Stripers on the fly in Cape May

[CapeMayRay]

My daughter wanted to get out and do some fishing while she was down. she only wanted to fish for a couple of hours so we went out around 5:00 p.m. Had her flinging a popping plug while I used the fly rod. Started slow working the top of the tide on sod banks off back bay flats area. Water was 68 degrees and there was a lot of bait. Worked a big area with only one hit on the popping plug after an hour of fishing.

Moved to a different area, still 68 degrees water but started getting hits. My daughter caught 2 small bass and 2 blues on the popper and I got 1 striper and 2 blues on the pink/white bucktail deceiver.


She wanted to get in so she could hit the Cape May Mall area tonight, so I called Pete to meet me at the dock when I dropped her off so we could head out again.

Picked Pete up at 7:30 and we went to where we were catching when we left. We started getting hits right away. Pete picked up the first two fish. A nice blue and a small bass.


I was using a large 5 inch chart/yellow deceiver and getting hits but no hook ups so I swithed to a yellow/white epoxy head with with flash and big eyes similar to Petes fly. Hooked a nice 23 1/2 incher with a lot of spunk.


I Got a small blue and one more small bass and then the action died, with no pops or any signs of fish feeding. It was dead calm and a beautiful night, so if there were any fish we would of seen them.

On the way back to the dock we stopped at the bridge were we found super ugly dirty water, but managed two bass each on the same yellow/white flies. Pretty good night on the fly and had fun getting back in early.

[CapeMayRay]

After a pretty good night last night I was excited to get my charter out tonight. Had a fly angler and spin fisherman. First tried the hot spots of Sunday night and not even a strike for either. Water was 67, two degrees cooler and much more brown than the day before. Found cleaner warmer water on a back flat and worked it hard with one miss for the angler using a popping plug. Kept working until I found an area draining off a flat were we started getting hits on the top water. Fly angler switched to a popping plug and we had a number of fish on and had fish boiling on bait around the boat. Action only lasted for about 5 minutes and it back to the search pattern again. Was stripers and blues feeding on bay anchovies. Spin angler got the nicest bass. 24 1/8 on a popping plug.


Moved to my go to spot where Pete and I had good action last night and it was dead as dead could be. No signs of bait and no fish popping, just dead. We had one striper and one blue on popping plug and swimming plug that we missed. Fly angler still didn't have a hit on the fly yet.

Made one last move to the bridge light line. Tide was honking with the near full moon tides, very brown with a lot of junk. Here we got two bass out of 5 hits for the fly angler to make his night. Was using floating line with yellow/white epoxy head fly.



Spin angler got two more stripers on a 4 inch swimming plug. Left for the dock as it started to rain. Tough night and we had to work for every fish we got.
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[CapeMayRay]

No Stripers on the Fly tonight. Just one bluefish.

Very difficult night. No charter decided to go out with Peter to see what we could stir up. Left the dock at 4:30 p.m. Decided to try the inlet as I hadn't been out there in over a week. Water was 66 degrees, coming in like rapids and it was dirty and looked like sewer water. I put on a super large deceiver hoping for a decent bass and Pete put on a chart/white smaller deceiver. I was getting hits like crazy but no hook ups. Pete got a small blue. With the large standing waves on the north side where the fish were we decided to make a move. Inside the inlet was more of the same dirty water and no signs of bait along the rocks.

Tried the back bay area and it was not much cleaner. It had good amounts of bait but no signs of fish. I switched over to a popping plug and we worked the death out of a number of good spots without a hit or swirl.

Made a move way back behind Wildwood and found cleaner 68 degree water. With the full moon tides we worked some grass area where I got three 8 inch blues and one 17 1/2 inch bass on the popping plug.

With the moon coming up high and bright we tried the bridge shadow line on the change of the tide. (At full high you could only see down maybe a foot.) Worked it hard for a long time without even a hit and broke a fly rod that must of had a weak spot at one of the eyes.

Probably our toughest night of fishing this year. We fished longer than normal with good weather and decent tide and the fish had a major case of lock jaw.

[striper101]

Ray,
It's only going to get better!!!
Nice job!

[CapeMayRay]

Life got a little better tonight. Didn't expect to fish but did. Was watching a guy cleaning some fish and bait and saw some stripers coming up to feed on the waste. Put a 5 inch bunker fly on and nailed a small striper before I left the dock.



Headed out the inlet to check out the water and it was the same as yesterday. Coming in fast and it was super dirty again. Saw some blues chasing bait along the rocks so I had to give it a try. Well ended up staying till it got dark. Kept picking away at 2 lb blues and had two small bass up to 22 inches that took the same 5 inch bunker fly. Ended up losing two bunker flies to the blues on the night but had a great time and a beautiful sunset.



Even got to watch them try to position a barge next to the jetty to fix the Navigation lights. It had the toweres, cement truck and crane. Tug was a hard time pushing the big barge against such a strong tide. They picked the full moon, highest tide of the year to try it. After about an hour and a half of struggling against the tide they gave up and went back in. Guess they didn't want to chance it in the dark.



Water at the top of the tide was fairly clean at the inlet, but I checked the back bay and again it looked like sewer water. Even at the bridge close to the top of the tide is looked bad.

[CapeMayRay]

Was out Friday night with a one person charter. Tried to go out and get some blues out at the inlet but the tide was running strong and dirty, being the day after full moon and the wind was from a tough direction for fishing like we do. Tried the beachfront and found the tide ripping there and were only getting 8 to 10 inche blues. Tried the outside of the rocks and got one small striper and a 12 inch blue. Worked the inside rocks on the incoming and not even a strike.

Went to three prime spots in the back. Found bait and warmer water but only a couple of wacks and no fish. Last resort stopped at the bridge shadow lines and worked it super hard for 4 small stripers with the biggest shown below.



Water at the top of the tide was again very brown. We even tried live linning some small croakers around the bridge piers and nothing. Really had to work for everyfish we caught and put in an extra hour and half doing it.

[CapeMayRay]

Got out this morning as the pre sun rise with no wind and took my brother from Florida and his neighbor out. Slammed small to 2 lb blues for two hours around the inlet jetties and came in to get ready to go to the Club picnic. Water was ripping in good lots of bait 68 degrees and still very dirty.

[CapeMayRay]

Wind was blowing good Saturday night, Sunday and all day today. Not good for fishing of any type. A real downer of a weekend.

[CapeMayRay]

Helped a friend move his boat to get hauled out and while he was fueling up I caught around a 22 inch nice fat bass playing around the dock area.

This afternoon with the wind still honking out of the northeast. Looked at the inlet and could see the waves crashing over the top of the north jetty and decided to try a the back bay. Water was 66 degrees very high like a full moon tide and very dirty. Worked shallow flats area where I picked up two blues to about 18 inches and one small striper about the same size on pink/white bucktail deceiver and intermediate line. Covered a lot of ground with a tough wind for about 2 1/2 hours. Never saw any decent bait activity anywhere.

Decided to scout out an area for my bait charters to see if there were any bass. Anchored up in 12 foot of water close to a sod bank and chunked up 5 stripers up to 26 1/2 inches and 7 sandsharks in about an hour and a half using clams and clam bellies. Water there was very brown with a lot of strong current and weed. Could only see down about a foot.

[CapeMayRay]

Well we went out. Left the dock at 3:00 p.m. Was very windy and raining. Tried a shelted spot in the back about 1/4 mile from the dock where we got a couple of small bass and blues on popping plugs on the first few casts. We thought we were going to have a super afternoon with tons of action and decent size fish. Moved to the next area were a rip current had started and got a quick bass a miss and a couple more small blues. Kept on moving looking for good action and all we could find is a bass and blue here and there. No area was really hot. Seemed like we would get a couple of hits or fish and it would die with a lot of areas just plain dead.

Rain and wind were a problem all afternoon. Only saw one other boat out fishing. Fished a usual good rip where I used the flyrod and got a bass and some blues on a black mullet fly, while charter used a swimming plug for a bass and more blues. He also got a 15 inch weakie on swiming plug.

Ended with 9 bass to about 21 inches and a good number of blues, but the action was disappointing considering clean water and dark day from the rain with a perfect tide. Saw a good amount of baitfish but nothing pushing it at all. Also saw no signs of mullet or baby bunker and we covered a ton of sodbanks and creek mouths. This time of year there is usually signs all over the place with some fish spooking it.

Got in around 7:30 p.m. like two drowned rats. Lucky it wasn't very cold rain. It was off and on all afternoon with a couple of times raining pretty hard and the wind was still blowing pretty good when we came in.