Here in the mid-October time frame, we are waning off the full moon with water temperatures much colder than just a week ago. The run of cold nights have dropped both the bay (mid 50’s, warmer closer to the inlets) and surf temps (low 60’s). Today we had a sunny and breezy day with big surf in the 3-5’+ on the beaches. There’s a low-pressure system offshore of the region, so expect easterly swell all weekend.
There’s still some mullet around, but the activity has slowed down. With it the bluefish bite has also tapered some. There are still smaller ones around the bay, inlet and surf. Our fingers are crossed some racers start up.
Striped bass fishing is on the slower side, but common for this point in the season. We have had a few entered into the LBI Surf Fishing Classic surf fishing tournament. Here’s the live results. Recently classy striped bass arrived in NJ waters. Unfortunately for south – central NJ anglers these fish have been for the most part focused around the Monmouth County waters. But there are some creeping into Ocean County waters. It’s only time and these hungry ones will slide down some more. Be ready!
The best striped bass fishing in the LBI areas right now has been on the backside’s bay waters. There’s striped bass hitting both artificials and live bait with anglers catching via boat in the main thoroughfares and sod banks as well as some select land based areas. In the thumbnail photo of today’s report video is angler Tom Smith who is catching striped bass in the bay. This should continue to be an opportunity for the rest of October and well into November. It’s a great shot if the ocean doesn’t tee off.
On the surf the main action has been small blues, a few kingfish and some out of season fluke. As the surf temperatures continue to decline expect both the kings and fluke to fade out and expect a better showing of dogfish and striped bass. They both usually show up in numbers around Halloween.
Tog fishing remains very good, possibly better than earlier this month. It seems like we have an uptick in size. Fish cut green crabs and sand fleas around the north end’s Inlet structure to score these fun quick hitting fish.
Remember: Blackfish aka Tautog / Tog is currently a ONE fish bag limit at 15″ minimum size. On November 16th it goes to a 5 fish bag limit. For more details: NJ Saltwater Fishing Regulations
I was out in the boat the other day and had some great fly fishing for bluefish in some challenging windy conditions. The bass eluded us. On another trip we hammered the tog and had a lot of health good size ones, very few dinks like I had on a previous trip. Wednesday late morning, I ran up the beach looking for new arrivals (bass). I found the mother load of bunker, sand eels, whales and tuna busting, all in the 30-50′ of water but no bass. I’m stoked the stage is set for a great fall!