Fishing Reports Cape May Aug 15 to Aug 31

[laxkeeper29]

Fishing recently has been terrible, inshore and offshore. Went out on saturday and we only caught a few small flounder. But if you're just looking for some action we caught a ton of croakers in the rips, which to me is better than coming back with nothing. Good luck, I feel your pain

[CapeMayRay]

Thanks for the infor. I have built my business around fly and light tackle plug fishing for stripers and blues. In years past you have a bad trip once in awhile with some small fish or only a few, but never with ideal weather and tide conditions. Stripers and blues are around all summer when you fish low light or at night. This thursday will be three weeks straight with horrible water quality with not one normal fishing trip within that time and with trips where you can't even get a few strikes.

[CapeMayRay]

I tried to talk my charter out of trying tonight as the water was still ugly greenish brown close to high tide. I told them the fishing was a poor as it gets, that there was a Algae bloom and I thought it would be a waste of time and money.

With such perfect tide conditions they wanted to try. We left the dock with the tide still coming in. There was a pretty strong wind from the east so fishing the beach front and the inlet were out.

We headed to the back and started fishing some prime areas that looked perfect except for the color of the water. We worked sod banks, creek mouths and point breaks and even saw a fair amount of bait.

After fishing hard for 2 1/2 hours and not one single strike, swirl, etc. I suggested that we call it a night and I would only charge them for a 1/2 a trip. They agreed.

It was another night that you would of chosen for fishing if you could of picked it in advance, Right time of day, perfect tide, and good weather. Just the same ugly water and you can only see down 6 to 12 inches at best.

I am not even booking any more trips. Just taking their names and telling them I will call them if conditions change and there are some fish to be caught. Can't take these trips where no matter where or what you do you can not get even a strike.

Talked to some bait fishermen and they are doing very poorly too. Only a few small fluke, sea bass and croakers at best.

[CapeMayRay]

Still frustrating! Keep looking at the water at high tide hoping it will look better and it is still the same. Algae bloom still there and visibility still 6 to 12 inches. and as the tide goes down it decreases.

Can't stand turning down all the trips with such nice calm weather but not fair to take the customers out for a boat ride. I don't even want to go out and waste my time. Might have to start doing dolphin watching and bird watching tours.

The ocean is looking a little better but the back bay still looks like sewer water. Bait might be the only way to catch fish right now, but for the fly and plug fishermen that is not an option as most are looking for the striper, blue and weakfish action and not the meat.

[CapeMayRay]

Glimmer of Hope!!!! I Checked out the water along the beach front on Saturday and it looked a bit cleaner. Went down to the boat around 7:00 pm to check out the water at the marina with the tide coming in and found I could seem my stainless prop when I tilted the engine down.

Decided to go out for a quick run to check out the water and found with the incoming tide close to the inlet and inter coastal channel there was about 20 inches of visibility, which was the best it has been in weeks.

Broke out a fly rod and decided to give it a try. Worked a nice current line in about 3 to 4 feet of water very close to inter coastal channel. Shortly after sunset, with the water still not great I decided to use the brightest fly I could find. Using a bright yellow epoxy head on intermediate line I caught a 23 inch striper after about 20 casts and thought It would be the start of something good.

I continued to work the area hard but never got another strike and with the tide dying out I decided to go to the very back of the flats and work the many creek mouths. Water back there never cleaned up. There was only 6 to 12 inches of visibility and the water still looked ugly. With zero wind I worked some of the creeks and run offs but never got a strike or heard and fish popping or feeding.

With no hits I ran back to the cleaner water and worked some sod banks and current points but still could not get a strike and the water was getting worse by the minute as the ugly water came off the flats.

Fished for about 3 1/2 hours and had only the one hit that I hooked up. Was the best trip in awhile so things are looking up.

One of the guys from the dock and his buddy, fishing the same area caught 2 small bass and missed a nice one and also said his action happened fast and as soon as the water got bad they got no more hits.

When I got back to the marina the water there was back to the normal 6 to 12 inches of visibility. Maybe a few more high tides might bring back some life to the back flats.

[HOLWACHAGOT]

Keep at em Ray. I hope your water clears up soon for you. That algae rich muckwater is next to impossible to get bites on artificials in(as you well know). I think the DO is very low and even if they are there they don't want to exert any effort chasing dinner. Thanks for the updates.

Holwachagot