LBI Fishing Report 8/18/24

The good weather window this past week has come to a close and a big powerful swell is here. Hurricane Ernesto slammed Bermuda early Saturday morning and tracked northward. It is a very large somewhat slow moving storm that has sent the greater region large long period swell. The forerunners showed up Friday evening and all day Saturday was pumping on the beaches. Expect the same all weekend and into the early part of the work week.

Once things settle down we are looking forward to picking up where things left off with good fishing in the area.

The past week things were significantly better than the week before. Ocean fluke was sharping up with the reefs and wrecks producing Many areas have an abundance of sea bass as well as ling and most snags have tog too. The sea bass have made fluke fishing in some areas frustrating. We really wish we had the two fish summertime (July & August) bag limit like 2022. Just a reminder NJ Black Sea Bass closes at the end of August. Fluke is open until September 25.

In the bay there are plenty of spot and anglers targeting them are starting to catch some blowfish. Maybe we get a strong late summer showing? Still plenty of fluke, bluefish and striped bass in the bay. Crabbing and clammer are also to great options.

In the inlet anglers are catching tog, fluke, stripers, sheepshead, bluefish, striped bass and weakfish. Take your pick just be careful out there. Its not suggested to fish the outer portion of the jetty while the swell is in town.

We have a full moon on Monday so expect extreme high tides. Not sure that we will get the extreme lows too. Be on the look out for the mullet to start moving even more than they have during this next lunar cycle. Ocean water temperatures are warm ranging in the upper 60’s to low 70’s.

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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