LBI Fishing Report May 20th

Coming down off May’s full moon the inshore, offshore and from shore fishing is great.The inshore waters is all bass! Striped bbass and black sea bass offer anglers lots of fun.

Striped Bass Fishing

Solid weekend of striped bass fishing with anglers catching really big fish in the boats. The troll bite is good along LBI and IBSP beaches. The number of fish caught from the mid 30’s to UPPER 50’s is spectacular. Some of the fish checked into the weekend’s Waretown Fire Company Fishing Tournament were impressive. Jim Brady and crew took the cake with a 59, 53, 43. That’s a series three pack.

Here’s a photo sent in from Colin Fitzpatrick of his friend Katie Barron with a health striped bass she caught and released out of BI this Sunday.

Just a heads up there’s some squid around the near shore waters. Here’s John Fay with a big squid that was snagged while trolling a mojo with Scott Lapsley north of BI.

Black Sea Bass Fishing

Black Sea Bass season is cranking with the majority of the reports being very strong.

Swagmattic and the South Jersey Saltwater Anglers fished Sunday aboard the Mary M. out of Barnegat Light reports fishing was absolute phenomenal. “It was drop and reel from the beginning to end. All the sea bass and ling you could catch as well as a couple tog, mackerel, bluefish and cod. It was a really good trip!”

The Carolyn Ann III reported yesterday (Sunday), “A nice day fishing today. The bite was Sea Bass fishing is strong. A few limits and everyone caught fish. One nice cod about 7-lbs and quite a few ling were caught.”

Bluefish Crusing The Local Waters

Blues are still around in force. The size ranges from small cocktails in the one to two pound range all the way up to ten plus pounds. Anglers in the bay, inlet and surf are catching.

Bill from Village Harbour Fishing Club weighed in a 7 pound bluefish today from Great Bay. He reported catching multiple bluefish.

Anglers in the inlet are having fun. Some days are better than others. One thing is for sure you gotta be there to get in on ’em.

Fluke Fishing

The NJ Summer Flounder aka Fluke Fishing season kicks off this Friday. Early season you’ll want to look towards the inlet and bay for the best early season action. Anglers fishing the shallow waters will catch best.

Zach Michot was out this weekend on a commercial fluke fishing trip with his buddy. They reported great fishing. Zach got his new personal best bay fluke at 8.57 pounds. He got it on a 1oz White Magictail Bucktail Jig tipped off with a White Gulp Swimming Mullet Grub.

Offshore Big Game Fishing

Most boats that fished this past weekend got ’em!

The boys on the Reel Innovation reported staying inside the canyons to hunt for biggins. They hooked up with the right one but after a solid battle pulled the hook. They worked hard and put together a catch. Got a 50lb bluefin and a couple big barrel fish.

Dylan Fisher aboard the Reel Fishers made their first trip of the season offshore this weekend. He reported, “No giants but caught our limit and had a great time.”

Rick Bragg was out with some friends and reported lots of big albies as well as three bluefin tuna up to 60lbs.

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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