609-494-5739 And we are back and better than ever! By all accounts fishing is very strong after the past weekend’s heavy rain flooded and washed out the area. Henri came up and didn’t lash us with winds but dumped buckets of rain and put some strong groundswell on the beaches. What does this have to do with fishing? Well… water temperature, water clarity and water salinity are all very important variables in the equation we call fishing! Fortunately things bounced back fast and great fishing has settled back in. Here’s the Long Beach Island Fishing Report Update for Wednesday August 25, 2021.
Baits! Baits! And More Baits!
The abundance of bait fish in the local Long Beach Island waters is really really great to see. Spearing, bay anchovies, peanut bunker, mullet, mini bluefish, juvie weakfish and even some odd ball, warm water baits up from their southern territory. Sardines aka pilchards aka whitebait… Not the usually small baits us Yankees call whitebait. Goggle eyes, Scad aka Cigar minnows, thread-fin herring aka green back aka greenies! All of these were caught and reported by anglers making bait with cast nets right here on LBI.
Yes mullet! I mentioned in one of my recent reports I saw a small school of mullet. I couldn’t miss the v-wave. Took a double take and for sure saw it. Then thinking I was crazy shared with others… ya who see’s mullet racing the white waters in August? I never have until this past weekend. I’m happy to say it was then confirmed by angler/friend who saw them too. A commenter the the YouTube post too “saw a school of mullet out of BI.” While mullet in the bay is standard issue for this point in the season the ocean IMO is wayyy too early but I’m not complaining.
LBI Surf & Jetty Fishing
Fluke fishing must own the limelight with 25 days left in the season! Summer flounder fishing is productive for beach and boat anglers and will be right into the end of the season on Sept 19th. The Long Beach Island surf and jetties are great areas to fish, especially for flounder in the later summer.
The Barnegat Inlet Jetty is a great area to fish for a variety of species right now. From fluke, blues, striped bass, and blowfish to tog, sea bass, sheepshead and triggerfish there’s something for everyone.
Kingfish activity has been good on the surf. I’ve found they don’t like swell but sometimes when thick they will feed right through it. Case and point was this past weekend. Anglers fishing live bloods reported catching kingfish while the Fishbites were getting slower action. Now that the swell is gone and surf temperatures have stabilized at 70 degrees (official surf – ocean water temp by the Harvey Cedars Beach Patrol 8/25) the artificial bite should get back going again.
Weakfish are somewhat of a common catch the past couple of weeks for anglers fishing the north end surf as well as the inlet and bayside areas. Nick Brewer reported catching one as well as a fluke on his new Tsunami Trophy II 8’6″ combo.
Near Shore Fishing Report
This section titled “Near Shore Fishing Report” could help both beach or boat anglers and should really catch the attention of light tackle enthusiasts. There was already mention of bait abundance but not much said about what’s cashing them. Well!!! Today was kind of the first solid day our local near shore area has been a good false albacore bite. This morning a handful of albie reports came in. One came in from Jim Potter, “Little solo mission.” Another came in from a local angler Dan who caught over a dozen, “It was good fishing early fishing all by myself.” Another angler Luke caught one too. There’s also Spanish mackerel feeding and a million, maybe a billion or trillion 1-2# blues feeding too.
Barnegat Bay Fishing Report
Barnegat Bay blowfishing is really good. Honestly it doesn’t get much better than what we’ve had going for the past couple of weeks. Consistent drop and reel fishing in many different areas; open heart of the Barnegat Bay to the west side as well as the holes littered around the bay and reports have been strong from spots near the inlets too. There’s a very dominate showing of blowfish from very small to good table size. There’s no state regulation/limit… Please fish responsibly.
Fluke fishing is very good out front on the wrecks and reef site but there’s still great flounder fishing in the bay too. On Tuesday Sam Weisenski reported, “We stayed inside and caught 46 fluke this morning with five keepers. A lot of blowfish too. Done by 10/11am because it’s just too hot!”
Big Game Fishing
The reported of bluefin very close to the beach continue. Some reported and catching footballs and others 70″+ round ones. The reports from the edge have been lack luster the past day or two. Few epic reports as of late but maybe that will change soon. BUT! Look on the bight side… the reports from the mid-shore grounds are solid. Today we heard of some boats getting a couple and top boats into double digit fish. This action has been hot all summer and it keeps on keeping on!
Today we heard of anglers picking a couple fish on the troll which also drummed up albies and for those pulling at speed… WAHOO! Those that put the work in and jigged hard pulled on some and also the chunkers raised some nice ones. We also heard of mahi on the pots with one customer catching 12, mostly smaller ones but two nice fish were in the bunch.
