Fishing Report Update April 8, 2019

More good news on the fishing front! Here’s the fishing report update for Monday April 8, 2019.

Early Season Hot Spots

This weekend the Raritan Bay went off! A body of fish moved in from the ocean and fishing was phenomenal. Expect fishing to be good for the next few weeks however the amplitude will fluctuate as waves of striped bass arrive and make way to and up the river.

These are pre-spawn so please use utmost responsible judgment and release all fish! These are the lifeblood of the stock!

Some of the crew from the shop was in on the action…

Store staffer Dan D reported light out action on Thursday (was reported in the last post). His luck continued all weekend. Dan reported, “Incredible fishing with fish up to 30 pounds.” Pat D. (Dan’s brother) was fishing in the fog Saturday and had fun with bass eating lures.

Store staffer Willie enjoyed his 21st birthday this weekend… Congrats! He too got out and caught some quality striped bass (photo below).

Store staffer Mike Frezza worked the late night hours and caught. Were you following our Instagram story? The old saying goes if your spring is off to a bad start the only way to turn it around fast is to eat a live bloodworm. Frezza went for it and wham-oo! Now he’ll be the high hook all spring… Watch Out!

Local Fishing

Some boats fished out of Barnegat Inlet this weekend. Everyone that we heard back from that stayed locally looking for striped bass came up empty. A couple boats that made the run north and scored! A couple more degrees and we’ll have things starting up.

Things are still slow in our area however progressing none the less. The nighttime bayside striped bass fishing is good. I got in on the fun Saturday night.

Fishing a 3/8oz jig head with a white grub I caught a couple school striped bass. Store staffer Kelly was in on it too. He also caught on Kettle Creek Paddle Tail Swimbaits and RonZ Slender Soft Baits. After the fishing session I took a quick ride up the Barnegat Inlet Jetty for a Milky Way photo session.

Milky Way photo from early Sunday April 7th 2am Barnegat Light Jetty by Greg Cudnik

Ted Johnson and his girlfriend got into some small ones on the bayside this past weekend. Couples that fish together stay together!

Ted Johnson and his girlfriend got into some small ones on the bayside and enjoyed an early April spring night on the bay.

Blackfishing Open For April

It’s still early with cold ocean water temperatures but it’s tog fishing time. LBI Charter’s Captain Greg Carr was on the water this past weekend hunting for tog. He reported, “Water is still cold. Fishing was slow but managed five keepers and about a dozen shorts.”

Saturday April 6th was the Carolyn Ann III first trip of the 2019 season.on Sunday. Jake Adair won the pool with a 5.5 pound tog that he caught on Magictail Tog Jig.

The Carolyn Ann III took their first trip out on Saturday. They reported, “Pretty good fishing considering the swell and lack of wind which made anchoring difficult. Jake Adair took the pool with a nice 5.5 pound blackfish. (photo above) The Magictail Game Changer Tog Jig did the job! Other anglers caught too. The action with short fish kept everyone busy concentrating on the bite. No limits had but some guys had one or two fish each to take home for dinner.

The Carolyn Ann III took their second trip out of 2019 on Sunday. Eric Mandelblatt was aboard and took the pool!

On Sunday Eric Mandelblatt was aboard and took the pool! Photo above

We’ve hear about a couple (but few) bigger double digit fish caught on private boats. It’s gonna get better. Get geared up and in the game.

Offshore Fishing

Canyon fishing season is upon us! A body of water looked good so a few local boats pushed out to explore. All that we heard back from struck out. It’s gonna happen soon!

Update On Bouys

So after our March 30th Blog Post and Tuesday’s April 2nd Facebook and Instagram post things kinda started happening. We got phone calls and emails. First local boaters wanting more information. Then the NJ State Police and then the US Coast Guard. Today (Monday) I got a call from Ted Greenburg from NBC10 News. He says, “I’m in town and would like to do a story on the navigational hazards. Do you have time to show them to me?” I didn’t have time but… We went out of a short trip on the boat. I showed him the three (one north and two south) that were close the the Causeway Bridge. About a week ago only one was marked. Today all three were. Hopefully soon they will all be repaired because it’s still a major problem waiting to happen. Hopefully you saw the report on NBC10’s 4,5,6pm news.

Linda Lee Sportfishing Report

Captain Ryan of Linda Lee Sportfishing reports, “As things start to heat up I’ll be running open boat charters for stripers and blues. Starting May 4th and 5th through the middle of June. $125 pp 4 people max. All fishing gear included and fish cleaned. If your looking to get in on the action give me a call 609-276-8032.

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!

2 thoughts on “Fishing Report Update April 8, 2019”

    1. Sorry we have not received any catch reports from the surf. The info that we’ve heard was shared in previous posts. There were some rumors. We could not confirm so we didn’t include. We only share first hand reports.

      If you head out and give it a try please let us know how you do.

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