LBI Fishing Report

Update: September 7, 2018

September started off with great weather and awesome fishing. From back bay to the surf and the inshore to offshore fishing was cranking with too many species to mention! Then this weekend came around and put a clamp on things with a big shift in weather.

Today was the last nice day with things going down hill Saturday and Sunday. A strong north east blow dominates this weekend  from the combination of a stalled frontal boundary to our south, with high pressure to our north and Gordon’s ghost(remnants). While on the topic of weather… We All Must Keep An Eye On All Of Flo’s Updates!

Fluke Fishing

This week ocean fluke fishing was good. The reefs and wrecks as well as open bottom produced quality catches and good number of small to medium size fish. Some boats are finding the biggins! The crew aboard the Jen Jen has been dialed in on the inshore wrecks.

Today Matt “Swagmatic” weighed in a 6.2 pound fluke. He caught it drifting live snappers in the ocean. He said fishing slowed down from his last outting, “I only got two other fish; a short sea bass and a short sea bass. I was fishing large baits looking for quality but I expected a little more action.”

A few days ago Zach Michot  had a solid day of fluke fishing with five keepers and lots of shorts.

Surf Fishing

Reports from the BL Jetty this week were strong. The triggers, sheepshead tog and blues are there. A few striped bass were caught in the golden low light hours.

As of today Friday Sept 7, 2018 4×4 beach buggy anglers are still waiting for the entire stretch of the Holgate beach to open. It’s accessible from the entrance down about 2.5 miles. This past work week has offered anglers good sessions and the reports from down that way are good. Some anglers are catching 20+ fish each sessions with one to two keepers in the mix. Light bucktails (3/8oz, 1/2oz, 3/4oz) are working best for the (previously) calm conditions.

Rob Vallone stopped in the shop twice today for live bloodworms and reported the kingfish bite is on. “I blew through bloods catching a bunch of kingfish. Kept 16 for the table and caught lots more. Other anglers were catching too. I also got two keeper fluke. I’ll be back out there in the morning.” Robbie had some good fishing on previous outings. He recently got a 23″ fluke as well as a rudderfish and some small blues.

Bayside Fishing

Rick “The Fishing Musician” gave us a great report! He stopped in and shared, “I’m starting to hook up some nice size weakfish! I’m picking at both fluke and weakfish fishing the bayside with a small lead head jig rigged with a Gulp Jerk Shad. It’s really nice and peaceful with little traffic. What a difference a week makes!”

Blowfish continue to offer good fun fishing in the bay.

Offshore Big Game Fishing

This week’s yellowfin tuna and white marlin bite was off the charts good! The white bite was of epic proportions! We got word from many different customer in the shop loading up on small ballyhoo, chin weights, circle hooks and leader. The Hudson and the Toms were lit up! “Whites in the spread all day!” One boat said they didn’t have enough release flags to fly on the way in. Most boats are releasing 10-30+ a day!

The yellowfin bite all week was on fire east of the Triple Wrecks. Boats fishing about 55-60 miles out of Barngat Light were into fish for 5-7 days straight jigging, chunking and some days popping. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were all out murder scenes. Some days jigging and popping were working, other days chunking and live bait previaled!

I was fortunate enough to get the invite on Tuesday to jump on with Captain Jeff Warford. We had a great trip stacking the box with yellowbirds in the 20-50 pound range. We got them all chunking and working live baits (peanut bunker). In total we killed 8 and a nice mahi. We could have stayed all day and sunk the boat in fish. Highlight of the trip was putting store staffer Kelley on his first tuna.

Store staffer Blake was out on the grounds Wednesday and slaughtered the yellowbirds with a boat limit by 10am. They tried high speeding for wahoo without a touch but then switched over to mahi and boxed over a dozen.

Ryan Kelley was out on the hunt Wednesday too. He got five jigging.