The month of May has been very, VERY good to surf anglers. The beaches of Long Beach Island are alive with both striped bass and drum. The fishing is and has been firing on all cylinders. Here’s my latest LBI Fishing Report May 2024 video from earlier this week, loaded with some recent catch photos…

LBI Fishing Report May 2024

CLAM – CLAM – CLAM – This spring the clam bite is strong for both striped bass and black drum. Right now we have possibly the best showing of black drum that the area has seen in decades. It started off earlier in the spring with a great showing in the bay but more recently the suds have lit up with boomers.

For the most part it has been clam, clam and CLAM for these two species. Bunker will yield bass and blues but it has been hard to get. It’s not podded up in the local waters like we usually see in the spring so these migrating fish are coming into the suds to hunt and that is where they find us! Don’t over look live sand fleas (for striped bass) and mullet (for blues) as they are both great baits.

Patrick Howley Jr and his dad Pat got into the surf action!

As you can see the LBI Fishing Report May 2024 is active with goof spring fishing here on LBI. And fluke is just getting started!

Fluke fishing isn’t phenomenal but at the right times and places anglers are putting together catches. We had a 25″ 5.5# fluke weighed in by a kayak angler fishing the bay with live minnow. Sorry the name never got shared with me, just the photo.

Also making their presence know… smooth dogs. Up into this full moon, we have seen a robust showing of large dogfish. These girls put up a great fight and are actually very good table fair but be sure to gut, bleed and ice down immediately. You may be surprised how good eat these are those looking for quality table fair. Give them a try as they have been abundant the past few years and we do our part to keep them in check right now. A lot of these are pregnant females. I’m not sure if they’re here to spawn, but it would make sense based on the time of year and the fact that many other fish spawn in the spring. Below is a mouth watering photo from Dave Minnick “the sea provides”!

Report sent in from Glenn Mattern… On Sunday, 19 May, my brother in-law Ray Peters who was visiting from FL and making only his second striper trip since last fall. His best striper was a 42”. I ventured out of Barnegat Inlet in search of stripers. We went north and marked a number of small schools of bait fish along IBSP. Only few schools looked to be bunker, but not on the surface. No stripers were marked under them. After a while of searching the area shortly after low tide, we trolled back south with a mojo, a bunker spoon and a deep diving bunker plug. There were only three boats seen out since the seas were marginal for small craft, but the Governors Tournament was in full swing on IBSP for surfcasters.

The first hook up was on the plug which Ray, who will soon be 80, pulled in a 51” striper. It was a solid and healthy fish and safely released. About 20 minutes later after we began the troll, I connected with a second striper that was amazingly a 51” twin. It was caught on the bunker spoon and also safely released. These fish were the largest stripers caught by either of us. An EPIC trip catching two fish that were 50+, and possibly 60 pounds!