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Middleweight stripers dominate area catches
There seems to be a lot of 19, 20, and 21-pound striped bass throughout the area.
There are some bigger bass in Delaware Bay and a few other bigger ones scattered throughout the area, but medium-size bass seem to rule right now.
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The fishing tournament police might want to investigate the Maynard's Cafe
Striper Tournament held Saturday. There might have been some inside trader information going on there.
Don Brown came out from behind the bait and tackle counter at Gifford Marine in Northfield, where he gets a lot of inside fishing tips from area anglers, and won the first Maynard's contest with John Duffy and Kevin McDonald. They caught a
41.5-pound bass to win the first prize of $1,440 going away. |
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The next closest finisher was Tom Hughes with a 21 pounder. Al Troiano, who owns the Amherst Avenue emporium in Margate where the tournament was headquartered, said there were 190 contestants. Chip Thomson was the tournament director. |
In other action, Jack Sullivan of Ocean City caught one of the bigger fish, a 30-4 bass off Ocean City, according to Bob Johnson at Fishin' Stuff in Ocean City.
Others weighed at Fishin' Stuff recently: a 19-pound bass caught on a Gibb's plug from the Ocean City beach by Rob Smisko of Ocean City and a 19 pounder caught on clam at Corson Inlet by Craig Seaman of Ocean City.
Clay Smith, the new owner of Bob's Bait and Tackle in Cape May, said there a lot of slot fish and fish weighing in the teens all over The Rips off Cape May. Bigger fish, weighing 25 pounds and up, are up Delaware Bay. They are using live eels on The Rips. One good spot in Delaware Bay is 25-30 feet of water west of 60-Foot Slough. They use cut bunker up there.
Tim Mitchell of Margate caught a 19-pound bass in Absecon Inlet. Gifford Marine weighed it in.
Kingfish were still being caught within the week. MaryAnn Blundi of Egg Harbor Township caught a 1.62-pound kingfish from Angler's Club Pier in Margate on Tuesday. Dawn Herod of Ventnor got a 1.35 pound kingfish from Ventnor Fishing Pier.
Big weakfish also were still around, at least up until mid-week. But they moved off the beach to 50-55 feet of water according to Johnson. The Longport Bridge had a weakfish blitz at night last week. According to one report, it was shoulder-to-shoulder there.
Tautog fishing is also good around the bridges and rocks. A 40.5-inch striped bass topped the Wildwoods National Saltwater Fly Fishing Tournament held Oct. 20-22. It was caught by John Graff, who was fishing on the Cape May Point Fly Rodders team hooked it while fishing from the Coast Guard jetty at Diamond Beach in Wildwood Crest.
Eustace Bagnell of Egg Harbor won the weakfish division with a 23-inch fish and Joe Cairone of Havertown, Pa., caught an 18.5-inch bluefish.
Bill Coyle of South Dennis caught the most fish - 26 -while fishing off the Ferriswheel in Ocean City.
The largest miscellaneous fish caught was a 24-inch false albacore caught by Chris Goidmark of Cape May.
The tournament was sponsored by the Greater Wildwood Chamber of Commerce, and attracted 74
flycasters.
(Mike Shepherd is sports editor of The Press. His Shep on Fishing column appears Friday and Sunday.)
