Cape May Fishing Report May 1 to May 30

[CapeMayRay]

Had a fly charter on Sunday afternoon. We left the dock at 4:00pm with the tide coming in and the water was 65 degrees. There was 15 to 20 mph south wind blowing so it kept some of the crowds off the water. We weren't able to work the beach front or out side the inlet as the wind and waves made it a bit hairy.

We were able to fish using 350 grain lines and clouser and spearing fly patterns. It was slow pick with a fish here and there. We managed 4 bass from 15 to 26 inches and missed a really nice one that came off close to the boat. Camera batteries needed a charge so no pictures.

Fish were not bitting real aggressive and we had three more that followed the fly up to the boat only to turn away.

We also got two nice blues that we kept for dinner. (put my head lamp batteries in camera and was back in business picture wise)



Did not see signs of any bait but the blues were spitting up spearing in the live well, so I know there was some bait around.

[CapeMayRay]

After two days of weather keeping me off the water I had to get out. Decided to fish the incoming tide tonight and Paul from the club could make it.

We left the dock at 6:30 pm. Still a little bit of a northeast wind blowing, but not bad. Found 62 degree water at the inlet and it a little bit of fog to make it cold and damp. With the colder water of the incoming tide it didn't last too long and it cleared and the wind die down a bit as it got closer to dark.

We had a pretty good night catching 4 stripers to 27 inches and one blue. Not a hot bite, but a little action here and there. The water was a bit brown to start with a lot of grass and straw in the water, but it got better as the tide came in.



Paul caught on a clouser and I caught on a clouser and pink/yellow deceiver. We both were using sinking lines.

Pauls first fish looked bad. The tail was all messed up and the body of the fish looked all scraped up and was bleeding from the tail when we boated it.

The last bass we caught looked even worse. It too was bleeding from the tail and I decided to get some pictures to send into the state when I give them my bonus tag striper summary at the end of the year.


We fished till 9:30 pm. and called it a night.

[CapeMayRay]

Well, I think we had fun tonight. Decided to leave the dock 6:30 to catch the tide right at the inlet. Peter and I got to the boat and found it foggy and a good wind blowing out of the east.

We headed out to the inlet and it wasn't too bad as we had about 100 yards of visibility. With the wind and the current it was tough controlling the boat and casting and stripping the fly line. To make things worse they was a ton of weed and straw. It seemed like ever 3rd or 4th cast you had to remove a pile of crap off the fly.

We hit one stretch where we picked up 3 stripers to 25 inches on Chart/white clousers on sinking line.

As the tide came in the fog got worse and worse and it got dark earlier than normal due to the fog. We worked it till 9:00 when with it being dark, visibility down just seeing the rocks and fighting the debris plus it being cold and wet, we gave into mother nature. The debris was the biggest problem.

One of those nights when the GPS is worth it's weight in gold.

[CapeMayRay]

After last night hammering thunderstorms Glen and I met at the dock at 4:30 am to target weakfish. It was a beautiful morning with just a light wind and no seas. We left the dock at 4:45 am. Also leaving at the same time was Dan from the barn who was fishing in his boat. We both had visions of big weakies.

We were the first two boats on location. Glen had a nice fish on after only a few casts with a crab pattern clouser, but lost it before we could see it in the dark.

We had a few small hits but no hook ups and by 5:30 there were about 8 boats working the general area with none of us getting any weakies. Dan came the closest. He had one of his pink rubber baits that came back with weakfish fang marks in it.

After working a prime spot for two hours with no results we moved to another location and found all the sea herring you could want. We caught over thirty in a short period of time with a number of jump offs, keeping 18 for salting down for fluke bait.

We then put on larger flies to get away from herring hitting on every cast. Glen using a orange/yellow deceiver with a jiggie head on a sinking line, caught the first bass.


A couple of casts later I got a 25 inch bass on a Pink/white buck tail deceiver on sinking line.

Caught one last small blue on the pink deceiver right before we quit. We fished to 8:30 am. and with the sun getting high we called it a morning. We never got our targeted species but had a lot of action and fun.

[CapeMayRay]

No fishing this morning. Woke up to heavy thunderstorms and had to cancel my fly fishing charter for this morning. Lightning and graphite rods do not mix well.