North Wildwood, NJ Help

[Katie Rae]

My girlfriend says I cannot take my boat and the kids to OI, NC because she has nothing to do there with the kids, while I spend all day with a buddy on the boat fishing-her words. But she is willing, however, to let me take the boat to Wildwood. Never fished there, never heard of the place, could someone please tell me what they catch there? Do I need to bring my boat because I have never been north of VA Beach and would I be able to use the same rigs as I do here in the south (umbrella rigs, parachutes, and jigs). Can I expect, I hope, there are alot of rockfish, flounder, and blues? And remember I cannot go far offshore because I have a small gas tank. Any help would be appreciated. I will be there mid-Sept. to the end of September.

Eddy

aka katie rae

[get the net]

I'm no expert, but have vacationed to wildwood my entire life. I often fish from the headboats, which do sea bass offshore, or croakers/seatrout if they show in DE Bay. One thing for sure is they do a lot of flounder fishing in the back bays and offshore up there. I have had years where the croaker and sea trout fishing was great, lately it has not. Also have caught flounder from rental boats before. Lately Sea Bass and flounder on wrecks has been the focus, around 20-30 mile runs from the inlet. There is lots of fishing to in the ocean and in the DE bay. Last year I brought my boat for the first time, kept it at a marina towards cape may. Reasonable rate for the week, and had a fine ramp. We only fished once, because the fishing was pretty lame at that point (August). Put 80+ miles on the boat running around the ocean looking for sea bass and flounder. Hopefully someone else can chime in.

[Misconduct]

Bring the boat.


By Sept., the false albies should going pretty good. And very close to shore. Always a shot at some blues and flounder, if they ever come out with the new regs.

[rskorny]

Used to go to Wildwood for 20+ years and fished a lot in the area. In september the flounder bite heats up in the ocean and in delaware bay. You have to go deeper as the fish stage for the winter, but they seem to pile up on the beach as the weather starts changing to fall. The first real cold snap they start moving out to deeper water. Weakfish should be decent around the inlets. For bass it is early late Oct/Nov better at Cape May Rips is good to very good. Depends on how cold it gets. Bluefish should be available but that time of year, I've had the best luck early or late in the day. Look for the birds.

[B-Faithful]

i grew up at the south jersey shore. mid-late sept the flounder bite heats up just off of the beach. Bad part about north wildwood is that hereford inlet is not marked. You will have to run down to capemay inlet or up to townsends inlet to get a marked one. There are several reefs off the beach by a few miles that really hold flounder. Usually school weakfish are around too but catches have been down the last few years. Of course DE Bay is a hot bed for flounder and weakfish as well. Sept is also a hot month for bonita. You usually can find tons of schools on shoals 5-15 miles off the beach. To me they taste like crap but are a blast to catch as they fight like a small tuna. If you get into the 5lb class fish and troll small spoons in tight at 6-8 knots with light tackle you will have a blast.

[chetluba]

Take the boat. Get the kids fishing.
In addition to all the fishing mentioned in the prior posts, kingfishing usually starts to heat up and some years the crabbing can be fantastic that time of year. If nothing else you'll eat well.

Good Luck.

[blepczyk]

should be some stripers then, i have been going to stone harbor which is a little bit north of there for 15 years and the striper fishing begins to pick up around the end of august and gets good at the end of sept. bring the boat because there are a bunch of good wrecks offshore for seabass and flounder. might see you out there. peace