LBI Fishing Report Weekly Update – October 18th

Mid October is here and the fall fishery is progressing. The bay has life, bottom fishing is good, the striped bass migration is moving in and offshore anglers are finding meat. Here’s the Long Beach Island fishing report update for October 18th.

LBI Surf Fishing Report

Today is Day 14 of the LBI Surf Fishing Tournament. Two weeks in there are three striped bass on the board. The most recent and largest to day was caught by Brandon Pomykacz. He caught the 19.46 pound striped bass on swim bait.

A striped bass surf report came in from a customer who shared, “Monday morning got one bass on a Super Strike Popper.” One good size weakfish was reported off the surf on Tuesday.

Few other surf reports came in this week, BUT we expect that to change. With the Merchantville ASAC tournament this weekend there will be strong participation so the results will really give a good read of what’s running on the local beach.

Barnegat Bay Fishing Report

The backwaters of LBI offer great opportunities in October. The waters are full of fish and have very little traffic compaired to a few weeks a go.

Blowfish are in the bay but will be gone any day. We have a feeling the 30-50 mph westerly blow (Wednesday/Thursday) might have sent them out to Europe. This season was definitely a really good one on all accounts for blowfish. There was an abundance and some good size ones. Photo

Crabbing is still very good.

Striped Bass Showing Up

A little further north some quality fish were recently caught. Finally some colder air filled in and the water temperatures continue to fall. Are you ready? Good fishing will be here any tide now.

Bottom Fishing Inshore & Midshore Wrecks & Reefs

Inshore bottom fishing is strong! Sea Bass fishing is very good with a 10 fish bag limit at the 12.5″ minimum size (until the end of the month). Then on November 1st the NJ Black Sea Bass Fishing Regulation bump up to 15 fish at 13″ until the end of the year.

Here’s Jim Hutchinson Jr from the Fishermans Magazine. We was fishing aboard the Robin Ann out of Barnegat Light and had a great trip catching quality sea bass.

Tog fishing is also very good. The current 15″ one fish bag limit increases in about a month. On November 16th five fish at 15″.

“Back Attack” was out earlier this week and reported good fishing. “We took advantage of the sea bass opening up to 10 per person. The morning started slow. We worked around and found the right piece of structure finishing the day with a four man limit to 5lbs. We were swinging double headers over the rail all afternoon.”

Dante from Magictails was on the meat earlier this week. He reported, “Fish up to 10 pounds with lots of five pound fish. The Magictail 1oz and 1.5oz crab jigs were key. Lots of life on the wrecks and reefs! Lots of species caught tog, sea bass, triggerfish, stripers, fluke and threaser shark. I got spooled in about 15 seconds by something big. Must have been a bluefin.”

Magictail Tog Jigs totally changed the blackfish game. Last year they were out producing and so far this year they are killing it! Buy some Magictail Tog Jigs today.

Inshore Ghosts

The inshore bluefin tuna popped up early this year and look to be here for Halloween. Usually a fishery focused around Thanksgiving, they showed up in good numbers. Captain Adam & Rob from Waterman Charters are on the bite! Only time will tell if this continues on. Let’s hope these ghosts stick around.

Offshore at the canyons we’ve heard about a consistent tuna chunk bite. Also a number of boats are reported good swordfishing and tons of mahi.

Fish Head Charters

It felt great to get back out on the water. It was even better to get into some great fishing. I jumped onboard with Rhodan Marine and rigged up a Precision GPS Anchor, the most powerful trolling motor out there (36v 120# Thrust).

After only two trips, I’m beyond stoked with the performance. The power, accuracy and convenience is off the charts. It has already changed my game allowing an entire new approach.

On my last trip I caught my biggest striped bass of the fall so far, a health keeper 30″ caught on a jig. There were lots of schoolies too. The main focus of the trip was tog and it was a blackfish bonanza. Three anglers caught well over 100 fish, with only a handful of shorts. Almost all of the fish were 3-6 pounds. It was a ton of fun on light tackle fishing crab jigs. Anyone looking to get out give a call to book a date!

Looking To Buy A GPS Anchor Trolling Motor?

Seeing the trend in the South East and its spread north to the Garden State, we signed up and Fishermans Headquarters is a Rhodan Dealer. We got out our first delivery and as expected it sold out right away.

If you or a fishing friend is interested in exploring the options, pricing and the Rhodan Advantage… Let Us Know. It’s a game changer and we can help make the whole process very easy.

The Rhodan Advantage:

Why buy Rhodan among the other options out there? Rhodan treats their customers like friends and family with super customer service. Big corporations just can’t come close. More than that they offer a superior product! Rhodan’s exclusive circuitry offer maximum power and efficiency (battery life) and their dual GPS and dual compass out performs with industry best accuracy. It keep position within 3′. For durability their circuitry is made for hard saltwater fishing and proven to stands up to 100’s 1000’s of hours. The Line-X lower unit head and composite shaft are also major benefit adding to the longevity.

If you are looking to invest in the most simplistic, powerful, accurate and durable GPS Anchor /Trolling Motor… Choose Rhodan!

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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