<b>Port Elizabeth</b>

Wasn’t a good weekend, because of weather, to fish for summer flounder, said Sharon from <b>The Girls Place Bait & Tackle</b>. Most customers crabbed or fished rivers for croakers and white perch instead, avoiding rougher conditions on the bay. The weather included rainstorms on Saturday and Sunday mornings. This was probably the worst weekend of weather all summer, so Sharon couldn’t complain, she said. Croakers did swim brackish rivers, including the Maurice, and white perch swim them year-round. Croakers arrive throughout the state in summer and depart afterward. Nothing was heard about weakfish, but weaks surely swam the bay to some extent or another. Not a lot of news rolls in about them anymore, since the one-weakfish bag limit began in recent years. Nothing was heard about spots yet this season, and though spots arrived earlier last year, the water currently was warm, but not as warm as last year. Customers sometimes asked for green crabs for blackfish bait. But the shop carries none of the crabs while one blackfish is the limit. Demand is too low, and too many of the crabs die without being sold. The blackfish limit will be increased later in the year, and the crabs should be carried then. Other baits including clams and blueclaw crabs can be fished for blackfish. Pretty much all other baits are stocked, a large supply. That includes minnows and bloodworms. Fresh bunker arrives almost every other day. Shedder crabs are usually carried, and demand for them was so-so. Shedders used to be the popular weakfish bait, when anglers weakfished, when the bag limit included more fish. But Sharon has said in the past that almost any saltwater fish will bite shedders, including flounder.  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>

For customers at <b>Beaver Dam Boat Rentals</b>, crabbing was intermittent, pretty good on some days, Paul said. On other days, “it was like, where did they go?” he said. No cause was apparent. On Friday, most trips trapped a couple of dozen of the keeper blueclaws. The shop was closed on Saturday, because of weather forecasts. On Sunday, after major rain, some crabbers caught okay, and others found catching tough. Conditions sometimes seemed strange. Paul saw seven pairs of crabs coupled on Sunday, and that usually happens on full or new moons, but the moon was neither. The volume of crabs was down, Paul knew, because when crabs are particularly abundant, customers catch no matter the conditions. The sizes of crabs were definitely larger than earlier this season. Crabs shed and grow, becoming bigger, throughout summer. Skilled crabbers caught better than inexperienced ones, as usual. Hand lines caught more than traps did currently. Crabs seemed to hit bait in traps quickly and leave. Neither hand lines nor traps catch better than the other always. Traps can work best, for instance, when lots of crabs fill the water. A number of crabs, instead of just one, could then fill a trap that’s pulled in, while a handline typically catches one at a time. Currently, the finesse of handlining made a difference. Croakers swam the creek in a healthy population, for customers who fished. Customers crab and fish from rental boats towed up Oranokin Creek, running past the shop. The staff checks on them every hour, and if customers want a break in the meantime, they simply cell phone the shop to be picked up. Customers should telephone ahead to reserve a boat, because the vessels can book up, especially on weekends. A 7-inch crab, nabbed on the shop’s first day of crabbing this year, is the crab to beat in the season-long contest for the largest. The rental-boater with the biggest win a free rental next year. Take advantage of the Frequent Crabber Card: Rent any size boat four times during the season, and get the fifth trip for only $20 that season. Rental canoes and kayaks are available to paddle the scenic creek. Everything needed for a day of crabbing is available at the store, from bait, traps and nets to snacks, drinks and suntan lotion. Minnows are stocked, and are large, because the shop raises them. Heads up summer flounder anglers, about the favorite flounder bait. Customers talked about good catches of flounder on the baitfish. One recently said he’d go nowhere else for minnows, because nowhere else carried the size. Beaver Dam hosts groups like scouts and family reunions, and can offer an educational day about the environment. <a href="http://www.crabulousnj.com/" target="_blank">Visit Beaver Dam’s Web site</a>.

<b>Fortescue</b>

A new school of summer flounder seemed to arrive, because the bay’s fishing for flounder picked back up, said Capt. Howard from the party boat <b>Salt Talk</b>. Or something changed, because greater numbers of better-sized flounder began to be hooked again. The angling wasn’t phenomenal, but became pretty decent, when conditions drifted the boat decent. A few keepers were bagged, and probably three times as many throwbacks were let go. Don Callahan won the pool Friday with a 5-pound flounder. Nolan Green on Sunday decked a 24-incher that probably weighed more than 5 pounds. The fish was thick, and another angler cracked two 23-inch flounder on the outing. Trips aboard fished outside the stakes at the slough between the wreck buoy and the Old House, where the vessel did previously. A few blues were landed each trip. Sometimes the anglers used them for bait. The boat did no croaker fishing, but Howard talked with an angler who croaker fishes. The angler said croakers large enough to keep, like 10 inches, became more difficult to find on the angler’s trips on the bay. Croakers seemed bigger in creeks and ditches. Open-boat trips are fishing for summer flounder daily on the Salt Talk when no charter is booked.  

Summer flounder fishing was pretty good, still on fire, alright, said Capt. Mike from the party boat <b>Bonanza</b>. Fifteen to 20 keepers 20 to 24 inches were shoveled aboard every day, and the fishing wasn’t great on Saturday in wind and rough weather, and the anglers managed a few bluefish and flounder, but had a good time. A few blues were mixed in on trips, and the boat fished inshore of the Old House, like previously.  The water was clean and good-looking, and a good temperature for flounder fishing. Somewhat of a red tide started to be seen. A date or dates were yet to be set for special flounder trips to the Old Grounds that sail each year aboard. That’s an area of rocky bottom in the ocean off Delaware that can attract flounder, including sizeable, and other fish mixed in, like sea bass. That angling was starting to come alive a little, Mike knew, and the boat will run there this season. But the bay’s flounder fishing was too good to leave currently. Open-boat trips are fishing for summer flounder daily on the bay when no charter is booked. 

<b>Cape May</b>

Boaters flung in summer flounder near the 9 and 10 buoys and Miah Maul on the bay, said Nick from <b>Hands Too Bait & Tackle</b>. Lots of throwbacks but a few keepers still bit in the back bay. Good reports rolled in about flounder fishing at the Old Grounds on the ocean. A few weakfish chewed along the jetties in Delaware Bay’s surf in Cape May. Bluefish sometimes schooled the surf at Cape May Point, at the confluence of the bay and the ocean, and farther off the point. Tons of croakers crammed the back bay and surf. Kingfish hit in the surf. Cape May Channel should hold a mix of kingfish, croakers, flounder and spike weaks that usually gather there in summer.

A trip for summer flounder on the bay was cancelled Saturday because of forecasts for wind with <b>Fins and Feathers Outfitters</b>, Cape Jim said. Fins has also been fishing the back bay for flounder, but these anglers chose Delaware Bay, because they weren’t interested in the smaller flounder in the back bay. Another group aboard Friday, with children, fished the back bay, landing a bunch of flounder, sea bass and junk fish including skates, none of them keepers. But they had a great time, Jim said. Actually, originally the anglers for the Delaware Bay trip wanted to fish the inshore ocean for catches that could include bluefin tuna or other pelagics like mahi mahi, wahoos and bonito. That plan was axed, because of weather, and the trip hoped to fish Delaware Bay instead. But 18 m.p.h. wind was still forecast by the morning, so all the fishing was cancelled. The inshore ocean has been exceptionally clean, good conditions for the pelagic fishing. Fins and Feathers offers a variety of outdoor adventures, including fishing on Delaware Bay to the back bay to the inshore ocean. Hunting for ducks and geese is offered on Delaware Bay, during the waterfowl seasons. Anglers in fall can even enjoy a combo of duck hunting and striped bass fishing on Delaware Bay over a series of days. Fins also offers the waterfowl hunting in surrounding states, following the migration, salmon and steelhead fishing on upstate New York’s Salmon River from Jim’s lodge, and fly fishing for trout on Pennsylvania’s trout streams like the Yellow Breeches. Salmon should begin to migrate the river by Labor Day, but the first trip for them is booked for October 8, when the angling should be peaking.

Back to Top