Two charters smoked a ton of weakfish to 17 or 18 inches, croakers, blues and kingfish along the ocean front off Wildwood on the Down Deep, Capt. Bob said. Out-of-season flounder, including sizeable ones, were caught and released, and the Messing gang was the charter on Saturday, and the Stetter party was the charter on Sunday. Waters were 67.5 degrees, about the same as before. Somebody said a ton of bunker showed up at Brigantine, and striped bass were sometimes nailed among them. If so, maybe that was a good sign that stripers were moving down the coast. The Down Deep’s stripers charters will probably begin the third week of the month and were booking fast. A few dates remained this month through December. The striper trips will fish both Delaware Bay and the Cape May Rips, probably first the bay, until stripers begin to hold at the rips. Several dates were available for tuna trips, if anyone wants to go, but Bob will keep an eye on the fishing and only go if catches seem worthwhile. Lots of mahi mahi swam the grounds, but tuna were scarcer.

Surf fishing turned on a bit, mostly for 1- to 3-pound blues and short striped bass, said Matt from Jim’s Bait & Tackle in a fax. For the blues, mullet fished at Poverty Beach on high tides was a good bet. For the bass, any of the jetties around Cape May Point could offer bites from shorts and keepers. The Cold Spring Inlet jetties produced a few fair-sized ones on plugs and bucktails. Bait schooled along the Wildwood beachfront, so bigger stripers should move in soon. Sizeable kingfish hovered in 20 feet or shallower toward Hereford Inlet, and weakfish were taken in 40 feet off Hereford. The Wildwood Lumps attracted a bunch of croakers and smaller weaks. Boaters at Sea Isle Ridge sometimes trolled false albacore, bonito and a few Spanish mackerel. They also sometimes nabbed the same fish at the East Lump and the Cigar. Sea bass seemed to hold in 100 to 120 feet, but a few came up from shallower waters at Cape May Reef. Bigger blues were found in 20 fathoms around the Northern Pacific and Jacob Jones wrecks. Offshore fishing was good for everything except yellowfin tuna, but yellowfins began to get whacked at the southern canyons or the Washington and the Norfolk. Lindenkohl Canyon put out a few hefty longfin tuna and some wahoos and marlin. All the canyons seemed to hold healthy catches of mahi mahi this season.