May Zoo May fishing by Paul Kerlinger With the water temperatures warming quickly, prospects for catching fish also heat up. It seems that every year about a week or two after the mackerel head north, all hell breaks loose in the nearshore waters of Cape May, Wildwood, Stone Harbor, and Avalon. Fishing in May is a smorgasbord of activity from tautog and seabass on the party boats to bluefish and flounder in the back bays, and weakfish and striped bass practically anywhere. Party boat action really gets underway in May with boats out of Cape May, Wildwood, and elsewhere gearing up for flounder, weakfish, blues, tautog, and seabass. The cool waters of May are very productive on the wrecks, with tautog, seabass, and ling providing a steady pick.
Tautog are also suckers for crabs at many of the jetties and bridges during the month.
Green crabs can be found at most of the good bait stores in the area and will outfish almost any other type of bait for tautog. If you can take off on a weekday, you will find plenty of space on the party boats. By the first week of May, the rumors of bluefish invading the back bays are in the papers. These aren t just rumors because the blues pop up here and there on an almost daily basis. They are not always predictable, so you may have to look around for them or ask in one of the bait and tackle stores.