Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Fish Heads! We give thanks. We give thanks. We give thanks for family, friends, food and fishing!
We are closing today at 1pm but we will be back to our normal hours tomorrow, opening at 6am on Black Friday. On the Black Friday and tackle sales topic… our largest sale of the season is on now… shop and score on the best tackle at the best prices... Gulp, Jigs, Lures, Hooks, Reel, Assorted Tackle, etc…
On the fishing report front, here is our latest fishing report video posted yesterday…
November’s new moon has kicked off the transition into late fall fishing and it’s shaping up to be a great stretch. There are still quality sized striped bass around and as we move deeper into the month, expect more of the small class of fish to mix in. This change has been evident this week.
Epic Week on the Water
This week delivered some of the best fishing of the season. I was out Monday fishing the gale and absolutely crushed them with only three boats out that I saw. It was nonstop action with striped bass of all size classes. We caught fish every way possible: jigging, casting and live bait.
I’m not sure how but, Tuesday was even better! In my book it goes down as a Top 10 Day. It was right up there or better than the two best days last fall which were all out nuclear, November 27th and 30th. Many large Massive schools of bait and waves of hungry striped bass pushed hard and fed for hours, foaming feeds! It was perfectly scheduled for our previously planned Magictail product shoot with owner Dante and cameraman Nate came up from South Carolina. Nate got a real good taste of Jersey striped bass mayhem. I’m hoping many who read this blog were in on the fun. I know I saw lots of friends and familiar faces/boats having a blast.
I’m looking forward to more great fall fishing ahead!
LBI Surf: Spotty But Improving
The LBI surf has produced scattered catches, but things are lining up. The surf temps are in the low 50º’s and there’s plenty of bait along the beach. With the new moon, abundant bait and the fall run’s migration sliding south, the next couple weeks look promising for the surf.
Each morning this week, anglers have picked off fish on artificials. Now is definitely the time to put in the hours.
Store staffer Emmit caught three bass from the LBI surf this morning. “Birds were working way out of reach,” he reported. “I fished a few cuts and got bites on a diamond jig with a teaser.”
Fishing is spotty but great at times. Most of the goodness is via boat; however there are some great land based catches. Now’s the time to get out and fish!
Although I am sure the striper fishing will go well into Christmas this season, this will be our last week of fishing. As some of you know, I put on the Philadelphia Fishing Show, and in 2026, the show will be in January, instead of it’s usual February. That means the planning is five weeks earlier than usual for me, so the boat needs to come out early. Here is the site in case you want to check it out: phillyfishingshow.com
We are already booked Saturday Nov 15 and Sunday Nov 16, with Sunday being our last trip of the season. That leaves Wed Nov 12, Thurs Nov 13, and Fri Nov 14 left if you would like to book a striper trip. The forecast has predominantly westerly winds so it should be nice sea conditions.
Not running Open Boat these dates, just available for your private charter. Departure and return hours are flexible. 5, 6, or 8 hour trips available.
More fishable conditions the past couple of days have allowed anglers to get out and score. The fall striped bass bite along the Central Jersey coast is firing up with a variety of forage and a solid body of fish moving through. After a long hiatus I got out fishing Monday afternoon/evening and Tuesday midday. Both trips I had great fishing both on lures and livelining bunker. We tagged some nice striped bass up to 46.5” – 37 lbs.
It was scarce but the bait situation has improved recently. Right now peanut, juvie and adult bunker are schooled up in addition to tinker mackerel, sand eels, rain bait and some squid. There’s a few whales in the area and birds are working with them.
Some good size striped bass have slid down and into Ocean County waters this week. On Monday, we had a good report from Mike and Josh who trolled up two nice bass off of LBI. Josh shared, “Fishing in 40′ of water off the south end if LBI we trolled up two big striped bass.”
It seems to me that these fish are well fed, more selective and a bit wary as they aren’t crushing lures. Maybe that changes soon. Store alumni Dan D. is working hard on his week off and has got some good ones on lures. One of his bigger recent catches is below.
It’s still slow on the surf side but reports are becoming and more consistent from the LBI surf. Tom Smith landed a nice striped bass plugging the LBI surf Tuesday, photo below. He when out again this morning with his buddy who scored a surprise fluke. They reported, “We has one big swirl but it never came tight. There was also a whale and lots of bait out of casting range. It looked good.” Today we received another report of bunker off the mid-island surf and while I was filming the fishing report video update I had a whale break a couple times on bunker.
John Sullivan caught a upper 30″ range bass on a lure fishing the south end of LBI on Sunday and submitted it to the LBI Surf Master Division of the LBI Surf Fishing Tournament. The Surf Master has had an uptick in actively the past couple of days proving we have some nice fish here right now. Once these submissions are scored they will be published on the tournament’s website. Check it out for other live results too… www.LBISFC.com
Ocean “surf” water temps are in the mid-50’s (55-56º) and the Beaver Moon has ushered in the second wave of bass our way. Yes SECOND! If you haven’t been out (like me too until this week) you missed the first wave. Now’s the time to get out and fish — the fall run is happening!
Store staffer Paul reported the bass fishing in the bay is very good on NLBN swim baits. The same came from Dante at Magictail who says he is catching every trip in the bay fishing eels with some nice size class. Jimmy Nacion who knows how to catch some big fish in the bay (did you see his big fluke after big fluke after big fluke catches this past summer?) got a big bass fishing last night with eels. Another great recent catch was reported from Sonny Markoski who caught and released this striped bass (photo below) fishing the bay the other night!
The inlet remains productive with both tog and striped bass.
November Is Prime Time On The Central Jersey Coast – GO TIME!!!
There is a good stretch of weather coming starting tomorrow (Sunday). Both the marine forecast and the traditional weather forecast look good through Wednesday. Mostly NW winds which levels out the sea condition and activates the striper bite at the same time. Air temps are low 40’s to mid 60’s. Not bad for November.
We will be running Open Boat Striper trips Sun, Tues, and Wed. Of course these dates are available for your private charter, as well. The plan is to run out the inlet, make a left, and keep going until we find life. Casting and jigging is our highest priority but I always bring the trolling rods just in case that’s what it takes to put fish in the boat. These trips will run 7AM to 3PM.
Open Boat Stripers:
Sun Nov 2, Tues Nov 4, and Wed Nov 5. 7AM to 3PM. $275 person. 4 people max. All fish are shared.
There is also a chance to do a shorter duration trip on any of these days, 8AM to 1PM, and fish the inlet with live spots. $250 person, 3 people max.
Best way to reserve a spot is to call or text me, not email.
It’s late October on Long Beach Island and the wind is blowing. It’s blowing all week. What else is new? Strings of unsettled weather has tied up boats for most of this month. The shorter days (longer nights) and chilly temps have dropped surf temperatures to around 60°F. The back bay is in the low to mid-50’s.
With the temp drop we have had a drastic change in the averrable species. As expected the warm water species skedaddled! Blowfish, Pompano and Kingfish rolled out! The steady small bluefish bite has faded as the mullet run wrapped up. A few stragglers may remain, but for the most part, the mullet migration has passed.
A coastal storm and gale are now in effect, bringing more rough surf and persistent northeast flow today, going easterly tomorrow (Thursday) and then westerly on Friday. The westerly, north -westerly flow sticks around for the weekend. Expect powerful swell on Friday (3-5’+). It lingers and fades Saturday (2-3’+) with much smaller surf come Sunday (1′ range).
Best Bite Right Now: Tog and Sea Bass
For anglers looking to stay active, the best bet continues to be blackfish (tog). Solid tog fishing at the Barnegat Inlet, along the rocks, bulkheads, and local docks with green crabs and sand fleas has anglers tugging on a mix of sizes. There’s keepers too.
Offshore bottom fishing is a great play when the weather allows. Sea bass and porgies as well as triggerfish are hanging around the deeper water structure. Recently the best action has been in the 90–100’+ areas. Most of the inshore reefs and wrecks have been hit or miss. There it will be a better pick of tog which will only improve as November rolls in.
Looking Ahead: The November Shift
While the surf bite is slow right now, the striped bass are not far off. November’s fall migration should fire up soon in the local waters. November is historically a month full of great fishing.
Some quality fish are staged up to out north off of Monmouth County. Anglers have been getting into some classy bass up that way fishing live bunker and bunker imitations. Think big plugs, flutter spoons and rubber swim baits.
As far as LBI beaches go, recently we have only heard of one local surf side striped bass. The 34″ over-slot was caught by Pat Gallon. Only other surf side reports are themed around no more kingfish, no blues and some pests… dogfish.
Until the surf comes to life, striped bass local to LBI can be found in the bay and inlet. JP stopped in the shop this week and reported great fishing in the bay this past weekend using Tsunami swim shads (rubber swim baits) catching under, slot and over size striped bass.
Gear up for the fall now here at Fisherman’s Headquarters open daily and fully stocked up with fishing rods, fishing reels, fishing tackle and we also offer full service fishing rod and reel repair. If not close by shop online at FishermansHeadquarters.com.
The striper bite was too eratic and too far north, so we changed plans and fished the inlet today with live spots. I had a two man charter who went 5 for 5 on good size bass. We had 4 between 32 and 38 inches and then we finally got one for the cooler on the last fish was 30 inches. Switched to tog at the end of the trip and boated 4 but nothing over 15 inches.
Sailing again tomorrow (Sunday) Oct 26 and Monday Oct 27. Open Boat or charter. Charter or Open Boat, however many people, it has to add up to $700 for the 7AM to Noon trip.
There is a really good stretch of weather coming from Thurs Oct 23 thru Mon Oct 27. Light winds, nice air temps, and no precipitation.
Looks like we will have to run a good deal north to get into fish, so bring your passport, as we are not going to stop until we run into fish.
Birds working, fish surfacing, that’s the scene right now. Almost all are too big to keep, but there’s worse problems to have.
I’ve been seeing on social media that boats as far north as Rhode Island are still catching bonita and albacore. If we run into them, I will have what we need to throw at them, as well.
We will be armed with soft plastics, big metal lip plugs, SP Minnows, swim shads, flutter spoons, AVA jigs, and anything else it takes to hook up with these migratory stripers. I always bring a few trolling rods, just in case, but we will be primarily casting and jigging.
Open Boat Stripers:
Thurs Oct 23, Fri Oct 24, Sat Oct 25, Sun Oct 26, Mon Oct 27
6AM to 4PM. $300 person, 4 people max. All fish are shared.
The multi-day nor’easter hammered the coastline and pushed in some serious flooding and powerful swell. LBI is still drying out and the ocean is slowly settling. Today was a beautiful day and felt really great after the relentless stretch of foul weather. We are also turning the mid-October corner and getting into a more chilly fall feel.
Long Beach Island’s surf temps have slipped below 70º where they were hanging for weeks. Today the LBI surf was 64-65º. The water also cleaned up a lot from yesterday’s chocolate milk stain, but surprisingly clean except for lots of debris at the highest tide line and wash overs. Residual swell energy remains in the water the next few days and expect possibly rebuilds a bit from a Canadian Maritime low spinning up some easterly ground swell over the weekend.
Fishing Report Details
The fishable days have been few and far between, but those anglers fishing the breaks in weather are capitalizing. It’s a great time to work the surf and jetties.
Today store staffer Max and Swagmattic (yes he still fishes) hit the north end for some tog. They reported back that the bite was on, “We had a pretty savage bite going between 4-6pm. We each caught about 20 tog and a handful of keepers on green crabs. Bruce from Illinois was fishing near us a got a big one… 22″ 5#+!” That’s a monster for land based tog fishing standards!!! Now that the bay water temps have dropped to the golden 60º mark it seems the tog turned on. They should be crushing crabs for the next several weeks.
With the cooler bay temps expect striped bass fishing to spark up on the Island’s many bayside areas as well as the main channels, sod banks and bridges.
On the sandy surf side, there’s small blues, kingfish (both northern and southern) and even still a few surprise pompano (expect them to exit soon if not already). No direct LBI surf side striped bass reports yet but they will be soon. The mullet run is in the final innings (possibly over) but on the bright side there is some bunker schools near. These bait balls have been missing the past couple season. We received two fresh bunker deliveries in the past week. That’s more than we had all of August and September. Fresh bunker has been tough for us the past year or so. Maybe that changes this fall.
October 11th was Merchantville Fishing Club’s 8th Annual LBI Surf Fishing Tournament. The weather was tough but fish were caught, mostly kingfish (northern and southern) and blues. The final standing are below. Congrats to Ocean City Fishing Club on the win!
When there was a couple windows to fish the ocean both inshore and offshore caught. The sea bass should be stacking on structure in 70-90′ range. The yellowfin chunking bite was rocking. Let’s hope it rolls into late fall.
Young Of The Year Striped Bass Data
Today, Maryland DNR released the 2025 Young-of-Year striped bass survey results and while there’s a slight improvement, the news remains concerning. The juvenile index came in at 4.0, up from the last few years but still well below the long-term average of 11. This makes seven consecutive years of poor recruitment in the Chesapeake Bay, which is the main nursery for the Atlantic striped bass stock. More details
VIMS also released information today. They published, “Preliminary results from this year’s Juvenile Striped Bass Seine Survey suggest an average year class was produced in Virginia tributaries in 2025, with a recorded mean value of 5.12 fish per seine haul. The 2025 value represents an improvement over the previous two years of below-average recruitment. The historic average of 7.77 fish per seine haul.” More details
Notice To Mariners: Active Dredging In Local Bay!
The $6.2 million project will restore channels to a safe navigable depth. Over the next couple of months dredge operations will be working around the clock, 24-7. Work will be at the following eight channels; Holiday Harbor, Skippers Cove, Waretown Creek, South Harbor, Double Creek Mainland, Double Creek, High Bar Harbor, Barnegat Light Stake.
Be aware and alert for the pipeline, buoys, dredge and other marine construction equipment during the project. Boaters should proceed through dredging zones with caution and at no wake speed. Use VHF Channel 4 to contact the contractor for meeting/passing arrangements.
