<b>Port Elizabeth</b>

Summer flounder were boated on Delaware Bay, said Sharon from <b>The Girls Place Bait & Tackle</b>. No specifics were heard, but anglers picked away at the fish here and there. Good catches of kingfish were made close to shore. One angler’s trip totaled 85 on the southern bay. Kingfishing was excellent. The fish made a “comeback” the past few years. Weakfish were found farther from shore in the bay. Some good catches of white perch came from Maurice River. Crabbing was good, and a customer showed a photo of a good catch of the perch and crabs. Triggerfish were hooked along ocean jetties. More and more seemed to appear each year. One blackfish could be bagged beginning Monday, after blackfish season was closed. Green crabs will probably be stocked for blackfish bait beginning Wednesday. Baits stocked also include minnows, shedder crabs that arrive almost daily and bloodworms. Offshore baits like ballyhoos are available if anglers order a couple of days ahead.  Fishing hasn’t been bad, has been good. There are catches to be made. The Girls Place, located on Route 47, just after Route 55 ends, carries a large supply of bait and tackle, and is the long, one-story, yellow building on the right. It’s on the way to the bay.

<b>Newport</b>

Crabbing was pretty good, said Paul at <b>Beaver Dam Boat Rentals</b>. Numbers trapped might’ve been fewer than before, but a couple of trips trapped a bushel, and the sizes of crabs improved. Quite a few more 6-inchers were around than before. Trips probably averaged three dozen keepers apiece. But a customer yesterday busheled-out in 5 hours. “Crab are in,” Paul said. Many small crabs skittered around, and that should bode well for future crabbing. Most customers crabbed, didn’t fish, because crabbing’s been so good. But white perch swam the creek. Paul suspects crabbing will amp up in the next days, leading up to the new moon, because crabs went wild before the last moon. Customers crab and fish from rental boats towed up Oranokin Creek, running past the shop. Beaver Dam stocks everything needed for crabbing, from bait, traps and nets to drinks, snacks and suntan lotion. A celebration of Delaware Bay, named Crabs and All That Jazz, will be held throughout the bay’s communities, including at Beaver Dam, on Sept. 16. That will replace the similar Bay Days celebration that used to take place but does no longer. Crabs and All That Jazz will include a crabbing contest and a dinner, featuring the crabs caught, at the end of the day. Visit <a href=" http://www.crabulousnj.com/Home_Page.php" target="_blank">Beaver Dam’s website</a>.

<b>Fortescue</b>

Trips Saturday and Sunday decked summer flounder, not a lot, from Delaware Bay on the <b>Salt Talk</b>, Capt. Howard said. That was at the stakes close to shore and, farther from shore, at the Wreck Buoy Slough near the Elbow or Cross Ledge. The fish bit at both places, and one of the keepers Sunday was 4 ½ pounds, sizable. Howard saw bluefish under birds working bait on one of the trips, but the anglers had no interest about getting after the blues to catch. The size of blues in the bay this time of year is usually smaller, good-eating.  Howard had been hearing about weakfish and kingfish party-boated near the lighthouses along the shipping channel. That seemed to slow in past days, and Howard saw one of the party boats near Egg Island Point, closer in, during the weekend, probably flounder fishing. The Salt Talk used to be a party boat from Fortescue. Howard sold that vessel, and the new Salt Talk is a charter boat for 1 to 4 passengers.

<b>Cape May</b>

Good weakfishing was socked on Delaware Bay at 20-Foot Slough, said Nick from <b>Hands Too Bait & Tackle</b>. He heard nothing about summer flounder from the bay, except about a few that probably swam off Cape May Point, among the mix of kingfish, croakers and weaks that usually also school there in summer. Weaks were yanked from the surf in the bay and ocean. Cape May is located at the confluence of the two. The surf-fishing for weaks had slowed a moment, but they began to be banked again. Boaters caught and released brown and dusky sharks, both required to be let go, on the bay. A 5-3/4-pound flounder was checked-in from Cape May Canal. Flounder bit in the back bay and seemed to begin biting better in the ocean than before.

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