609-494-5739 This morning the sun is fighting to break through the marine layer. The ocean is a lumpy 2-3′ with an occasional 4′ wave in the water. A breezy south-southwesterly wind is on the beaches now and it will only increase as the day goes on. Maybe it will blow the fog outta here. The past few days have offered fair to good fishing for anglers on the beaches and boats fishing the waters of LBI. Here’s a gloomy Monday fishing report update for the Long Beach Island Area on December 6, 2021.
Long Beach Island Surf Fishing Report
Last week’s sporadic blitz fishing has seemed to sputter out. Our fingers are crossed there’s still more fuel in the peanut bunker (or we are ok with sand eels too) vs striped bass tank. We’ll have to fish and see. But in the mean time anglers are fishing and catching.
Today the fishing musician Rick Wieland stopped by with a 29″ striped bass. “Finally got one!” He said. “It was a long time coming.” Rick caught the fish off the Harvey Cedars surf at about 9:30am fishing a bunker chunk. “The ocean was rough. Lots o waves and white water. I was struggling to hold with 6oz of lead.” He said, “There were a few other anglers in the area but I didn’t see any other action.”
Jamie Gramley reported catching 7 bass today in 23-26″ range. He posted a photo (above) of some striped bass he caught with the caption, “Who said rough water is bad for fishing?”
Yesterday Eli Haegele tagged us in a striped bass photo he posted. The fish fell or a yellow Yo-Zrui Mag Darters.
Today, Randy Hampton caught one on his first cast using a bone Daiwa SP Minnow. He reported, “The guy next to me caught one a minute later on black and silver SP.”
Trevor O’Neil reported, “We’ve been keeping the dog fish population well fed these last few weeks. I finally caught a little luck tonight on some fresh bunker rom Fish Heads!”
Jay Hoffman went fishing yesterday and put a lot of hours in on the beach. He had nothing to show for his efforts until late in the day. “I was posted up at a nice cut and as it got dark two bites. One after the other. Boom! Boom! I beached two plump sassy bass. I would have liked to fish the tide all the way up but Monday morning work rolls in whether I’m ready or not.”
Joe Handley reported, “1000 casted in the morning with no luck. Went back at dark mid-island and got three hits, two striped bass in 20 minutes.”
Striped Bass Fishing Reports From The Boats
Reports from boat anglers have been positive for a number of weeks now. This weekend wasn’t any different. Boat anglers had some great opportunities over this past weekend and a lot of them scored.
From the boats… both striped bass and tog are two great targets. Striped bass fishing is still firing on all cylinders. Anglers are catching good under the bird plays and also working broad areas on the troll. It seems the peanut bunker “match-the-hatch” is still the way to go however some anglers are catching going to the classic last all sand eel imitations. Illesor Retep reported seven trips out and have not struck out yet. Got 14 bass today (this was Saturday or Sunday).
Wreck Fishing For Tautog
Tog fishing at the wrecks and reef sites is good and has been since the season opened up to Five Fish Per Anglers (minimum size 15″) on November 16th.
Some great reports are coming in but none better than store staffer Matt “Swagmattic” from Sunday. He’s always fishing hard and it pays off. His report, “Jumbo’s! Fishing has been pretty rock solid so far this season bu t today was a day. I had three over 10# with two more double digits on the boat! Limited the oat 7 times over, sent more of the fish back swimming and kept a couple for the table.”
As far as land based tautog fishing… The phenomenal bite that seemed to run strong all fall at the Barnegat Inlet Jetty has slowed. With the shorter days, longer nights and colder weather patterns comes colder water temperatures. There are still tog present and anglers are catching however most of the tog have made the move or will soon move to the wrecks and reef sites. Based on reports the shallow water fishing has really dropped off in the past 5-10 days and the 50-70′ depths have really lit up.
Late Fall Bluefin Tuna
Late fall bluefin tuna or as some call them “Jersey Ghosts” have been around or a couple weeks. This past weekend had a lot of boats were out hunting and a lot found them chewing. It’s always rewarding to gear up customers through pout the year and then hear their success stories. We’ve heard from of great reports from numerous of customer in recent days.
