Cape May Fishing Report 7/28/2012

I took “Offshore Bites” out to the Cape May Reef for the first time this season. I was out of the slip by 7:45AM. Capt Dave took “Tiramisu” and Capt Randy and Jim took “Just One More” to the Cape May Reef too. So we had three boats out there. We decided to fish the CM Reef because there was the threat of thunderstorms on Saturday and the CM reef is only about 8 miles from the inlet. Here are some pictures of “Tiramisu” and “Just One More” out at the reef.

I must have caught at least 12 short flounder, they were all in about the 16 inch range. I also caught at least 6 skates and a few sea robins. I managed to catch 1 keeper flounder that was about 21 inches. I knew I had a keeper as soon as I set the hook.  I think the water temperature was about 74 degrees. I was fishing right next to Capt Dave when I caught the keeper. He caught a bunch of shorts but no keepers.

Capt Randy called me on the radio, he was just a little bit south of me; I could see his boat. I told him he might want to come up by me since I had caught a keeper and was catching some good sized shorts. He cruised up and they ended up catching a 19 inch keeper. Based on his report I don’t think they had much other action most of the day.

We all left the reef a little before 2:00 PM; there were reports of thunderstorms heading for Cape May Harbor. I was back at the fuel dock filling up the boat at 2:30 and it just started to rain. Most of that storm bypassed the harbor, but I’m glad we came in when we did. I burned 14.61 gallons on this trip to the Cape May Reef.

Later in the evening we all went to the Harbor View and another round of thunderstorms came in. It was quite a light show.