Fishing Reports May 1 to May 31

No fishing Saturday. Raced radio controlled sailboats up in Spring Lake New Jersey. Wasn't as much wind as they forecast, but we had a lot of on and off rain with heavy downpours here and there. We got in 12 races and everyone had a fun time and a little wet.

Today in Cape May the wind was blowing really strong when I got up and it blew strong all day. They were calling for it to die down late in the day. Waited till around 4:00 pm and with the wind dying I called buddy Larry to do an evening trip. We left the dock at 5:30 pm and headed to the ocean to fish the incoming tide. Ocean water was nice and clean with the light breeze from the west that just kept dying out.

We caught a 3 quick small weakfish and then that to work hard the rest of the night for our fish. We got 4 more small weakfish that were pretty much all the same size and one sea herring . I thought I had another really good weakfish or striper hooked. I set the hook on a fish and it went swimming away taking me into my backing and stayed near the surface just like a big weakie or bass. After a good fight Larry was ready with the net and we couldn't wait to see this big fish. Then came the big let down. It turned out to be big cow nosed ray that took my large chartreuse/white clouser. It saw the boat and took off on another good run and I elected to just break it off, rather than waste prime fishing time. We both had a good laugh. We were both super excited and not at all expecting a ray. First one I have seen this year and it seems a little early for them to be around.

Right around 8:00 pm. as the sun was going below the horizon the wind shifted to the SE and picked up making it a bit chilly. We headed back to the inlet where Larry hooked a small striper that got off. After missing the fish we called it a night at 8:30

Made the right decision to fish tonight. With light winds and getting lighter and them calling for pretty good winds tomorrow morning I decided to fish tonight. Buddy Larry was able to make it on short notice, We left the dock at 5:30 pm and headed to the ocean to fish the start of the incoming tide. The breeze was nice and light, the water was clean. We headed down the beach, kidding about what we were targeting. Larry said he was fishing for redfish but would settle for weakfish. I said I was fishing for fluke, would settle for weakfish and please no cow nosed rays like last week.

Conditions were perfect for fishing. We started catching small weakfish using chartreuse/white clousers. All the weakfish were small 15 to 16 1/2 inches and we were pleased with the action. Then I hooked up and my line started going sideways down the side of the boat and towards the surf pulling out drag and getting me into my fly line backing really quick. I said to Larry, Oh Crap another big cow nosed ray like last week, (that we mistook striper.) Out about 150 feet away from the boat the fish swirled near the surface. We both assumed it was a large ray. I told Larry that I will probably just break it off like I did last week to save time, but I want to get it back to where the fly line was a little on the reel so the 20 lb mono leader would be the weakest point and break off at the fly.

In fighting the fish, when it was about 50 feet away, it came near the surface and we spotted a big striper tail. We could not believe it. Now it was full concentration not to lose a fish that I was ready to break off. When it came up close to the boat we could see it was a monster. Larry did a great job, netting just the head of the fish so we could get it into the boat. A great job with such a small net.

I was not going to loose that fish. My fly was so solidly hooked into the lower jaw that I had to use pliers to remove it. We got some pictures and took a few minutes reviving the fish. When fully re-energized I released it to make more stripers and to maybe caught by another lucky angler in the future.

That fish made my night, week and probably my whole season. We continued to catch more small weakfish and two super small bluefish before calling it a night at 8:30 pm.

A night I will remember for a long time.

Another beautiful day in Cape May. Larry and I left the dock at 6:15 am and headed to the ocean to fish the last of the out going tide and the start of the incoming. It was nice but cold. It was 44 degrees when we left the dock and it felt more like October. We had a light northwest breeze, light seas and the water was pretty clean. Larry got the first fish. A nice eating size bluefish. We threw it in the live well in hopes of getting a few more for dinner tonight. Family and grandkids are coming down this afternoon and they love the way I cook the blues with onions, peppers and tomatoes and they don't taste at all fishy.

We decided to leave fish to find fish hoping to get some nice tide runner weakfish. Second spot started catching weakfish, in the 15 to 17 1/2 inch range. With the tide pretty much stopped, the bite stopped. I got a small throwback fluke before we moved to our third spot. Here we got all the bluefish we wanted, and ended up keeping 5 for dinner. We also caught one more weakfish and a keeper fluke and headed back to the marina at 9:15 am.

We had a fun morning other than losing more flies than normal. Larry lost 2 to structure and I lost 3, with bluefish biting off 3 more.

Weekend didn't work out quite like I planned. Family and grand kids were down and the grand kids wanted to fish. Saturday with the good northeast winds fishing the ocean was out (where the best fishing has been) Instead we did a harbor, inland water way joy ride and took a ride out the canal to Delaware Bay and down to the concrete ship and back.

Sunday with a not so great tide late in the afternoon, but we figured we would give fishing a shot. Wind was still blowing pretty good in the back bay with white caps. Water looked like crap and very brown. (Lucky to see down 6 inches) We tried to fish a few semi sheltered spots with swimming and popping plug. Only got one fish on a popping plug at a creek mouth. It was a better than normal size bluefish for the back, about 24 inches. My 12 year old grandson did a great job on light spinning rod. He got it right to the boat and inches from the net it bit the plug off.

About 1/2 hour before the sun went down we decided to stop fishing and go for another harbor joy ride. Hope the next time they come down we can get some nicer weather and better fishing for them.