Month: June 2025

It’s Father’s Day tomorrow. You get to do what you want. Go fishing early and be back in time to join the festivities.

Looks like the rain is moving out and we have a good stretch of weather for Sun to Wed. Cooler air temps, 60 to 70 degrees every day with very little rain mentioned. We will be running Open Boat trips every day for stripers, blues, and fluke. We are fishing the inlet jetty and the bay.  The wind is dropping out for Tues and Wed, so we can also mix in some sea bass fishing, if you guys want, on those days. The clock is ticking on that season, as it closes on Friday June 20.

Open Boat: Sun June 15, Mon June 16, Tues June 17, and Wed June 18. 7AM to 1PM. $200 person 4 people max. All fish are shared. These dates are also available for your private charter.I look forward to seeing you on board.

Dave

Dave DeGennaro

Hi Flier Sportfishing

732.330.5674 cell

hiflier.com

The “June Gloom” foggy marine layer days have finally given way to some sunshine! The Long Beach Island area’s late spring fishing currently offers a mixed bay of variety for anglers to enjoy; striped bass, bluefish, fluke, black drum, sea bass, sheepshead and weakfish among others. Here’s the Fishing LBI Fishing Report Update for Tuesday June 10, 2025 brought to you by Fisherman’s Headquarters.

LBI Surf Fishing Report

The Long Beach Island surf has spotty striped bass catches with bluefish, fluke and dogfish in the mix. The Strawberry Moon (June’s full moon) is upon us tonight marking a change in the season which officially comes Friday June 20th at 10:42PM… The Summer Solstice, the longest day and shortest night and the start of summer! Historically speaking the month of June can offer great striped bass fishing off the surf and jetty as well as good fishing around back. Some years we have good bass fishing into July. Remember last summer? We had ’em almost all summer thanks (no thanks) to the summer upwelling.

This is normally when pods of bunker and hungry striped bass schooled up along the central Jersey coastline. But the lack of both bunker and bass, the main ingredients, make baking the cake tough. We could really use a week of light to moderate westerlies to get what bunker is around here schooled up. Maybe it comes together but this spring I’m not holding my breath on this one this.

Here’s a couple recent reports of anglers who are catching on clams, bunker and mullet.

Erik Moritz (above) caught this striped bass off the south end surf fishing clam Sunday.

Jason Wilk (above) had a fun weekend surf fishing the LBI surf catching some bluefish, fluke and doggies.

Wayne Smith fished the surf with his buddy TJ O’Reilly (above) Sunday. He shared this report, “TJ, got a bluefish this morning on a clam fishing the mid-Island surf before heading back out west. We had tons of doggies. Last night we fished both mid-Island and the North End. We got some short fluke and saw a couple keepers caught. The night tide mid-Island was loaded with doggies and skates. I lost what might have been a big bass or a drum around 11:15pm. I hit it in the head on a cast. It was ripping line and fighting for a while. Eventually turned it and swam towards the beach but popped off.  The Sea Monster lives on!”

Black drum continue to roam the local surf and bay. While fluke fishing Little Egg Inlet Sunday Nick Feindt caught this monster black drum.

Fluke season is off to a great start. The bay, inlet and surf all continue to produce good fishing. Over the past week it has been the most consistent target for anglers. Gulp is an uber-successful fluke bait that can be fished on a jig or a plain hook. I find it’s most effective on a jig or a hook via a dropper loop, either single drop or double drop (hi/lo – chicken rig). Strip baits and live baits are great options too.

Those that love fishing live baits, minnows have been tough. They are always a great bait but this season they are hard to come by. There isn’t a lot around and what is, just isn’t potting well. It’s possibly due to the spring’s chilly weather but also might be due to the early spring’s drought which ran over from 2024 and into a large part of this year until recently. Then the more recent rains have reversed the dry to heavy soakings flushing out the creeks. Most likely it’s a combination of things. The minnow shortage has been a statewide things. We have had customer driving from all over to get them. Unlike others in the state we are not jacking up our prices to gouge. Today we got another delivery of minnows so right now things are looking good. But only time will tell.

With the season progression comes new species… weakfish and sheepshead are somewhat old news. But New News! Alex Martone caught this 26.5″ cobia while hunting for fluke off the rocks at the Barnegat Inlet Jetty.

Looking ahead, the next few days will be a change from the past trends of wet, foggy and cool. Things look to be sunny Wednesday, Thursday and Friday but then we might see some unsettled weather again. What perfect timing for the weekend, not! By now everyone has their lightweight summertime rain jackets ready. For those who do not, we have you covered. Stop in and get a new Lightweight waterproof jacket from Grundens. The Grundens Tourney is a great choice! Get your today.

Nice stretch of weather coming up. We will be sailing daily for stripers, blues, and fluke. 

Casting lures and fishing bait at the inlet jetty for bass and blues. We are also catching some stripers anchored up with clam in the bay channels, mostly in Oyster Creek. 

On the west side of the bay we are throwing topwater lures for blues and drifting for fluke.

We can do all of it or whatever combination you guys like. If it’s a nice ocean, we also have the option to bounce out to the tires to try and jig some sea bass. 

Open Boat: 

Thurs June 5, Fri June 6, Sat June 7, Sun June 8, Mon June 9. 6AM to 1 PM. $200 person. 4 people max. All fish are shared. 

These dates are also available for your private charter.

FYI: Just planting the seed, as I have not heard anything solid on bluefin tuna, yet, but it’s coming. We will be targeting the 27 to 47 inch fish when they show up. Right now, the new regulations are allowing us to keep two fish within that size bracket. We are not allowed to keep any fish between 47 and 73 inches, so we will also be targeting fish over 73 inches. We can only catch one or the other. You can’t possess a 27 to 47 inch bluefin and then try to catch a Giant, and vice versa. We can make a decision based on reports, weather, and recent activity. 

If pursuing the over 73 inch fish, we are usually trolling ballyhoo or drifting with live bait, usually mackerel, bunker, or small bluefish. This fishing can be a lot of waiting for the rod to go off, so it is not for everyone. When the strike happens, it goes from the most boring to the most exciting thing you have ever experienced. We have three custom built stand up 80 class outfits to fight the fish with a belt and harness, rather than fight it out of the rod holder. I chose to do it this way to make it more interactive, but the rod holder is always there if you need it. 

We might have to spend a good amount of time trying to catch the live bait, as mackerel, bunker, and blues need to be caught the day of the trip, as they do not do well in containment, such as a bait pen. I could put a live spot in the pen in July and release him in November and he would look perfect. Try putting a full size bunker in a pen and the next day his face will be half ripped off from trying to escape. Likewise with the blues and mackerel. Of course, all these species of bait are readily available, until you need them as hookbaits, then they become elusive. On the other hand, if we are lucky, we will cast lures at the inlet and boat a handful of small blues in short order and/or stumble on some bunker pods along the beach or on our way to the fishing grounds. This is all part of the process of catching a Giant. It’s a commitment. It doesn’t happen by chance.

The good news is, we are usually targeting either size bluefin in the 20 to 40 mile range, and a lot of that mileage is north. As opposed to hunting yellowfin in the 50 to 70 mile range, which is mostly east (offshore).

Thank you,

Dave

Dave DeGennaro

Hi Flier Sportfishing

732.330.5674 cell

hiflier.com

June is here and a warming trend is upon us! We have a variety of good fisheries and all offer great catching opportunities; striped bass, fluke, bluefish, sea bass. Whether fishing the beach or boat, now is a great time to score some fun on the water. Here’s my latest fishing report video from today Monday June 2, 2025.

This past weekend had shifty weather. It’s rare we see breezy westerly winds with rain but we had it. At times it was brutal but there were window of prime fishing.

The American Angler Spring Grand Slam tournament was held on the beach of LBI this past Saturday May 31 and the participants went hard and caught fish. Tournament director Carl Hartmann reported, “The anglers fishing caught a variety of species; striped bass, bluefish, black drum, fluke and yes… King Fish Are Here! It was a successful event.” Here are some catch photos…

While on the topic of surf fishing tournament the LBI Spring Derby is on until June 22.

Surfside striped bass remains a prime time target. Historically speaking the firrst two weeks of June are a great time to bass fish the beaches of LBI. This year the water is running cool so depending how things go we might have another full month of good bass fishing. With a warming trend coming, let’s hope it doesn’t warm up too fast.

Vince Russo of Russo’s Italian Restaurant in Ship Bottom shared an awesome report today (after my afternoon video recording so it was not included). “I had a great day on the surf today in the afternoon… three big striped bass and one slot.”

The inshore / surf ocean water is very clean and green… on the verge of tropical. But… who let the dogs out? There’s lots of dogfish are on the beaches. There’s also striped bass, black drum, bluefish, fluke and kingfish in the suds too.

PSA: The cow nose rays arrived! Be on the lookout as snagging one of these on light tackle turns into a nightmare tug of war.

Fluke fishing remains good… in the bay, inlet and surf. Clayton caught his limit fishing this weekend. He reported catching his three keepers in 30 minutes! 

New Bluefin Tuna Fishing Regulations take effect tomorrow June 3, 2025 – Know before you go. For full details refer to NOAA Fisheries Retention Limit Adjustment: Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Angling Category Fishery