You know I'm a big one on catching fish how, when and where rather than just catching fish. Cape May is that place for a bunch of anglers. It can be on fire if you time it correctly. Big fish, either Delaware River fish or Chesapeake fish that squeak through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and take that route to the ocean and summering waters. Well, you can have it.
One thing I can't stand is the water color. It's always off color to brown. I saw this last summer when Theresa and I took the ferry over to Lewe's, Delaware. Halfway across it went from You-Hoo to tropical clean and green. But on the Jersey side it's always off, especially on the dropping tide. But there are fish to be had. From I saw it's wading or squishing you way way out onto the sand bar and casting
topwater plugs or swimmers 1,000 feet to where the mud flat/sand bar drops off to the rip in front of the Cay May Canal jetties. You can see that scene in the top photo. I made the walk out and didn't see any bait, birds or bass. I did find the below fish, which I had to "Phone a Friend", Leif, for identification. I
picked the cute little guy off the beach and was about to return it to the water when a guy Theresa and I had been talking to asked if he could have it. I gave it to him and made my way out to the sand bar. By the time I got there the guy, who's bait rods were out 1,500 feet, was tight and into a fight. It wound up being a large skate. At first I thought it was a black drum. So I fished for about an hour and called it.
The reason we were down there was to open up Cape May. We didn't get there until about 3 pm on Saturday but we went right to work with the pressure washer, leaf blower, and cleaning supplies. Luckily we've done a lot of the heavy lifting since we bought it three years ago so it wasn't too bad of a work detail. We tested the a/c, which is the most important thing, and it was all good. We hit our
favorite joint, Lucky Bones, for a great bar hang and dinner. I suggest if you're in Cape May giving it a shot. It's right across from the street that takes you to the tourist trap The Lobster House. This is a local year-round place that has a really solid staff and food. We shared the halibut special, and while it may
look a little too creamy it was spot on with the shrimp and crab topping. Sunday was more of the same coupled with that quick outing before heading home around 4 pm. We stopped at Tractor Supply and gave the beasts a bath in their Pet Wash Station. If you haven't used it it's all the shit.
So after unpacking and looking at Theresa, like she's my mother, and saying, "Well, you know....". And I was gone. River has dropped from 30,000 on Friday to a more manageable 23,000 last night.
On my second cast I went tight and landed the above fish. They I hooked a real solid fish that broke the hook on one of my beat up old flies. That was all in the first 15 minutes and then nothing for the
next 1-1/2 hours. The fishing should be good but you know the way we roll now-a-days. 14 inches of rain, or drought. Hurricane winds, or dead air. 150 degrees, or 40. The river temps Friday were in the lower 50's, they are now at 57. So I expect a quick heat-up as we exit this week of cool weather and the river continuers to drop.