Pier 47 Marina

Pier 47 Marina reports a busy Labor Day Weekend with lots of people on the water. Rental boats came back with stories of up to 25 flounder caught and released in a half day excursion. Slip customers sticking to the back bays reported similar action while those that fished the Wildwood and Cape May Reef Sites were able to find some keepers to 5 pounds. Those reefs also gave up some nice triggerfish, tog and sea bass. Boaters fishing the overnight hours report that there are stripers and some weakfish hanging out along the lighted docks and bridges in the back bays. Stripers to 27 inches and weakfish to 19 inches fell for peanut bunker livelined on 3/0 circles with no weight.

“Same old story” this week according to the crew at Pier 47 Marina in Wildwood. Their customers are reporting nothing but short flounder and croakers in the back bays and all along the ICW. Both species are strikingly abundant, but the flounder are short of 18- inches and most of the croakers are hardly worth filleting. In order to put some fish in the box, anyone with range has been headed out to the reef sites where triggerfish, sea bass and flounder catches have been decent. The Cape May Reef Site is starting to see many more short flounder, but way more keepers and can be found in the back bays, plus plenty of triggerfish. For a shot at a limit of flounder, including fish pushing 7 pounds, this week it has been the Old Grounds that gave up this kind of fishing opportunity. These big flounder were looking for big baits, and the largest fish we heard of this week, just shy of 7 pounds, was caught on a ball jig fished with two whole mackerel fillets. I guess “big baits, big fish” is a saying for a good reason.