May Fishing Reports from Cape May

[CapeMayRay]

Cloudy morning here in Cape May. With the High Tide near 9:00 a.m. Peter and I decided to go over to Cape May Point and re con the area that the SJCFA fishing event day will be held this weekend.

Got there about 9:55 a.m. The guys fishing there with bait said they had some shorts and saw guys who were there even early with some keepers.

We started fishing and on about my 10 cast I hooked a nice striper that took my line right to the reel. After a few short runs I worked it up onto the beach. It was a 29 incher. My first keeper on the fly for the year and dinner for tonight.


Hit the same thing that I have been getting them on for the last two weeks. Chart/white clouser with some olive on the top, using intermediate line.

We worked the area there and between a couple of other jetties but that was the only hit and fish for Pete and I on the fly. Did meet up with Nesmund King from the fly club who was fishing up from us and he said he had a small bass much earlier.

We fished till about 12:15 when the sun was out bright, it was getting hot and the water was getting pretty dirty from the extra flow of the full moon.

Not a bad way to start the day.

[CapeMayRay]

Had the fish for dinner tonight and it was delicious maybe I shouldn't release so many.

Went back to the point again tonight at the top of the tide to see if I had anymore magic left in my fly rod. Got there 7:45 and thought it was going to be a super night. Bait was jumping and fish were swirling. Full size bay anchovies were being chased by hickory shad right on the beach. Problem was I could not get one to hit. They were so close in I could hit them with my rod tip. I tried every fly in my box and not a strike.

Guy next to me using a rubber bait caught a 20 inch bass. Everyone left after dark and I hung in there. Was ready to leave at 9:00 and had a hit but couldn't hook up. Stayed for another half hour with out a strike.

[striper101]

Ray,
Nice work! Congrats on your first of the year!

[Dave Sikorski]

Beautiful fish Ray!!

They taste better when caught on the fly from the beach don't they??

Thanks for the reports.

-D

[CapeMayRay]

Thanks guys, you have to work harder for those bigger ones on the fly but it is worth the effort.

Peter and I hit the point again this morning. There was quite a strong breeze making casting a little hairy with the wind blowing the fly at you.

Pete was the man this morning. He got one small bass as he started fishing and then right as we were about to leave we saw some bait at our feet skipping around and he picked another one.


Water was very brown and muddy this morning. It must of been the full moon tides. Pete's first bass was on and chart/white clouser and the second was on a yellow/white clouser.

Things are looking good for SJCFA fishing day on Saturday.

[CapeMayRay]

Hit the point again tonight. Incoming tide and the hickory shad were all over the place feeding on bay anchoives rught at our feet and driving bait onto the sand at times. Had some hits and one hooked but landed none. Buddy landed one and missed a bunch.

Weird, usually can get them not stop on jiggies and small flies but tonight they were just not wanting anything but the real thing. Even a guy next to me who was using bloodworm on a bobber was not evern getting them. Guess there was just too much of the real thing.

Here is a shot of a fly fisherman that I met for the first time. He had the only bass of the night on a fly. It was small but a bass. Here is a shot of him fighting the fish.

[CapeMayRay]

After fishing this morning with the SJCFA at the point you would think we had enough fishing. Nope! Since there is no such thing as too much fishing. Ken Kelly (a fellow charter capt.)invited Peter and I out for an evening of fishing on his boat Irish Fly

Heavy clouds, strong southeast winds, looking like rain with a few light sprinkles but it looked like striper weather.

It was a bit rough at the inlet and the strong wind made working the rocks tough, but Ken worked the boat and allowed Pete and I to have all the fun.

We had great fly fishing. We caught a number of Hickory Shad, Blues and 7 stripers up to 25 1/2 inches.




Hickory shad were hitting the smaller flies. I elected to swing to larger flies to keep the hickory shad away and it seemed to worked best for the bass. Pete and I both used sinking lines. Super size jiggie yellow/white and a 5 inch bunker fly worked well for the bass and blues.

We had a great 2 hours of fishing in cold and damp conditions and had a super time.

Asked ken if he wanted to fish but he declined. Thanks ken, we had a great time.

[CapeMayRay]

Was a long couple of days with the wind blasting Monday and Tuesday. Went over to Cape May Point this after noon on the start of the out going tide. Water there was ugly muddy brown from all of the wind the last few days. Guys with bait were getting sharks and there was no signs of bait and no birds.

Worked it for 1/2 hour and decided to go out in the boat.

Water was 56 degrees. Went to the inlet and found the water better than the point but pretty dirty. There were some weeds and ground swells making for wave action at the ends of the rocks.

Went to the back. Found cleaner water and began to work one of my favorite striper points. Started getting bluefish on the first cast and everyone after that. Three and four blues at a time were trying to attack my fly on each cast. Put the first nine in the live well to keep and started releasing all after that. Fish hit any fly I threw at them. Ended up using steroid jiggies like the one shown in the picture.

Managed my first striper in the back bay 19 1/2 inches, mixed in among the blues. Up untill today all the bass I have caught have been in the ocean or over at the point.

Moved to another point to get away from the blues and found more. Moved again to another area and still more blues.

Almost near the bottom of the tide the bluefish action stopped and the last fish I got was another small striper, a 20 1/2 incher, caught on a Olive/chart/white deceiver.

It was a hectic 3 hours of fishing. 32 blues and 2 small bass and had 7 flies totally destroyed and 2 bitten off.

Cleaned the blues and found most of them packed with 6 inch squid a few what looked to be small tog and pieces of hickory shad.

[CapeMayRay]

Got out this afternoon with Pete to try and see if we could duplicate yesterdays action. Saw a couple of guys from the fly club working the sod banks catching some blues on the way to yesterdays hot spot, only to find it slow. Pete got a couple of quick hits and I landed a 20 inch bass on a chart/white clouser.

worked it for a 1/2 hour more with out a hit and tried a couple of other spots. Only getting a couple of hits we came back to our starting point where I landed a nice blue on the same clouser.

It started getting real foggy and we decided to try the inlet. Worked the rocks and the tips with a few hits and I got another blue. Never saw any bait of any kind all afternoon. Came back in heavy fog ang had a delicious fresh bluefish dinner.

[CapeMayRay]

Had a tough fly charter this afternoon. It seemed like the back bay was dead. Had a better tide than previously during the week, and was foggy when we started. Worked about 6 prime spots in the back bay and never got a hit and never saw any bait. Didn't even see Any Herons along the sod banks that usually indicate some bait.

We worked the rock inlet jetty and caught a few blues the same size as earlier in the week and worked the beach front, with a little swell action and got 5 hickory shad on small clousers. (Chart/white and yellow/white.)

Charter was a fresh water fly fisherman and was having difficulty with the heavier saltwater fly lines. He was doing pretty well but the breeze kicked up a bit off the ocean and it was enough to cause some problems

The worst part was he got the fly line in my electric motor three times during the trip. (New record for the boat.) All part of the game, but no fun. Had to take the prop off three times while keeping out of the surf with the gas motor. Only lost about 3 feet of intermediate fly line.

On a positive note. I saw the first pod of adult bunker go by. Nothing feeding on it but a good sign.

I was more disappointed than the charter. I thought we would of done better. Charter had a good time and is doing another trip later in the year.