Author: FishHead.Greg

At one point or another this past weekend (Friday/Saturday/Sunday) had just about every type of weather. From warm to cold, from gale to dead calm, rain, fog, it was all dished out this weekend. For the most part the weekend will be remembered for its very powerful Sou’Westerly that pounded the beaches with 6-8′ surf (buoy 44091 peaked out at 10′ on Saturday 11/12) which then left the waters churned up and dirty, turbidity wise and weedy.

On this Monday afternoon fishing report update, I don’t have a lot of great local catch reports to share. But I do have one good one… Carl Hartmann caught and released a 52″ striped bass off the LBI surf on bunker this weekend.

What I can also share… I fished every day in the past 5+ days. Some were GREAT days and others were slow. I know with confidence the body of fish I was catching has most likely moved on. We are in a waiting period, hopefully seeing a new wave of striped bass soon. I expect that wave to show this week with a short NE blow followed by a stretch of westerlies.

Yes I fished through the blow fishing this weekend’s LBI Cup Striped Bass Tournament. It was gnarly and fishing was TOUGH and rough. Out of 19 boats only 7 striped bass were entered. The crew aboard the Endless Summer entered three of the seven. We had a couple other small slot fish and a handful of beautiful overs. The best action we had was fishing the northern ocean county waters on Saturday afternoon livelining.

We have a variety of baits in the local waters right now; adult bunker, juvenile bunker, squid, herring, bay anchovies and still a couple mullet. See the striper stomach contents photo at the end of this post. We also have a LARGE biomass of spiny dogfish adding a frustrating challenge.

Here’s my latest video report…

Fishing continues to be good as the great fall rolls on. The weather has been somewhat of a rollercoaster ride and that looks to remain. All we can do is fish the prime windows and make the most of it. Right now an abundance of adult bunker and squid in the local waters has the body of striped bass sitting like happy fat cats. The waters have stayed unseasonably warm so most fish don’t seem to be flying through the area. So far this fall striped bass and some really good size ones have moved in and called the Barnegat Bay home. It’s been a number of weeks now. These fish are here now and continue to feed offering a lot of fishing fun.

Tautog fishing continues strong for land based anglers. Fishing both green crabs and sandfleas are working well and keeper size fish (15″ minimum size) are common in the right areas. Prime time tog fishing is now! The season opens up to a five fish bag limit on November 16th. We currently have live green crabs, live white crabs and sand fleas in stock.

Frustrated catching dogfish? Each year they invade right around Halloween and usually stick around all fall. This year is no different. For sure doggies are never wanted but since they are around in good numbers and not going anywhere it’s important to know how to fish around them. Don’t quit fishing in frustration! I’ve caught some of my biggest striped bass while catching doggies. Sometimes weeding through them is necessary. If chunking the surf try fishing heads to cut down on dogs. Striped bass will take a bunker head and usually dogfish will not. If fishing in a boat it is very important to understand and know our sounder. Being aware of the differences in marking striped bass vs dogfish is paramount! Also try not putting baits on the bottom. Usually that help. Also fish lures as doggies will rarely touch a lure.

Lure recommendations from the boat? Match the hatch! Right now it is adult bunker and squid… casting mojo, bucktail, metal lip, large top water spook, pencil popper, flutter spoon, glider/slider, large rubber swimbaits. Later this month I expect peanut bunker and hopefully sand eels so some smaller profile lures will be more valid.

Lure recommendations from the surf? Bucktail, Super Strike Lures Bottle / Darter / Popper / Needlefish, Hopkins (with dressed hook), Gibbs Danny Surface Swimmer (or one of many metal lip swimmers) Yo-zuri Lures Mag Darter / Hydro Monster Shot / Hydro Twitch and of course the Daiwa SP Minnow.

LBI Cup Hosted By The Beach Haven Marlin & Tuna Club

Due to the weekend’s weather the LBI Cup Striped Bass fishing tournament schedule was changed. Sunday was added to offer extended fishing through the entire weekend. Registration is 5pm Friday with the Captain’s meeting following at 7pm. Lines in right after the meeting. First weigh in on Saturday 3-5pm. Lines out at Sunday 3pm and the final weigh starts then and ends at 5pm. Awards dinner at 7pm on Sunday night. This is a great local event and part of the three way Striped Bass Grand Champion Series; Sea Shell Derby, LBI Cup, Stafford PBA Tournament (Nov 18/19th).

November is one of, if not the best month for striped bass fishing the Central Jersey coast. So far this month has been off to a stellar start with lots of quality striped bass. There’s a lot of bait in the local waters making it a buffet for hungry migrating striped bass. The recent weather has been unseasonably warm, near record breaking. The water temperatures have actually warmed some the past few days and all signs point to strong fishing in the days and weeks ahead.

The only bummer is there’s lots of dogfish that are also in the area too. There’s some techniques to resist these pesky scavengers. The first and foremost is fish lures. Rarely will dogfish hit a lure. If chunking fish heads as doggies love the meaty parts of baits but usually leave the heads alone. Striped bass will take head like gum drops.

The past 7-10 days has to be some of the best bass fishing Barnegat Bay has seen in a VERY long time. I first shared info about bigger fish showing up on my Oct 21 report. It then got going with a lot of anglers catching 30-40-50″ bass on lures and live bait (spot, eel) in the bay. This is not normally a daily occurrence but it has been! The team at Fish Heads has been in on the bite every day and night since they arrived. It has been phenomenal. What’s great about fishing the bay is it isn’t blitz fishing mayhem like most times in the ocean. Working the right tides at the right locations with the right lure/bait presentation have provided great fishing!

It seems that we’ve had a fall off after Monday morning’s tide but we have high hopes that November will be full of great fall striped bass fishing. Here’s a recent video report from Sunday evening.

UPDATE 11/2/22 @ 10AM

Monday Rick Bragg reported good striped bass fishing up the beach on live bait. Also store staffer Robbie caught and released a couple bass. One large over on live bait and one slot keeper on a white shad. Both in the bay thoroughfares. Tuesday evening Greg Kopenhaver reported, “What a beautiful night on the bay. We released two 40″ bass!” Sunset catch photo is at the end of the post.

I experienced a fall off Monday, a break in trend for two tides but it bounced back. And strong. I planned a boat engine maintenance (oil change and fuel filters) for the afternoon. Got up to the boat and before I could get on I got a call from Dante at Magictails that the bite was on, “bass going crazy on bait, get out here!” While on the phone Jake at Vans popped out of his duck blind that he was working on and said, “It’s on? Can I jump on?” I ran a straight fly trip Monday so I mainly had fly gear. Jake grabbed his rod and off we went. We had a solid hour of awesome fishing and then the tide faded and so did the feeding. After running the boat all weekend it was great to have Jake take the wheel and put me in position to cast the fly. Conditions were perfect with light wind and the bass were hungry. So stoked it all worked out!

Tog fishing at Barnegat Inlet remains strong! Fred Finger weighed in a new tournament leader, 4.8# tog that he caught in Barnegat Light on green crab.

Also more reports coming from the surf side of shorts, slots and overs. This past weekend Matt Shapiro caught and releases a 46.75″ x 25.5″ bass, ~40#. On Halloween, Tom Beaty weighed in a 33.5″ 13.26# striped bass that he caught on a plug fishing the south end. Yesterday evening, Chris Masino weighed in a 28.5″ 8.94# bass that he caught on a lure fishing Barnegat Light. (photo below) This morning Emmit from Top Notch Tackle weighed in a 28.5″ 8.64# bass he caught on bunker fishing Harvey Cedars.

There’s bait and fish here on Long Beach Island… striped bass, albies, tog and more! The past five days were awesome with fall fishing well underway. Here’s my report video from yesterday October 13, 2022 LBI Fishing Report Update. Weekend is looking good. Let’s go fishing.

If you haven’t heard… BIG STRIPED BASS bass rolled into our local waters on Friday evening and are on the feed! Saturday was a full on epic day reported by many and some nice fish were caught today too. Most of the action is focused around Barnegat Inlet with action radiating a mile or two north, east and south. We also heard good reports from up the beach and in Monmouth County.

There’s large schools of bunker that have pushed into the westerly winds and are stacked up near and on some beaches. Fishing live baits if best but those who prefer more of a challenge are catching biggins on large lures too!

Yes the word epic was used and based on all accounts it is justified. It’s time to get in on the great fall fishing that has erupted about a month earlier than usual.

Here’s my mid day report shortly after leaving the morning LBI Surf Fishing Opening Day Kick Off Seminar. After this report I jumped in the boat and got into a great evening fishing session too.

Yup a couple nice bass were caught off the LBI surf too. The photo below was caught by LBI Classic Tom, Angler 408, Tom Ng.

There’s also very large pods of bay anchovies. Small blues as well has hardtails (false albacore, bonito, Spanish mackerel) can be found on this small bait. Use small lures and get in on the light tackle fun. Tommy Smith Jr had some fun on the surf yesterday!

Now that Nor’Ian is gone, we are left with a beautiful weekend on Long Beach Island and two great events. Get out and enjoy but be prepared for a chill in the early mornings and evening as a cold front is coming through and giving us the coldest temperatures in a long while. Kite Fest and the LBI Surf Fishing Classic. This year’s 68th Annual tournament kicks off with the opening day (Saturday 8th) seminar at 9am (Ship Bottom Fire House). Stop at the shop to sign up and then attend the event. I’ll be there giving a seminar and will be available for your questions. Kite Fest will have the beaches of Ship Bottom LBI packed with people. It is suggested that anglers steer clear of this area for easier parking, access and space.

Due to the blow (Nor’Ian) reports have been few and far between. For the most part yesterday was the first day anglers could get out. Here’s what I can share. Striped bass, bluefish, blackfish, blowfish, weakfish are all here among other species. The resident striped bass are only getting more aggressive and soon more will show with a mix of a larger class too. The tog fishing is good and will be good throughout the fall season. Fish live green crabs and mole crabs (sand fleas) for the best action. There’s still some blowfish but they are on their way out. Also there’s some weakfish and kingfish in the bay and on the surf.

Current NJ Blackfish Regulations 1 fish at 15″ minimum size until November 15th. On November 16th it opens up to a five fish bag till the end of the year.

Today October 7th is opening day for NJ Black Sea Bass Is Open! 10/7 to 10/26 it’s 10 fish at 13″ minimum size. For more information on how the regulations came about check out the blog post that was put up at the time of the decision… 2022 Black Sea Bass Recreational Fishing Regulations Explained.

It’s a helluva lotta fun light tackle jigging with 60g Nomad Streakers, Tubed 007 & A17 Diamond Jigs and Hogy Sand Eel Jigs.

Here’s the 30 day water temperature graph from the Barnegat Bay tide gauge near the BL Inlet. It shows the cooling and that means one things… fall fishing is underway! Let’s go fishing!!!

Today is the last day of the 2022 NJ Summer Flounder Fishing Season but there’s a lot of great fishing going down. Here’s the fishing report update for the Long Beach Island area on Tuesday September 27, 2022.

First Day of Fall Is Here! Personally my favorite time of year. With great weather, warm water, less crowded beaches and waterways topped off with great fishing opportunities (great surfing too) how can you not love early Fall? At the time of this post we have incoming long period swell from Hurricane Fiona which will be very powerful. It looks to peak Friday afternoon in the 6-10′ range. There will be windy NNW wind. This combo will make surf fishing difficult on Friday. The eastern section of Barnegat Inlet’s jetty could be treacherous! It should settle down significantly Saturday leaving as a beautiful yet chilly start to the day, low of 49º to start off the morning.

The bait really starts moving (mullet, peanut bunker, bay anchovies, sand eels, etc) and in the past week that has been very apparent. We’ve received some great videos and photos from customer capturing the bait and feeding frenzies. For some great photos check out our recent post on Instagram sharing Stay Above The Weather’s photographs of bait and active albies. In my most recent video report update (link below) I shared video from Neill McKenna. This past week we have received a couple deliveries of fresh surf caught mullet so the mullet run is progressing. We also got a report today from Bobby Capri, “There’s thousands of mullet but I did’t bring my cast net.” He did however get into great bass fishing plugging!

Fluke, small blues and a couple bass are in the surf. Remember NJ Fluke Fishing Season ends on 27th. Kingfish are on the suds too. Anglers at times also have a shot at albies.

Barnegat Inlet Jetty offers great fishing at this stage in the year. Tog, triggers and sheepshead as well as fluke, blues, striped bass. Yup a couple; drum too. In the bay there’s blowfish, weakfish, striped bass blues.

Jason Houck shared, “Thanks for the awesome reports. Stocked up this weekend and got in on some good fluke fishing off the beach on the north end and that epic bluefish blitz. That lasted a solid 2 hours on the north end and you could catch them at will for almost 4 hours.” Another report came in from XYZ.

Here’s my most recent video report…

Last weekend (9/18) was the America Anglers LBI Fishing Tournament. Here’s the abbreviated results… 36 teams and 20 individual anglers, 248 total anglers. Only 31 fish caught, the majority were bluefish with some kingfish and fluke peppered in.

Largest Fish MEN

Largest Fish WOMEN