LBI Fishing Report 8/30/20

Here on the final days of August it’s safe to say it was a great month of fishing on Long Beach Island. From a consistent fluke bite in the bay, inlet and surf to good sea bass fishing inshore and off the charts yellowfin and bluefin tuna fishing mid-shore. A quick look back and one must be thankful for good fishing inshore, offshore and from shore. What a great month of summer fishing we had!

Here’s the fishing report update for the Long Beach Island area on Sunday, August 30, 2020.

Fishing Barnegat Bay

From drifting for fluke in the main thoroughfares to anchoring up at a hole and catching a smorgasbord, the bay has a good spread with a variety of fun.

On Friday I had a great morning trip on the bay fly fishing with Danny Vilardi aboard Fish Head Charters. He started with the long rod and didn’t put it down all day. He caught his first weakfish, fluke and jack (Almaco) all on his own DYI clouser minnow. All together we had a dozen weakfish, all were nice healthy ones except two spike. Two fluke ate the fly but both were just short. We also has too many small bluefish to mention.

Here's youth angler Danny V with his first weakfish on the fly.
Here’s youth angler Danny V with his first weakfish on the fly. This is a fishery that I grew up enjoying and the main reason I picked up a fly rod years ago. Now with the weakfish resurgence, it’s a fun and challenging change of pace from the dog days of summer fluke rut. It was an honor to share the fishing with a great up and coming angler. For the record Danny is one hell of a fisherman. Don’t let his age fool you… he’s dialed in!

Stew Hitchner was on the bay this weekend with the family today. They caught a pile of blowfish.

Here’s a bucket of blowfish heading to the dinner table!

Reports from the Ship Bottom bayside tell of blowfish, kingfish, snappers and spot as well as crabs at the Ship Bottom docks. It seems the past week or two the snappers really made a strong showing. They are a ton of fun for the kids!

Just A Reminder: NJ Bluefish Regulations – All Private Anglers 3 fish, For Hire 5 fish (if on a charter or head boat). Yes this includes snapper blues!

John Bell is getting into some nice striped bass in the back bay. These heathy ones are great to see at this time of the year!
John Bell is getting into some nice striped bass in the back bay. These heathy ones are great to see at this time of the year!

Fishing The LBI Surf

The surf has was churred up from the weekend’s stormy weather. The pass remnants of Laura were wet and windy. Things settled down Sunday and it was a beautiful day on the beach. As the short video report shows it was a great beach day. No great reports but a couple reports none the less… kingfish and fluke in the surf. We recommend fishing live bloods for the best results right now. When the bite is on, artificials work great BUT when it’s a slow pick live bait always outproduced!

Here's Bayside Dave with a surf side kingfish he caught Sunday morning off of the LBI surf.
Here’s Bayside Dave with a surf side kingfish he caught Sunday morning off of the LBI surf.

Fishing Barnegat Inlet

The Barnegat Inlet has a variety of species to target; fluke, resident striped bass at low light hours, small bluefish, tog, triggerfish and sheepshead.

Jeff Crabtree caught this pair of big sheepshead up at Barnegat Inlet.
Jeff Crabtree caught this pair of big sheepshead up at Barnegat Inlet. He also had a keeper tog this morning too!

Ocean Fluke Fishing

Late August and September is prime time fluke fishing in the ocean. The popular reef sites as well as the wrecks and open bottom areas turn out. Gear up and get on the grounds to enjoy one of the best parts of the season NOW!

Today a good report came in from Dale Hawk who fished the Barnegat Light reef (about three miles outside of BI). “Another awesome day. Pink Shine and Nuclear Chicken were catching best. The drift sock came in clutch because without it the drift would have been too fast.

Dale had a good trip fluke fishing the Barnegat Light Reef today!
Dale had a good trip fishing the Barnegat Light Reef today! (Yes there were other anglers on the boat.)

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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