Too much excitement to start off the Memorial Day weekend.
Picked non fly charter up a late charter Thursday for Today and had to get up around 5:00 a.m. to help my wife set up for a garage sale at our house to get off to my charter at 7:30 a.m.
Left the dock with two novice fisher persons. (one man and one women.) With opening day flounder it looked like everyone who ever fished was out.
Did the old clam bellies and clam for bait thing to make it easy on everyone.
Started get skates and then blues and stripers. Caught 5 stripers up to 26 inches and blues in the back bay to 31 inches, missing one monster that looked to be about 38 inches and twice as thick as the 31. Never saw such a big blue in the back and it did three aerial jumps. Bit of the hook just inches away from being netted.
Action was hot and heavy, clam crap and blue blood all over the boat.
Then I get phone call from my daughter that they called 911 and just took my wife to the hospital in severe pain. (Turned out to be a kidney stone problem) Had to end the charter in the middle of great fishing and try and close down garage sale etc. and get to the hospital.
Never got any pictures of the large blues in all the hectic time to get back and everything.
Wife doing pretty good. She was admitted to the hospital and has to wait to see urologist tomorrow as one stone passed but another one to be dealt with.
Quickly cleaned the fish for clients but the boat is baked on blood. Tried to do a quick spray, but going to be elbow grease day tomorrow to get it back in shape.
First trip where we used the sinky stuff. Now I now why I like fly fishing. Boat stays a lot cleaner.
Ray,
I was fishing around you on Friday... got a few nice ones..
Drifting flies in the current with floating line... basically a wet fly swing for fluke!!
25" and a little over 6lbs.. had another that size and two more in the low 20's.
Bunch of tb's too.
Ran into one of these!!
Very good day all in all. Fished the incoming ...bite was en fuego for about an hour and a half. Tide quit.. fish had lock jaw.
Wow, that is a super nice fluke. (my favorite for eating) must of broke your heart to have to release him. Looks like the water was very clean. I would say you had a great day with the fly rod from land. All during the day which is a bonus. I like clean water but not too clean. What kind of fly were they caught on.
You say you were in my neck of the woods. Drop me an email I would love to try for some fluke for the beach if it is not too far of a run. Tiderun1@aol.com Since the fluke season opened, I have not been able to fish one of my beach front fluke areas due to wind and wave action.
Got out this morning with a one person fly charter. Wind was blowing out of the southeast hard yesterday afternoon and it let up a bit by morning. Left the dock at 5:30 a.m. and headed out to fish the beach front area.
Wind started picking up out of the south as soon as the sun came up and there was a good sea swell with decent surf making it impossible to fish in close to the beach. Water was as clean and clear as it gets. Maybe too clean.
We had a couple of hits and landed a 18 1/2 inch male weakie in about 3 to 4 feet of water. With the tide going out and the surf getting bigger, just couldn't fish it right and didn't want to end up on the beach.
Tried the inlet rocks and saw another fly fisherman fishing in another boat. Turns out he lives here in Cape May and joined our fly club but hasn't had a chance to make any meetings. It was a slow morning for him too. With a few small blues the only action we moved into the back bay with the out going tide.
Water back there was very clear too. Could see bottom in about 7 to 8 feet in certain areas and the action was very slow with just a blue here and there with out any concentrated area.
Tried a number of areas but nothing was hot. One of the few trips this year where we didn't get at least one striper. Bay was loaded with boats fluking but I didn't see many rods bending like I did on Saturday. Talked to a few guys back at the dock and they said it was a very slow morning on the fluke and they are good fishermen.
Kept the weakie and one blue for dinner and were back to the dock by 9:30 just as it was starting to get hot out.
Check out that fancy two hander! That water looks as clear as it was at 100 fathoms this weekend. Pretty Work.
Jake, I get down to OC now and again. I'll let you know when I can swing a nightime inlet trip. Not sure if the weakies are gonna be around like they were then, but it's worth a try.
Wind died to nothing late afternoon and decided go out tonight. Called Peter and left the dock around 7:30 p.m. Went straight to the beach front hoping to catch a few weakies. Conditions looked perfect.
After a few casts I caught a 21 striper and we started catching sea herring until it got dark.
After dark the herring bite stopped and the moon was out super bright (which I hate) We worked the jetty rocks for about an hour without a strike.
Next we went to the back flats where we worked three creek mouths with out a bite. Before we left we worked a point where we had a couple of hits that seemed like blues. I used a black mullet which is usually good and Peter used a bright fly. Neither worked.
Checked the bridge shadow line twice. Once on the way to the back and once on the way home and never saw any activity. It was just a slow night.
Grease and release Ray... I was on the de side.
I'll tell ya what hurt about that fish... it broke the current igfa by 2lbs. I was using two flies though... big no-no for igfa. So.... I ate it.
Ray... believe it or not... I caught all the larger fluke on a crab/shrimp imitation.. combined with the old standby orange over yellow clouser with tons of copper flashabou on top of the orange. When I carved that fish up ...he had 2 calico's in his belly. Oddly enough two of the primary colors of a calico are orange and yellow...
Last edited by OneMoreCast; 05-29-2007 at 12:03 PM.
Too bad about the record, but that was some nice fluke fishing. I have been making up some orange over yellow clousers with gold flashabou. That color has always been pretty good for catching weakfish. So far this year it has only taken one, the the stripers and sea herring are eating it up.
Many of the plastic fishermen use the rubber bait and a teaser fly I have never really tried the double fly with the fly rod. I am certainly not a purist, using a clip with my flies, Would hate to hook up two fish at the same time on the fly rod.
Last edited by CapeMayRay; 05-29-2007 at 02:30 PM.
Left the dock at 5:00 p.m. with a one person charter. Angler had only caught small mouth bass before and was totally new to saltwater. Said he had used a fly rod in freshwater before but could not cast well at all.
Started him out with light spin rod and it was wall to wall sea herring on almost every cast. After about 20 herring some small blues and a 21 inch striper. (His first ever) I convinced him that he could catch on a fly rod with limited casting skills. Gave him a 9 wt. with sinking line and a orange/white clouser.
Fish were so thick he would hook up on about every other cast and we could see the herring whacking at it.
After an hour and a half of non stop action with a couple more blues and small bass we when to the back bay and tried some clam on the out going tide.
Here we were hammered with 4 foot sand sharks, skates, a sea robin and once in a while blues and again we lost two huge blues that bit off our hooks. Both were over 30 inches.
Fished about an hour longer than the charter was scheduled as it was a beautiful moon light night and neither of us had to be in. Just as we were leaving with the tide half out blues were chasing bait all around us and we started catching them on almost every cast.
Think if we stayed for another hour we would of caught some bass as we were getting less trash fish. Since neither of us had dinner before we came out we fished till about 10:00 p.m.
Charter had a great time and booked a couple more trips for later in the year.
Got another early start. Left the dock at 5:00 a.m. with a fly angler from Alaska. (he works as a chef at a high end fishing lodge out in the boonies, that caters to affluent anglers wanting a special wilderness adventure) who was visiting family. He was out with his 80 year old dad who was using a spinning rod.
The spin rod ruled the day with the biggest fish. The day started off predawn with bluefish on the fly and then keeper striper, 28 1/2 inches, which took a large white/red YoZuri Mag Darter. The bass gave a nice fight in the strong current using a light rod with 10 lb test line. It was his dads first striper ever.
Moved into the jetty and beach front area in search of weakies, and bass. There were about 5 boats doing the same. We caught more bass, blues and a good amount of sea herring. No keeper bass or large fish for the fly caster, but enough action for a fun day. We saw no sign of weakies for us or anyone else that we saw fishing. Looks like they are few and far between.
Was a beautiful morning with very light seas and winds and very clean clear water. Just a beautiful day to be out.
Kept the keeper bass and a few blues for Joe the chef was going to make a special fish dinner for his dad and company. They had a fun morning and I enjoyed hearing about fishing and life in Alaska.
All fish caught on the fly were caught on a bunker fly, or clousers, Chart/yellow Chart/white and Yellow/orange. They were all fished on 300 and 350 sinking line.
Peter and I decided to give it a shot tonight even though the wind was blowing pretty strong out of the south southeast. We left the dock at 6:00 p.m.
Hit the inlet and it was unfishable outside on the beach front, with big surf from the wind blowing all afternoon and it was too rough at the ends of the jetties to try there, so we worked the inside of the inlet rocks. No birds no bait and no fish. We worked the whole south side from tip to where the rocks end. Pete had the only hit and fish on but lost it.
We were both using sinking lines as it was the only way you could punch into the wind.
Shot in to the back bay flats and tried to find a lea shore where the waves were smaller. Before Peter took his first cast I had a 17 1/2 inch bass on a 5 inch bunker fly. Kept working our way along with a few hits and misses and I nailed a 22 inch bass, that blasted all over the surface as it hit my bunker fly in a creek mouth.
Shortly afterward Peter got the nicest fish of the night a 23 1/2 bass that took an orange with red head fly.
With the wind being so annoying we were back at the dock by 9:30 p.m.
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