New Jersey Fishing Reports

Waters off Slaughter Beach, Delaware, turned out drum, good catches, said Rick from Big Timber Bait & Tackle. The bay around Ship John gave up striped bass, and so did the southern bay toward Bug Light. Big stripers to 40 inches were hung from the Cape May surf. Stripers, plenty of them, were even boated on the Delaware River, including off National Park and north of the Ben Franklin Bridge. Lots of big catfish milled around the river, including in the deep sloughs, along the Philadelphia piers and at the mouth of Rancocas Creek. Raccoon Creek also harbored the cats. Anglers will find out how flounder fishing fares when the flattie season opens Saturday. Big Timber carries a full supply of bait and tackle for fishing from freshwater to the offshore ocean. Freshwater bait includes minnows, nightcrawlers, trout worms, meal worms and crawfish. Saltwater bait includes everything from fresh clams and fresh bunker to all the flounder bait to big-game bait like flats of sardines and butterfish.

Pennsville

Boaters cranked aboard striped bass throughout the bay, from north to south, including at Ship John, all on bunker, said Zach from Shag’s Bait & Tackle. Drum began to be plowed off Slaughter Beach in Delaware. Closer to the shop, white perch and catfish were plucked from the Delaware River, the perch on bloodworms, the cats on cut baits like herring or bunker. Crabbing was yet to pick up in the local area for recreationals. But the shop’s owner caught crabs commercially, sailing from Madhorse Creek. Fresh bunker, bloodworms, squid and other baits are stocked.

Port Elizabeth

Drum were boated off Delaware’s Slaughter Beach, and a few were taken on the New Jersey side of the bay, said Sharon from The Girls Place Bait & Tackle. Catches on the Jersey side were nothing to speak about, but maybe the next moon will trigger the fish to change locations, causing more to show up at places like the Pintop. Fresh clams as usual were the bait. Striped bass were sometimes caught in the shallows, mostly on fresh bunker. They were spread from the northern bay to the southern, but 8 to 10 feet of waters off Pierce’s Point gave up some, and skinny waters off Thompson’s Beach sometimes did. Customers were getting ready for the opening of flounder season on Saturday. The shop’s netters picked up good-sized flounder from the bay, and drum anglers hooked the flatties at times. Medium-sized bluefish ran the bay, and little was heard about weakfish in the bay, but the netters came across a few off the sod banks close to shore. Fresh clams and fresh bunker are stocked. All the flounder baits will be on hand for the opener, including squid, minnows, mackerel, shad strips, bunker strips, spearing and smelts. Shedder crabs and other baits are on hand. 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.

Newport

The rental boats at Beaver Dam Boat Rentals became available for crabbing last weekend for the first time this season, and about 30 keepers seemed to be nabbed per vessel, Paul said. Lots of small crabs skittered around, but the number of keepers seemed good, especially considering the rough weather. Many of the small blueclaws were just undersized, so they should be keepers when they grow during the next shed. The crabs already shed once this season and generally shed once a month to grow. Nobody fished from the boats, and Paul saw striped bass in the waters a couple of weeks ago but not since. Crabbers at Beaver Dam are towed up Oranokin Creek to several saltwater ponds full of blueclaws. The area may be the richest in the state for crabbing because of the right environment, commercial crabbing prohibited and the staff preventing most motor-boat traffic on the creek. Everything needed for a day of crabbing, from baits to traps to suntan lotion, snacks and cold drinks, is supplied at the shop. Be sure to call ahead to reserve a rental boat, because they can become full. Canoe and kayak rentals are also available for paddling up the scenic creek, teeming with wildlife. Beaver Dam sells fish and wildlife licenses and is a deer and turkey check-in station. The shop will be open Friday through Monday for the Memorial Weekend. Afterward the doors will probably be open Fridays through Sundays until being opened every day, probably starting in late June. But call to confirm the hours or check <a href="http://www.crabulousnj.com/Home_Page.html" target="_blank">Beaver Dam’s Web site</a> for hours and info.

Fortescue

Double-digits of drum were pumped aboard every trip, said Capt. Mike from the party boat Bonanza. The trips made the run to Slaughter Beach for the catches, and the fishing and weather cooperated. Daily, open-boat trips will begin to fish for flounder on Saturday, the opening of the flattie season, but open trips for drum will sail every Wednesday, and call Mike to reserve space on the drum outings: 609-381-2978. Charters are also fishing.

On the party boat Salt Talk daily, open-boat flounder trips will kick off on Saturday, opening day of flounder season, Capt. Howard said. Boaters who were anchored for other fishing sometimes reeled up flounder and released them. Squid and mackerel will probably be supplied for bait. Trips might fish for drum at times, especially if the boomers become more abundant on the New Jersey side of the bay, closer to port than Slaughter Beach in Delaware, where the fish mostly stacked up currently. The Salt Talk did run some drum trips on the Jersey side, where catches were made in past seasons, in the last week. But drum were mostly scarce there. Wes Sparks decked probably a 65-pound drum, a better-sized one, on one of the trips. Another trip found no drum, only skates and a few bluefish. Seemed blues were showing up in the bay. Probably 20 boats were scattered around the drum grounds on the Jersey side. Call ahead to confirm that the open-boat trips are sailing at this time of year. The weekend trips are likely to run, but demand could be low on weekdays until the summer season kicks in. Until then, Howard likes to group everyone together on certain weekdays to make a trip. Charters are also fishing.

Bigger drum to 75 or 80 pounds began to be caught off Delaware’s Slaughter Beach, and the fishing seemed turn on a lot by now, said Dave from Al’s Bait & Tackle. Anglers might pick up an occasional drum on the New Jersey side at places like the Pintop and Tussy’s Slough, but smooth dog sharks filled those areas, and 30 of the pesky fish might have to be weeded through before a drum is culled. Striped bass were swung aboard tight to shore, like in 8- to 10-foot depths. Catches were reportedly boated off places including Ben Davis Point and Reed’s Beach. Fortescue beach anglers walloped good striper catches. A few blues swam those waters, and so did white perch. The perch fishing seemed to keep getting better at Fortescue Creek, and large ones were around. Healthy sized, out-of-season flounder grabbed baits for Fortescue beach anglers and were released. Flounder were also boated and released right off Fortescue when anglers tried for stripers with clams and bunker. Flounder fishing should go well when the season opens Saturday. Blues 2 to 4 pounds roamed the bay, but fishing for them was nothing steady. Fresh clams and fresh bunker are stocked. All the flounder baits are on hand, including minnows, spearing, mackerel, sand eels, mullet, herring, chicken and all the different types of squid, including trolling squid, 1-pound boxes of smaller squid, squid strips and tube squid. The store is open 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays, 5:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 5:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays.

Bivalve

Boaters from Longreach Marina docked big striped bass, catching them in close, very shallow, on fresh bunker, Pat said. John LaDota, Rosenhayn, checked in a 51-3/4-pounder, the biggest at the marina this season so far. Shaun Andrews, Millville, was close behind with a 51-pounder that he whaled on a trip with Jeffrey Franckel, Millville, who walloped a 49-pounder, quite a bass, too. Albert and Dee King, Dividing Creek, landed four stripers more than 40 inches apiece, including Dee’s 50-pound whopper. Albert’s brother Joe King and Don Gandy from Millville totaled three stripers 38, 36 and 34 inches. Todd Simino and Brian Hoppe from Millville returned with three keepers. Good catches of drum were boated off Delaware’s Slaughter Beach. Some were muscled aboard on the New Jersey side, and that bite was yet to take off, but anglers hoped it will. Minnows and other flounder baits including squid and mackerel will be stocked for the opening of flounder season Saturday. Anglers should note that the state was passing out the laminated cards with the 2009 fishing regulations, had not yet distributed the 2010 cards. But the 2009 cards include last year’s date for the opening of flounder season, May 23. But this year’s opening is definitely Saturday, May 29.

Villas

Charters on the Ho-D-Doe, the boat from Budd’s Tackle Charter Service, sailing from Cape May, cleaned up on good fishing for drum off Slaughter Beach in Delaware, said Capt. Ben, who also owns Budd’s Bait & Tackle in the Villas. Jimmy McGill’s charter with the West Virginia Boys rounded up nine drum to Zachary Moat’s 82-pounder on Thursday. Some better-sized boomers began to show up. Three of the nine were pups thrown back, and the other five weighed 50 to 60 pounds. A charter another day with the Marty family muscled in five drum: three 50- to 60-pounders that were bagged and two 20-pounders that were thrown back. Boaters from the shop caught striped bass in shallow waters close to shore off Pierce’s Point on fresh bunker. Customers who surf fished tackled big stripers at Cape May Point, Poverty Beach and North Wildwood. Weigh-ins from the suds included Jeff Stanton’s 44.3-pound 50-incher from Poverty. Stripers checked in from the North Wildwood surf included David Ludlam’s 28.9-pounder and wife Barbara’s 38.4-pound 49-incher. Wendy Conover weighed in a 35-1/2-pound drum she boated. Sea bass fishing went well at the reefs during the opening of sea bass season during the weekend, and Ben saw big lumpheads among catches. One customer said he lambasted flounder, catching and releasing lots of the out-of-season fish, on the back bay. Ben heard nothing about flounder from Delaware Bay. All the flounder baits are stocked for Saturday’s opening of the flattie season, including minnows, mackerel and more. Fresh clams, fresh bunker and all the frozen baits are carried.

Cape May

Trips for drum probably averaged one of the fish per angler on the Down Deep, Capt. Bob said. So the angling was pretty good, he said, and the Harvey Miller group fished for sea bass on Saturday, the opening day of sea bass season. They angled up a healthy catch of the knotheads and some cod.

Howard Bly’s charters hauled in seven drum on Thursday and five on Friday on the Heavy Hitter, Capt. George said. Steve Scherf’s group boated drum to 40 pounds on Saturday. Another gang was on the waters on a drum trip Sunday evening, when George gave this report over the phone on the outing, and they had boxed four drum, including three bigger ones 65 or 70 pounds, so far. The other probably weighed 40. On Saturday morning, before the drum trip, Tom Ebicke’s charter from Accresce Nursery in Newfield sailed for sea bass for opening day of sea bass season, bailing a load of the fish to 3 or 4 pounds. About a dozen were 17 or 18 inches, and cod, about 10, including three or four keepers, were also waxed. The cod probably measured 19 to 25 inches.

Catches of drum, some of them large or 75 or 80 pounds, were made on trips that fished for them every evening off Delaware’s Slaughter Beach lately, said Capt. T.J. from Legal Limit Charters. Anglers on his other boat, fishing from Tuckerton, copped respectable catches of sea bass Saturday and Sunday, the opening weekend of sea bass season.