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Happy New Year LBI Fishing Report

What an awesome year it was! We had great fishing with some surprising and controversial catches. Check out the photo below for our Top 9 2021 Posts on Instagram. Thank you to all of our customers for a great year! Since 1962 it has been and continues to be our pleasure and passion to help anglers catch more fish and help anglers enjoy fishing to its fullest. Happy New Year! Tight lines in 2022!

Without question Jake Kline's Barnegat Light tarpon catch and kill was one of the most hot topics of summer 2021. The grounding of the Bear was also a very popular one. It didn't get any less weird in early December when a surf angler on the LBI beach got a bluefin tuna.
Without question Jake Kline’s Barnegat Light tarpon catch and kill was one of the most hot topics of summer 2021. The grounding of the Bear was also a very popular one. It didn’t get any less weird in early December when a surf angler on the LBI beach got a bluefin tuna.

Here’s the first Long Beach Island Fishing Report of the year!

Long Beach Island Fishing Info

Anglers are still enjoying fun striped bass fishing here on and around LBI. That’s right… the broken record repeats. With flip flopping colder and mild temps ahead things might change. But right now the fishing is and has been surprisingly good for this point in the year.

LBI Surf Fishing Report

The Long Beach Island surf fishing is not epic but anglers are catching on both lures and bait (clam & bunker).

Joe Handley Jr fished on New Years Eve and reported great fishing on the south end of LBI fishing. “There’s still lots of fish pushing down!” He reported, “I was thinking of hangin it up till spring but not after what I saw today. Don’t quit yet! I had good striped bass fishing from Spray Beach down into Holgate. Not a major blitz but I followed the birds and caught fish along the was as they pushed in and out. Got 6-7 bass from 16-37′. The fish wanted metals and larger bucktails worked slow. They ignored paddle tails, poppers, Redfins and SP minnows.”

Lee Saxton reported fishing NYE too but his trip was slow with three spiny dog fish and one 25.5″ bass at about 10am. His father in law caught one bass 23″ at about 1pm and then another one about 22″ an hour later.

Reports From The Boats

Boat anglers fishing out of the local inlets (Barnegat & Little Egg) are targeting and catching striped bass and tog. Few but very strong striped bass reports spoke of great striped bass activity feeding under bird plays over herring. It doesn’t get any better than that for this time of year!

Jake Kline was out in the fog and got into them really good. Other reports came in too.

Jon Coen (above) had a blast chasing striped bass on his skiff on December 30th. He reported, "50º, no wind, all along and they bit on everything we threw!"

Jon Coen (above) had a blast chasing striped bass on his skiff on December 30th. He reported, “50º, no wind, all along and they bit on everything we threw!”

Trever Jones and son recently got into some good late season striped bass fishing out of Barnegat Inlet.
Here’s a recent catch from Trever Jones and son.

On The Tog Scene: Fishing seems to be what what inconsistent right now. There’s some anglers reporting good fishing one day and then slow the next but that’s fishing! There are some nice ones being caught. Right now is a great parts of the season to get after them fishing white and green crabs. 

Here's Dave Moores with one of many quality tog he caught, tagged and released in 2021.
Here’s Dave Moores with one of many quality tog he caught, tagged and released in 2021.

Just a reminder now that it is January…

Striped Bass fishing in the bay and rivers is closed. Fishing for striped bass from the ocean shores 0-3 nautical miles is open year round.

Also Black Sea Bass fishing is closed! Expect the season to open back up in mid May.

Jason Sari got out this week before the NJ Black Sea Bass season closed and got into some quality fishing. Here's one of many big ones he caught fishing Lake Atlantic conditions.
Jason Sari got out this week before the NJ Black Sea Bass season closed and got into some quality fishing. Here’s one of many big ones he caught fishing Lake Atlantic conditions.
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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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