CatchWindow fishing intelligence

Cape May, NJ Daily Water Report — September 4, 2026

Cape May today belongs to sailors. Sailing leads at 8.2 out of 10 on a west wind with real work in it, and diving holds a steady 7.6. Fishing is a modest 6.2. Boating 5.6, wildlife 5.3, surfing 4.9, and kayaking 4.6 sit on the cautious side. Those marks describe fit with the day’s mix, not a safety declaration. Wind over almost no sea is the whole plot. Representative flow is 14 knots from the west, gusting to 20, with a day range of 2.5 to 14.4 knots and the strongest gust 22.9 knots at 09:00. Marine-forecast waves sit near 0.38 meters at 6.4 seconds, swell 0.32 meters at 5.75 seconds from 120 degrees, and wind waves a negligible 0.02 meters. The calmest reading is near 10:00 at 0.36 meters. That is why sailing jumps well above yesterday’s 4.6 and the mid-5s that ran most of the past week, while kayaking falls from 7.4 and boating from 7.8 on reconstructed 1.2-knot wind. The tradeoff small craft cannot shrug off is a 1.2 m/s current toward 141 degrees. Surf has little period or height to spend. Air is muggy and mostly gray: representative 24.2 C, feeling like 25.1, with a climb toward 30.1 C, 89 percent cloud, 84 percent humidity, and atmospheric visibility 15.8 km. That visibility is not underwater clarity. Pressure is 1012 hPa and falling. A rain window from 03:00 to 04:00 is already the overnight story; representative precipitation is none. Marine SST is 26 C, 1.4 C above average. Fishing’s middling score tracks solunar timing, tide, falling pressure, and wind. Major periods run 05:55–07:55, overlapping the 08:12 low of 0.18 meters, and 17:55–19:55 after the 14:50 high of 1.70 meters. Last-quarter moon, 53 percent illuminated, rises at 22:56. Dawn is 06:04, sunrise 06:31, sunset 19:29. Diving’s 7.6 matches every comparison day back through late August, helped by the tiny sea and warm surface water, not by any claim about what lies below. Saturday eases: 20.6–26.8 C, peak wind 10 knots, waves still 0.3–0.4 meters. A slight marine build follows, then winds climb again by the 9th and 10th. Best bet: take the west breeze while it is honest, and leave the paddle until the gusts clock out.