[CapeMayRay]

Yesterday, after ending the month on such a high note I couldn't wait to get out again. Was suppose to race RC sailboat today but we cancelled racing with so many regular sailors have other obligations we decided to can racing for this morning.

With little to no wind predicted Fly fishing buddy Larry and I decided to fish and see if we could pick up were I left yesterday. We left the dock at 7:30 am with little to no breeze and headed to the ocean to fish the last of the outgoing tide. When we cleared the inlet the water was 51.3 degrees and much cleaner than Saturday. It was a fantastic morning. We were at the right place at the right time and started catching stripers after a few casts and caught fish at all the spots that we tried. We didn't hook into any big ones like I did yesterday but most of the fish were 18 to almost 24 inches and nice and healthy and chunky. Also mixed in were sea herring. We caught 8 that were mainly closer to the surface. You had to get you fly down deeper to have a shot at the stripers.

Weirdest catch of the day was I caught 2 keeper size tog, the day after the season closed. I don't get many each year on the fly and they were the first that I have caught this year.

It was great morning we caught 24 stripers, 8 sea herring and 2 tog and were back at the dock at 11:00 am and left the fish still biting. At least 4 times we had double hook ups. Just couldn't ask for better morning of fun on the water

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[CapeMayRay]

Did see some signs of bay anchovies in water where we were catching. When releasing a small striper I noticed a bay anchovy in it's mouth when I removed the hook. It was nice to see some food source as much bait fish anymore. It also good to see nice and healthy looking fish.

 

[CapeMayRay]

Monday morning was another calm morning that would of been great to be out fishing, but I had a few things that I had to take care so fishing was out. Later in the day I had to fix something on the boat and talked to a friend who did pretty well on this mornings incoming tide. We ate an early dinner and with the wind still very light I called my buddy Peter to go out for a couple of hours before dark. He hadn't been out with me yet this year and I wanted get him out thinking is would be easy to get his first bass of the year, I was WRONG.

Maybe the blasting new moon tide had something to do with it, but it was super slow. We left the dock at 6:30 pm. and fished till 8:30 pm. The ocean water was 52.3 degrees and nice and clean. I hooked up a decent bass, but it got off half way through the fight and landed one nice sea herring. My buddy Peter never got a hit. Beautiful night, Beautiful weather. Just a tough fishing night.

 

[CapeMayRay]

Larry has had success through the years fishing Toms River. Every time I drive by there it looks fishy. I have never taken the time to fish it. Good to hear you and a few others had a fun day. In the stocked ponds I have had good success using baby bunker flies. Just think the trout like them because they look like a big meal and are pretty flashy in the water. Have not fished the trout stocked lake down here in a couple of years.

Paul who fishes with me had a good day yesterday freshwater fishing, catching a 8 small largemouth and a crappie in the afternoon

Might have to try a fluke trip. Three friends were out yesterday on opening day and brought home 6 keepers. Might just have to fish spin rod and bait to have best chance with them. I keep buying fluke at the Lobster House as I never target them, but do like to eat them.

 

[CapeMayRay]

With light easterly wind I decided to do a trip this morning. Since my buddy Peter had a short unproductive trip the other night I thought I would get him out for another shot. With very heavy fog this morning I decided to leave the dock at 8:30 am and fish the last half of the incoming tide in the ocean. Decided to stop along the rocks and give it a try before heading down beach. On my third cast I landed a small striper. With the wind pushing me close to the rocks I had to turn on my main motor and some how Peters fly line slipped off the back of the boat and was winding up in the outboard.

What a mess. It took a good half an hour of hanging over the motor and trying to get it all wound out. With the wind, heavy fog and wave activity it was tough, but we got all the line out. Peter used one of my back up rods and got his first fish of the day. A nice keeper size tog (If season was open) that took his closer.

Water in the ocean was 53.3 degrees and fairly clean, but it had a lot of straw from the back bay that had been swept out with the outgoing tide. We headed down beach and our second spot where we had a slow pick for the next couple of hours catching 8 stripers. All the bass were 17 to 18 1/2 inches and I believe I had another blue bite off. It fought much different than the bass and it was a clean bite. It was a strange morning. Heavy fog, then heavy rain, then bright and sunny for maybe 10 minutes and then some light rain before just being plain cloudy. Just made fishing a little tougher than it had to be. Overall it was a good morning.

 

[CapeMayRay]

With the stronger winds on Thursday, I passed on fishing, but it was a great afternoon for racing remote control boat up in Ocean City. We got in 11 races. With rain today and high winds Saturday we can only wait for mother nature to cut us a break. Those first weakfish should show up any day now to give a little more variety as I don't have much faith that blues with show up if it is like the past few springs.

 

[CapeMayRay]

With all the wind and rain today I decided to drive up to the Bass Pro Shop in Atlantic City to get some fly tying stuff and few other things that I needed. Drove up in heavy rain and blasting winds. On the high tide the water was up over the sod banks and up to the parkway and going across the parkway bridge across the Egg Harbor River there looked to be 4 foot breaking waves. Bass Pro Shop was packed as you couldn't fish or boat so what better way to spend the afternoon.

They didn't have everything that I wanted, but I got enough to tie up some more flies tonight and tomorrow. On the way home I stopped by the boat to check it out. It is in a pretty sheltered spot so it was good. Did get a few pictures of Mill Creek which is normal like a lake. Pictures didn't capture what it really looked like. When I got home that strongest gusts on my wind gauge at the house hit 59 mph.

 

[CapeMayRay]

You too made the best of a really bad day as there was little to nothing that you could really do at the shore as it just never let up. Gale warnings today, High winds still Monday and Tuesday and fairly strong winds all week. Guys from the Fly Club had to cancel their Penn's Creek trip for this week as it is way over flowing like a roaring rapids. At least I should have a good supply of flies tied for when it eases up, as it is easy to tie and watch TV in the evenings. Also while going through old fishing gear I found a box of maybe 50 white headed bucktails that need to have the buck tail tied on them. They might come in handy as I plan on doing a few fluke or wreck trips this year using bait.

 

[CapeMayRay]

Another Not So User Friendly Day At The Shore: Had to drive down to Cape May Court House this morning and on the way back I stopped at Shell Bay just to check out the back bay while finishing up my coffee. To windy to even want to get out of the car.

 

[CapeMayRay]

Still another not so user friendly day. I am tired of tying flies and bucktails in anticipation of fishing. I want go out and fish! It is even too windy to fish freshwater as this wind just takes all the fun out of it. Still winds in the upper 40's. Here are a couple of pictures of Cape May Harbor this morning.

 

[CapeMayRay]

Another not so beautiful day in Cape. Fourth day of strong northeast winds. Clocked wind gusts to 39 mph back at the house this afternoon. Hopefully some day it will be nice enough to fish again. Stopped by the Lobster House to pick up some food and took a couple of pictures of the harbor.

 

[CapeMayRay]

Whoopie the weather is getting better. Reset my wind speed indicator this Thursday morning and the highest gust is only 29 mph. I figure at this rate, we might see a nice day for fishing by Memorial Day.

 

[CapeMayRay]

After dinner with the wind still blowing in the 20's I decide to just do it and go freshwater fishing as it was still too nasty for anything in the salt. Got to the lake at 6:30 pm and found it windy, and misty foggy. Decided to give it a shot. It was cold and raw and I needed my foul weather top as it was wet. First hour and a half was slow. I got two hits and landed two small largemouth. Around 8:00 pm. I put on a all black popping fly. I had one decent size fish come up and hit it but I didn't get a hook up. At 8:30 pm with it getting dark I called it a night. Had to work hard for what I got, but it felt good to wet a line.

 

[CapeMayRay]

Finally a decent enough day to go saltwater fly fishing. Buddy Larry and I left the dock at 6:30 am. There was very little wind but the harbor was socked in with a heavy fog. When we cleared the inlet we found the water very dirty brown and loaded with all kinds of back bay straw and debris. You could only see fly down about a foot. There was still a decent sea swell going so we couldn't work our normal areas in close to the beach. About 5 minutes into our trip I hooked up a nice fish and as I told Larry his rod bent over and we had a double hook-up. We were both surprised when they turn out to be bluefish. They were the first that we had caught this year. I kept mine for dinner and Larry decided to give his to our buddy Paul.

We were all excited and ready to catch, but that was it. We worked a couple of areas for the next two hours with only one other hit. Larry had what looked to be a sea herring, but it got off half way through the fight. Did see a few tog coming to the surface spawning.

A bit disappointed we decided to head to the back bay and try some creek outflows and a couple of rip lines. Fog was still dense back there. The water was a lot cleaner and looked good, but all the spots were dead. To make things worse it started raining really hard and with Larry forgetting his foul weather suit we called it a day. At least I will have a good bluefish dinner.

 

[CapeMayRay]

Bluefish have a bad reputation. Personally if you bleed them out and then cut out all the red line in the meat it tastes great and not fishy at all. I broil them putting on lemon and butter and then smother them in onions, peppers and tomatoes spooning the lemon and butter juices on top of the vegetable a few times while is it cooking. This is the end result. It made for a great dinner.

 

[CapeMayRay]

Another super foggy morning in Cape May. A fly fishing friend is up from Florida to try and catch some stripers or a weakfish. He had a really good day fishing with another friend further north where he got some nice fish including keeper size bass. I told him we would give it a shot down here. We left the dock at 6:30 am. Fog was really heavy and you had to wear foul weather gear to keep dry. Ocean was 51.6 degrees and a lot cleaner than yesterday, you could see fly down maybe 2 feet. The straw and debris was as bad as it could get and still try and fish. I think about one out of 4 casts came back clean. We had so much straw on the boat at the end of the trip that we looked like we harvested a wheat field. First stop I saw a friend get a really nice bluefish above 30 inches. I got the first hook up and was surprised when I got it to the net. It was another keeper size tog.. You just don't expect to catch them on the fly too often.

Buddy Dennis hooked up a really small fish that we thought was a snapper blue, but when he got it in it was a very small sea herring. Think it was the smallest one had ever seen. It might of been 8 inches long and figured that might be what few bluefish that were around were feeding on.

Fishing was a struggle with the straw and weeds and I was lucky to land my first two weakfish of the season to make my day.

We tried two other areas to get away from all the weed. Water was cleaner there and we were able to fish even with fairly good surf, but it was dead and we didn't get a hit. With the sun starting to burn through the fog I made the decision to shoot to the back bay. Founds some 55 degree water that was nice and clean on a small rip line and we each picked up a small striper to end the morning. They were my first stripers caught in the back bay this year.

I had a great day, but I was disappointed that I couldn't put my buddy on a decent fish. We are going to give it another try tomorrow as he leaves to go back to Florida on Wednesday. Want to get him at least one decent fish.