Fishing Report Update April 16, 2019

The fishing activity and action are picking up! More anglers are getting out and more fish are caught. Striped bass, tog, white perch and now drum are good targets. Some are looking for blues but no direct reports yet. We expect see some soon and possibly a few weakfish might show too. Here’s the Fisherman’s Headquarters Fishing Report Update for Tuesday April 16.

Black Drum Fishing Great Bay

[Previously hinted at drum] Today we got a solid report from the boyz at Magictail. Dante reported, “Mateo and I got two nice black drum this morning.” He also shared, “A couple days ago I had a good evening session. I caught a half dozen small striped bass on bloodworms the first hour. Then went one for two on black drum with clam.”

Matteo Delmonico caught this black drum fishing golden hour Tuesday (4-16-19) morning on clam.
Here’s Matteo Delmonico with a Tuesday morning golden hour black drum.

Striped Bass Fishing Report

For a couple of weeks now reports continue consistently strong. Local reports of striped bass flow into the shop from customers buying fishing tackle. Anglers fishing Long Beach Island’s local waters are finding school sized striped bass throughout the bay. While the fish range in size (some as small as an adult bunker) there are keepers around.

Brendan Hastings reported yesterday, “Dead sticking live bloodworms on the bay Saturday/Sunday produced about 10 throwbacks striped bass in the 8-16″ range and one 29″ keeper size fish. Keeping the bait fresh and in the current seemed to be the key!”

A bunch of customers are making the trek north, south and west to the early season spots for the best size and quality of fishing. The bays and river (Chesapeake, Delaware, Hudson, among many others) are full of striped bass. They moved in and feed in preparation to spawn. With April’s full moon on Friday morning the striped bass should be hunkering down and ready to do their thing.

The Raritan Bay is firing on all cylinders. Things might slow up with the moon for a short period of time but should pick up right where it left off.

Fish Head Charters In On The Fun

Sunday was a great day and I was stoked to have the Fish Head in on the action. Crazy dense fog made for a very interesting day but it was all out epic fishing. I was happy to be a part of the bumper boat session trading off blasts (fog signals) with so many. Lots of fog, lots of boats, lots of bass… what else would you expect for a spring day in New Jersey.

Catching fish in the fog can be alot of fun. Here's Max B. hooked up with a striped bass aboard Fish Head Charters.
Here’s Max down and tight on one of many striped bass aboard Fish Head Charters.

Fish Head Charters has a temporary slip in Keyport for a couple weeks and will be running trips on good weather days. Why not take advantage of the great fishing. It’s an hour drive from LBI but well worth it!

Four hour trips, $150 per person, maximum two anglers. Sorry these are no kill trips. As these striped bass are in the Bay to spawn therefor I can not guide anglers to fish with the sole intent to kill. At this stage of the game the striped bass need all the help they can get..

Tog Fishing Report

With ocean temperatures creeping up the tog fishing improves. April is a great time to hunt blackfish.

Shop regular Jeff is always fishing hard. He has been on the Jetty regularly and Friday he caught his first keeper of the season. It was a 17″ fish that he got on green crab. Jeff said, I saw others caught too.” He’s back out fishing today.

Here’s a recent boat catch on a Magictail 2oz White Legger Gamechanger Tog Jig… 18 pound slob!

Big tog love Magictail Tog Jigs. Here's an 18 pound monster that went for a baited 2oz white crab jig.

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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