609-494-5739 Right now is a great time to be fishing the waters of Long Beach Island. Whether fishing from shore, inshore or offshore, there’s a lot on offer. Here’s the Long Beach Island Fishing Report Update for Wednesday July 22, 2020.
Inshore – Midshore Bluewater
By far the most spectacular topic on the local fishing front is the abundance of school bluefin tuna (in the 27 to <47″ range) surprisingly close to port. These fish are and have been hanging around the 10-15-20 fathom inshore/midshore lumps and ridges. Some of these areas have good water (beautiful clean blue water) with bait (sand eels and squid) and that’s the receipt for good fishing. It’s not only bluefin! There’s king mackerel (southern kingfish) and a few small mahi. Soon the bonita and albies will join the party too. Here’s some recent reports from anglers fishing out of Barnegat Light the past couple of days.
Matt Thomas shared, “After hearing some reports that tuna fish were close we tossed together a last minute trip to get my son Dexter his first tuna. We got out there and got one. He did awesome and would not quit! Needless to say he is a very happy kid and I’m a very proud father!”
Frequent customer Joe Franckowiak has been out fishing every chance he gets and his catch count shows. He was reporting tuna near shore for some time now. Tuesday he had another good day (previous report included on the July 14th post) going four for seven on bluefin.
Fun Trip Aboard The Pal’O Mine
I got the call from Paul D’Aloia (friend and owner of the Pal’O Mine) on Monday, “Let’s go fish!” Tuesday morning we (Paul, Max, Matt, I) pushed off and headed east about 15 miles. We quickly found positive sings (tuna chicks and slicks) and got our trolling spread in the water. First a few good bait marks showed up on the sounder. Then tuna marks and shortly after we were tight on our first fish of the morning. We kept working the area and stayed with it for most of the morning going five for five on school bluefin tuna. Almost all of our bites came on spreader bars from splash bars from Chatter and Tormenter.
There were not that many boats out there, so we did the right thing and shared some intel to help others get blood on the deck. We were happy to get feedback! Richard Applegate said, “Heard you on the radio. Thank you. You helped us get tight on one.” Another thanks came from Mike Pritsch, “You called us in on the bite today. Thank you!!!”
With piles of sandeels and squid, school size bluefin tuna are hanging well within reach for small boat anglers. Gear up and be ready for the right days to get out thee and enjoy this great fishing!
LBI’s Near Shore Fishing Report
Solid fluke fishing reports continue from the ocean’s near shore waters, open bottom, wrecks and reefs. The game is good at certain areas and certain times. Having the right tackle and a skilled hand is paramount! Some of the snags have good sea bass fishing too.
One angler with the right tackle and a good hand is store staffer Jared Grady. He was out on the Carolyn Ann Tuesday and took the pool with a health one!
Today (Wednesday) Robbie Gagliardi had a great day aboard the Miss Barnegat Light. He caught five keepers. Since others fishing near him were struggling he was a nice guy and shared.
Another great ocean fluke report came in from Tyler Leary. His crew limited out at an undisclosed reef site.
The reports from the two local party boats (Miss Barnegat Light and the Carolyn Ann) are positive the past cope of days. It’s great to see some limited as well as some quality fluke and also knuckle head black sea bass. They are sailing everyday from 8am to1pm. Get out there!
Fishing the Long Beach Island Bays
The fluke fishing in the bay continues strong with an abundance of shorts but still a great number of quality keepers. You just need to work for them. Blowfish and weakfish continue too.
Here’s a nice weakfish from Chris Wright, safely release. “Wind against tide made easy with my Rhodan Trolling Motor!
Fishing the Long Beach Island Surf & Inlet
Right now there’s fun land based fishing opportunities on LBI. Kingfish (northern kingfish) and fluke (summer flounder) are both possibly at the best stage of the season. Anglers fishing the beaches and the Barnegat Inlet State Park are catching fluke, kingfish, small bluefish, Spanish mackerel, weakfish, an occasional striped bass and the sharpies are picking sheepshead too. Be careful of the cow nose rays!. They can be a time consuming handful.
Fishing with worms for kingfish, Gulp fluke, small meaty bait (bunker, mullet) for blues/bass. Fiddler crabs would be the ticket to target sheepshead.
Yes there’s some spike weakfish in the surf. Matt Listor shared a photo and gave us heads up. He got three from the LBI surf. A number of spike weakfish were reported this past week from the surf and bay. It’s great to see they are here. Let’s hope this stick around all summer!
Yes there’s Spanish mackerel being caught off of the Long Beach Island surf. Here is a photo sent in from Greg O’Connell from the Merchantville Fishing Team. He reported, “Landed three off of the north end surf and lost two others.” Some of the best producing lures for these as well as bonita and false albacore are the Hogy Epoxy Jigs and Tsunami Fork Tail Candy among some other small slender metals.
