LBI Fishing Report Update June 7th

Right now in early June, the waters of Long Beach Island have a lot to offer. Good inshore, offshore and from shore fishing all make this one of the best times of year to be an angler in the area.

From Shore

Striped bass and blues continues to cruise the suds of LBI. Anglers are finding fish chunking bunker and fishing lures.

Pete Figueroa and Bob Misak put in some time on the surf this past week. Bob had an outstanding catch reeling in a cobia. He also caught a baby sand tiger shark.

Pete got some big blues off the beach. Anglers in the shop continue to report a good umber of bluefish on the suds.

Jeff C. stopped in the shop with a 24.5″ fluke that weighed in at five pounds. He reported, “The Inlet has been good. Today I caught this one and a 19″ keeper among other shorts. Some other keepers were caught too.”

Thursday was the 11th Annual Battle On The Beach, a surf fishing competition between the local High School Fishing Clubs. Southern Regional High School successfully defended their title and won taking back to back wins. Final Standings: 1st Place Southern with 556.5″, 2nd Place Mates with 88″, 3rd Place Lacey with 45″, 4th Place Barnegat with 29″. The largest fish was a 31.5″ bluefish caught by Southern Regional’s Anthony Rutler. The high hook was Southern’s Killian Horne who caught 114″ of fish.

Inshore & Bay

The striped bass, bluefish and fluke continue who offer lots of fun for light tackle. The inlet, sod banks and main thoroughfares all have fish. In the ocean the wrecks and reefs from 3-15 miles off are well stocked with sea bass.

Jerry Barnes of West Charters PA caught this monster 26.5″ fluke on Thursday fishing a live minnow working the waters near Barnegat Light Inlet.

Zach Michot got a nice weakfish while fluke fishing this morning.

Offshore

What started out as a banger just keeps going strong. Can the big game action get any better? Tuna reports are solid. The mid-shore grounds continue to produce with anglers having a blast on bluefins in all a variety of sizes. Now the canyons are lighting up and productive water is pushing even closer to home.

Store staffer Blake was out fishing the mid-shore grounds today, Friday. They boated three bluefin as well as a ton of albies. Blake reported it was a good day fishing about 30-35 miles out of BI.

Captain Dean on the Canyon Runner had an epic haul on a recent trip! The crew caught seven big eye, thirty yellowfin (many released), released one giant, charter limit of bluefins, 10 more released and a white marlin. Dean reports, “June is the best month to fish offshore!!! Gear Up & Go!”

Fish Head Charters

The past week was full of good times aboard Fish Head Charters. Early June usually means bunker, bunker, bunker; however, this year… sand eels, spearing and bay anchovies. This forage is autumn-esque but I’m not complaining. It’s much easier for “match the hatch” presentation for the light tackle and fly fishing approach.

Thursday morning local angler Steve and his buddy (in from Montana) were on. The veteran fly duo made my life as captain very easy. I put them on the fish and they caught ’em. The morning was very good with both bass and blues hamming the fly. Once again the clouser minnow was the MVP. When is it not? As the day went on things settled down. We explored the back waters of Barnegat Bay and managed to find a couple schoolies. These ones wanted the shrimp. What lives in the bay that doesn’t love grass shrimp?

Today (Friday) I had Jay Hoffman with Jim Gallasso and son on for a dawn patrol session. The crew from Fort Washington PA put the smack down on the striped bass and bluefish. The guys tried keeping count but lost track around 25-ish. From that point on they were really getting dialed in and having a blast. No question it was a triple digit day for the trio.

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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