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Home › Waters › New Jersey › Ludlum Thorofare
Estuary · Cape May County, a back-bay channel behind Sea Isle City in the salt marsh between the barrier island and the mainland · New Jersey

Ludlum Thorofare Fishing Guides

A back-bay thorofare behind Sea Isle City with a water temperature gauge, fished on the tide for flounder and striped bass.

A dock reaching out over wide brackish water at dusk
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Ludlum Thorofare

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About the Ludlum Thorofare

Ludlum Thorofare is one of the channels threading the salt marsh behind Sea Isle City, part of the extensive back-bay system that runs the length of the Cape May County barrier islands. A thorofare in the local usage is simply a natural channel connecting one stretch of bay to another, and this one carries a substantial volume of water on every tide between the marsh flats on either side.

Tide is the organising fact of fishing here, and the gauge reflects it directly, reporting water temperature alongside the tidal stage. The channels drain and fill hard, and fish position themselves to take advantage of that. A moving tide concentrates bait at the channel edges, on the points where creeks enter, and over the sod banks that flood and empty. Slack water is generally the least productive part of the cycle. The temperature series matters for run timing, as it does across the back bays, because the shallow marsh water warms and cools much faster than the ocean and the fish respond to that rather than to the calendar.

Summer flounder are the mainstay through the warm months, drifted over the channel bottom and along the edges. Striped bass work the marsh and the sod banks, best early and late and through the autumn. Weakfish appear in variable numbers and are a shadow of the historical fishery, which is worth stating rather than glossing. Blackfish and sea bass hold on any hard structure. Blue crabbing through the back bays is a genuine attraction in its own right during summer. This is shallow water, and navigating the marsh channels at low tide demands local knowledge or a very careful eye on the chart.

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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.

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Posting to Ludlum Thorofare.

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

Sea Isle City - the barrier island town alongside the thorofare, with ramps, bait, tackle and full services.
Townsends Inlet - the inlet at the island's southern end, giving ocean access and strong structure fishing.
Corson Inlet - the inlet to the north, with a state park and additional access to the back bays.
Ocean City - the larger town north along the barrier chain, with marinas and services.
Avalon - south across the inlet, with back-bay access and its own ramp facilities.
Great Egg Harbor Bay - the larger bay system north, extending the fishable back water considerably.
Cape May - at the southern end of the peninsula, the region's main sportfishing base.

Seasons

Spring: bass move into the warming back bays ahead of the ocean, and early flounder appear in the channels.
Summer: flounder dominate the thorofares, with crabbing excellent and bass fished at first and last light.
Fall: the best season, with bass and bluefish feeding hard on bait leaving the marsh through the channels.
Winter: cold and largely finished, with the back bays empty and the inlets the only real option in mild spells.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Ludlum Thorofare?

Anglers target Atlantic Croaker, Black Sea Bass, Blue Crab, Bluefish, Northern Kingfish, Striped Bass, Summer Flounder, Tautog, Weakfish, Winter Flounder on the Ludlum Thorofare in New Jersey.

Where can you access the Ludlum Thorofare?

Sea Isle City - the barrier island town alongside the thorofare, with ramps, bait, tackle and full services. Townsends Inlet - the inlet at the island's southern end, giving ocean access and strong structure fishing. Corson Inlet - the inlet to the north, with a state park and additional access to the back bays. Ocean City - the larger town north along the barrier chain, with marinas and services. Avalon - south across the inlet, with back-bay access and its own ramp facilities. Great Egg Harbor Bay - the larger bay system north, extending the fishable back water considerably. Cape May - at th...

When is the best time to fish the Ludlum Thorofare?

Spring: bass move into the warming back bays ahead of the ocean, and early flounder appear in the channels. Summer: flounder dominate the thorofares, with crabbing excellent and bass fished at first and last light. Fall: the best season, with bass and bluefish feeding hard on bait leaving the marsh through the channels. Winter: cold and largely finished, with the back bays empty and the inlets the only real option in mild spells.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Ludlum Thorofare?

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