Cape May Fishing Report August 20th 2011- Flounder Tournament
On Saturday the Bree Zee Lee had the annual Summer Flounder tournament. I took Friday afternoon off and met Capt. Randy over at the marina at about 3:00 PM on Friday. There was a lot of lightning around, but the storm was not on top of us yet. I turned on the XM weather on my chart plotter, and there was a big thunderstorm in the Delaware Bay.
I called Ross his boat is two slips up from me. His boat is being re-powered right now, so I asked him if he’d like to fish in the tournament. The answer was a quick yes. So I entered “Offshore Bites” in the tournament and Capt Randy entered “Just One More”. Since there was no Captains meeting for the tournament we headed over to the Harbor View for our own Captains Meeting.
I left the slip at about 5:30 AM on Saturday with Ross. We headed to Reef Site 11. The weather was perfect and the seas were flat. It’s about a 16 mile run to Reef Site 11; we had our lines in the water by 6:30. Capt Randy had Dave M. and his brother Jim on board. They left the slip sometime after 6:00 AM and headed to the Old Grounds.
Ross had the first fish on at Reef Site 11 within minutes of our arrival, that one was a short. There were a few boats drifting over the same structure as we were. We ended up with three keepers, which were all caught by Ross. I would say we had a total of about 30 shorts. The early morning bite was great but it died down later in the day.
We packed it in at about 2:15PM since we had to be back for the weigh in by 4:00. We were doing almost 25 knots on the way back in, we had a good tail wind. We pulled into the marina and waited to get in at the fuel dock. There were 34 boats in the tournament, so the fuel dock was pretty busy at about 3:15. Our fish weren’t that big but at least we had something to weigh in. The combined weight for our 2 biggest fish was just over 5 pounds. We filled the boat with fuel and headed back to the slip.
Capt Randy was cleaning one of their fish. They also had 3 fish. The one he was cleaning was pretty big, over 5 pounds – a doormat. He told me the other ones were pretty big too. I thought he was yanking my chain until he showed them to me. Here’s a picture of Randy and two of the fish.
I called Ross his boat is two slips up from me. His boat is being re-powered right now, so I asked him if he’d like to fish in the tournament. The answer was a quick yes. So I entered “Offshore Bites” in the tournament and Capt Randy entered “Just One More”. Since there was no Captains meeting for the tournament we headed over to the Harbor View for our own Captains Meeting.
I left the slip at about 5:30 AM on Saturday with Ross. We headed to Reef Site 11. The weather was perfect and the seas were flat. It’s about a 16 mile run to Reef Site 11; we had our lines in the water by 6:30. Capt Randy had Dave M. and his brother Jim on board. They left the slip sometime after 6:00 AM and headed to the Old Grounds.
Ross had the first fish on at Reef Site 11 within minutes of our arrival, that one was a short. There were a few boats drifting over the same structure as we were. We ended up with three keepers, which were all caught by Ross. I would say we had a total of about 30 shorts. The early morning bite was great but it died down later in the day.
We packed it in at about 2:15PM since we had to be back for the weigh in by 4:00. We were doing almost 25 knots on the way back in, we had a good tail wind. We pulled into the marina and waited to get in at the fuel dock. There were 34 boats in the tournament, so the fuel dock was pretty busy at about 3:15. Our fish weren’t that big but at least we had something to weigh in. The combined weight for our 2 biggest fish was just over 5 pounds. We filled the boat with fuel and headed back to the slip.
Capt Randy was cleaning one of their fish. They also had 3 fish. The one he was cleaning was pretty big, over 5 pounds – a doormat. He told me the other ones were pretty big too. I thought he was yanking my chain until he showed them to me. Here’s a picture of Randy and two of the fish.
The guys from the marina cooked up some burgers and dogs, and a lot of us ate up at the picnic tables. The same tables that Bree Zee the dog often sleeps on. The tournament was for the combined weight of your 2 heaviest fish. The winning weight was over 12 pounds. Capt Randy and the crew of the “Just One More” had a combined weight of 10.07 lbs; they were close to being in the money but didn’t place. The Calcutta was for the single heaviest fish, and was won by “Reel Joy”; they also came in first place in the tournament. I think they were one of the boats fishing in the same spot I was, so obviously I need some flounder schooling.
All in all it was a great day. The weather was perfect, the fishing was pretty good. There were a lot of big fish caught in the tournament. Here’s a photo of the results from the tournament. It might be a little hard to read the results.
posted by Capt. Chris @ 2:12 PM
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