Great weekend of fishing the waters! Saturday morning was a bit more choppy than dawn patrol anglers expected. The forecasted north west winds were straight north making sloppy chop. Fortunately it laid down and made for a beautiful Saturday. Saturday night was as tranquil as it gets and the night shift crew took advantage. Sunday started off with a flawless morning but things got sour with heavy winds and rain. Here’s the Fishermans Headquarters Weekend Recap Fishing Report.
Diversified Action Inshore
From bottom fishing to trolling to jigging and casting anglers are catching a spread of species.
Inshore Bottom Fishing
The wrecks and reefs have a lot to offer. Anglers are catching tog, sea bass, triggerfish and porgies. Store staffers Kelley and Frezza were out early on Sunday morning hunting structure. They reported good fun tog fishing.
Striped Bass & Bluefish
Dan D was aboard the Morning Wood with Cole Cronin Saturday morning. They made a run north to hunt down the bass and tuna. They scored the first but couldn’t get the later to bite. Dan reported, “There were sick feeds with tuna airing out. We just couldn’t hook em.”
Inshore Sharks & Tuna
Right now there are really big fish within sight of land. The abundance of bluefin tuna is impressive but frustrating. Anglers targeting them report they are pushing water and very hard to get a bite. Some anglers have caught but it isn’t an easy feat. There’s also an abundance of thresher sharks. Most are being caught by accident while targeting striped bass on the troll, however some are specifically looking for them and hooking up.
One big catch was reported today from Jon Kelly and Max Goldman who were out fishing aboard the Outcast. They reported while out hunting mako sharks about 30 miles off, they hooked into, had an epic battle and caught this 341 thresher on a mackerel.
LBI Surf Fishing Report
This Saturday was the Merchantville Fishing Club’s ASAC Surf Fishing Tournament. We were expecting to see some striped bass since the beaches not too far north had good recent catches. But out of the 26 (six angler) teams and another 15 individual anglers no legal striped bass were caught, only some shorts (not score-able). Also not score-able, a bunch of out of seas fluke were caught. The only scoring fish caught were blues and dogfish. Ocean City Fishing Club Blue won with 70 points. American Anglers B and Creek Keepers finished 2nd and 3rd. Lynda Greaves won for biggest fish and most overall points.
Fish Head Charters
A weekend like this is what we all needed! It’s always great to have a good weather Saturday. I had return clients Konrad and Nate two young but passionate light tackle anglers with strong drive to catch fish. We started off the dawn patrol with fun fishing, catch and release stripers. In the first hour or so we released about 6 bass up to 30″, two were keeper size. Mid trip we decided to make a run around to search down albies. The guy knew it has been slow but they both really wanted to catch their first. We found very few false albacore but were patient. With time came a couple quick shots at them and they guys both managed to hook up.
The afternoon trip was a total tog trip. Very good fishing with lots of fun. Thanks to Rhodan for locking us in on top of the fish!
Saturday night was the first night shift trip of the fall and it was on! In total we released about 20 striped bass. Anyone looking to get out and target striped bass at night? These are one of a kind trips! So long as the conditions and tide align it’s game on! For those interested get in contact with me NOW to be on the call list. 1-2 angler 3 hour trips, $300 total.