Despite heat, smiles on suburned faces
If you thought those Arizona-like days of last weekend put a crimp on the salt water fishing here along the south Jersey shore you were wrong.
Certainly, temperatures of 100 degrees and unfiltered sun held down the number of people willing to go out and wet a line, but surprisingly, there were some very good reports. I noticed many boats gathered around the various inlets where the temperature often was a good ten degrees cooler than just a hundred yards away.
Checking in with some of my Ocean City dockmates I found several of them with big smiles on their sunburned faces. I saw several summer flounder far over 20-inches in length. Some of these were caught in the back bays and inlets, while others were brought in from the artificial reefs.
Another boat went out extra early, anticipating the extreme afternoon temperatures, and those aboard dragged small spoons out beyond the Atlantic City Pots. They had a nice catch of bonito and chicken dolphin in their coolers. One long-time friend headed off shore and took a respectable number of yellowfin but the thing that attracted the most attention was a 35-lb. mahi.
With the triple digit temps, even at the beaches, the water temperature was crazily erratic. It actually fluctuated from the upper 50s to the midto-upper 70s, primarily depending on the wind direction which caused upwelling which brought the cold bottom water closer to the surface. Sometimes fish like that. Sometimes they don’t.
The back bays from LBI to Cape May seem filled with two things: small striped bass and bait. Little two-to-three inch peanut bunker seem to be almost everywhere. Of course, the flounder also are hanging out for the bait feast.
If you want to indoctrinate a youngster into fishing take them out and they are almost assured of finding plenty of exciting action. There might not be much to put into the cooler, but the kids will have fun.
Crabbing remains excellent. If you look at a map of Cape May County you will see numerous little creeks. There are a number of such areas along Route 50 and the Tuckahoe Road. Drive until you see cars parked along the road. That will be the clue to a crabbing spot. Often, these out-of-the-way areas are loaded with crabs. I see some of the super markets are advertising they have chicken necks for crabbing bait. But. I’ve never had much luck with that and still prefer the tried-and-true bunker.
Even with the high temperature and the wind off the land, the places I visited last weekend had remarkably few bugs. But, a good high power repellent should always be in your tackle box.