Photo courtesy of Irish Fly
As the dog-days of summer descend on us, back bay and close to the beach fishing in Cape May is providing some decent light tackle action. Striped bass, bluefish, sea herring, and some fluke and weakfish have cooperated, although finding the fish hasn’t always been easy. However, for the patient angler, there are some good opportunities available.
For a couple of weeks, the back bays were loaded with tailor-sized blues… mostly in the 14-19″ range. They have been eager to gobble up baits, or for fly anglers, small poppers worked near the shoreline at dawn and dusk. Although they haven’t been mixed with the blues, there have been striped bass in varying numbers, also working the sodbanks and creek mouths. Other locations to try are the jetties and anywhere there is moving water.
Fly fishing for bass has been good on some occasions with catches of 6-9 fish being reported. These fish haven’t been keepers, but an 18″ bass caught with a popper on a 7 weight flyrod can be loads of fun. Slightly larger fish - in the 22-26″ range have cooperated on a few occasions, but those fish have been taken on deep running flies and sinking or neutral-density line. Fishing clouser deep minnows in charteruse and white, as well as yellow have worked when fished with a 10-15 count down. While the smaller fish have been closer to the sodbanks, the larger fish seem to be waiting for food at the edges of the channels and deeper cuts. Between the deeper water and a moving tide, it takes a 10-15 count sink to get down to these fish.
Another method I’ve been using in the last two weeks is to anchor up in locations where there is a good tidal flow, right at the edges of shallow and deeper water. I then get a little chum slick going. Using leftover mullet from last fall, I throw 1″ chunks at a slow rate. Baits may be floated a couple feet below the surface, with the tide. A popping float, splashed occasionally, has drawn in the bluefish. Once the chum slick has drawn in the fish, I throw poppers into the slick with my 7 weight flyrod. The blues have cooperated when they’ve been there. When they haven’t, I’ve taken bass! Spin anglers can use small plugs, bait tails, or small poppers can catch as well.
The Tiderunner and and Irish Fly have both been connecting with light tackle. Success with jiggies, clousers, or other small flies on neutral density or sinking fly lines have been doing well on sea herring and weakfish, with some of the latter fish being keeper size. Tiderunner has also been getting into the bass when they show up, with one fare taking 9 or 10 fish in less than two hours. This week Irish Fly has been picking bass and weakfish, and on one trip Capt. Ken took two novices who had never caught a bass before. Both connected on light spinning gear.
Weakies are now showing up at Cape May Point jetties, with worms floated beneath a bobber or bait tails worked slowly on the bottom scoring best.
Meanwhile, drumfish action out in Delaware Bay has continued, although it is not as hot as in late May and early June. Party boats are also heading out into Delaware Bay, mostly for fluke, weakfish, and small blues. And, the first wave of croakers has arrived.