<b>Pennsville</b>

A few spots reportedly started to appear in the Delaware River, so that meant bluefish were probably around, said Matt from <b>Shag’s Bait & Tackle</b>. Otherwise not much swam the river at the moment, but small striped bass could be hooked in the upper bay.  Try dunking shedder crabs on incoming tides toward high and an hour or two afterward. Fishing for the big stripers that held in the upper bay ended about two weeks ago. Flounder pushed up the bay to about Ship John, and few if any weakfish were around. But local weakfishing tapered off in past years like many places, although plenty used to be hooked locally. Crabbing started to pick up, and commercials dropped pots in the river. Recreationals usually begin to nab the blueclaws best on the river around the Fourth of July. They also crab the tributaries and along the bridges and such. Shedder crabs, bloodworms, nightcrawlers and all the frozen baits are stocked. Bait like fresh bunker won’t be carried again until the fall striper run. Shag’s is loaded with all the rigs and supplies for fishing for everything from flounder to freshwater fish. Crabbing traps and supplies are also fully supplied. The shop also features fresh seafood, including live, cleaned and cooked crabs.

<b>Port Elizabeth</b>

Some anglers still picked drum toward Tussy’s Slough and the Pin Top, and a friend landed a couple Saturday, said Sharon from <b>The Girl’s Place Bait & Tackle</b>. Fresh clams for drum bait will be difficult to find at shops, because demand becomes low, but drum anglers can all The Girls Place and find out whether clams can be ordered. Call a couple of days ahead. Lots of short flounder continued to hug bottom in the bay and also the back bays along the coast, but a few more keepers seemed to show up recently at both places. A handful of weakfish supposedly held in the shallows at spots like off Thompson’s Beach and the E.P. Tower. A report was heard about croakers that started to trickle in off East Point and other places. Shedder crabs, minnows, bloodworms and pretty much all baits are stocked. The Girls Place is located on Route 47 just after Route 55 ends, and it’s the long, one-story, yellow building on the right. There’s a large parking lot with plenty of room for trailered boats.

</b>Newport</b>

Most customers plucked three or four dozen keeper crabs from the waters, said Linda from <b>Beaver Dam Boat Rentals</b>. Catches after the shed around the full moon Wednesday didn’t pick up as much as she expected, but she thought the number of hardshells caught would probably begin to take off by tomorrow. Still, a decent number of blueclaws were taken. Forecasts for rough weather seemed to keep some customers home Sunday and Monday, though the forecasts turned out wrong. Customers crab from rental boats that Beaver Dam tows up Oranokin Creek. The staff keeps tabs on the best spots for catches, putting customers on them, and checks on the boaters every hour. But if the crabbers want to take a break, they cell phone the shop, and the staff comes and gets them. The creek can also be fished for white perch, striped bass and flounder. Some of the stripers can grow large. A big one, too large for the net, jumped off a hook last week. Daylong canoe and kayak rentals are available, and customers normally use them to paddle up the creek for a peaceful day of sight seeing. All kinds of birds including herons and egrets fly around, and bald eagles nest. Muskrats and minks might be seen, and water snakes might slide past. Beaver Dam will send the paddlers off with Audubon books so they can check off the different wildlife spotted. One-hour tours are available on weekdays, and programs are also available for groups like Cub Scouts. A gazebo and grill are on the grounds for events like birthday parties. Beaver Dam is stocked with all supplies needed for a day of crabbing, including bunker and chicken-back baits, a variety of traps and even items like bug spray. Crab traps can also be rented, and the staff is glad to show customers how to trap. A discount package will be offered from Thursday through Sunday on the Fourth of July weekend that includes a four-person rental boat, two bags of bait, four crabbing handlines, a bag of crab spice, two crab crackers, crab picks and a bottle of Skin So Soft.

<b>Dividing Creek</b>

Crabbers probably averaged a dozen to two dozen keepers per trip, said Ann from <b>Wildlife Boat Rentals</b>. Plenty of small ones scurried around, but that’s not bad news, because it bodes well for the future, and keepers were always mixed in. Catfish could be reeled in, and perch should be swimming around, and sometimes small striped bass will pop up. No rental boats are in the waters until later in the season, but Wildlife is focusing on customers who crab from the many local spots along the roads, ponds and creeks, and can point crabbers in the right direction. All crabbing supplies are stocked, including traps, nets, weights and even sunglasses, suntan lotion and so on. Bunker is stocked for crabbing bait, and minnows are carried for fishing, and so are live grass shrimp when available, and shrimp were on hand last weekend. Wildlife also sells minnows wholesale, if anyone’s looking for bulk quantities. Shedder crabs are stocked when available, and frozen squid is carried. Live crabs for eating are also sold when available, and the supply was just starting to become steady, so call to confirm until the live crab supply becomes solid later this season.

<b>Fortescue</b>

Anglers with <b>Andrea Charters</b> boated a few weakfish, some better-sized flounder, though they certainly had to cull through shorts, and a few blues, Capt. Dave said. The weaks held around the lighthouses and structure, and customers mostly hooked them on white bucktails tipped with Gulp shrimp. Dave, who specializes in weakfishing, is now carrying shedder crabs, the favorite weakfish forage, on trips, but the weaks at the structure definitely preferred the bucktails. Those trout are generally larger than the main population of weaks that these days usually show up from August to September, though previously they used to arrive earlier. But the smaller, more abundant weaks prefer shedders. The bay’s weakfish were considerably less plentiful than they used to be near Fortescue, billed as the Weakfish Capitol of the World, but charters on the Andrea do still catch them, sometimes in decent numbers. The number of keeper flounder seemed to improve a little, and the larger size limit this year is difficult. But with the weaks, flounder and the blues, customers put together a catch. A few croakers were reported caught, and Dave hoped croaker fishing would turn on, and should within a week or so. Resident puppy drum, fish 20 or 25 pounds, were beginning to bite at the holes that attract them in summer. Fishing for larger, migrating drum was still productive, though Dave was finished targeting them for the season. Most charter boats no longer sailed for them, and everybody was kind of thinking any given night could be the last action of the year, so charters hesitated. Dave was no longer striper fishing, though his trips chased stripers until recently.

Flounder fishing was about the same, and a few keepers were picked every trip, and lots of shorts bit, including a bunch only an inch to a half-inch undersized, fish that would’ve been keepers last year, said Capt. Mike from the <b>Bonanza</b>. Decent-sized keepers, like 20-some-inchers, were bagged, but just not enough. Harry Adams won the pool Friday with a 24-incher, the third time he won a pool this year. Frank Schmidt took the pool Saturday with a 25-1/2-incher. An open-boat weakfish trip Saturday evening landed a few of the trout at the lighthouses, and two drum were also dusted, and three were broken off. Drum were still biting in the southern bay, but charters on the vessel will no longer sail for them, especially because the boomers could be caught on the weakfish trips. Another open-boat weakfish trip will run 4:30 p.m. to 12 midnight this coming Saturday, and jump aboard to get your trout fix. Open-boat flounder trips are leaving port every morning. Charters for flounder and weaks are also available.

A few keeper flounder and probably 20 to 25 throwbacks were hooked on a trip Saturday, said Capt. Howard from the <b>Salt Talk</b>. The boat fished along the shipping channel north of the Elbow, the Fortescue Rips between Flat Top and Miah Maul, and the stakes closer to shore. Bluefish sometimes bit on recent trips, but not on this one. Howard hoped croaker fishing turned on soon. The boat is no longer drum fishing. Open-boat flounder trips are slated to run 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily, but call to confirm. The open trips usually run on weekends, but not always enough people show up on weekdays, and sometimes the boat is chartered. Charters are available.

Flounder were plentiful at spots including the stakes, the first drop-off and the edge of the shipping channel, but something like 30 had to be landed to bag three keepers, said Dave from <b>Al’s Bait & Tackle</b>. A few weakfish swam tight to Egg Island Point and also hovered around the Elbow and Flat Top, and customers usually threw bucktails to them, but shedder crabs could also be used. Small blues appeared everywhere. Drum fishing was actually still good at least through the weekend at the Pin Top. Fortescue surf anglers could beach small striped bass, perch and a few flounder, not many of the flatties. Bloodworms and mullet were popular baits in the wash. Fortescue Creek was loaded with perch, and small stripers also roamed the creek, and crabbing in the creek was pretty good. Shedder crabs, minnows, bloodworms and a full supply of frozen baits are stocked.

<b>Bivalve</b>

Lots of flounder, but lots of throwbacks, carpeted the bay, said Pat from <b>Longreach Marina</b>. Youngster Tyler Smith checked in a 19-inch keeper that weighed 2 pounds 2 ounces. No weakfish and croakers were docked at the marina yet, but some kingfish were hooked off Thompson’s Beach. Nobody showed up with drumfish in the past several days. Minnows, shedder crabs and all the frozen baits are stocked. The annual Longreach Marina Kids Fishing Tournament is set for August 9. The kids will vie for 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes in both the boys’ and girls’ categories for the largest weakfish and flounder. If too few of either species are entered, blues and croakers, in that order, will be substituted. Each kid also gets a prize, and each is entered in a drawing for a boy’s and a girl’s bike. The annual Cumberland County Fishing Tournament, formerly a weakfish tournament but now open to all the major species, is on the books for August 2.

<b>Dennisville</b>

Drum were still boated around Tussy’s Slough and the Pin Top, and anglers no longer bailed 15 or 20 per trip like before, but they put the brakes on four, five or six, said Rusty from <b>Captain Tate’s Bait & Tackle</b>. Clams for bait were usually now available upon request, because demand wasn’t high enough to stock a bunch. Call a day or two ahead, and if clams are being ordered, more can probably be ordered for you. Nobody reported catching croakers yet, and weakfishing was very spotty. A few were taken along the beach jetties. Rusty and friends set out on a boat to try to hook weakies along the jetties and ended up catching herring, livelining them and reeling in three stripers. One jumped off that would’ve been a keeper, probably 35 inches. Stripers could still be beached from the surf at times, and dunk bunker or clams, or liveline bait like herring, or throw a plug along the jetties. Some customers were still boating stripers from the shallows in the southern end of the bay, sticking one or two. Flounder fishing was spotty at best, and flounder anglers could fill up with 17-inchers, last year’s keepers, but now they could bag two to five keepers, or lots of onesies or twosies, on average. Flounder catches started to pick up a little at the ocean reefs and the Old Grounds. Small schools of 5- to 10-pound blues seemed to swim offshore at places like Massey’s Canyon. Bluefin tuna apparently began to appear at such spots. Shark fishing in the ocean produced smaller makos but no bigger ones, because of warm waters. Makos 100 to 125 pounds were possible, and big threshers were around, and so were exotics like hammerheads or tiger sharks. Farther offshore, canyon waters warmed quickly and started producing just about every type of big game, including yellowfin tuna, bigeye tuna and white and blue marlin. Plenty of shark chum is stocked, and so are flats of offshore baitfish for sharks and tuna. Minnows and all the frozen baits  are on hand.

<b>Cape May</b>

Drum still bit, said Capt. George from the <b>Heavy Hitter</b>, and the boat’s drum fishing is usually over by now, and trips did start fishing for other species, but he knew one angler who smoked 12 or 14 drum Saturday and another who hit seven Sunday morning. George took a quick trip Thursday with friends who left the dock at 5 p.m., boated seven drum and got back to port at 7:30 p.m. One of the best things about the fishing was that only a handful of boats, like four or five, were now fishing the grounds. The only problem was that fresh clams were difficult to find for bait, because the shops stop carrying them, because demand drops off. But he’s up for drum trips if anyone wants to go, and drum fishing is all the boat did until now.  A trip competed in the Ladies Invitational Bluefish Tournament on Saturday at the Table Top offshore, but the anglers couldn’t buy a blue, and a 45-pound bluefin tuna and a false albacore hit instead and were landed. Tuna anglers who fished the area the previous day got covered up with blues. Big blues off Cape May were far offshore, but 1- to 2-pounders were plentiful at 5-Fathom Bank. On Sunday Steve Bush’s charter shark fished near the Misty Blue and probably reeled in 25 brown sharks from 3 to 6 feet, basically non-stop. The Heavy Hitter is shark fishing, trolling for blues and other fish like bonito, and bottom fishing for flounder and sea bass. George heard about decent catches of flounder at some of the reefs and the Old Grounds. But Old Grounds anglers have to know where they’re going, and the right winds and currents have to come together to create a good drift.

The <b>Down Deep</b> drum fished through last week and continued to belt plenty, and drum even kept biting through the weekend, Capt. Bob said. He knew about a party boat that came back with 20-some. Anglers on the boat Saturday competed in the Ladies Invitational Bluefish Tournament, and only two blues were reeled in, but three bluefin tuna hammered the trolled lures. That was the first time he was ever disappointed to catch tuna instead of bluefish!  he said.  The trip ran 40 miles offshore to waters near the Dump Site, because boaters bailed blues there the day before, but the fish were gone this day. Merv Berckebills’ charter trolled for blues around the reef 8 miles from shore on Friday and stuck a bunch of small ones along with a few Spanish mackerel. Brian Wolfgang’s group also trolled the area on Wednesday and picked up tons of 2- to 3-pound blues and seven Spanish mackerel. None of the blues in waters closer to shore around Cape May were the big slammers like were swarming farther north at Barnegat Ridge. But Barnegat Ridge is like a canyon run from Cape May. The Down Deep will keep trolling for blues and other speedsters like Spanish macks and bonito and will also fish for sharks, fluke and sea bass, and tuna trips usually begin the first or second week of July.

Drum kept hitting, and the fishing was actually great, said Capt. Rob from <b>First Cast Sport Fishing</b>. A friend bailed 10 Saturday night, and Rob knew another angler who hauled up nine Sunday and came back early. First Cast is willing to drum fish if anyone wants and is also open for sharking, inshore trolling and flounder fishing. The trolling was producing bluefish and Spanish mackerel, and bonito were beginning to appear. Tuna charters will start soon. First Cast was shark fishing through the week, and so far three makos, including one keeper that weighed 150 to 175 pounds, were landed. A big thresher, bigger than a 300-pounder that was boated on the vessel last year, also got off. Rich Royer’s group hooked the fish and also reeled in nine brown sharks. The Larry Bitiratus gang competed in Jim’s Bait & Tackle’s Mako Tournament on the boat over the weekend and leadered 10 brown sharks and fought a thresher 2 hours that finally caught the line in the wreck that was fished and broke off. Four anglers took turns on the rod. A big mako also entered the slick but never took a bait.

Croakers started to show up along Bayshore Channel and in the surf at Higbee’s Beach, said Matt from <b>Jim’s Bait & Tackle</b> in a fax. Flounder fishing was spotty, and Cape May Reef, Reef 11 and the Old Grounds gave up some, but no heavy bites anywhere. That should improve as water temps rise. The shop held its 26th annual mako shark tournament during the weekend, a week later than usual. Apparently the event was delayed a week, because in recent years, waters were too cool for the best sharking. But this year the ocean suddenly became warm, and the fish were difficult to come by. That’s fishing!

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