<b>Port Elizabeth</b>

Some customers boated pretty good catches of summer flounder, they said, and others decked lots, but not so many keepers, they reported, Sharon from <b>The Girls Place Bait & Tackle</b> said. But they were pleased with the fishing, and the better catches seemed to come from farther north on the bay, toward Fortescue. Spots showed up, and one of the bait suppliers started finding the fish in nets this past week. Croakers and kingfish were around in the bay. Not many weakfish were heard about, after more, including sizeable, were reported in spring. Maybe this year’s cooler water affected them. Cooler water seemed the reason spots showed up later than last year. Lots of customers crabbed, and lots of frozen bunker was sold for crabbing bait. A few anglers asked for green crabs for blackfishing, but green crabs won’t be stocked until the blackfish bag limit is increased to six on November 16, from the current limit of one. Demand is too low. Bait stocked includes minnows, fresh bunker, bloodworms, shedder crabs and fresh, shucked clams. If anglers want clams in the shell, telephone a couple of days in advance, and the store can probably obtain them. The Girls Place, located on Route 47, just after Route 55 ends, carries a large supply of bait and tackle, and is the long, one-story, yellow building on the right. It’s on the way to the bay.

<b>Newport</b>

Crabbing was a struggle during the weekend’s full moon – the “super moon” – at <b>Beaver Dam Boat Rentals</b>, and skilled crabbers totaled two or three dozen keepers per trip, Paul said. Others caught somewhat fewer, and he thought one crabber only managed three keepers, but that nobody landed none. Considering this was a super moon, results didn’t sound bad, really. The shop was mobbed with business Friday to Sunday in beautiful weather. Full and new moons can trigger crabs to shed, and the blueclaws won’t eat while shedding. That makes them difficult to nab. But not all the moons trigger sheds, and not all crabs shed at once. Crabs did shed on this moon, though. The effects of shedding usually last several days. Crab sizes were good, and the ones trapped were usually either 5 ½ inches or very small. Not many were between those sizes. A 7-inch crab, nailed on the shop’s first day of crabbing this year, remained the crab to beat in the season-long contest for the largest. The rental-boater with the biggest will win a free rental next year. Only a couple of the boat trips fished, and not seriously. How fishing was, was difficult to tell, because of that, but a few good-sized croakers were hooked. Customers crab and fish from rental boats towed up Oranokin Creek, running past the shop. The staff checks on them every hour, and if crabbers want a break in the meantime, they simply cell-phone the store to be picked up. Reserve the boats ahead of time, because they can book up during this busy time of year. Rental canoes and kayaks are available to paddle the scenic creek. Check out <a href=" http://shop.beaverdamboatrentals.com/" target="_blank">Beaver Dam’s online store</a> for gifts. Minnows are stocked for fishing, and are especially large. That’s because the baitfish are raised on location, unlike at most stores.

<b>Fortescue</b>

Summer flounder fishing was actually pretty good last week, until Saturday and Sunday, maybe because of the full moon, said Capt. Howard from the party boat <b>Salt Talk</b>. That was the so called “super moon,” closer to Earth than usual, exerting greater gravitational pull, creating higher, lower and stronger tides. The angling was slower those two days, but was especially good for a few days previously. Maybe it’ll kick back in, now that the moon passed. The angling started to become slow on Friday, and was tough on Saturday and Sunday, and the tide took forever to turn on those couple of days.  The boat needs to drift for the best flounder fishing, and won’t drift on slack tides. All boats seemed to fare poorly on the fish those days. Trips aboard fished at the slough between the wreck buoy and the Old House, like before. Sunday’s trip tried fishing at the stakes, but that was no good. Steve Byrne from Fortescue won one of the pools with a 6-pound, 4-ounce, 26-inch flounder. Mike Formica won the pool with a 3-pound 4-ouncer on Sunday. Dennis Reinhart landed eight flounder, including four keepers to 3 pounds, winning a pool. A few bluefish and some sharks were hooked aboard. Big brown sharks, required to be released, were around sometimes. On private boats, not a lot of croakers seemed to be caught that were found closer to shore before. But croakers swam creeks like they have been this season, Howard thought. Open-boat trips are fishing for summer flounder daily when no charter is booked.

<b>Cape May</b>

Cape May Channel, the Intracoastal Waterway and the jetties along Delaware Bay attracted a good population of croakers, and some started to be healthy-sized, said Nick from <b>Hands Too Bait & Tackle</b>. Summer flounder fishing was good, and customers mostly fished for them on the ocean, like at Cape May Reef, Reef 11 and the Old Grounds. The structure that held the fish had to be found at those spots, like Nick sent anglers to the north end of Cape May Reef. On Delaware Bay, good flounder fishing was boated near Miah Maul and toward Fortescue. Blackfish and triggerfish gathered along the jetties at Cape May Inlet and along ocean wrecks. A few good catches of wahoos and mahi mahi came from the lumps along the mid-shore ocean. Bluefin and yellowfin tuna were sometimes wrestled from places like the Hot Dog and Massey’s Canyon to farther offshore.

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