A persistent low pressure has meandered off the East Coast for awhile now and with high pressure to our north over Easter Canada the wind machine is (and has been) on from the north and northeast directions. From the look of things the nearly two week blow isn’t stopping anytime soon and the run of easterly swell will stick around most of the week ahead.

No one is happy at the way the weather patterns have played out for the majority of September clamping and cramping many of the hot local fisheries, but it’s FALL!!! Time to play the cards that are dealt and get into some fun fishing the waters of Long Beach Island.

Tune in now to my fishing report video update from yesterday Saturday September 21, 2024…

The full moon of September really got things moving especially with this persistent blow. Coming down off the backside things got interesting with both lots of bait and game moving. The mullet marathon rolls on. Check out this video from our friends @JettyJockeys. This past week we have seen significantly more striped bass activity in the bay, inlet and surf.

Randy Edwards had himself a great Saturday morning plugging the north end. He reported catching a handful of striped bass with some slot and over slots bass hamming metal lips and darters. Randy shared that his Firmanator metal lip swimmer was the ticket.

For more details on how to take full advantage of the mullet run right now, here are some NJ Mullet Run Tactics. Anyone looking for a new metal lip or two, we have a limited run of Firmanator custom woods lure by Joe Firman in stock now. They are all one off customs so we do not list online for sale. They can be purchased in store or via phone.

Tog fishing continues to offer good fun action fishing crab on jig or rig. Both sand fleas and green crabs are catching. Get up to the north end of LBI and enjoy these quick hitting bulldogs.

The local inshore fishing has been solid even with the windy conditions. In the final days of the 2024 fluke fishing season (ends Wednesday Sept 25th), get your last hura fishing the bay, inlet or surf. The back bays and bridges are also loaded with bass feeding on smaller baits like spearing, grass shrimp and rain bait. The most effective method for this application is small soft plastics like a 3” NLBN and bucktails ¼-3/4oz range tipped with a curly tail or jig strip in white, red or yellow. Store staffer Frez reported over a dozen bass from 18-26” fishing 3” NLBNs bayside this past week. He also had a few fluke (no keeper size) and some bluefish to 4lbs. He was just missing the weakfish for the inshore slam!

Before the blow, the canyon chunk bite was happening with some sizable yellowfin coming over the rail. Store staffer Tyler fished an overnighter a couple days ago in a marginal weather wind and scored 8 Yellowfin on the chunk. He reported, “They all ate butterfish both freelined and weighted baits. Tyler said the mahi were jumping in the boat and the tilefishing on both squid was good too. I got a couple tilefish on the jig too.”

PSA1: Coastal flooding continues as the persistent onshore winds stack up waters in the back bays. Yes that water in the streets and roadway flooding (at times of bayside high tide) is the bay backing up through the storm drains. Don’t be a ying-yang and blast through it!

PSA2: Something is brewing down in the Gulf… developing, strengthening and moving north. Keep an eye on the models.