May Fishing Report Cape May

[CapeMayRay]

With them calling for some thunderstorms tomorrow I decide to head out tonight. Paul from the fly clug couldn't make so I went myself. What a night it was. I ended up with 17 bass with 4 keeper size.

Left the dock at 5:00 pm with a south east wind blowing. Found birds picking at the inlet. No signs of fish other than some sea herring. First cast I caught a small 20 inch bass on jiggie type fly and within 30 minutes I had 3 more small bass and 2 sea herring.

Switched over to a Yanks Assassin and decided to work some heavy current. Hooked a really nice blue that looked to be about 8 or 9 lbs. Trying to get it into the net I could not see my fly and he chewed it off about 2 feet from the net.

Put another Yanks Assassin on and hooked a huge tog. I thought I had a really nice bass as it stayed really deep. Got it to the surface and had to put the net down and try to keep the boat from getting too close to the rocks. In the process I had to give the fish some line and it went down and got hung up in the rocks and I ended up breaking it off and it messed up the first two feet of my fly line.

Two back to back losses of good fish and losing 2 Yanks Assassins. Not good, but fun. Went to get my back up sinking line rod and found out I only had 2 intermediate set ups with me. Rigged up with a heavy olive/chart/white clouser and the next hour was slow, I didn't even get a hit.

Then I saw a nice 30 inch bass come up and inhale my fly about 15 feet from the boat. That made my night and I enjoyed every minute of the fight. There was only one other guy fishing out there all evening and he was fishing right next to me. I really surprised him when released it.

Caught one more fish before the sunset and and the other guy called it a night.

It was fairly cold with a fairly strong southeast wind, but I decided to fish a little longer for that one last fish. Good thing I did. The Action heated up and from 7:30pm to 9:30pm the action was hot. I had 12 more bass, including 3 more keepers 28, 28 1/2, and 29 inches with most of the others 22 to 27 inches.





Tonight's hot action more than made up for the slow start to the season. I think I could of caught a few more fish but I was pretty cold and getting hungry but headed home with a big smile. What great night!

[Joe Horgan]

Hey Ray, it sounds as if you are having to much fun. Hope all is well. Hope you continue to do so

[CapeMayRay]

Hey Joe, it has been a fairly slow start but there seems to be some fish around to provide some fun. Isn't it about time for you to come out and have some fun?

It was either fish this afternoon midday with a good tide and bright light or fish low tide with low light this evening.

Made the right decision. Left the dock at 1:00 pm. right around the top of the tide. Headed out to the inlet and found gannets diving about a 1/4 of a mile away. Turned out they were feeding on sea herring with nothing below so I headed back to the inlet and found the water a bit brownish, but was able to find a few pockets of clean water.

Started getting hammered by small blues. They chewed up a couple flies pretty good and after catching 7 I made a move to get away from them. Found another area where the water was fairly clean and was able to pick up 4 stripers 18 to 24 inches.

Was using one of the clousers that Brad Buzzi showed how to do on one the the videos. It was pretty chewed up from the last bluefish as can be seen in the first photo, but it still kept catching.



Caught this 24 inch bass that had a big chunk out of the top of it's head. It hit the fly and fought good so I assume it will survive.


Still keep using the same fly as it still looked good in the water. Like they say sparse flies will catch.

Right after the 4th bass a pod of dolphins came by, right next to the boat. There must of been 50 of them and the action died.

Since I had yet to catch any fish in the back bay I thought I would give it a shot. Worked four creek mouths, and three rip lines an caught this one 16 inch bluefish on a chart/white deceiver. I kept it for dinner and it was as fresh as it could be. Ate it a hour after it was cleaned.

[jsarge]

I miss reading your posts and you have not posted for a long time. Your last post seemed positive about the fishing this year. Everything OK?

[CapeMayRay]

Yes I am fine. Season is going as good as can be expected. Each year we are seeing less and less bait fish which equals tougher fishing. Still catching fish for my clients but have to work so much harder than even a few years back. It is the old story of find the bait and you will find the fish. When there was a lot of bait there was a lot of fish. Even a few years back catching 25 stripers a night in a four hour trip for two anglers was not uncommon.

Seem like the fly angler interest here has died off in the last year or so. I have been actively been posting on a few other fly fishing sites.

Here are some pictures from some trips to fill in from last post.

[CapeMayRay]

A few more pictures from last couple of nights.

[SJ-Nick]

Everyone is catching some nice fish!

[CapeMayRay]

Catching fish for charters but most nights I really got to work to find fish. There is just not the bait around like in years past. No bait for them to eat and you will not find as many fish.

Some more pictures from this week.

[jsarge]

Thanks for posting the updates. I love Cape May but can only visit once or twice a year. Your posts help with that. Seems like the fish may be fewer but larger in size.

[CapeMayRay]

Fish have been decent size to have fun, but over all the fishing is tougher each year. Ever since they started spraying to control mosquitoes we see less and less bait in the back bay, around the inlet and beach front. Add in all the nitrates from the lawns and weed killers that everyone sprays on the stone lawn area, all that drain off to the ocean or the back bay.

I have to cover 4 times as much area to find some signs of bait or fish compared to just a few years ago. My good trips by todays standards were considered a slow night even a few years ago.

I have seen a decline in bait and the fish for 10 straight years with no up turns to break the down trend. At this rate I really expect to be out of business in a few years if things don't change. This year have not caught or seen one tide runner weakfish and not even seeing any of the spikes that we still were able to find last year. There are still some fish to be found, but there are no easy nights anymore.

With New Jersey having no money and no one even looking into the problem there is little hope for any improvement.