609-494-5739 Another good weekend of fishing the waters of Long Beach Island. Saturday started off sporty with stiff northerly blow but things settled down mid day and the second half was beautiful. Sunday followed it up being a flawless day. Those that got out and fished were rewarded. Small fish but don’t complain. It’s December… enjoy it while it lasts! Here’s the Long Beach Island Fishing Report Update.
On The Surf
The small bass action continues on the LBI surf offering great catch and release fun on light tackle. Finding a keeper size fish or better is a long shot but the consistent of action is awesome. Anglers fishing the same tackle as previously reported numerous time are getting it done.
Chris Masino post this photo and reported “Another Fun Night” fishing Sunday.
Sarge tagged us on a video releasing a bass on the surf Saturday. He said catch and release fishing has been fun.
Steve George shared a report on his Facebook page, “It’s been a great couple of weeks (day and night) tagging all these juvenile striped bass that have invaded the surf line. Hope they get a chance to double in size and return some migration data research to better understand these very important inshore fish. If they do the fishing can be very good again. We will See.”
LBI Surf Fishing Classic
This weekend concludes the LBI Surf Fishing Classic. Administration wise it will be wrapped up soon.
Looking back it was a slow year for quality size striped bass and there was a missing species. Not one bluefish! We know a good mass of striped bass hung around the three mile line and the deeper waters all fall. But where were the bluefish? This was not the year for bunker chunkers! The spiny dog fish ruled the suds and wreaked havoc on those soaking baits. It really shows with the top six biggest fish, none on bunker. Surfcasters shuffling their lures worked some magic and the night shift crew put together some good nights eeling. The North End of the Island was most productive early, mid and late season. As expected the largest and best fishing was late October and early November. In the end there was an influx of bass but nothing that would show for the tournament record purposes.
On The Boat
Last run of the year for Brendan Craig today. He reported, “We had doubles at sunrise. It was a good day.” Dave Werner was also out with a couple friends. He reported an “Epic December Bite” on lures.
Friday morning Tyler Wilk reported, “Fished out of BI this morning. Went north and caught shorts. Headed back south to Harvey Cedars Lump and trolled up several 25-29″ fish on umbrella rigs. Swell picked up and the bite died. ON the way in we hit a massive bird play and jigged up another keeper.”
The Miss Barnegat Light did good over the weekend but Sunday was their last trip of the year. “Lots of action! Fish lighter tackle and have a ball!”
The Ultimate Angler Experience
The First Ultimate Angler Experience went down on Saturday (12/7/19) and was a huge success. What a great group of guys! The conditions were sporty in the morning but as the day went on things settled down. For the intents and purposes, the fishing was good. Every stop/spot the tog were hungry and the first 20 minutes or so would be good. But it just wouldn’t last much longer. Fortunately the Captain kept moving and adjusting to keep us active with fish all day.
A couple anglers limited out with Crazy Fast Eddy being the high hook. Congrats to Johnny O, the big winner of the day! Not only did his big fish (right about 10 pounds) take home the pool, but he was one of the anglers who won 1 of the 7 rods and reels that were raffled off. Our wonderful and generous sponsors made it possible for everyone to win something; rods, reels, gift cards, fishing line, apparel, tackle. There were loads of giveaways!
Thanks to everyone who attended. We hope you enjoyed the whole experience. We already got some great feedback from anglers who loved the trip. We are already looking forward to the next Ultimate Angler Experience.
Huge Thanks to Swag (Matt Sorrentino) for coming up with the idea and making the event happen. Also a big thanks to Magictail’s Dante Soriente and Frank Mihalic for sharing some of the their knowledge accumulated over the years. All three of the short seminar talks (Matt, Dante, Frank) were great!
Thanks to the Captain and Crew of the Osprey NJ for hosting us. Also a special thank you to Daiwa’s Chris Shoplock and Jigging World’s Mike Kim for providing an incredible amount of products for everyone to demo on the boat. It was great sharing the rail and fishing with you guys! Also thanks to Cortland Line Co and The Fishermans Magazine!
Keep your eyes out on or social media page for some photos and video from the trip. We’ll be sharing periodically over the winter.
