Courtesy: First Cast
As the weakfish season is getting started and the flounder season officially opens, the real fishing news seems to be drumfishing on Delaware Bay. Almost all boats are reporting good drumfish catches with fish in excess of 80 and 90 pounds being reported. The fishing has been decent on both the Delaware and New Jersey sides of the bay. Captain Jeff of the First Cast reports decent drum catches including a 50 pound drum caught on 10 pound line by 67 year old Bobby Turner. That fish required 40 minutes of fighting before it was boated. Captains are also reporting striped bass mixed with drum. Book now for drumfish trips in the last days of May and through June (http://www.capemaytimes.com/fishing/charter.htm).
Flounder season started Friday with new regs on size limit. This year you will still be able to keep 8 fish, but the minimum size is now 17″. Some flounder have been reported as by-catch abefore the season by anglers fishing for other fish in the back bays. This season promises to be interesting in light of the larger minimum size limit. First reports for this year are some fat flounder on opening day.
Sea bass and blackfish are still being caught in decent numbers on the nearshore reefs and wrecks, and the blackfish are still hanging in at the jetties and bridges. Captain Jim of the Starlight Fleet reports mixed bags of sea bass, blackfish, and blues. The Starlight boats are now on their summer schedule of a 6 hour trip (10 a.m.-4 p.m.) and two 4 hour trips at 8 and 1 p.m. Recent pool winners included a 9 pound 10 ounce blackfish, 5 pound fluke (2 over 5 pounds), and, sea bass to more than 4 pounds. Perhaps the size and bag limits over the past few years are working for some fish.
Small to mid-sized striped bass and bluefish are still being caught inshore around jetties and channels in the back bays. Capt. Ray of the Tiderunner reports some nice catches of bass and blues. Using fast sinking line and bunker flies, catches of bass in the 20-25 inch range with an occasional keeper are being reported. Blues are more plentiful with some anglers taking a dozen or more on light tackle, although they are really beating up the flies. The largest of the blues reported on light tackle this week was about 4 pounds. Anglers at the Two-Mile bridge apparently hammered the small blues early this week.
Scattered reports of weakfish are coming in from anglers fishing the sodbanks and the Cape May Point jetties. Worms and rubber baits are working, but the real run hasn’t materialized yet. Hopefully, all those 11-13″ weakfish from last year have grown up… Any day now?
Courtesy: Tiderunner
Although the storm kicked up the ocean big-time this week, many boats managed to get in some good fishing prior to the blow. Capt. Ken of the Irish Fly and Capt. Ray of the Tiderunner both scored well on bass and blues on light tackle, including flies. Catches of 50+ fish were reported on more than one day with most fish being schoolies. However, a few keeper bass were caught on clouser flies and rubber baits fished with spinning tackle. Enormous numbers of terns and gulls were feeding on small bait, frustrating spin-fishers using larger plugs. Bass to about 33″ were caught on flies, along with blues to about 5 pounds. Interestingly sea herring were also taking flies, making it difficult to get down to the bass. Neither captain heard any complaints!
Blues also were caught at many other locations. Shore-bound anglers wading the Two-Mile Bridge area scored big, as did anglers fishing bait from the beaches and Cape May Point jetties. Bait dunkers catching small bass on worms at the Point also ran into blues.
Courtesy: Tiderunner
Drum and some decent bass are being caught in Delaware Bay by anglers drifting with clam. The Copacetic reported an 80+ pound drum this week along with a dozen other drum. Other captains (http://www.capemaytimes.com/fishing/charter.htm) are reporting similar catches, so it seems the drum season is going strong.
Reports of weakfish are now coming in from the Cape May Point jetties, although the cool water temperatures seem to have delayed the start of the real fishing season for this species.
Bottom fishing aboard the Starlight Fleet continues to be good with blackfish to more than 10 pounds being caught this week. Mixed catches are the rule with sea bass to 4 pounds and a few bluefish mixed with blackfish are being caught. Captain Jim reports he will be sailing on 6-hour trips daily leaving the dock at 10 a.m., along with 4-hour trips leaving at 8 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Also see Cape May Fishing Forum
The bluefish finally arrived in Cape May, about two weeks late. Scads of small to medium sized (to about 5 pounds) bluefish invaded the Cape May beachfront in the past week. Fly anglers and others collected on these fish and schoolie sized striped bass as well. The action was good along the beach front for light spinning and fly tackle. Anglers fishing from Poverty Beach for bass also got into some of the bluefish action, mostly on bait.
Also noteworthy during the past week is newsfrom the Starlight Fleet. Blackfish to 12 pounds have been caught, with several anglers taking fish between 6 and 8+ pounds. Moreover, sea bass are being caught in good numbers, with some going to more than 3 pounds. Several anglers have limited out on blackfish or sea bass. (The Starlight is doing 4 hour trips on weekends and the Twilgith is sailing Fridays and weekends for 3/4 day trips.)
Fishing for black drum in Delaware Bay is picking up as the weather warms up. Book your charters now because the season will last only about a month.
The South Jersey Coastal Fly Anglers’ (a fly fishing club) invaded the Cape May Point jetties on May 5. Although the fishing wasn’t great, all had fun and a few striped bass were caught. The bass maxed at about 25 inches, but as always were fun on flies. The worm anglers did catch some bass during the week, with a few keepers mixed in. Captain Ray of the Tiderunner left his boat at the dock and caught a 29 inch bass on a fly, from the sand near the Alexander Avenue jetty!
Although the weakfish haven’t really begun to run at the Point jetties, there has been some nice action on hickory shad. For those who don’t know about this neat little fish, they are great fun on flies and light spinning tackle. Some of us call them the poor man’s tarpon. They are scrappy, hard fighting, and they jump like a tiny tarpon. Very small lures and flies often work very well with this fish, which often ignore the larger lures and flies, as well as bait.