<b>Port Elizabeth</b>

A few customers tugged aboard summer flounder from around Miah Maull, heading to the deep waters for the catches, said Sharon from <b>The Girls Place Bait & Tackle</b>. Lots of spots filled the bay, and a few croakers were around. The shop’s netter picked up croakers off Thompson’s Beach and the E.P. Tower and that area. Catches of cobia were heard about from the Cape May Rips on eels. Cobia are unusual around the bay, and one or two caught might be reported on occasion, but not often. The netter found small cobia 25 inches in the catches. White perch and juvenile, non-migrating striped bass swam the mouth of the Mullica River. A few of the stripers were keepers, and bloodworms were probably the most common bait for the perch and stripers, though grass shrimp are a favorite, if anglers can find the shrimp. Tuna had been reported boated at the Hot Dog on the ocean, but the fishing sounded like it slowed lately. One never knows when tuna will turn on and turn off. The shop tries to stock grass shrimp, but that’s difficult. Bloodworms, shedder crabs and fresh bunker are usually on hand. Minnows and all the frozen baits are carried. Offshore baits, like flats of sardines, are available if anglers order ahead.  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>

Twenty-two keeper summer flounder were bailed aboard a charter Tuesday, covered in the last report, and 15 were bombed on another charter Sunday on the boat, and the fishing was going well, said Capt. Ralph from the <b>Buccaneer</b>. Shedder crab bait on a tap-dancer rig, or a rig with a bucktail on the bottom and a teaser dangling along a leader tied above, was key. Ralph wasn’t going to mention location, but the trips fished one of the usual areas within reach of Fortescue. Ralph couldn’t know if the success would continue, but right now, his trips were scoring keepers when trips on other boats weren’t, and the bait and rigs were the reason. An awful lot of flounder in the bay were throwbacks, including 17-inchers, only an inch smaller than the 18-inch size limit. Ralph and captains from Fortescue would like to see the size limit dropped to 17 inches, he said, and wondered if anglers support that. The 18-inch size limit is too large for the bays, because that size is too uncommon in the waters. That size flounder doesn’t enter the bay often, and the regs are killing the fishing industry. Charters aboard are fishing for flounder, and the trips on the Buccaneer are only $400, compared with $500 or $600 on other vessels.

On the party boat <b>Salt Talk</b> summer flounder fishing was decent on a couple of days, Capt. Howard said he guessed, and on some days was hampered by winds against the tide that prevented a good drift. Some sizeable flounder were taken, like a 5-3/4-pound 25-incher, and a couple of 3- or 3-12-pounders. “Not bad, I guess,” Howard said. Small bluefish sometimes showed up. Flounder only seemed to bite well on outgoing tides, and trips found them anywhere from the wreck buoy to the stakes to the Old House, or Flounder Alley, basically. Flounder were reportedly landed at the 19 buoy, Howard heard, but that was unconfirmed. Cape May and Delaware boats didn’t fish waters near Fortescue this past week, though they did during the previous week. Waters somewhat cooled: The bay was 82 or 83 degrees, and Fortescue Creek was 84. Open-boat trips are fishing for summer flounder daily when no charter is booked, and anglers can call to confirm.

Summer flounder were semi cooperative, a report from the party boat <b>Bonanza</b> said on the vessel’s Web site. “Some decent catches have been caught, just not what we have been expecting,” it said. Bluefish 1 to 1 ½ pounds were around. Croakers only hovered along the “structure,” the report said. Too few were around to target. But give it time, the report said. Trips last year started to catch croakers on August 14. An open-boat flounder trip to the Old Grounds, in the ocean off Delaware, is set for Wednesday, and call for a spot: 609-381-2978. Sometimes larger flounder gather at the Old Grounds, and other fish like sea bass can be mixed in. Open trips are fishing the bay daily for flounder when no charter is booked.

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