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Home › Waters › New Jersey › Great Channel
Estuary · South Jersey, Cape May County, the back-bay marsh behind Stone Harbor and Seven Mile Island · New Jersey

Great Channel Fishing Guides

The main back-bay channel behind Stone Harbor on Seven Mile Island, a classic Cape May County flounder and striped bass fishery running through miles of protected salt marsh.

Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

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About the Great Channel

Great Channel is the principal waterway in the back bay behind Stone Harbor, separating Seven Mile Island from the mainland marsh of Cape May County. It is part of the intracoastal system that runs the length of the New Jersey back bays, and it carries strong tidal flow between the marsh islands. For anglers this is the main artery of one of the most productive back-bay systems on the Atlantic coast.

Summer flounder are the signature fish. They hold in the channel on moving water and along the edges where the bottom drops, and drifting with the tide is the standard and most effective method. The fishery runs through the warm months and draws steady effort from both boat and shore anglers working the bridges and bulkheads.

Striped bass use the channel heavily on their spring and fall movements and can be found on structure and channel edges through much of the year. Bluefish come through in schools and can turn a quiet tide into chaos, weakfish appear in the back bays in the warmer months, and black drum move in during the spring. Black sea bass and tautog relate to hard structure in and near the inlets.

Tidal timing is the whole game. The flow through the channel is strong, the marsh drains and fills quickly, and a spot that fishes well on one stage of tide may be dead on another. Local anglers work specific stages at specific banks and the difference is not subtle. Blue crab are abundant through summer and heavily worked.

Stone Harbor and Avalon sit on the island side with full services, marinas and tackle shops, and public ramps serve the back bay. The surrounding marsh includes protected areas, notably the well known bird sanctuary at Stone Harbor, and boat traffic through the channel is heavy in summer, so early tides are calmer and generally more productive.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Great Channel.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

Stone Harbor - the borough on Seven Mile Island, with marinas, tackle and full services.
Avalon - the neighboring borough at the north end of the island.
Great Channel bridge - the crossing to the mainland and a well used shore access.
Hereford Inlet - the inlet at the south end of the island connecting to the ocean.
Townsends Inlet - the inlet at the north end of the island.
Cape May County back bay ramps - the public launches serving this marsh system.
New Jersey Fish and Wildlife marine listings - the authority on marine regulations here.

Seasons

Spring: striped bass and black drum move into the back bay as water warms.
Summer: the peak flounder season, with crabs and bluefish heavy through the channel.
Fall: strong striped bass fishing as fish stage and move south along the coast.
Winter: quiet and cold, with very little activity in the back bay.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Great Channel?

Anglers target Black Drum, Black Sea Bass, Blue Crab, Bluefish, Striped Bass, Summer Flounder, Tautog, Weakfish on the Great Channel in New Jersey.

Where can you access the Great Channel?

Stone Harbor - the borough on Seven Mile Island, with marinas, tackle and full services. Avalon - the neighboring borough at the north end of the island. Great Channel bridge - the crossing to the mainland and a well used shore access. Hereford Inlet - the inlet at the south end of the island connecting to the ocean. Townsends Inlet - the inlet at the north end of the island. Cape May County back bay ramps - the public launches serving this marsh system. New Jersey Fish and Wildlife marine listings - the authority on marine regulations here.

When is the best time to fish the Great Channel?

Spring: striped bass and black drum move into the back bay as water warms. Summer: the peak flounder season, with crabs and bluefish heavy through the channel. Fall: strong striped bass fishing as fish stage and move south along the coast. Winter: quiet and cold, with very little activity in the back bay.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Great Channel?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the New Jersey agency site: https://dep.nj.gov/njfw/fishing/marine/