Fishing Reports Cape May July 16 to July 31

[CapeMayRay]

Left the dock at 5:30pm a three generations on board. Fly fishing grandfather, and spin fishing father and son. Headed for the ocean and found 65 degree water along the beach.

Started grand father with sinking line and yellow white jiggie and he was catching weakies and fluke worked with slow strips along the bottom.

Father and son were using spro swimming minnows and they were catching fluke and weakies.


After two hours we had 15 weakies to 15 inches and 7 fluke with the two biggest 17 1/2 inches.

We then moved to the back bay to catch the beginning of the out going tide. Found one spot where the tide was just starting to move and the water was 68 degrees. Missed two stripers on popping fly and young anger caught a blue and his dad caught a striper on a popping plug, so we had our second grand slam, two nights in a row.


With action slow we moved to a creek mouth and I was disappointed with the the outflow for a full moon tide. We saw a few fish feeding and the water was 73 degrees. Missed a few on popping plugs as they just wouldn't slam it and the grandfather caught a striper on a spearing fly.

By then the moon was out bright and the bite and fish activity stopped. Put a light in the water and saw thousands of small pod creatures swimming around and figured that they must be what the fish were feeding on. They were not cinder worms.

On the way out of the back in 5 foot of water we came across a huge pod of bunker that must of been half the size of a football field. They were all around the boat with not a thing working them.

Around the dock lights at the marina there were also thousands of those pod type creatures. Must be some sort of full moon thing.

[hubris 1]

cape may ray, seems like another good night on the water........its hot here. i gotta get my whaler done. so i can follow YOU!

[CapeMayRay]

As long as you have an electric motor, otherwise you will spook the fish in the shallow water. I see guys trying and not catching. In two to three feet of water you have to be quiet.

[CapeMayRay]

Out Thursday night with a one person fly charter and had a rather slow night with normally perfect conditions. Left the dock at 5:30 pm and went out to the beach front where I did well the day before. Water was warmer 69 to 71 degrees. Caught one small weakie on pink/white clouser with sinking line and missed about 5 hits.

Worked the inlet rocks for about an hour with no hits, no signs of life, no bait and no birds. (Very unusual this time of year for a strong close to full moon tide.)

Worked around back bay sod banks until dusk and the sun set getting only one small striper (16 inches) on a spearing fly in the mouth of a small creek. No signs of life in any of the creek mouths on outgoing.

Worked out going tide on a point getting one sea herring and one more small striper (19 1/2 inches). Very dead night. Never saw and feeding fish, and there was hardly a spec of bait anywhere.

[CapeMayRay]

Friday night had a interesting trip. Took out a outdoor writer doing an article for Eastern Fly fishing on Fly Fishing in Cape May to come out later in the year or next year. He said to bring along another person as he wanted to get some pictures and it would be nice to have someone else out to increase our chance of catching.

We left the dock around 5:30 pm. with the tide about half way in. It was pretty calm all day long but by now there was a good stiff wind out of the southeast. We cleared the inlet and tried to work the beach front in less than ideal conditions. With the wind and waves pushing us in toward the surf, it was all I could do to keep us under control and out of the surf.

Tom, using a sinking line and a yellow/white jiggie caught about a 15 inch weakie. I never got a picture as he wanted to take a few pictures of the fish, the fly etc. (we almost ended up in the rocks and beach as I was watching him take his pictures so I had to just focus on boat control.

Just as I was ready to move inside as the conditions deteriorated with the waves getting bigger and more breaking wave tops, Tom hooked into a big fish. It screamed out drag and really started taking off. I thought we had a big striper or a drum fish as he was putting max pressure on it and it would take off in another direction with drag screaming. Pete was able to get a few shots of him fighting the fish while I maneuvered the boat as it would take off in different directions.


After a 15 minute fight we finally got the fish to the net. what a surprise. It was a huge cow nosed ray. I grabbed the leader and tried to net it and it was too large for the net. While trying to get it half in the net and lift, the leader broke. Beautiful fish, but no picture.

With it getting pretty nasty we headed inside the inlet and worked the rocks. No signs of life and not a hit after working it hard.

Moved to the back bay with the tide getting close to high to escape some of the wind. Water in the back was a bit dirty and 65 to 72 degrees. We worked about a mile of sod banks and creeks and never got a hit and only saw a few hints of bait and no signs of fish.

Made another move to a more sheltered cove and finally got two stripers and a small blue on spearing fly.

Here is Pete with one of our two stripers on the night.

With the fishing slow and Tom having to run back north tonight we headed in around 10:00 pm. Shinning a light in the water I discovered why it was so slow. There was a cinder worm hatch and the water was full of cinder worms.

Wasn't too bad a night considering the conditions and the worm hatch.

[CapeMayRay]

Mother nature was the problem last night. The wind kicked up from the southeast late in the afternoon. We left the dock with fly angler and his wife and son with the tide just starting in around 5:30pm.

It was too windy to work the beach front so we worked the inlet rocks with all the incoming boat traffic, waves and wind. Not a strike on the fly or plugs. No birds, no bait.

Moved to the back bay to escape the strong winds. With the tide still pretty low there were very few places to hide and have a shot at fish. We worked a number of spots and caught a small bass and nice blue with a few misses on popping plugs. It was really not very nice and it was cool. It felt like a September night and my charter only had light jackets.

When the tide came up more we moved to a sheltered cove were we caught 3 more small stripers and had about 8 hits or swirlers and ended the charter a bit early as they were all cold.

[CapeMayRay]

Wind died down overnight and left the dock at 5:30am with one person fly charter. Tried working the incoming tide at the inlet and the same old no bait, no strikes but did have a nice sunrise with dolphins swimming by. Hard to get a good shot with digital time delay.

Moved to the beach front were we picked at small weakfish plus one bluefish. We caught 14 small weakies with 3 keeper size to 15 inches but released them all.

Charter could only fish for 2 1/2 hours as he has a breakfast engagement so I dropped him off at the dock and went back out catching 5 more small weakies and a 15 inch fluke.

All fish were caught on sinking lines and yellow/while clousers and jiggies.

[CapeMayRay]

Tough fishing Monday night. Left the dock at 5:30 pm. with one person fly charter. Close to the bottom of the tide and barely enough water float the boat out of the slip. With low water wanted to work the beach front for weakies.

Big sea swells and a strong wind from the southwest made fishing tricky at best and the water was very brown from the heavy surf.

We had a few hits and caught one small weakie on a yellow/white jiggie on sinking line.

Did see a 6 foot shark right in the surf. I could not identify it but it had a dark black fin. Might of been why the weakies were not around.

We tried the jetty rocks and again it was zero bait, zero signs of life and zero strikes.

With the sun starting to set we headed into the back bay and the wind died to nothing. We used popping flies and black silicone mullet flies on floating and intermediate line Here managed 2 stripers to 27 1/2 inches (charter didn't want any picture as he had caught many bass before.) We had another nice one on for awhile, but mullet fly came undone after a few minutes of fighting.

Charter had a long drive home otherwise we would of stayed out a little longer.

I thought about going back out, but was pretty tired and running out of steam.

[CapeMayRay]

Had a good night for a Dad and his two kids. Forecast was for 10 to 20 mph winds and a chance of thunderstorms. Left the dock at 5:00 pm. Headed out the inlet to check out the beach front and found it pretty nice and shortly after we started fishing the wind died off to nothing and it got super hot.

Had everyone using spro rubber swimming baits and we started picking away at a variety of fish and ended the night with another inshore grand slam.

Started catching small weakies.


Then the dad got a nice fish on, which I thought was a small striper but ended up being a 22 inch weakie.

They caught one small fluke, a blue, 16 weakies and this tog.

All fish were released including the 22 inch female weakie.

Kids asked if we could get some sharks and the dad wanted to try for stripers. Decide to go to the back and get a striper for the slam and put out a couple of bucktails with strips of herring for the kids. Went on to the flats where we caught 3 stripers to 22 1/2 inches on popping plugs, plus another blue and one of the kids got a 4 foot sand shark.

It was a beautiful night despite the forecast and they all had a great time. Water was 60 degrees coming in the inlet on the way back and it felt pretty cool.

[CapeMayRay]

Did a rare midday charter today. Fly fishing father wanted his young son to catch a fluke. We decided we would go out at the best time for catching fluke at the top of the tide and outgoing.

Plan was to get some action for the young boy and then see if we could get something on the fly.

Left the dock at noon with very little wind and headed to the inland waterway, fishing live minnows and squid. It started out real nice and we started to pick some fluke here and there, with the three biggest a half inch too short. We ended the day with a total of 15 fluke and no keepers in less than ideal fluking conditions.



It didn't matter as the kid was having a good time catching. We also caught a couple of small blues, sea bass, a sea robin and a good number of sand sharks.

About an hour into fishing the wind picked up and kept gaining strength as the afternoon progressed. We never got to do any fly fishing as 2 hours into the trip it was honking out of the south east at 25mph and gusting higher. It also killed our drift as the wind was against the tide.

With the wind still honking at 5:00 pm. and a forecast of thunderstorms I canceled my evening father and son fly fishing trip. They were dissapointed as it was the last night of their vacation and they were looking forward to it. Just can't fight mother nature on some days.