October striper reports from Cape May

[CapeMayRay]

Beautiful day after the rains in the morning. Seas calmed down by midday but still good size surf. Left the dock at 4:00 p.m with one angler fly charter that had to be in by 7:00 p.m with dinner reservations at 8:00 p.m. Left the dock with the tide starting out and the water was still pretty brown and the wind was still blowing pretty good from the southwest, but nothing like yesterday. Headed to the inlet and the water was a little better but not much. Were able to catch small blues on yellow/white epoxy head and larger chart/white deceivers, keeping a few 2 lbers for a dinner. With no signs of bait or birds and none of the other boats catching we moved to the back flats.

Met up with a friend who was plugging. He had some small blues and a 26 1/2 inch bass. Water was still pretty brown but better than Saturday. As we fished the wind started to fizzle away down to nothing. We fish for about an hour catching more small blues on the fly. It was exactly 7:00 p.m. and charter said we had better head in. I told him it was such a nice night, call your wife and cancel dinner. He said no he better get in. I told him OK, take one more cast for luck.

Wham, would you believe it! On the last cast he hooked into a nice striper. Had a good solid hook up and it blasted on the surface as we were fishing in 3 feet of water.

It put up a nice fight as he was using a 8wt rod with floating line and a pretty good size solid chartreuse deceiver with no eyes. We netted it and started the engine and headed back.


It was the perfect way to end the night. As I was cleaning his blues I was thinking about heading back out but decided to end the night on a high note. It might of been the only one there to be caught.

[NWmed]

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I was out and about yesterday(10/30) afternoon, from top of the tide till about 6:30PM. Fished Hereford area between SH and NWW. found a huge school of adult bunker on NWW side of the inlet...thousands of fish...my depth finder couldnt get a bottom reading they were so thick...I snagged up a few fish and livelined one and chunked the other.... nothing.... nothing feeding on the bunker at all... put some bunker in the box for the freezer...then the wind really picked up so I went into the back on the sods...found schoolie stripers feeding in almost every creek mouth I stopped at...I had wind against tide which worked out great because it held my boat almost in place with no movement...I managed 6 bass 20-25"...had many misses, and lost a few more...had one large straighten out the split ring on my smack-it, so he gets to keep my treble hook...if rain holds off, or isnt too bad Ill be back today...
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[CapeMayRay]

Thanks for the report from North Wildwood. Guess some of those fish head down our way as we had a good night. Never saw any bait all night.

Incredible fly fishing night. Around 2:00 p.m. this afternoon the wind was honking around 20 mph and gusting higher and it looked like tonights charter was going to be a tough one weather wise.

Come 5:00 p.m. when I met my one person fly charter the wind was down to about 10 mph and things started looking up. Decided to try outside the inlet with the west wind even though last night there was only small blues around. First few fish were just that small blues and it looked like it might be a tough night.

Charter brought some bunker flies he had tied and even gave me a couple. It wasn't long when he hooked up a nice bass to get things started.


The action continued and I even got a chance to fish as the wind just kept fizzling down to nothing and it got as flat and as calm as a lake. We kept getting hits and hooking fish. It was just incredible action and perfect conditions.



It was the hottest fly fishing of the season and the fish were all nice size. Here is Rich's nicest fish of the night. It was a little over 26 inches with most of the fish over 24 inches.

We had hot action until 7:15 at that time we had caught 12 stripers. It was at that time the moon came out bright and the bite shut right down. As soon as the moon became the dominant light source the action stopped. Have seen it happen time and time again. You have good fishing and the moon comes out bright and the party is over. We changed to darker color flies and got two more bass as it was like fishing in daylight. I was lucky and got the biggest bass of the night. A nice fat 31 incher that charter kept for dinner.



Conditions were what you dream about and there were very few boats fishing (guess they all stayed home to watch the eagles).

With 14 bass under our belts we headed to the back bay to finish out the trip. We each missed a bass fishing in 2 foot a water and Rich landed a small 20 incher to end the night just as the tide was dead low. Ended the night with 15 stripers mostly all good size with one keeper and some blues. Hope this is the start of things to come.

[CapeMayRay]

Difficult afternoon of fishing!!!!

Fished this afternoon with a husband and wife charter. Left at 1:00 p.m. and the wind was blowing pretty good out of the east southeast. With the tide just starting to come in we were able to get out and work the north outside part of the inlet. Found only small blues and the water looked very brown. After about a half hour the wind picked up the waves got bigger and there was all white caps in the ocean. Made it back inside taking a couple of waves over the bow.

Inside same dirty water with a few blues. Moved to the back where we usually fish and water was still ugly and only small blues. With the wind getting stronger with a good chop we moved to a deep sheltered area and tried the clams and clam bellies thing. Only caught seabass and sharks and blues.

Had a fly charter that was going to come down and fish this evening and I told him to sit tight as it looked like the wind was not going to let up. Still blowing good now at 8:00 p.m. Was dying to get out and see if the bass would repeat. Asking too much for two nice days in a row.

[Bite Me]

Great report, great pics, great results, great eating but tell me..............
How did you do that thumbnail click and enlarge the photo thing???

Sure hope that Admin is a part of this .

[CapeMayRay]

BM, I use photobucket.com I load pictures in there and then they have them where you can load the picture full size or in the little size where you can click on them to enlarge.

For prints I use snapfish. They use to work but can't get them in a form that will work with the forums.

Hope the information helps.

[pitch bait]

CMR you are a die hard. What kind of boat do you fish out of? I always see this Carolina skiff with a seat on the bow and I wonder if that is you. He is always near the island across from Snows.

[CapeMayRay]

No that isn't me. I have a 18 1/2 Scout flats boat. Sort of over size heavy duty flats boat. It is more like a bass boat.


Very wide and low. Not much wind resistence and able to sneak back in those shallow spots. Only go down in the rips on the blue bird days and never play in the bad sections as there are plenty of fish in other areas.

[CapeMayRay]

Decided last minute to try and sneak in a personal trip tonight with the wind blowing pretty strong out of the southwest. Tried Pete, Andy and Paul from the club plus two other local friends and all had commitments so I went by myself.

Left at 5:30 p.m. and headed straight to the inlet. Couldn't get outside in my boat with the big waves and wind. Tried to work the rip at the end of the rock pile but it was a little too dangerous. Worked the inside south rock pile from the end all the way in to the beach as the rocks blocked the wind a bit and I was able to cast the fly rod with no problem.

Started out with a couple of two pound blues on a chart/yellow deceiver and had a bite off. Changed to the bunker fly my charter gave me Monday and using 300 sinking line got a 20 inch bass.


Looking at my second picture I never closed the snap. That's why I lost my second bass and fly along the rocks. (that is a disadvantage of the metallic loop knot. You have to make sure you lock the clip.) I thought I had my second fish hooked well now I now how I lost it.

It was a slow pick with no signs of fish or bait and all the fish I caught hit the fly within 5 feet of the rocks, with most hits on the first or second strip. Pretty much hooked every hit I had and it was a long time between strikes with no one area hot. Had 4 bass hits and landed 3. The second and third were 22 and 21 inches. Again after dark when the moon came up strong I only got one bluefish, but at least the wind died down a little.


Tried the bridge lights and got a number of small blues and a 18 inch bass missing another small one at the boat. Was using small yellow/white epoxy head flies on intermediate line.

Decided to try even with the bright moon a point on one of the back bay flats that had a good rip line and never got a strike the whole time. Only worked it for 3/4 of an hour, but the bright moon thing had my mind thinking negative. Overall it was a pretty good night considering how strong the wind was blowing.

[CapeMayRay]

No pictures tonight had batteries charging and forgot my camera. Charter had camera and will email them to me this weekend.

Left the dock Thursday night at 5:00 p.m. Overcast with a nasty wind out of the northeast. Huge waves at the mouth of the inlet and the waves were splashing over the north jetty. Had husband and wife out. He was using fly she was using plug.

Tried the north (leeward side) for the first half hour without strike. Decided to go to the other side where I caught last night even with the wind and waves pushing toward the rocks.

Worked well. Got a fish right off the bat on black and white deceiver, that he tied, and he was using intermediate line. Worked the rocks up and down all evening and all the strikes came almost as soon as the fly or plug hit the water right next to rocks. Had great action with a lot of hits and could even see fish come up and chase fly. Fly angler got 7 bass to 24 1/2 inches and a few blues and missed a nice keeper size bass that whacked his fly and almost nailed it again a foot from the boat. His wife got three bass to 24 inches and a number of blues. She also missed her shot at a nice one that got off as we saw it come up and strike. She had it half way to the boat but it got off.

Saw some bass on the surface chasing some bait and watched some of the guys on the jetty plugging getting some bass on both sides of the rocks.

Was a full time job for me just keeping the boat off the rocks with all the wind and waves constantly pushing us toward the rocks. Only tense moment was after dark when everyone else left the inlet we were taking a picture of his wifes fish and his fly line got caught up in the main engine. I was forced to put down the electric motor and get us away from the rocks and spent the next tense 15 minutes hanging over the back of the boat getting fly line out of the prop. Got it all out without damaging his line.

Tried the last 15 minutes of the trip at the bridge shadow lines and only got small blues.