Ken’s Dock

The flounder fishing continues to be good for those that have put in the time to locate the fish. I had three keepers last trip and two the trip before. The water temperature was 72 degrees, water clarity as a 7.

Today’s fishing trip include a weakfish, John caught the weakie on a bucktail. We briefly tried an old weakfish spot just to see if any weakfish at all had moved in, I was surprised to see the weakfish as the stock is extremely low.  The weakfish was returned to the water alive. We also put three keeper flounder in the box to 22”.  The water temperature was as high as 78 degrees, the water claity was an 8. We fished three hours today.

The secret this year to catching keeper flounder consistently is locating small pods of fish. This year for whatever reason, the flounder did not show up in any numbers in the back bays of Cape MayCounty, NJ. If you are  here on vacation or limited on time, it would be worth hiring a fishing guide. Make sure you see pictures of keeper flounder from this year before you part with your money. Fishing guides and Charter fishing operations are far from equal. Striper fishing on the Back Bay flats during the spring and summers is a lot of fun, again worth hiring a guide. One of the top guides for stripers on light tackle and the fly is Cape May Ray http://www.flyfishingcapemay.com/ The water temperature was 72.5, water clarity was a 7. I caught three Keeper flounder and lost a giant at the net. CJ a long time summer Avalon resident was the only other boat in the area, he had two keepers to 23”. I fished for one hour.

After all the weather reports about the heat today I was ambivalent about flounder fishing today, however it turned out not to be that hot here on the water. I headed across the backbay for a one hour flounder fishing trip. On the way back I had three keepers in the box. The water temperature was 69 degrees, water clarity was a 7.

John Kelleher and I were out for two hours today flounder fishing. A 15 minute run north of my area was necessary to find keeper flounder today. We caught four keepers and numerous shorts. The water temperature was 68 degrees. The water clarity was a 5 on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the clearest.

The flounder bite is improving, but continues to be very slow for this time of the year. Today I caught one keeper flounder 23”, far from a good catch but encouraging considering I spent only 30 minutes fishing; couple that fact with the keepers that were caught by fishermen in the area and the shorts.  The water temperature was 65-67 degrees, water clarity was poor. Surf fishing for striped bass and black drum from the beach continues to be the best bet in town. I was on the beach yesterday I saw stripers {11}to 30.5 pounds and two black drum 20- 25 pounds

The beach fishing in Cape May County,NJ has been absolutely fantastic the last few days. Keeper Striped bass have been caught to 40 pounds and drum to 30 pounds from the beach. They are being caught with lures {black bomber} and bait {Clam}. A few keeper flounder are being caught in the Back Bay areas but the bite has been slow, due to the weather. Wally B. is high hook with 14 keeper flounder.  I will be updating more often as the season moves forward.

http://www.nj.gov/dep/saltwaterregistry/index.html

The 2011  flounder season will start May 7  to Sept. 25. 8 fish Bag limit with a 18″ size limit.

                Jon’s  two  hour trip,  flounder season 2010.

March 23, 2011

Attention: 

New Jersey Assembly Budget Committee Members: 

A choice was made by Governor Christie, the NJ Senate and the NJ Assembly when they cosigned the free fishing registration bill into law recently and in doing so, a commitment was implied to increase funding for the NJ marine fisheries. I urge you to follow through with this commitment and budget at least $4 million dollars for NJ marine fisheries in FY2012.

Please consider the full cost of the commitment to make NJ the only state in the nation that does not require a saltwater license or a fee to register as a saltwater fisherman:

 1} If NJ required a fee of $15  to register saltwater fisherman or a saltwater license, 800,000 NJ saltwater fishermen = $12,000,000. Note: The feds charge $15 and most states are close.

                                              $12,000,000 Dollars

2} In FY2012 New Jersey will receive the minimum of 1% of the Dingell – Johnson Sport Fishing Restoration Fund,{ $389,000,000 in 2010}. If NJ charged a fee to register saltwater fishermen and $1” of that fee was for the NJ Marine fisheries, NJ could receive the maximum 5% of the DJSR fund.  

                                              $15 million dollars

3} NJ is losing grant money; due to the fact New Jersey budget appropriation committees  are underfunding the Division of Fish and Wildlife.

Grants like the $150,000,000 federal grant Florida was scheduled to receive last year. Florida planned to build saltwater hatcheries, creating 3,129 immediate construction jobs and 169 permanent jobs.

Kenneth McDermott III

Vice President

New Jersey Saltwater Sportsmen’s Alliance

Cape May/Cumberland County Chapters