OK to remove pulp cap from primary?

Very new to wine making. Working on my 4th And 5th batches now. Both are plum wine from my prune plum tree. Batch 4 is five gallons. Crushed the plums and removed skins and pits. Pulp and juice went into primary. When ready to put in secondary I ran it through a course filter (I was afraid to go too fine and risk losing my yeast), so I have a lot of pulp in secondary that needs to settle out. I plan on using a fine filter when I rack it.
Batch 5 is three gallons, put in primary same way as batch 4. Can I skim off the cap that forms during primary fermentation? It is about an inch thick and appears to consist mostly of pulp. Also if I strain out a lot of the pulp between primary and secondary, will I lose my yeast?

Thanks for the help. Al

You probably could skim off the pulp, but I would keep it on for the time being. Also, if it is just floating on the top, you could just make sure you rack from underneath the cap and stop before it starts sucking the pulp up. Personally when I do fruit in a primary (and if I ever wind up doing it in secondary) I just put all the fruit in a giant hop bag. Cheese cloth would work ok as would clean, sanitized nylon stockings. This way all you have to do is pull out the bag, let most of the juice/wine drip out and you're good to go with little to no pulp/seeds/etc in the must.

You are supposed to punch the cap back into the wine 2 or more times a day during primary fermentation.

I have been stirring the cap back in twice a day. I will not remove it. I will strain when I put it secondary. Next time, like in a few weeks when my apples are ready, I will put the fruit in a bag in primary. Thanks for the help. Al