609-494-5739 Wednesday was a good weather day which let anglers get out. Most found good fun fishing. Here’s the Fishermans Headquarters Fishing Report Updated for Thursday April 18, 2019.
Striped Bass Fishing Report
Local fishing continues for anglers fishing the bay. Long Beach Island’s bayside offer good opportunities both day and night. The early season spots of Great Bay and Barnegat Bay continue. The size is small but keeper size fish are present and the class might increasing. Daytime baits like live bloodworm and clam (especially if looking to get a black drum) are best. At low light and night lures in the 3-5″ range will do the trick. We suggest minnow type swimmers like the Yozuri Mag Minnow or Rapala Xrap. Also the essentials…paddle tail swim baits Storm Wild Eye Shads Or Kettle Creek and of course you can’t go fishing with our a bucktail… Magictail bucktails.
Back Bay Striped Bass
Youth angler Carter Leary sent in a report on Instagram… Here’s my first striped bass of the spring. I caught it one a Sebile Stick Shad Lure fishing low light conditions (at a dock on Barnegat Bay).
While still on the back bay it’s worth a mention, we have NOT received one bluefish report. We have heard from some that went out on a search but came up empty. We expect to see some soon.
Surf Fishing Report
The spring surf fishing action is right around the corner! Starting to hear more talk… Just heard of a surf report from Brigantine to our south as well as Island Beach to our north. The only direct report we’ve received was from Ron M which was reported on April 13, 2019.
Reminder: The 18th Annual LBI Spring Surf Fishing Tournament starts April 27th. Registration will begin soon, $20 Sign Up Fee.
Ocean Report & Outlook
The ocean temp is still cold but creeping up. Soon we expect the local ares to start. Historically the magic number has been 48 for when they show. Then, it really gets going once it breaks above 50.
Tog Fishing Report Update
Matt Swag was on the water yesterday. We went out aboard the Osprey and got into good fishing. He reported, ” Lights out black fishing yesterday! Fish finally got on the feed for me. They were chewing crabs. Fishing was so good I was catch and releasing nice keepers retaining my four fish limit. I kept the boys and let the girls go as they prepare for their spring spawn.”
Matt gave us heads up that all fish were caught on Daiwa BG3000 spooled with Cortland Master Braid and pared with the Daiwa Back Bay Rod. Here’s a recent post by Matt about the Daiwa BG Series reels.
Fish Head Charters
From an awesome fog session on Sunday to an unreal fire session on Wednesday… The action continues to get better.
Sunday I’ll remember for one of the most dense fog fishing session I’ve ever fished. See the report here, “Fish Head Charters In On The Fun”
Wednesday morning’s red fire sky started things off and then by 6:30 am a large burning building in the distance set the scene. [The five alarm fire broke out in a sushi restaurant and medical building located in Marine Park Brooklyn at about 6:30 am. The morning breeze didn’t help but fire fighters contained the four hour blaze.]
As far as fishing, things started off slow and scattered with slack high tide but as the current started moving things came together. The great jig bite continued just like on Sunday if not better. Big rubber shads from Tsunami, bucktails and Candy Bars got hammered. At times power drifting or slow trolling helped find schools of hungry striped bass. Some boats utilized the magic of Magictail Mojos (in the small weight range, 4-8oz) but we stuck to our preferred light tackle approach.
Some awesome top water feeds broke out and iced the cake making for a stellar day. Some good fish came on top water with the stand out producer the Doc Top Water Spook. Big wooden metal lip swimmers also raised fish. I was beyond stoked to visually feed a freshly hand tied bunker imitation to a hungry linesider. Below is a photo of two health striped bass from the trip. One I got on the fly and one Kelley got on a Doc spook. Look closely and you’ll see the fish inhaled the entire lure.
