LBI Fishing Report Update – November 13, 2018
The Fall Run Is On!!! It’s mid November and fishing in the Long Beach Island area is good. If you can make the time… get out and go! Anglers are catching fish on the beach and boat. The past couple of days were great weather wise but today (Tuesday) was not. Right now it looks Saturday and Sunday will be two days full of great fishing opportunity. Until then there will be some windy conditions that some anglers will dive into in search of trophy stripers.
The troll bite is on fire with anglers catching big striped bass on Magictail Mojos (singles and via three way tandems) as well as bunker spoon trolling with Tony Maja Bunker Spoons and Spoon Fed Bunker Spoons. Here’s some recent reports…
Andres Hernandez got this monster trolling on Monday. It was 48.6 pounds!
Mike also got a 48 pound striped bass trolling yesterday.
Rick Lamb on the Sea Eagle went 6 for 9 on the troll.
Store staffer Mike Frezza got out on the water yesterday with Swagmatic (Matt Sorrentino) aboard. Frez reported, “It was an awesome day black fishing out of Belmar on the Barb Gail with Captain Chris. Consistent action on Magictail Tog Jigs tipped with green & white crab.”
Frez detailed, “Bait rigs did the job as well. We released a bunch of keepers including one 14lb TOGZILLA and a beautiful 8lb female. The bite started out slow with green crab, but once the we broke out the white crab the bites totally changed and became more aggressive. All of our larger fish came on white crab.” If you want whities act now and call Fish Heads today. White leggers are special order only due to limited availability.
Anglers on the hunt for ghosts are finding fish not far from home. Positive reports of big bluefin in close proximity to Barnegat Inlet.
LBI Surf Fishing Report
The LBI surf fishing action is somewhat shifty. Some days more fish than others. We are excited to be in prime time and we are looking forward to the awesome surf fishing opportunities this month.
LBI surf fishing tournament’s top five fish are all over 20 pounds. Don’t let that keep you from participating!!! There’s some Bonus Cash Days coming up.
For updated information on the LBI Surf Fishing Tournament. www.LBIFT.com
Bonus Cash Days
November 16 – $500 Cash Award For Largest Striped Bass, In Honor of Frank Panzone
November 22 – $250 Cash Award For Largest Striped Bass, In Honor of Bruce Hoagland from the Hoagland Family
John Bentley from PA On The Fly (@treeworx814) came all the way out from Jefferson County PA to get out on the brine. We fished together last fall and had a great trip so John booked again this year. November 5/6/7 was booked but pushed it back to 12/13/14. With a cancellation on Sunday the 11th and good weather set up for Sunday/Monday we modified the dates and fished on 11/10 an 11/12.
An expert muskey fly guy, John is a hardcore angler. I’m always stoked to fish with him because of his intense focus, attention to detail and deep knowledge of fly fishing. He catches big fish on the fly. His goal for the 6 hour travel was to hunt striped bass, preferably classy sized ones.
Sunday we had a good trip catching quality striped bass. We went three for four trolling, dropping one fish. John was happy to be catching but I was not content. I knew what he came for. The day’s conditions were tough; a little windy, very cold, scattered fish. Sometimes you have to choose the best method for the day. Sunday it was the troll.
Monday I prepared to dedicate the entire trip to strictly fly focus. My expectations were good. Breaking tide, calm winds and much warmer. John was early to the boat and I was geared up so we pushed off early and were fishing before 6:15. Only a few cast in and John was hooked up at sunrise. He was dialed in and did a great job putting the fly where it needed to be. In a short amount of time John released five striped bass, two of which were health sized keepers, up to 32″. As the tide picked up and the sun got high the bite tapered off and went dead.
By this time is was about 8am and some friends up the beach reported slow fishing. A couple boats that I was in the loop with had one or none. I expected now that the tide turned the bite would turn on soon so we headed towards the recently productive grounds. While in route I got a call from a friend who just caught two. He shared, “I went to the spot you told me. It looked fishy but no bites. We put in a couple hours and then all of a sudden it came alive on top with sand eels, turns and striped bass.” We headed in his direction and stopped where two whales were feeding. We found the mother load!!!
It was not all out blitz fishing, but it was very good. Feisty striped bass from 15 to 40++ pounds were chasing sand eels under small bird plays. My first cast on a top water spook got crushed.
John managed to feel his fly to a pig.
I upped my game and got my new personal best on the fly.
We fished until 3pm and called it a day. Leaving a good bite always feels weird. You never know when the time will come again.
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