LBI Fishing Report Update – May 17, 2018

Don’t let the rain stop you! The fish are here and lots of anglers are battling the conditions and catching fish. Sunny weather is for getting a sun tan. This is fishing weather!!!

LBI Surf Fishing Reports

Striped bass reports continue on the surf. Both night and daytime action is good. Anglers are pulling them with natural and artificial baits. Bunker and clam are the classic go to surf fishing baits. Bucktails and SP minnows are working like magic.
Todd Luyber reported, “I fished the outgoing last night. Thick with sharks and skates. I managed to put one bass on the beach. Was 25 on the boga. Released.” Fish photo below.
Greg O’Connell reported, “Felt good to be out working the night shift for the first time this spring. Fish were hungry and chewing.”

Austin Pound and Ryan Fredrickson were fishing the mid-island surf last night and found some good bass action. “We had them good. Fish up to 41 inches.”

Here’s Ryan with a health bass from last night.
Store staffer Jordan got this bass plugging yesterday. The bass an SP Minnow.

Boat Fishing Report

This morning I had Dan D aboard Fish Head Charters for a 6 hour session. We left the dock early in poor conditions; fog, drizzle and much more wind and in forecast. We pointed the bow north into some of the snottiest 2′ sea conditions. Finding beautiful 54-55 degree clean water but it only small dots of bait. Not liking what we were seeing we kept pushing on. After running about 20 miles north from Barnegat Light we settled down on an area with sparsely sprinkled bait but with a couple good tell tale boomerangs. First cast with a snag hook and Dan had a bunker. Less than one minute and his Shimano Bait Runner was screaming. After a great fight it was landed. We searched around a little more but could’t find much. Turns out it was one and done for us. Ended up heading back and fished the local waters where we found hungry stripers in the low twenty inch range.
Here’s Dan with a 30 class bass that fell for a live bunker. Note the goggles… Great to protect from rain in the face.
Sean Kenny stopped by and picked up a new Daiwa Seagate Bunker Spoon rod. He reported, “First time out with the rod this morning was a success! I like the rods! Picked this guy up about 9 am today out by the 3 mile line!!!
Here’s angler Brian Elwood with a nice bass from this morning. Brian and Sean got a good one today.

Offshore Big Game Report

Get out to the edge for some early season fishing. Bluefin tuna reported on the last weather window in the local northern canyons. Some boats had them chunking and trolling. It’s game time!

 

Fishing Report Feedback

“Fishing is horrible has been been horrible, talked to a hundred guys up n down lbi all saying the same thing .fishing is horrible ….thats the real report. Not made up .b.s” ~Jesse
Hi Jesse,
Thanks for the email. Not sure if you are busting chops or being completely honest. If honest, I think we need to talk. I’m bummed to hear your feedback and maybe I can help.
From bait and tackle to rigging and local information, we pride ourselves on helping anglers get hooked up. Daily I spend at least an hour compiling first hand reports in order to share information. While some anglers do exaggerate (as with most fish tales) I strive to provide complete, accurate and more importantly helpful fishing report information. Whenever possible I back up the text report with photo proof. As they say a picture is worth a thousand words.
Regards,
Greg Cudnik “Fish Head Greg”

Author: FishHead.Greg

A Long Beach Island native with life long experience fishing and navigating the local waters, Greg is a distinguished Master Captain (the highest qualified operator license), holding a US Coast Guard Masters 50T Near Coastal License with Towing Endorsement. Raised in and now managing his family's bait and tackle business, Fishermans Headquarters (Since 1962, The Saltwater Fishing Bait & Tackle Experts) Greg is daily immersed in fishing. He is the Chief Contributor of FishingLBI.com (Long Beach Island's best fishing report blog) as well as the Admin for the shop's social media pages (on Instagram and Facebook). Be sure to follow!

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