Courtesy Irish Fly Charters
The end of the fluke season coincided perfectly with the beginning of mullet migration, which triggers the beginning of the fall run of bluefish, weakfish, and, of course, striped bass. Each September, as the mullet begin to pour out the back bays and move southward along the coast, thousands of hungry striped bass and bluefish wait in the inlets, the mouths of tidal creeks, and along the beaches for schools of mullet to pass. During the past week or so, mullet have been scattered, although a few reports show that some big migrations have occurred.
Before the recent cold front some of the captains who work the back bays and inlets had a dry spell, but that changed on Tuesday night. Capt. Ray of the TideRunner didn’t have a fare, so he went out by himself at dusk. The mullet were pouring out of the Cape May inlet. After lots of small bluefish tore through his flies, he changed to a 6″ streamer and promptly caught five bass to 29″. He returned all of them to the water. Other fly anglers have been scoring with flies working better than spinning lures on some days. Also, Capt. Ken of the Irish Fly has been taking lots of small blues and a few small bass for his fares in the back bays and just out front. Capt. Ken uses only light tackle and even novices are having a ball with plugs and other small lures.
Courtesy:Tiderunner
This writer has had mixed luck on the beaches between Cape May and Cape May Point State Park the past few mornings. These beaches are often good for mullet and there are frequently small bass in the surf. These bass can actually be seen chasing mullet in less than a foot of water and sometimes the are in water so shallow that their backs are exposed as they swim furiously toward deeper water. These fish are usually less than about 20″, although they are lots of fun on light spinning tackle and flies. I couldn’t get them to hit poppers, but I did take a few at dawn on Friday with a mullet plug. On Sunday morning there were fewer In the next three weeks, the mullet will be pretty much gone, but the best of the mullet season is about to take off. Persistent anglers working the surf will catch fish. On most mornings there are schools of blues (and maybe bass) well beyond casting distance - all moving southward chasing small bait (bay anchovy?), peanut bunker, and mullet.
With the close of the fluke season, charter boats like the Miss Avalon out of Avalon and the Starlight Fleet (Wildwood Crest), have changed tactics. They are now focusing on sea bass, along with weakfish, croaker, and small bluefish. In addition, a few triggerfish are being caught. This southern more southerly species is not uncommon on the inshore reefs of South Jersey during late summer. Some nice bags of croakers are being reported along with sea bass to about 3 pounds. The Starlight Fleet now has a 6-hour boat that sails at 10 AM, mostly for sea bass, weakfish, and croakers. Also, call for details on 8-hour wreck fishing for seabass, etc.
Photos Courtesy: Adam Bomb
With only a few days left in the 2007 summer flounder (fluke) fishing season, a recap of spring and summer seems timely. Even before the season commenced, there were groans from anglers who thought the new regulations would spell doom. To the contrary, it seems that the fluke season was a good one.
I heard from many anglers who weren’t complaining, even though they caught lots of throwbacks. In other words, things have improved. After a good start in the back bays, the larger fish moved offshore. With them went the charter and party boats. Fish in the 4-7 pound range were not uncommon.
The photos above attest to the fact that there were (and still are) some large fluke around. Capt. Adam Crouthamel of the Adam Bomb sent the above photos to show how good things have been. He reported fluke greater than 6-7 pounds, as did other charter and party boat captains. For most of the summer, the Capt. Jim of the Starlight Fleet reported flounder in the 3-7+ pound range. Fish of this size were caught regularly. And, there were many limits this season, unlike in previous years.
Although the season seems to have ended prematurely, with groans coming charter, party, and private anglers, let’s try to look at the bright side. Despite the large size (17″) limit imposed this year, overall fluke fishing was good - better than in the past few years. That there were decent numbers of throwbacks (some say too many) and many good sized fish this year suggests that the regulations are doing what they are supposed to do. I wouldn’t say there ever could be too many throwback fish because without throwbacks, there won’t be large adult fish. It appears that enough fish are surviving long enough to reproduce, making the future of fluke fishing brighter. From a “big-picture” perspective, the regulations are working.
So, hang up your fluke equipment and start chasing the other fish.
Capt. Ken Kelly of the Irish Fly continues to do well on small bluefish and bass, using only light spinning and fly tackle. On a recent charter, he managed to have two novice anglers take 9 bluefish and 2 bass in only a couple of hours. Lots of small bluefish were also had by Capt. Ray of the Tiderunner. He reports a 50 bluefish day, with almost all fish being in the 1-2 pound class.
Party boats fishing on the inshore reefs and Delaware Bay report decent croaker fishing, along with fluke and sea bass. The Starlight Fleet out of Wildwood Crest reported several fluke to 5 pounds in the past week.
Offshore tuna and other bluewater species are at their peak, with bluefin and yellowfin up to nearly 200 pounds being reported in the past week.