<b>Port Elizabeth</b>

At <b>The Girls Place Bait & Tackle</b>, Kathy heard about drum hauled aboard near the 16 buoy and at the Pin Top or deeper waters on Saturday, she said. Plenty of striped bass were beached from the surf, but none seemed to be found in deeper waters. That was about everything Kathy heard, and Sharon from the shop, who usually gives the report, was out the past couple of days. Fresh bunker, fresh clams, bloodworms and all the baits are stocked. The Girls Place is located on Route 47 just after Route 55 ends, and it’s the long, one-story, yellow building on the right. There’s a large parking lot with plenty of room for trailered boats.

<b>Fortescue</b>

Drum had been bailed, but the fishing shut down by trips Friday and Saturday, said Capt. Ralph from the <b>Buccaneer</b>. Some boats whacked three or four, but most did not, and some trips lambasted 17 or 20 about a week before. But by the weekend the boomers mostly stopped eating. Maybe the moon needed to wane after the full moon at the end of last week, and maybe catches will pick up by the weekend. But drum season was early, and nothing was unusual in the angling, and the hope was that the action will pick up like usual. Ralph’s been drum fishing since the early 1960s, before the rest of the fleet commonly sailed for the behemoths. His anglers use a tandem-hooked rig to hold lots of bait, impaling a surf clam or maybe two on the hooks. Or they might hook a combo of clam and shedder crab, the types of baits the drum grub. He tries to fish two tides on a 10-hour trip, because the fishing is a waiting game, like deer hunting. The boat will be anchored at a spot that the boomers are likely to school through, and the crew won’t move from the place, unless they get called in by a boat that’s catching them. The fish will come through at some point. A great rate is offered on the Buccaneer’s drum trips.

Fortescue surf anglers drilled striped bass, lots of the fish, including keepers, said Dave from <b>Al’s Bait & Tackle</b>. Bloodworms were the bait, and no boaters talked about catching stripers anymore, but boaters switched to drum fishing. Drum turned on starting about a week ago, but the fishing was hit or miss. Trips either caught the boomers or found none. Most drum fishers targeted the north side of the Pin Top, and Dave heard about up to 75-pounders walloped, but most of the fish were 20- to 30-pound pups. Drum might be about to spawn, when the fishing can suddenly drop off, but then it comes back on like gangbusters. The full moon at the end of last week might’ve triggered the spawn. Sketchy news flew around about bluefish, nothing concrete, but when blues were landed, they were big. Nobody mentioned weakfish. Flounder season opens in two Saturdays, and the flatties, including big ones 20 to 24 inches, were sometimes caught by mistake and released. Some of the doormats sucked in gobs of clam meant for drum.  Minnows, the favorite flounder bait, will be stocked for the opener. Fresh clams are on hand for drum fishing, but anglers should call ahead to order them, a few days beforehand if possible. Fresh bunker is carried, and so are all the frozen baits. Shedder crabs might be stocked soon. The shop is open at 6 a.m. every day but is open at 5:30 a.m. on Saturdays. Catch the big sale on Memorial Day weekend, featuring a wall of goodies up to 75 percent off, including rigs, leadheads and more.

<b>Bivalve</b>

Lucky Murray, Julio Gomez and Raul Roldan pumped in eight drum 25 to 35 pounds, said Pat from <b>Longreach Marina</b>. Dave Parkhill and Bob Carroll muscled up two drum 30 and 35 pounds. Frank Pottle beat a 43-inch striped bass in close, and Pat heard about other stripers boated. Customers located drum scattered throughout the bay, including at Tussy’s Slough, the Pin Top, Bug Light, the number 1 buoy and off the E.P. Tower. Netters sometimes found weakfish in their catches, but nobody reported landing any on rod and reel. Fresh bunker and frozen baits are stocked. Some slips remain available. 

<b>Cape May</b>

Drum fishing on the bay seemed to taper off by the weekend with the full moon at the end of last week, although previously a load of drum maybe 30 to 40 pounds got waxed, said Capt. Ray from <b>Jaftica Sportfishing</b>. But the fishing should rebound as the moon wanes. Besides drum fishing, Jaftica’s got a couple of striped bass trips slated on the bay, as the linesiders drop back down to the bay after spawning in the Delaware River. Ray already heard about catches of the bass smoked on the bay, so the migration of the fish to the ocean must’ve been under way. His trips will probably bunker-chunk for the stripers. Jaftica striper fished in the river along the channel edges a couple of weeks ago, while the migration up the river was in high gear, and the angling was great. He’ll probably give it a shot again next year. He keeps the boat in Philadelphia during winter, and normally he would splash the vessel in Cape May off the bat in spring. But in recent years the striper migration apparently moved through the bay up to the river early in the year. While bay boaters used to catch the bass in May, the fish in recent years already left the bay for the river by late April. Few charters fish the run on the river around Philadelphia, although an awesome population of the fish swims through. Here’s the opportunity to get on them.

Charters on the <b>Down Deep</b> rounded up decent catches of drum from the bay, Capt. Bob said. Thirty-five pounds, pups, was the average size, and Bob thinks waters needed to warm a little to get drumfishing rolling more. The bay was 57.5 to 58 degrees and needed to get passed 60 degrees to make the fish more active. Still, the fishing was a good start, and drum were marked all over. The Barnett group on Wednesday boated drum to 35 pounds, and the Cochran gang on Friday drilled drum to 40 pounds. Harvey Miller’s group on Saturday morning creamed a catch of the fish including Harvey’s 60-pounder. Everyone aboard the trip caught a drum, and small ones were also released. A trip Saturday night got chased back to port because of winds. Some openings remain for drum charters, and May is fairly full, but a couple of good dates are left at the beginning of June.

Something like nine drum to 45 pounds were ransacked on the bay Friday with <b>Legal Limit Charters</b>, all on outgoing tide, Capt. T.J. said. The boat must’ve been moved eight times to find fish, but marks could be found, and the catch ended up all right. Legal Limit’s other boat from Tuckerton sailed for sea bass on Saturday, putting the anglers into a slew of the fish, not a lot of keepers, but some, at four or five wrecks. The charter decided to head in early when seas built up.

Thirteen drum to 55 pounds were pummeled on a trip Saturday morning on the <b>Fishin’ Fever</b> on the bay, Capt. Tom said. But only one drum was cranked in on a trip in the afternoon, when the fishing seemed to fall apart for everyone. Maybe the barometric pressure from the storms that night turned off the fish. The trips fished anywhere from 10 to 40 feet in 57- to 60-degree, fairly clear waters. Striped bass started to be located in the bay, after the fish began to drop back down after spawning in the Delaware River. But striper fishing sounded slow on Saturday, when 21 boats in Cape May’s American Striper Association Tournament reportedly only entered four bass. Fishin’ Fever targets the bass that drop back down from the river, and the fish are big, averaging 20 to 30 pounds with bigger ones around. A chance to bag a trophy. Plenty of sea bass could be pumped up from the reefs and wrecks on the boat, and trolling trips for bluefish are on the menu, with the speedsters swimming along the ocean beaches. Thresher sharks should haunt the ocean quickly, and mako shark charters usually launch at the beginning of June.

Drumming became slow on a trip on the bay Saturday afternoon, and only one of the boomers, a 30-pounder, was boxed, said Capt. George from the <b>Heavy Hitter</b>. He knew some boaters who caught none, and others who clocked a couple. Anglers who fished Friday said a bunch were boated. <i>Update, Today:</i> Four drum were boated by 7 p.m. on a trip Monday, with several hours left to go, Capt. George said from the waters then. One of the fish weighed 40 pounds, and the rest were 25 to 30 pounds. A couple of other boats that were catching there called him in to the spot, and by the time George gave this report, had put six and eight in the box respectively, having fished the area longer than him. Fish were heard drumming under the boat and were marked, and things might’ve been about to get going. Boats on Monday morning hardly caught any of the fish. Fishing for most of the fleet that afternoon, parked in another area where George originally fished, were into slow fishing so far. But the three or four boats where George had relocated were doing better.  George wouldn’t be surprised if the fish turned on today, several days after the full moon. He said all along he prefers three or so days on either side of the moon, and has often found fishing slower right on the moon, even though some drum anglers swear by the moon.

Drumming was a slow, steady pick on the bay through the week, said Capt. Joe from <b>Schmedley Charters</b> in an e-mail. Although some might only blame the full moon, he thinks freshwater runoff from all the rains dropped off the fishing. Plenty of the fish were marked, but getting them to bite was another thing. But he does believe that “when it pops, look out, because it will be game on, big time,” he said. Some prime dates remain for drum charters and open-boat trips.

Drum kept boaters busy on the bay until around the weekend, when most catches only came in the mornings, and anglers during the afternoons hunted and pecked for a fish, said Matt from <b>Jim’s Bait & Tackle</b> in a fax. The fish kept holding along the same areas: Tussy’s Slough, the Pin Top and sometimes in the deeper waters on the east side of the 16 buoy near the shipping channel. John Hanstein from Philly weighed in a 72-pound drum wrestled in from the Pin Top. Art Hamler also fished at the Pin Top, tackling a 68-pounder. Striped bass were dragged from the surf, and most anglers gathered at Poverty Beach. But the fish were banked all along Cape May’s shore. Drum, pups 10 to 30 pounds, but sometimes bruisers to 75 pounds, were wrestled from the surf at times. The 75-pounder was hooked at the cove near 2nd Street. The angler had to let the fish swim all the way around the point of the jetty before hauling it in. Reports actually started to come in about small weakfish beginning to be hooked around the jetties at Cape May Point on floated bloodworms, earlier in the season than in recent years.  Sea bassing put out plenty of the fish, mostly in 80 to 100 feet, tons of undersized ones in some areas, but bigger ones mixed in. Murray Camphere checked in a 4.2-pounder he reeled up from Reef 11.

Back to Top