Cape May Fishing Report August 12 and 13th, 2011

I took Friday off from work. I left the house at about 3:30 AM on Friday morning. I was at the marina by 6:00 and left the slip by 7:00 AM. I set a course for Reef Site 11 which is about a 16 mile run South of Cape May. The weather was perfect. I wanted to head towards the 19 Fathom lump, and do some trolling but couldn’t get a crew together. I did take my trolling rods along with me.

I had my lines in the water at Reef Site 11 by 8:00. As I mentioned the weather was perfect so it made for a quick ride out there. When I started the water temperature was 76 by the afternoon it was up to 80. The water was very clean. I took a picture of every flounder I caught. I caught 8 flounder, none of which were keepers, 2 of them were pretty close, over 17 and 3/4 inches. I also caught a bunch of sea bass but threw them back. While I was drifting I saw some Mahi Mahi jumping by the lobster pots. I flounder fished until about 2:00, then I moved away from the fleet so I could set out my trolling gear. I only put three lines out, and then I trolled around the various pots at Reef Site 11. I trolled around for about an hour but didn’t have any luck. I headed back to the slip empty handed. That trip burned about 28 gallons of fuel.

On Saturday, Capt Dave and Chuck headed to the Old Grounds. They were out of the slip by 6:30 AM. I was waiting to see what everyone else was doing; I finally left my slip at 9:00 and headed to the Cape May reef. Capt Randy and Jim headed for McCrea’s Shoal. I caught 14 flounder at the Cape May reef but they were all shorts. I also caught a few sea bass, and a couple of skates and sea robins. I saw a big turtle on the surface out there; I think it was a leather back turtle. I stopped fishing at about 2:00. When I headed back to the marina Capt Randy and Jim were cleaning “Just One More”. They told me they got one at McCrea’s. Capt Dave and Chuck didn’t get back to the slip until about 4:30. They managed to get 2 keepers at the Old Grounds and they also fished at Reef Site 11.

Saturday evening we all went to CJ’s for dinner. After CJ’s we headed back to the Harbor View to see Northbound Train. That’s the good band I mentioned a few weeks ago. It had rained a little earlier in the evening so the band had to set up in the corner under the roof. We managed to snag a table with a pretty good view. We stayed until the band finished their last set.