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Fishing Reports August 1 to August 31

946 views 10 replies 2 participants last post by  CapeMayRay 
#1 · (Edited)
Good, Bad, and Then Good News! After Mondays trip where things didn't go as planned and needing a new trolling motor remote things started out good. I went on line found the remote I needed. It was said to be in stock so I ordered. Thought about spending the extra bucks to have it over night shipped, but with Tuesday to be windy and Wednesday a good chance of evening thunder storms I went for regular shipping that would get it to me by the weekend.

Looked at my emails Tuesday afternoon and they said it was out of stock and might take a couple of weeks to have it back in stock. (The Bad) Bent out of shape I grabbed my remote that was not working very well and took it a part, cleaned the heck out of it with de-natured alcohol and got it to now work like new, so I can now get back on the water when the weather permits and wait for the one on order to be my new back up. (Good Again)

Also good news was that one of my past chart clients was down on vacation and dropped off some hand carved popping flies for me to test out. (More Good) Here is what they look like and I am sure they will catch. Now all I need is a good tide, some nice weather and the fish to co-operate.
 
#2 ·
Thursday afternoon looked like a great time to go fishing. Super high incoming tide with high at around 9:00 pm.and suppose be no chance of thunderstorms. Called up past client who is down on vacation and who gave me all those nice popping flies on Monday and said let's go out and give them a field test. We left the dock at 6:00 pm. Sky really looked threatening to the west so we decided to give a quick run to the inlet and wait and see if the weather was going to run to the south like they said.

Water in the ocean was very cold for this time of year. It was 64.5 degrees. Each of us on our first casts with clousers landed decent eating size bluefish, that we kept for him to take home for a dinner. We caught 6 more bluefish, that we released and with the weather looking better we headed to the back bay and worked some sod bank areas that were about 3 feet deep. Even in the back the water was only 67 to 68 degrees. Here I got the first striper on one of the new poppers. It was a small guy only about 16 inches long, but it must of been super hungry as it swallowed the whole popper to the point that you couldn't see it.

Fishing was fairly slow. We covered a ton of ground moving from one area to the next, with no one area being hot. We did manage 3 more stripers 18 to 21 inches and missed 4 others. Again one of those completely swallowed the popper. We kept moving and fishing. All areas looked great and there was a fair amount of small bait fish the entire night. We just kept grinding along catching a striper here and there and the warmest water that we fished was 73 degrees. They were all in the 17 to 21 inch range. Overall it was a good night and the surface action couldn't be beat with 3 fish completely coming out of the water on the strike. We had a beautiful sunset and John did swing to a clouser after dark and caught some of his fish on it rather than the popping fly. Overall it was a fun night and headed back to the dock at 9:15 pm after catching 11 stripers on the night.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Have not gotten out this past week. With the heat and my daughter, my son-in-law and two kids down for a week I have been doing everything but fishing. Beach, miniature golf, etc. Yesterday took the 6 and 8 year old grand kids out for a few hours in the late afternoon. Just wanted some action for them rather than food fish or big fish. We had a nice breeze to keep bugs away and anchored up to fish the afternoon outgoing tide around 4:30 pm. Set up a chum slick of chopped up sea herring, bunker and some old clam bellies. Have done this in the past and while getting a lot of trash fish would sometimes come up with some stripers, blues or fluke as a bonus. Not yesterday. We had a steady diet of sand sharks and a couple of oyster crackers, which were just fine for the kids and they never got tired of reeling them in. Did have one nice fish on. It pulled out drag and was on the surface. Might of been a striper or decent bluefish, but it got off, even with the circle hooks that we were using.

It was a great trip overall . Both boys had a great time and the little one was really getting use to being on the boat. Before this he was afraid when the boat would go fast and when waves would rock the boat. After yesterday, he said he now wants to go out in the boat all the time.

Started the older one learning how to set and pull the anchor, and steering the boat. Great day for Grandpop and the boys. Won't be long before I can start working them into fishing lures and fly fishing.
 
#4 ·
The couple of days that I was free to fish, the weather didn't co-operate. Wednesday I went up to Riverton for my daughters birthday, to mind the grand kids while my wife and daughter went out shopping. Weather there was tough too. We had one little window to fish in the morning. Hit the Delaware River, down the street to fish the incoming tide. No fly fishing. Boys are still a little young to really get into it so we started with sinkers and worms, but switched over to just a bobber and worm and had hits on every cast. River was loaded with very small white perch. The biggest might of been 7 inches but most were small. We had about an hour and a half of steady action before a heavy rains chased us to the car.

Hope to get out tonight for some saltwater fly fishing as it seems like it has been forever since I was out.
 
#5 ·
Nice, had my grandsons out 3 days last week with bobber and worm for a sunny bonanza. The older of the 2 (5 1/2 yo) is stoked and wants to be out there nonstop. The younger does well when he is catching essentially on every cast (which he was able to do at one pond, size doesn't matter either). Next year they'll be ready to head out for flounder (in the back, which is where I only go). I showed the older my fly rod, but the ponds weren't conducive to flyfishing, though I didn't have the appropriate sized small streamer flies, that would've generated hits, with me. He liked watching me cast with it, and I may find a way to introduce him next year.
 
#6 ·
Fly fishing for sunfish is the easiest, when the time comes as they really do not need to cast well. For the saltwater end, that will be another story. Want to get them to learn how to cast and catch on lures before I swing them into fly rod casting. Especially with the heavier rods and sinking lines, I don't think there little wrists could take the 8.9. or 10 wt rods. Then there is the issue of distance and stripping. Just a little too much for the young ones.
 
#7 ·
Friday night I finally got out fly fishing. Left the dock at 6:00 pm. with fly fishing buddy Larry to fish the incoming tide. Since it was a while since I last fished we headed to the ocean. The wind had been blowing out of the east southeast all day and was dying away. Outside the inlet there were all the small snappers that you wanted. Just small enough to chew up your flies, but too small to give much of a fight. Water was nice and clean and 70 to 72 degrees. We headed down the beach to where I though we might have a shot at some weakfish. I was using 400 grain sinking line and Larry was using intermediate. Both of us fished clousers. We picked up a weakfish each in the 16 to 17 inch size along with a fair amount of bluefish, with a couple going may 16 to 17 inches. The key to not getting attacked by the blues on every cast was to stay deep near the bottom. Larry would be constantly bothered by them where I would get them as I stripped my fly up to the surface.

It was really a beautiful night and around 8:00 pm. we decided to head to the back bay and go after stripers. We had perfect weather, a nice incoming tide at the perfect time. In the back I fished a balsa popping fly, and Larry worked a crease fly. About 5 minutes into fishing I got a 21 3/4 inch bass and we thought were were going to have a great night. It just never happened in the back. We worked 4 normally great spots and had one one fish swirl behind my popping fly but never hit it. We fished till 9:30 pm before heading back to the dock.
 
#8 ·
Saturday night with the weather pretty much like Friday night I decided to do another trip hoping to get better results. Got a little later start. Left the dock at 6:30 pm. with fly fishing buddy Peter. We headed to the ocean. Again it was calm and clean and 71 to 73 degrees. Tons of small bluefish all around. Rather than run down the beach I decided to work along the inlet jetty. Here again you had to work your fly deep or be annoyed by the small blues. (mostly around 10 or 12 inches. I had two Clousers chewed to the point that I had to replace them and Peter had a bite off. He got the only decent fish, catching a small weakfish. We did get some small seabass and a sea robin that took flies.

Confident with the good tide and wanting to get stripers on a popping fly we moved to the back bay. With last night being so slow I went to a totally different areas and we worked 5 normally good spots till 9:30 pm. Neither of us got a hit or even saw a swirl behind our flies. Pretty disappointing with such ideal conditions.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Change of pace for me. I went out on a fuke charter, with 11 other friends aboard the Susan Hudson out of Barnegat Light. I get to fish with this group once or twice a year. No fly fishing but a fun day on the water with friends. Capt. and mate both busted their butts to get us keeper fish. We caught a lot of fluke but keeper size was tough. We had 8 keepers on the day with a couple nice fish. Also was plenty of action with sea robins, a few sea bass, skates and a blue. We tried a number of spots. Each produced fish but keepers were just tough to come by. We worked open bottom, and structure, using double spro bucktails tipped with strip baits and vertical jigged structure and plastic squid teasers with double hooks with strip baits for the faster current open bottom areas. Don't know how many rigs we went through, but it kept the mate hopping trying to re-rig after breakoffs. It was a fun day and a change of pace. Still can't beat shorter fly fishing trips as I had an hour and 3/4 drive to and from Barnegat Light.
 
#11 ·
The Captain did. That is why you pay the big bucks to go on a charter instead of head boat. I still have a lot of bucktails, jigs etc. I keep thinking that I will some day go out and fish the reef sites etc. Never really do it. I ask myself, do I want to go out in the heat of the day to try and catch 3 keeper fluke or just drive over the Lobster House fish market and buy a few filets and then go out at around dusk and fly fish. I always choose to fly fish. It is more fun and cooler even when the fishing sucks like it does now.
 
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