keep bait on the hook very long. Using large pieces of clam and larger circle hooks they kept steeling the bait. Put down some small hooks so the could have fun with the croakers and never had a bass.

They had fun day, but with constant re-baiting and removing seaweed in the hot sun, I know why I love the low light fishing. The 4 hours trip in the heavy sun felt like it was 8 hours.

[CapeMayRay]

No Fly charter tonight. At 5:00pm wind was honking out of the southeast 18 to 25 mph With the wind, there would be no fishing on in the ocean or around the jetty tonight and with dead low around 5:00 there was no decent water in the back where you could find shelter.

Week days this time of year are bad enough during the day. Weekends are 10 times worse. Went down to the boat this afternoon and the amount of boats out on the water was insane. I don't know where the fish can even hide for cover. They probably run for the deepest holes they can find. There were boats everywhere, people buzzing through the no wake zones and jet skiers all over. It is sad but almost humorous at the same time. It is not even pleasant to be on the water during the day anymore.

Crowds are all off the water now, but it is maninly due to the strong gusty winds.

IS IT SUNDAY NIGHT YET?

[CapeMayRay]

I was looking forward to some fly charters this weekend after all the plug and bait ones during the week. Blown out last night. high winds, rain and thunder storms I canceled tonights trip and with the wind to blow all night, a call for thunder storms in the morning and low tide at prime time I had to call off my morning trip to prevent them from driving down from Philly for nothing.

It's a no fun weekend. I can't even get out to do some personal fishing as there appears to be no break in the wind or weather.

[hubris 1]

Friday was awful, did you ever see so much junk in the water? Now that i sport a little boat, your my go to guy. I read you everyday. Its nice when your done fishing and its only a 5 minute ride to the barn. Look for me in my scout costa,

[CapeMayRay]

After 5 days of not fishing due to the weather and having to run to Dover Delaware today to get my electric motor serviced I was eager to hit the water for some fishing.

Left the dock with a buddy Joe at 4:30pm with the tide just starting out. Joe was going to do the top water plug thing. Tide was great but a little early light wise but just had to get out.

It started out tough and was tough all evening. There was still a pretty good wind blowing. Just enough to be a pain for casting the fly and maneuvering the boat but not too bad.

At the second spot we tried, Joe got a 15 1/2 dink but it was the first fish and got us excited.

About a hour later after hitting numerous spots I got my first fish (Tried kissing it for good luck but it didn't work).

We kept on moving and working spots that really looked like text book set ups but could not get any hits. They are all normally good producers, but not tonight.

Finally hit a spot where Joe hooked a nice one. After a good fight in 2 1/2 feet of water he got it in. His fish had sea lice on it so it must of just come in from the ocean.


We thought things were starting pick up and we would be in for some hot action. We worked this normally good area to death and only had slim results. I had two hits on crease fly and couldn't get a hook up and Joe caught one more small fish. We worked it hard until it was dark and the moon was out bright.