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LBI Fishing Report Update – October 18, 2018

LBI Fishing Report Update – October 18, 2018

The days get shorter, cool air fills in, water temps fall, bait moves and game fish predate. This is fishing during the transition of autumn! What a great time to be on Long Beach Island!

The recent chill has started the season’s cooling trend with the LBI ocean surf temperature is in the mid 60’s, some areas of the bay in the mid to high 50’s and others range in the 60’s. Opposite from the spring, the ebb tide is cooler while the flood is warmer.

One of the best mullet run in a long time lingers on and clouds of bay anchovies are along the beaches. Having their way are small bluefish, spike weakfish and the occasional false albacore and bonita. The waters offshore and some areas north have lights out fishing with these small pelagics. Hopefully they slide our way in bigger numbers soon. Last year this was the time it turned on!

LBI Surf Fishing Report

Small blues rule the roost as we bridge the gap between the Mullet Run and the Fall Run. Soon the migrating striped bass will move into our waters. Typically they arrive in good numbers around Halloween.

This morning we heard of a surf side striped bass caught and released on a plug.

Right now the variety of summertime species remain. Kingfish, fluke, puppy drum, croakers and pompano are good species to target. All of these species were reported in the surf in recent days. Anglers fishing small hooks rigs baited with clam / worm / squid are finding the panfish assortment his past week.

To target the blues fish lures or mullet on the classic doodle bug rig.

Brown sharks are still hanging around with a couple recent reports from anglers chunking bunker looking for the fall’s first classy striped bass. For those that didn’t get their fill, this us the last hurrah for brownies.

The Merchantville Fishing Club’s 2nd Annual Surf Fishing Tournament is this weekend. This team and individual ASAC tournament will be on the beach of LBI is this Saturday October 20.  Register now by calling Mike at 856-466-9546.

Land Based Tog Fishing On LBI

It’s prime time tog fishing season at the Barnegat Light Inlet State Park. The Barnegat Inlet Jetty is home to an awesome fishy, one of New Jersey’s best land based tog spots. The fall is a great time to fish the Inlet Jetty. Anglers are having a blast day in and day out. Get in on the action will the fishing is good.

Here’s a recent report from Khoa (@thatasianangler), “Fished with a couple friends and caught. We got our three man limit of tog up to 19.5 inches. All on green crabs from Fish Heads and Bottom Sweeper Jigs.  Nothing feels better than a big tog slurp when it picks up your jig!” Photo above.

Yesterday Jeff C. got a nice fat keeper tog on the jetty first thing in the morning.

The Inlet rocks of Barnegat Light offer great tog fishing and still sheepsheads and triggerfish; however, we expect those two species to slow as the water cools more.

Barnegat Bay Fishing Report

The backwaters of Long Beach Island offer productive fishing opportunities all fall.  Right now there’s good fishing (no quality size that we’ve heard about yet) along the sod banks, flats and thoroughfares.

Land based anglers are catching on the Island’s westside. The various nighttime haunts (docks, bulkheads, lights) are all a good bet. Be sure to check out these areas with the right ammunition… Storm Swim Shads, Kettle Creek Paddle Tails, small bucktails like the Magic Tail Teardrops alway do the trick.

Wednesday morning Dan and son from Missouri fished aboard Fish Head Charters. The trip was a lot of fun with striped bass and bluefish on light tackle.

With a light tackle approach fishing plugs these fish are a  be tons of fun! These school size striped bass will soon increase in size when the migrating fish show up.

The blowfish continue but fill the cooler reports have slowed. There’s still time to get out and enjoy the awesome showing of puffer we had this season. Land based anglers are picking too, photo above.

Inshore Fishing Report

Better fish are starting to show! Two Fish Head’s alumni caught some quality this week. Both were fishing the waters of Monmouth County. Very soon some of these will be close to LBI.
First Mike Kelly was fishing on Monday and trolled up this pig!
Then Tuesday Dan was out on the water and had an awesome evening session. He reported, “We trolled and picked up two fish then on the way home we came across bunker pods and it came alive. The top water bite was really good on the Big Bone Doc!!!” Photo below

Inshore fishing is currently made up of good bottom fishing at wrecks and reef sites. Sea bass, tog, porgies and triggerfish are on the snags.
Ryan Warford was out recently and hit a few wrecks. He reported, “Lots of fish at all three wrecks we fished! We caught about 200 sea bass, only 10 keepers, five porgies and albies out the wazoo.”
We got word from a few different anglers the Hogy Epoxy jigs are dynamite on both the sea bass jigging and casting to the false albacore. We just got a restocking delivery in today. Stop in if you need some. Sorry we don’t have enough for online sales.
Albies are around in the local waters.
Jersey’s Big Game Fishing Report
It’s that time of year when the bluefin tuna come in close as they migrate south. But it’s also the time that weather windows get short. Traditionally speaking Halloween to Thanksgiving and a week or two after is the best time to look for them. The Jersey Coast’s waters from 3 to 30 miles can be productive. Popping as well as jig, chunk and trolling will catch these powerful creatures. By far popping is the most challenging but also rewarding. For those who have not caught a tuna on a popper you have to seek out this exhilarating experience.
This year it looks like they are ahead of schedule. Tuna showed up strong on the inshore grounds and a number of boats got into the action! Before this blow, strong bluefin tuna reports came in from all over. Good new from the Mudhole – Glory Hole, Chicken Canyon and also Lemkies. We heard one report of tuna outside of the Barnegat Ridge.
Ryan Horton and Dan Rosetto geared up with new big game spinning gear a couple weeks ago. Recently out fishing aboard the Linda Lee they caught this one on the new gear.
Chris DeGennaro aboard the Kaley Marie shared a report, “The kids cranked their arms off all day reeling in albies… Finally we got the right bite late in the afternoon.” *Report from Sunday 10/14
One good report came from the Reel Fishers out of Barnegat Light. On their last tuna trip they had Dante from MagicTails aboard and they found fish. Word was some new MagicTail products in the pipeline were being tested and caught!
Feedback From Happy Traveling Customers
Big shout out to Fish Heads. Thanks fro setting me up with the gear and lures to land this awesome fish! ~Mark Garcia
Adam Sherer and Martin Truex Jr had a successful quick Canadian Big Tuna Strike Mission fishing with Walter Bruce.
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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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