609-494-5739 We finally catch a break and real Spring weather comes to town. The days of torrential rain and lots of wind were really getting old and depressing. In recent days a lot of anglers have shook off the winter dust and got fresh air and into some active fishing here in and around Long Beach Island. Here’s the Fishing LBI Report Update for April 9, 2024.
What Fish Are Biting Around LBI?
The primary target species right now are striped bass and blackfish also known as tautog or tog for short. Both of these are on great targets for land based and boat anglers. Also on tap in the April brine are species such as white perch, winter flounder, black drum, bluefish, cod, weakfish and kingfish. Now’s the time to go fishing!
Here is my latest fishing report video from Monday morning.
The chart above showing the Barnegat Bay water temperature off of Waretown shows the recent sunny warm days have the waters warming. The afternoon outgoing tides peaked at 53º 4PM Sunday and then 57.5º yesterday around the same time. It’s all about the sun! There’s no better time to fish the early spring then sunny afternoons as the warming gets the fish fired up and active. It’s very common to have a spring bite shut down like a flip of a switch with a tide/current change with the introduction of colder water. Look out for this and prepare accordingly to maximize your potential time on the water.
Early April Striped Bass Fishing Report
The surf has been quite with only a couple surf side catch reports. One catch recently and the other we shared about a month ago during that first warm break from winter. The area’s best striped bass fishing is in the bay. The bass are being caught with live bloodworm which we have in stock right now. Also some anglers are fishing salted clam as fresh have not been available to us just yet. We will have them as soon as possible. We know anglers are looking for them and the black drum are looking for them too!
Emmit from Top Notch Tackle Rigs was out this past weekend and got into some bass (photo above, right side). [We are fully stocked on his locally tied, fish catching rigs that are great for a variety of species. Be sure to check them out.] Emmit and Bobby Capri got into some good fishing catching both striped bass and black drum.
When not at the shop, store staffer Paul has been on the water picking at bass. He had a couple guides and put his clients on fish fishing worms and lures. Fish Heads Alumni Eddy (photo above, middle) has been catching too. We have had numerous other catch reports from the bay in the shop daily.
Usually we see a run of black drum and blues in April as well as surf side striped bass. This can pop off any day!
Simply Bassin’ – LBI’s Spring Fishing Derby / Tournament kicked April 6th. Sign up now for this spring fishing event. Also be sure to participate in the catch and release Spring Surf Master Division.
Early April Tautog Fishing Report
Tog season is open the whole month of April and anglers are catching. Land based anglers are catching tog on the Northend of LBI at the Barnegat Lighthouse State Park. There tog are eating crabs fished on a rig or jig. For more details stop in the shop. On the bait side of things, at the time of this post we have both greens crabs and white crabs in stock.
Finally the ocean has settled enough (still a 2-3’+ ground swell today but light winds) to let anglers get offshore and hunt the snags. Tony Butch was out fishing with Fish Head Alumni Bill Bassant and another friend yesterday and they reported a fun day on the water. Tony shared this report…
Bite wasn’t on fire, but we managed to put together a 3 man limit picking of keeper sized fish. There was spurts of good life, followed by lulls. Maybe it was due to the water being in it’s early season cold state or maybe things haven’t settled enough after the recent storms. Moving around on the structure was the ticket for us. Biggest one I ended up catching the biggest one of the day, just over 8lbs (photo above, left side) and released it to swim another day. Hopefully that will bring some good karma for the 2024 fishing season!
Reel Fantasea Fishing Charts
Captain Steve Purul has been in the shop a lot over the past couple weeks gearing up for the spring fishing season. He is in the water, fishing and catching like he always does. He shared this report…
I got our first scouting trip of the year and though it was a bit more scouting than catching we did manage to avoid the shutout with a nice scrappy 26” striper. It clobbered a Tsunami Split-Tail on a well appointed Fish Head’s light spinning tackle. We did have a few other hits that we missed. The sonar indicating a few more tight lipped spectators below. With the weather improving with both temperatures and less precipitation as well as the return of recent seasonal visitors (dolphins, laughing gulls and ospreys) I think this week will translate into a much better jump in local action! I have this weekend available for private or open boat fishing opportunities if you find yourself needing to get back out on the brine!
Captain Steve 609-290-1217 – Reel Fantasea Fishing Charters
