It’s a great time for a slam or even a grand slam. And we aren’t talking baseball! Striped bass, bluefish, fluke and weakfish among other species here and hitting. Right now anglers of Long Beach Island have the year’s most broad angling opportunities for many different species on the surf, inlet, bay and even offshore too! We are also in a portion of the spring when historically the area gets the largest striped bass, bluefish and weakfish of the year. Whether approaching via beach or boat there’s a shot at good, fun fishing. Here’s the Long Beach Island Fishing Report for Sunday May 28, 2023.
Fluke Fishing
The fluke fishing season is going strong with catches just about everywhere in and around Long Beach Island. From the surf, inlet and back bay to the bridges, sod banks and main channels (ICW) and secondary thoroughfares there’s fluke. Fish the holes and drops with a light tackle approach and you’ll find them. The three primary bait for success are Gulp, spearing and live minnows. Light tackle fishing small jigs tipped with Gulp is one of the most effective methods to target and catch fluke in good numbers, for that matter good size too.
The best land based fluke fishing reports are coming in from anglers fishing the surf and inlet. Tanner Sharp (below) caught this nice fluke off the Barnegat Inlet Jetty this weekend.
Striped Bass Fishing Continues On The LBI Surf
Quality striped bass fishing continues in the waters of LBI. The surf, inlet and bay all have good fishing.
Anglers fishing bunker and clams on the surf are catching striped bass in all size ranges with a good number of slot size striped bass as well as overs. I’ve said it many times this year and will repeat it again. Due to the lack of bunker schools in our near shore waters, the migrating striped bass are hanging around tight to the beach. There they find sand fleas, calico crabs as well as baited rigs from awaiting surf anglers. Both day and night are producing, but it’s my expectation that with the warmer water temperatures the night bite could be best.
Kevin Laverty (Photo 1) released a 41” striped bass off the surf this weekend. Patrick Socaciu (Photo 2) caught multiple fish off the mid-island surf Saturday and Sunday. He reported, “One almost spooled him before it spit the hook.” Kristi Cooper (Photo 3) caught a 33” bass fishing clam around high tide on the south end. It was her third over 28” this season. This particular fish spit out a few sand crabs when she had the fish on the beach. Then when filleting, it had a freshly eaten calico crab.
Thiago Araujo (Photo 4) caught this 35” Friday night. Ryan Harkins (Photo 5) sent in a photo and said, “Thanks for the clams! I released this 38” bass off the surf.” We also received a lot of other catch reports too. Thanks for sharing! Sorry we couldn’t include them all.
Bluefish Action On & Around LBI
Their presence was known for a number of weeks now but never more apparent than right now. The blues this weekend were most active in this order; inlet, bay, surf.
The Barnegat Inlet had a strong showing of blues this weekend with both boat and jetty anglers catching mostly cocktails size (1-3, 2-4#) but there’s larger ones too occasionally. Most of the bigger bluefish are hanging around the shallows of Barnegat Bay and Manahawkin Bay. The surf has offered up blues on bait and lures too.
Other Fishing Opportunities
Jamie Gramley, a mainstay in our spring reports continues to have a hot hand and a high hook! He caught and released this 34” black drum off of the surf this weekend. Photo can be seen above in the Youtube video thumbnail graphic.
Blowfish and weakfish are two other species to target. Dan McTigue caught this 24’ weakfish recently.
With the warm water temperatures other species like triggerfish and sheepshead have arrived for their summertime stay. Below shows the local water temperature warming trend over the last 7 days.
Offshore Fishing Report
Black Sea Bass fishing is strong on the reef sites and wrecks. Fishing clam baited rigs and jigs yield limit catches. Some of the deeper water areas have ling and cod too. Just about any structure 60′ and deeper should be loaded at this point in the season. Eli Haegele got out and reported great fishing!
The offshore tuna fishing popped off this weekend for some boats taking their season opening trip out to the edge. Those that went got into good yellowfin fishing. It’s time to get out there!!!
Captain Jeff Warford from Wolfpack reported 21 yellowfin tuna in the 25-50# class, one mahi and a bunch of sea bass. It was a great first trip to the edge for the crew! Jeff said that Wolfpack Ahi Tails out-fished ballyhoo 4 to 1 and mentioned that the jet heads were awesome too. Anyone looking to check out the full line up of Wolfpack Tackle’s offshore lures stop in today.
Bro Im setting up to go to barnagat light having my grandson out with me what’s a good spot I was going to do the pier near the barnagat light wanting for me and him to catch some fish like flounder a little tired of blues can you give me a place to go or that spot is good coming from Delaware for 06-03-2023
Right now you have a variety of options. Wednesday night I had good action with cocktail blues on the north end surf, no bass. There were some fluke caught in the area. Mid-island surf has fewer but better size blues and some striped bass. The south end has been great all spring but I haven’t heard direct reports in the past couple days. The Barnegat Light Jetty has the potential to produce bass, blues and fluke. All three species are and have been caught for a couple weeks now. As far as the bay fishing via boat, there’s a lot of option but land based bayside fishing can be challenging. Sorry I can’t spot burn multiple areas as access is limited. The most open bayside access is the causeway bridges but right now it’s not nearly as productive as it was earlier in the spring. Hope that helps!
Bro your awesome thank you I wanted yo the jetty but don’t like my grandson there yet tho