Cape May Fishing Report July 1 to 31

[CapeMayRay]

Had father and two young boys out tonight. (non fly fishing trip) With them calling for thunderstorms we pushed their charter ahead and hour in hopes of getting it in. Left the 4:00pm. and headed out to the ocean to try and find some blues but found none and got no hits around the inlet.

Headed to the back at the top of the tide and worked three creeks and never got a hit even though we did see a little bit of small bait around.

made a 4th move to a another creek where we got our first fish of the night on a swimming plug.

Conditions were idea, water was clean and good tidal flow but not much fish action so we made the 5th move where we had a couple of hits but no takers.

Finally made the 6th move of the night, just as a heavy fog started rolling in. Here we started to pick away at a few stripers.

It should of been good action, with a perfect tide, a nice flow but was pretty dead we had to fight for every fish we got. With the fishing slow and our time up for the charter I decided to give them more time.

Go figure, with the water getting dirtier and flow getting light and it getting dark, the fish turned on. We ended up with 9 stripers and three really nice bluefish.


Right before we headed in at 9:00pm the fog fog lifted and we could fly back to the dock.

[CapeMayRay]

Tough night on Thursday. Left the dock at 5:00 pm with father and son fly charter. Both were trout fishermen with not much heavier rod experience. They brought their two 8 wts with intermediate line.

I decided to hit the inlet with the last of the incoming tide. I had them using my rods with the sinking lines. Water was 68 and not quite as clean as it was the night before. (Think the rain late last night might of been the cause.) Worked it pretty good and son caught a dink striper on a Yank's Assassin and they had one other hit.

Did see a little bait but no signs of blues or any bird activity anywhere along the beach, so we headed to the back to hit the outgoing flows at the creeks and points.

Tried a number of creek mouths only to find the water very brown not one hit after working 6 normally good spots. Here the guys were using their own rods with intermediate line.

Moved to a shallow channel area where water was a bit cleaner with a good out going flow and picked 4 more dink stripers to 17 inches. Surf Candies, small clousers and spearing type flies caught.

Both hooked had decent stripers on in the 24 to 26 inch range, but both broke off well into the fight. They said they were striped bass tapered leaders. I don't know what pound test they were but the ends broke really easy. To me they felt like they broke at around 6 pounds of pull. With the heavy current and the pressure I am sure that was the problem.

Weather and tides were perfect, just a tough night.

[CapeMayRay]

After the holiday break I got out Monday night with fly charter. Angler had Freshwater trout experience but had never tried saltwater. I set him up with my fly rods and he did very well for his first time with the heavier weight set ups. There was a bit of a breeze blowing making it a bit more difficult but he did pretty well.

We had perfect tides for fishing the inlet and ocean, only no one told the fish. We worked it hard for about 2 hours, saw a decent amount of bait and came up with one small striper, which we hooked up right as the Marine Police were going by. ( he stopped to see what we caught and whether we released it, before moving on.) Fish was caught on sinking line and synthetic natural colored clouser.


Disappointed in the action I shot to the back bay where we found some small bait and picked up another bass on a popping fly and floating line. With the wind picking up my charter decided to switch over to a popping plug which made casting easier and he could sit back and relax instead of fighting the fly line and the wind.

We worked the area till dark and caught 5 more bass including one that had a tag in it. ( I will post the results when I get them back.)

[CapeMayRay]

This mornings trip was a non fly trip. Took a father and his two sons out for some popper fishing. Left the dock at 5:00 am and headed to the back bay to work the incoming tide. First spot I tried the father hooked up with the first fish of the day. A dink, but still it was nice to get the skunk out quick.

Shortly there after the youngest landed his first one and the other son had a few hits but no hook ups.

We caught 4 fish at the first location and had a number of misses and moved on to spot 2 where we fished the rest of the trip. He the youngest son got hot and caught 4 more bass being the high hook for trip.


We had 12 fish for the morning including one double hook up, lot's of hit and misses and the oldest son caught the last one of the morning and we headed back to the dock around 9:15 am. with everyone having a fun morning.


It was a fun morning for me too, lots of action and we were back in early. I got the boat all cleaned up and was home before the sun was getting strong.

[CapeMayRay]

Couldn't get tonights trip in. Went down to the boat at 5:00pm and the wind was honking in the 20's out of the southeast. Had a freshwater fly guy to go out on first saltwater trip and two plug fishermen. With the tide just starting in and white caps all over, there was no place to hide. I didn't think it would be a good introduction to saltwater fly fishing. I didn't of even think about fishing myself as it was really blowing with some heavy gusts. Wind did drop out around dark, but still blowing around 10 mph.

[CapeMayRay]

Had a father and his son and daughter from Holland out this morning. A friend of mine had relatives in from Holland and wanted me to take them out for some fishing. The son has some light tackle experience and caught his first small pike right before they left for vacation.

Couldn't get them to go out at prime time. Left the dock around 9:30 am and we headed to the back bay right as the tide was getting ready to head out. We started with popping plugs hoping to get a last striper or two before the sun got too high. We had 3 strikes but no hook ups.

About 10;30 I set them up with bait and we started in with a mess of sharks. Kids just love those thing and they could catch enough of them.


In between all the sharks we did get two dink stripers. With the fairly strong north west winds the boat kept swinging back and forth, making it hard to fish where I wanted.


With a little time left we headed to the ocean to look for some dolphins before heading in. The kids were all excited about seeing the dolphins and we caught a few small sea bass and few more sharks before heading in.

Kids had a great time, I had a good time talking to the dad about Holland and we enjoyed a nice lunch on the deck at Harbor view with the rest of the family. Not the usually search for bigger fish or stripers on the fly, but a nice relaxing day for all.

[CapeMayRay]

Last night got out the night before canceled trip. Freshwater fly fisherman and his two sons. He had only 5 wt experience for trout.

We left the dock at 5:00pm. with a pretty strong northwest wind blowing so we headed to the beach front for some shelter from the wind. We were able to find the shelter and conditions and tide looked perfect, but we only a few small hits on the rubber baits that kids where using and he was have a bit of trouble casting the sinking line. He was getting out a decent cast and would of been able to catch if the fish were there.

We worked the inlet for a bit. Again conditions looked great but just no fish, so we headed to the back bay flats and sod banks with the wind starting to drop out. Condition there were perfect with clean water, nice tidal flow, a little bit of bait but we could not buy a strike after working a number of prime spots.

We kept on working hard with the boy now using popping plugs. The dad finally over to a popping plug. He found working the heavier rod for three hours to be a good work out.

In the last hour of fishing, with the wind at zero, we finally found a few fish. Ending up with a total of 7 to 24 inches with a good number of misses, with the one son not able to land a fish with loosing two fish that he had on for a good while.



Gnats and mosquitoes came out in full force at the end to liven things up. With the bug spray they were a bit of a pain but not too bad.

[CapeMayRay]

Went out on a personal trip Friday night. Left the dock around 8:15 pm. and worked a prime area with a popping fly. Third cast I had a swirl and about 10 casts later I had a bass blast it and had it hooked for a while and lost it. Had on other hit in that spot and left.

Moved on to a creek mouth with the incoming tide getting there right around dark, worked it for about an hour missing one hit and finally hooking up with a 21 inch bass.

With not much action and it dark I moved on to another area and switched to deceivers. I fished this area till around 11:30.
Here I had 3 good solid hook ups and fought fish for a couple of minutes before loosing each one. Each fish was hooked on a different fly and I checked them all for being sharp, which they were.

Can't remember a night where I hooked up fish, had them on for a good amount of time only to have them come undone.

It was a disappointing night, but at least I didn't get skunked.

[CapeMayRay]

Wind, Wind and more Wind. Started blowing mid day and continued to build all afternoon. Not a fun night to go out. Cancelled tonights trip with no place to hide and the flags straight out.

[CapeMayRay]

Had a large day on the water Sunday. My daughter was down for the weekend and wanted to go out. With a charter scheduled for the evening we had do a mid day trip. (good to do one once in a while to re-enforce why I do not do them.

Left the dock at noon with wife and daughter for a joy ride along the ocean from and then a little flounder fishing in the back. Joy riding was pleasant in the ocean, but the back bay was like zoo city. Felt like I was traveling on an six lane expressway at rush hour with all the boat traffic.

We fished for about an hour and a half and caught 15 fluke with one just barely a keeper in a lesser used channel only bugged by the jet skiers.


Evening Plug Charter

Came in got the boat all cleaned, ate a quick dinner and back to the boat by 4:30 to Saturday nights rescheduled charter. Left the dock at 5:00 pm with three guys from Dallas Texas. (freshwater large mouth bass and crappie fishermen.) Wind was blowing pretty good out of the southeast but died as it got near sunset, to the point of dead calm.

The first two hours started out slow but moving around and persistence paid off and we had a super night. Got into stripers and small blues. (27 stripers and 12 blues all caught on plugs.) We had two double hookups with bass and missed a number of fish.

One guy was hot. He caught 18 of the 27 bass and only one blue and all of the bigger fish.



With the fish hot I gave them an extra half hour of time and they had to get in as they were heading to Atlantic City with the wifes.

Personal Fly Trip

Couldn't let such a beautiful night go by with getting a bass on the fly. Being dead calm and with such a good bite I went to the truck and got my fly rods and headed back out at 10:00 pm and fished to 12:00 am. Using a large bait fish pattern I caught 7 bass myself to 25 1/2 inches and left the fish still bitting as I was getting tired.



One of those all around fun days to remember. With perfect no wind conditions at night.