Cape May Fishing Report Aug 1, 2009

I drove down to Cape May on Saturday morning. I bought some minnows and ice and I was off for the Cape May Reef for the first time this year. The ride out was pretty smooth, there was some large swells but I could still cruise at about 20 knots. I headed for the bridge rubble towards the north end of the reef. The water temp was about 70 degrees. There were a few boats by me around the pots, but there were a lot more boats a little more south of us towards the middle of the reef.

The weather was great, but the drift wasn’t very good most of the day. I fished from about 9 – 2:30 and only caught about 7 shorts, 1 bluefish, a couple of skates, and a starfish. The drift started getting good at about 2:00 but I had to get back in and do some work.

The ride back in was even smoother. I fueled up again when I got back to the marina. I did about 32 nautical miles and burned a little over 18 gallons and was getting about 1.73 MPG (or should I say NMPG) for this trip, but that included some drifting.

Sunday I got up got some breakfast then stopped at Jim’s Bait and Tackle. I was planning on buying a Penn International 975, but they were out of them. Jim recommended trying a Shimano 2000LD Charter Special, which also has a lever drag and level wind, so I bought one. It was about half the price of the Penn. I haven’t used it yet but hope to use it soon.

I headed home fairly early on Sunday with hopes of finishing up the lawn, but the weather had other plans.

Only 4 weeks left of Summer Flounder Season 2009. When the season is done I’ll be hosting my own version of “After the Catch” at the Harbor View, we can all sit around drinking Duck Farts.