The weather will not give us a break this fall. North East wind and rain! Just about the time the water clears the wind turns North east and it start to rain. When the condition have been at lest fair, keeper stripers have been caught from Avalon and Stone harbor beaches. Just a few caught on poppers the rest on live bunker or eels. Clam has also taken some nice stripers. The water temperature is 57 degrees. The speckled trout season was a bust as only three specs have been caught to date.What happened to the specs?? Remember the 2002 weakfish season when every sharp weakfish angler in Cape May co. NJ was asking the same question about the weakfish? I believe the mystery of why the weakfish did not show up for the 2002 season has been solved:
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ATLANTIC STATES MARINE FISHERIES COMMISSION WEAKFISH MANAGEMENT BOARD – August 19, 2009
DR. DANIEL:
The last example I’ll give you is the Valentine’s Day Fishery back in 2002, I believe, when a group of about four or five sink net boats went about 30 miles offshore in 360 feet of water, fishing a large-mesh, six-inch gill net for large bluefish, and they all rounded off their boats with tens of thousands of pounds of eight- to fifteen-pound gray trout; very unexpected, unavoidable.
Those fish were all dead …”
MR. O’REILLY
I attended the ASMFC weakfish hearing in Toms River last night. The asmfc offered 4 options.You can view them all at the asmfc site. The only option that offers a real chance for the weakfish to recover is option 4 Harvest moratorium. The commercial fishermen’s rep was fine with option 4 moratorium. Mostly all the recreational fishermen that voiced their own opinion demanded option 4. I do not know how many members the RFA has I do know they lost at lest eight members last night. They did not support a moratorium! If you would like give the weakfish a real chance of recovery support option 4 harvest moratorium. You have until October 31 to make a comment. Send your comments 
Tim this is a very tough time of the season to catch keeper flounder in the back bay after about July 15 in our area the bite slows. The only area that has produced keeper flounder in the last couple of days is in and around Hereferds and Townsends Inlet. I would try fishing between Wildwood Blv. bridge and the toll bridge on nummy island or between the Yacht club and the toll bridge over Townsends inlet. The number one thing to have aboard is patients this time of the year. The rig I would use is a 1oz bucktail white with a trail hook st back about 18″. I would use white Gulp swimming minnow on both the bucktail and the trail hook.Check out the picture. As for crabbing invest in a commercial crab pot. Set the commercial pot before you start crabbing with the traps or hand lines. I would pick a spot off of what is called the foot ball field away from the main channel and current. Near the top of the tide move back to the stakes off the foot ball field. The football field is the stretch of channel markers that border the Great sound. I was out yesterday and caught and released one keeper flounder. The water temperature was 66.6 degrees. The water visibility was 6ft. the water had a green tint apposed to the blue tint that has been present all season. Dr. Gary and ED fished yesterday in the back bay and caugnht 5 keeper flounder to 22″. This is an excellent catch for back bay flounder fishing in August.
Flounder fishing in the back bay was on tap today. We fished about two hours today. We did more hunting than fishing today as I was looking for a new hot spot. The new flounder hot spot was not located. 
The area I have been flounder fishing since opening day is becoming fished out. I only had a couple of keepers today.In Cape May county,NJ the flounder move into the back bays starting in March. The number of flounder in any one hole or area of the back bay is limited. Once I fish an area during good conditions and do not catch any keeper flounder I am done with that area for the season. The commercial sea bass fishermen do the same when fishing the offshore wrecks. Congratulations to Mr.Cheeseman and crew on the 250 pound mako shark they caught at the 750 square. That is the mako everyone was looking for during the south Jersey Shark tournament! The fishermen that are catching weakfish are investing an average of 40 hours per weakfish caught. To the best of my knowledge high hook has seven weakfish for the season. Most avid weakfish fisherman are now not targeting weakfish due to the dangerously low population. The fishermen that are dialed into the ocean flounder fishing are catching some impressive limits of flounder, with all the flounder being in the 7 pound plus range. The fishermen do not want their name or boat mentioned.
Ken's Dock 