609-494-5739 Lots of trailers flying around this weekend. I made a mistake last year and couldn’t stop thinking about missing the last hurrah all winter long. Colder temperatures are in the outlook but there’s still LOTS of fishing left in the tank! The fish are stretched out all along with Jersey Coast with the largest fish found in the state’s southern waters. Locally LBI’s waters has a great mix of size ranging from teens to 30 class plus. I’m looking forward to late prime season fishing! Are you?
Here’s the Long Beach Island weekend fishing report recap…
Everyone must have enjoyed this great weekend of weather on the water fishing with mild temps. Why? Because the entire fishing community and then some were pounding the grounds! 99% of the boats left in the water were fishing and the stripers were chewing!
This weekend the striped bass put out! Both Saturday and Sunday were very very good especially in the mornings and late afternoons but nothing like Friday!!! Out fishing it’s awesome to see the majority of boats catching… Tight lines and bent rods all around!
With full on fire fishing, I’ve been on the waters as much as possible (daily). Friday I was on the water with Chris Colesante for an all out bonanza! (see previous report, 12/1/17). Saturday I had Matt Polito from Philadelphia in on a good morning trip. We had a blast busting bass on bunker spoons. They out produced everything in our spread. Today (Sunday) John and Dave from Western Ne York were aboard. It was the first time in about 3-4 days that we had the active whales again. We couldn’t muster up a snag or lure bite so we got on the troll and quickly started shedding layers. The non stop meyham troll bite lasted for about 1.5-2 hours and then got shut down, flat out over run by boat traffic. It was awesome working the areas we previously had fish (Friday and Saturday) with literally no boats around for well over an hour. We assumed the fleet to our north and fleet to our south were catching too but we weren’t leaving!
Store staffer Dave has been on the water striped bass fishing every chance he gets. Recently he’s been on the meat! He got into the bass yesterday fishing off of northern LBI in 50′ of water pulling Magic Tail Mojos and plugs. He said, “Sunday was good. Fun day but a little slower. Lots of boats.”
Bill Bassant got five today up to 30 pounds trolling off LBI.
Dylan Fisher reported, “Finished just like we started. Epic fishing this morning on the Whaler! Now, both boats are out. Hate this time of year, but I need to star resting, prepping and training for next year.”
Jeff Warford reported a great action packed weekend bass fishing. Saturday he out produced most with double digit +++ catches, “Thanks Magic Tail for the best Mojos Trolling Lures out there!”
SURF
This week is the LBI Surf Fishing Classic’s final stretch, ending December 10th. Fish were caught this past weekend off the surf on both Saturday and Sunday. The tournament had five bass checked in on Sunday and three Saturday. Finally! It’s nice to see some activity off the surf.
Greg O’Connell reported today, “Quality time spent with my kids on the beaches of LBI this afternoon and evening. Dylan caught the dinner fish (7.7#) and weighed it in for the LBI Surf Fishing Classic. It was his first ever weigh-in and “red” bass button!” Big High Five!!!
Other News On Local Fishing
Captain Walter and crew aboard the “Going In Deep” brought a monster sword in from the deep. Look like the November to Remember that was full of off the charts sword fishing is flooding into December. Some went offshore to take advantage of the calm ocean. Some caught bigeye tuna and tilefish.
Jim Kuhl reported, “No tuna but a box full of tiles!”
Word on the street… some ghosts (bluefin tuna) are here inshore.
The awesome tog fishing reports continue from boat anglers while the land based fishing slows. Still good numbers but less keepers. The inlet is stacked with small ones but from what we have been told the larger fish are not as abundant as they were a few weeks ago. From the reports it’s safe to say the inshore structure is loaded!!! Social media is flooded with great photos and all anglers in the shop getting tog tackle (especially Magic Tail Tog Jigs!!!) are raving on the fishery. Rob Vallone has been putting in a lot of time and he is Dailed in on the jig. Numerous trips with limits and some quality ones in the mix. Another angler stopped in the shop and said that Rob lost a monster right next to him, “I’ve never seen a tog thump and fight with that amount of power before. “
Hi Greg,
You are a week behind
today is 12/10/2017
Eek not sure what happened. The post title states 12/3/17, the date on the file and on the post shows 12/4/17. There were numerous updates between 12/3-4 and the 10th.