Finally we get a nice break from the brutal winds and all reports were very good fishing. The year is winding down fast but the fishing continues strong. Get out and enjoy fun fishing before the death grip of winter sets in. Here’s the Long Beach Island Fishing Report Update for Saturday December 21, 2019 the shortest day of the year.

Days are getting longer from here on out!

Striped Bass Fishing

All of the classy ones are down in Virginia entering the Chesapeake Bay. Here’s Fish Heads Ambassador Dan releasing his new personal best.

Dan reported, “It was an awesome early Christmas present! Was chasing this fish since I was a kid. Came close many times. Finally! Fish was 52-53lbs on the Boga. I can’t thank Chuck Tyman and Mike Greene enough for taking the time and showing me the ropes!”

While the big ones are was south there’s an abundance of hungry linesiders still here! Today we heard some promising reports from both beach and boat anglers.

LBI Surf Fishing Report

There’s lots of striped bass cruising the beaches of LBI. While most think it’s over, the skeleton crew (or should we call them the Eskimos) are still grinding and catching!

Bill Heade fished a few time in recent days and had this report to share. “I fished the incoming tide on Thursday 19th on the north end of LBI at first light. I caught one schoolie bass. Had four other bites, two dropped on way in and two others didn’t come tight. A metal with a teaser and a sand eels soft bait tail got all my bites. Seemed like a slow retrieve worked best. Called it quits at about 9:30am when my plug bag froze up. You know it is cold when things start freezing up. The water beads were freezing on my jacket. Shout out to Mike at Fish Heads for recommending a neoprene Stormr Jacket! Kept me warm all morning! Had a thermal and a long sleeve underneath and I was sweating. The jackets awesome and worth every penny!”

Bassin’ On The Boat

One report came in from Professor Fish Head Dave Werner who fish with the Coen brothers Jon and Brian. “We bundled up and went for a morning trip. There were a few fish off Island Beach on the jig with some birds picking. Everything was scattered.”

Another report came in from Mike Kelly… Heading in from wreck fishing we came across piles of fish right outside the Inlet. All dinks.”

Tog Fishing!

The Jersey tautog season has been very good! By all accounts it’s firing on all cylinders right into 2020!

Zach Michot from Magictails was out today aboard the No Moores. “It was another good day with a four man limit of quality tautog. Magictail products doing the magic!”

Fish Head Alumni Swag has been getting out every break he can get. He shared this report, “Fished Monday on the Osprey out of Atlantic City and had a fantastic day catching with 8 keepers. Headed back out Friday but it was a different story I only had 1 blackfish all day, but other caught. I was planning on taking the day off but had a buddy ask me to head out with him. I decided to go today. You never know when the weather will turn sour and blow for an extended period of time, so I want to take advantage of the fishable days when I can. I’m glad I did! I had a double limit+ with the big fish just shy of 11 pounds.

Jared Grady did a double on the Osprey fishing Friday and Saturday. He had a great day on both trips.

Deep Water Sea Bass Fishing

Anglers are heading out to the deep hunting sea bass and getting in on drop and reel fishing. Nick Perello has been getting out and each trip is loading up! His most recent trip was was today. They limited out with all over 18″.

Earlier in the week Nick reported some big weakfish mixed in with the sea bass and porgies.

Another customer in the shop (local Manahawkin angler) fishing on the Voyager reported great fishing on his recent trips. “Lots of good sea bass jigging as well as weakfish in the 3-8# range. There’s also large bonita and some jumbo porgies. Everyone is limiting out on the boat. Some days I’m catching double and triple limits jigging. There’s lots of sand eels out there so the slender jigs are the way to go. Hands down the Nomand Streaker Jigs Are The Best!“