Waterfront Marine

The crew at Waterfront Marine in Somers Point tells us that there has been a “little bit of everything” this week according to their customers. First the crabbing has been very good all along the shallow back bay flats. Crabbers are finding dozens of keepers per trip. Keeper flounder on the other hand have been harder to find, even though short fish are everywhere. Keeping anglers busy are fish from 12 to 16 inches spread out along the back bay ICW, into the bay and out along the inlet. Just about any bait; squid, minnows, spearing, Gulp, drifted in the correct direction will probably result in a day of double-digit catches. With the flounder come many skates, dogfish, sea bass and croakers stealing bait. The croakers are getting bigger and some anglers are starting to target them with small pieces of squid, clam or Fishbites Bloodworm alternatives.

Waterfront Marine reports that even though there are plenty of flounder in the bay, many of their customers are now taking the ride out to the wrecks and reefs in order to find keepers. Keeper ratios have been much better at the deep wrecks with fish to 7 pounds reported this week. Large spearing, strip baits, and large Gulp Grubs fished on bucktails have accounted for most of the keepers. Those fishing minnows and smaller baits report lots of short fish stacked up on the structure. Smaller baits have been catching plenty of sea bass, some of which have been keeper size.