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Delaware Bay Fishing Report 10-29-13


<b>Port Elizabeth</b>

The most business in some time hit the shop Monday, and one of the customers hauled in a 45-inch striped bass from the bay that day, said Sharon from <b>The Girls Place Bait & Tackle</b>. A 36-incher was heard about that was docked at a marina down the road during the weekend, and other stripers boated were heard about from Fortescue. So a few stripers started to be caught from the bay, and the angling seemed to be starting, Sharon thought. Stripers were landed that had sea lice on them. Anglers believe that shows that the migration from the ocean began. The striper fishing could last a month or six weeks. Stripers often remain in the waters into December, but many marinas close for the season by then, so fewer boaters fish that late. Fresh bunker is the popular bait for the bay’s boating for stripers in autumn. A few boaters bring fresh clams. The clams are popular for surf fishing for stripers. Fresh bunker was stocked almost every day. Fresh clams, eels and green crabs were carried. The crabs are bait for blackfish, and though one blackfish is the bag limit, the tautog were around. The limit will be increased to six on November 16, and friends on a trip caught and released 40 blackfish in 3 hours, anchored along Cape May rock piles. They never keep fish.  The Girls Place, located on Route 47, just after Route 55 ends, stocks a large supply of bait and tackle. It’s the long, one-story, yellow building on the right, with plenty of parking, including for trailered boats.

<b>Fortescue</b>

The party boat <b>Salt Talk</b> will fish for striped bass, if the fish are in. Open-boat trips are slated daily when no charter is booked. But open trips might be most likely around weekends, when enough anglers show up to sail, this time of year. Telephone the boat to confirm. The trips typically fish with chunks of bunker. But eels are carried aboard, if the bass are biting eels, and the crew likes eeling. The bass failed to respond to eels the past couple of years on trips.

<b>Cape May</b>

The season’s first striped bass charter is slated for Friday on the <b>Heavy Hitter</b>, Capt. George said. The trip will bunker chunk on the bay, and George in a previous report talked about the chunking being good on the bay near Cape May in recent years. That angling for stripers – fishing with chunks of fresh bunker  – was more consistent than striper fishing at the Cape May Rips in recent years, but that could change. Live eels or spots or bucktails or jigs with soft-plastic lures are typically fished at the rips. Stripers used to be caught on the ocean, like off Wildwood, on clams or by trolling in autumn, from Cape May. Those catches didn’t develop in recent years. But that could change, too. For now, chunking the bay seemed the best bet. 

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