46

sports

Herald & Lantern 24 August *83

outdoors with Lou Rodia

Weakfish Pose Different Challenge

Weakfish in Delaware Bay in the summer are vastly different creatures from the schools of weakies which invade*the bay in the early part of the season. Spring fish are generally bigger, and since one of their major food sources in the spring is sand eels, they •are more prone to" take bucktail and plastic worm combination lures Spring weakfish are also feeding at the lower end of the temperature tolerance scale and since the water is colder, they are more aggressive and will pursue a bait or lure and hit it a lot harder than their more lethargic summer cousins As the water temperature warms up. weakfish continue to feed but they get -lazy and lose some of that spring aggressiveness As a result, summer weakfish are fished differently from

the spring run of fish. • Right now. anglers are enjoying one of the best summer seasons in years on weakfish in Defaware Bay Not only are there lots of fish to be caught all the way from Cape May Point to the upper reaches of the Delaware Bay above the Fortcscue-Maurice River Cove area, some of that summer population has already sagged down to where weaks are an incidental catch aboard to four-hour, six-hour and allday party boats and the private boats fishing Somers Shoal. McCrie's and the Rips \VFAFISII HOT spots along the bayshore right now include the Bug Light area, both edges of the inshore (Four Fathom) Slough and the Punk Grounds Some weaks are also being caught just East

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of 14 ft. light Good shore identifiers for locating spots along the slough arc landmarks such as the -mouth of Coxe Hall Creek just south of Town Bank; Lyre's Dutch Kitchen and Brothers Fishing Club. Good weak action is also to be found off Pierce’s Point. Party and charter boats tend to pass over the weakfish action in the bay during the summer, other than those sailing from Fortescue and Maurice ' River docks or from Reed's Beach. Part of the problem with party boat's making the effort from Wildwood-Cape May ports to fish weakfish is that in the summer, the weakfish action often concentrates itself around the tides, and a lot of it is in relatively shallow water where big boats make entirely too much noise to be effective. Right now. best fishing for weaks along the inshore slough is on the incoming tide and at the Bug, the best catches seem to be just before high tide and after the tide turns to run out. Often, weakfish action is concentrated into a relative short period around the tide change. Summer weakfish action is a patience tester in which the best way to approach the fishing is to anchor up and wait for the

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fish to bite. Boat noise definitely affects weakfish, and more so in shallow water. Moving around a lot may give you something to do while the fish are deciding to feed, but you’re not really helping yourself and the other fishermen by making a lot of commotion in the water. Quiet fishing is good fishing* technique for weaks. BEST BAITS for weakfish arc squid and shedder crab, if available Lots of weakfish > ‘pros" use a combination of squid with clam, shrimp or shedder crab. Even cut up pieces of hard crab will work on weaks. Spot fished live or cut into pieces is also an effective bait. Since summer weakfishing is best when anchored up, light outfits are suggested. Use 10 to 20 lb. test line, as light a sinker as possible and lay in a supply of weakfish figs. There are all kinds — some fancy with a lot of doo-dads and beads and others are sparsely tied with little ornamentation and hardware. There are lots of specialty weakfish rigs and your local tackle dealer can point out the reasons for the differences and which are effective. Weakfish are finicky fish and one day they will hit an old shoe if you bait your hook with it and on the next day they will hit only a certain length piece of bait fished exactly a predetermined distance up from the bottom. Be flexible and if you are not catching weakfish while others are, change your rig until you find one which works. Summer weaks hit almost totally on bait in Delaware Bay this time of year. Use a top and bottom ffjf with a short leader on the bottom and a longer leader on the top. Hook si; can vary from 1/0 to 4/0 and lots of weaks are caught on gold hooks in either regular or wide-gap patterns. BAYVIEW MARINA if) Wildwood Villas operates a boat livery and does launch some noats on the marine railway there. Boats can also be launched at Reed’s Beach or ftbrn Cape MayWildwood area ramps where the bay is easily accessible through the Canal. Weaks will stay in the bay well into October and even as late as November, often long after anglers will quit fishing for them. REPORTS: Last week, one of nature's phenomenons created a return to some of that fan tastic fishing we had been enjoying on bluefish, fluke and weakfish. A strong northeaster shook up the water and threw the constant water temperature pattern all out of kilter. It took a few days for things to settle and fishing is back to normal again. Night and bay bluefish catches shot up all week, as did fluke activity. Capt. Jack Blake of the Wildwood II out of Wildwood Crest said fluke fishing picked up again starting the third day of the blow and despite strong winds, his fares did well on fluke A nine-pound fluke caught by Lisa Minnick of New Castle p a. was among the bigger fish weighed in

at Blake's Dock. Capt. Paul Thompson of the Porgy III out of Cape May said fluke catches have jumped up to where fares are boating as many as 20 on a trip. Fluke are 14 to 2 lb. with pools going ‘ to four and five-pound fish. Ted Rose of Sewell, landed 15 fluke and Ed Brunswick of Du Bois, Pa. capped a three-day fluke fishing vacation with a 9 lb. 3 oz. doormat. He and his son, Jim, boated 22 other fluke on that trip. Four-hour boats fishing east and south of the Cape May Inlet are picking up fluke, weakfish, snapper blues and seabass in mixed bag fishing. Six-hour boats are also reporting better fluke catches along with scattered seabass and weaks. All-day boats are either wreck fishing for sea bass, blackfish and ling or they are concentrating on fluke. Anglers should inquire from the skipper as to which kind of fishing is in the offering for the day. BLUEFISH TROLLING catches jumped up, but the good news is that bonito have moved into the Bank Buoy area along with slammer blues. Night chumming has also resumed at the pre-storm intensity with pools going to blues in the 12 to 17 lb. range and’ high hookers are doing better thin 25 and 30 fish per trip. Back bay fluke action tapered off some, but there are still fluke in the inland waterways. Weakfish are making spotty daytime appearances behind Stone Harbor and Avalon, as well as in the back bays behind Ocean City and Longport in the northern part of the county. Night weakfish catches are being reported where anglers can enjoy the advantage of lights shining on the water to attract bait.

BIG CATCH - Ed Brunswick shows off 9 lb. 3 oz. fluke he caught on party boat Porgy III out of South Jersey Marina. Cape May.

Devils on Top

STONE HARBOR - The boys basketball league came to a close Aug. 17 with the Blue Devils defeating the All-Stars. Jim MiaurelH and Chris Sellers led the Devils with 21 points each. Tim Helmick and Dave Comerford were high scorers for the All-Stars. Special awards were given to Scott Krause for sportsmanship and J. Misurelli for Most Valuable Player. Cheerleader Tryouts Set

V

COURT HOUSE — v

Tryouts and practices start 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 29, for cheerleaders for the Middle Township Youth Football Program. They will be held at Memorial Field, y The Peewee squad 'includes grades 4-6, and the Midget squad grades 7-8. The football program began Aug. 15, with players 65-95 pounds in Peewee competition, 85 and up and 13 years old in Midget play. There is also competition for 90-140 pounders other

than ’13-year-olds.

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