Cape May Fishing Report June 27, 2009

Bill, his Dad, and I headed out of the marina around 8:15 AM and headed for the Delaware Bay. Capt Randy and Dave had left around 6:00 AM and headed for the Cape May Reef.

We started in the bay, in the Brown Shoal area but the wind was against the tide and we didn’t have much of a drift, or any action. After about an hour we decided to move north. We were heading up towards Buoy 16, but stopped a little North of Brandywine light because there was a small fleet there. We pulled in right next to the Lady Chris head boat. The water temperature was around 70 degrees. I think we picked up one short there. So we headed further North toward Buoy 16. There was a North West wind most of the day and with an incoming tide. We did pick up a few more shorts once the tide went slack, and the wind was able to push us along.

We made it back to the barn by about 2:30, and Bill and his Dad headed home. (empty handed). While I was walking up to the Fuel Shack Captain Andy from the Island Girl yelled out to me, “Boy are you glad you didn’t go with us”. They ran into trouble 62 miles out. While cruising at 25 knots his anchor suddenly came undone, as it was dropping it got caught in his port side prop, and banged it up pretty bad. The good news was they were able to limp back in, all 62 miles on the other engine; the bad news was they were only doing 8 knots on the way back. The breakdown took place at around 6:00 AM, and they didn’t make it back until 3:00 PM. So yes I was glad I wasn’t on that trip.
When I caught up with Capt. Randy he reported that they only caught shorts while at the Cape May reef.

Later in the afternoon I went to Jim’s Tackle to buy a new jigging rod and reel. Matt at the shop helped me out. I ended up with an Avet LX 6 reel, with 60 lb braid and a top shot of about 100 ft of 60 lb mono. For the rod I went with the Shimano Trevala Jigging rod. Hopefully I’ll get to use them soon; I hope to jig for some tuna. Here’s some photo’s of the new weapons in the arsenal.

Cape May Fishing Report June 13, 2009

Capt. Dave and I headed out of the slip in the Tiramisu at about 6:00 heading towards the Maih Maul area again. Again the ride out was fairly smooth. I think low tide was somewhere around 7:30, but we had a decent drift most of the day. We started off a little North of the light, but weren’t doing much. We headed over by some of the Party boats which were a little South East of the light. Capt. Dave’s sonar was indicating the water temperature was 73 degrees, but that might be off a little.

Again I think we ended up with about 10-12 shorts, and one bluefish, no keepers this week. We did come across a big sea turtle when we were out there. He was floating on the surface with a seagull sitting on his shell. He was still alive but didn’t look to good. We were also boarded by the coast guard when we came back to the harbor; they were conducting a spot safety check which we passed.

Later in the afternoon Capt Randy helped me get the new alternator in my boat. I was going to go to sleep early on Saturday night, but got a phone from Jim at around 9:00 letting me know he was over at the Harbor View. I got back to the boat after 1:00 AM.

Cape May Fishing Report June 6, 2009

Bill and yours truly left the Flemington area around 6:00 AM. We drove down in separate vehicles, and were down in Cape May by around 8:30 AM. We left the slip at around 9:10, and headed out the Cape May canal, heading towards the Maih Mall Lighthouse, which is a bout a 14 mile run up the bay. The seas were calm and we are had the lines in the water by 10:15 AM. We didn’t have much of a drift at first, but the tide started moving out a short while later.



















The water temperature was around 66 degrees, and the wind was from the North, but had changed over the course of the day. The drift was originally running from North to South, but became more Easterly after a while.

We ended up with about 10-12 throw backs, two of which were over 17 ¾ inches, so they were just short of the limit. We also had one keeper that was around 19 inches. Bill also caught 2 skates.

The ride back in was just as smooth. We left the fishing grounds at around 2:30 PM, which was around low tide. The hydraulic pump on the outdrive was working so I was able to raise the motor. However I think the alternator may have took a dump, battery one lost its charge and the volt meter was running low.

When we got back to the slip we filleted the fish, and Bill took a look at the alternator.Later I cleaned the boat and went for sushi at the Harbor View. On Sunday morning I removed the alternator and gave it to Randy to test and repair.

Here's the after shot from Sunday evening.