This past weekend was a good one! Both Saturday and Sunday allowed anglers to get out and fish. We received some good feedback from inshore offshore and from shore. Here’s a short fishing report update for Monday August 10, 2020.

Fishing LBI From Shore

Store staffer Jared fished the Barengat Inlet Sunday afternoon. He reported, “Got two keeper size tog fishing live green crabs. I also got six shorts. All fishing off the concrete walkway.” Also present at the Barnegat Inlet… sheepshead, trigger fish and a surprising positive showing of striped bass.

The Long Beach Island surf offers fun fishing for one or the entire family. Kingfish and fluke are the best species to target. There’s also some small blues around.

Fishing LBI’s Inshore – Near Shore Waters

Store staffer Frezza was out on the reef Sunday. He reported, “It was a slow day but some nice fish were caught. Got a 22″ and a 25″ as well as two other keeper size fish. Not too many shorts. Got 10 fish all together.”

Dan Harley was out on the reef Sunday and got into some good fluke. He reported, “Quality to 25″ on the slow pitch.”

Store staffer Willie Davis was out in the boat Sunday fishing the North End inside. He caught some fluke. This morning he caught some striped bass.

Fish Heads Ambassador Swagmattic Strikes Again!

This past weekend there was a a couple of the area’s and season’s biggest fluke fishing tournaments. Once again Swagmattic puts meat on the deck when it matters most! Here’s his report…

Jersey Jumbos! What a day to have a day. Ocean fluke fishing hasn’t been as epic as we would have liked. We haven’t seen any real big fish hit the deck at all. Today (Sunday) was the JCAA heavy hitters tournament and we were out hoping to get lucky and defend our win from last year. Boy did the stars align for us.

Absolutely tough fishing with zero visibility in the monring and no wind and drift in the morning. Then a stiff south wind the rest of the day. Shout out to Capt. Tony for putting in work staying on the motor all day.

We didn’t have many bites (with only 9 keepers) but we made them count. I was fortunate enough to land the two biggest fish of the day with a new personal best. Official JCAA Tournament weight was 9.92. It was 9.96 in Forked River weigh in and 10.06 in LBI. [Impossible to have all the scales in the state calibrated together.] Regardless I’m welcoming myself into the double digit club.

As always Magictail Bucktails are the go to. The Jigging World Shogun medium light made easy work of this monster. I’m super happy I made the switch this season. Big shoutout to Mike Kim, of course Fishermans Headquarters and Fish Head Greg for stocking the best of the best always. If you want to fish the best and learn from the best drop on in, they’re located on the causeway in LBI. Thanks Cortland Line Co for the best line in the game (made in the USA) and even though it blew up later in the day the Quantum Accurist got the job done when I needed it (if you guys wanted to send me a new one I’d be cool with that). We worked hard for it, we got lucky, we took it down. Back to back full fluke sweeps!

Fishing LBI’s Offshore Waters

Offshore the tuna are jumping in the boat. Just about everyone making the trek out to bluewater are killing it! Dan Rosetto left the trolling stuff at home and got ’em on jigging and popping gear. He reported, “Sunday was good. Got out and made it happened and was back to the dock in time for Sunday church.” Ryan Degraw went 4-6. Jeff Haly had five jig and pop. Rick Bragg reported a great day, “3 nice yellowfin two small bluefin and a bonita.” got one them too. Lots of other reports too all with the similar theme… it’s Sea World Out There!

A few days after the storm, things are bouncing back. The water is cleaning up a few reports are coming in. This is what we can share on this Friday morning report… Here’s the Long Beach Island Fishing Report Update For Friday August 7, 2020.

The surf has settled down and the LBI water temperatures have rebounded from their upwelling lows to now in the mid 60’s. It was in the mid to upper 50’s a couple days ago. With the settling comes a welcome return of reports! Already surf anglers are getting back into good fishing along the beach of LBI. On Thursday we had numerous customers in the shop reporting the kingfish are still present. They were all buying Live Bloodworms, Dyna Bait Freeze Dried Bloodworms and Fish Bites. Others reported fluke from the beach. One group of anglers came in and reported tryin for striped bass with clam and bunker. They caught some small blues, skates and dogfish. One striped bass catch was reported by Jaime Grant. Her husband got a 27.5″ striped bass off the mid Island surf.

Fluke fishing reports in the ocean yesterday (Thursday) were slow (from two different sources). We expect this to flip back soon because August is a great moth for ocean fluke fishing!

The bayside activities have a lot to offer. From fishing for blowfish, snappers and weakfish to crabbing and clamming. Store staffer Grey Colston is reporting lots of bait (both spearing and baby bunker) and active game fish. He has caught striped bass, bluefish and weakfish the past couple of days.

The Barnegat Inlet Jetty is a great spot to fish all season long but especially right now! The fluke are present and transiting the inlet on their way out to their late summer early fall hiding spots. Tog, sheepshead and triggerfish are hiding. One customer reported catching five tog, three were keeper size. Also resident striped bass and bluefish are there too. Jetty Master Jeff got a large black drum a few days back! Bayside Dave stopped by late morning and shared a early morning report. He said, “I had a good morning before the rain. Got a keeper tog and a keeper fluke.”

Already got reports of both yellowfin and bluefin tuna as well as mahi from the midshore and offshore waters.

by Jim Hutchinson Sr.

The fishing over the past week in the Beach Haven area has been very strong. However, the captains of the Beach Haven Charter fishing Association are casting a wary eye at the development of Hurricane Isaias. Although the storm is still south of the United States, Isaias is sure to influence the fishability of local waters for the next few days.

The water temperature in the bay waters behind Long Beach Island have been reaching 80 degrees and even warmer. As a result, most of the fluke have made their move into the ocean. That is where the captains have been concentrating their efforts with much success.

Captain Frank Camarda reports the party boat “Miss Beach Haven” has been finding some nice sized fish on both its ocean and bay trips. One recent pool winner took honors with a 25-inch fluke. Their 6-hourtrips on Saturdays and Sundays have proven to be very popular and advance
reservations help secure a spot at the rail.

The “Starfish” with Captain Carl Sheppard has been fishing inshore structure regularly. A recent trip with a local family experienced action-packed fishing all day. The crew fished many wrecks and caught over 60 fish including sea bass, sea robins, and fluke. The crew kept sea bass and
fluke for dinner. Some sea bass have measured up to 16-inches.

Captain Gary Dugan has seen the rods on the “Irish Jig” bending with large numbers of short fish with some fluke making it into the cooler along with some sea bass and even a ling. Early trip had decent action on short fish with these 2 keepers. Captain Gary had a shark charter for the birthday girl Kim, and they managed a 4-foot tiger shark among other fish.

Captain Brett Taylor of Reel Reaction Sportfishing continues to experience excellent action with up to 30 fish on a tide, although most are throwbacks. Recent trips have seen up to 5 keepers along with some sea bass and even a short striped bass on one trip. Captain Brett says his trolling motor was pivotal in keeping them on the edge between the wind and tide.

Captain Dave Wittenborn had the Smale group on the “Benita J” offshore on a tuna trip. The crew put together a nice catch of 50-60-pound class yellowfin tuna. By mid-morning everyone was tired from reeling in tuna, and they headed back home. Captain Dave stressed it was a great group that never once complained about the sporty conditions.

Additional information on the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association can be found at www.bhcfa.net

Right now is a great time to be fishing the waters of Long Beach Island. Whether fishing from shore, inshore or offshore, there’s a lot on offer. Here’s the Long Beach Island Fishing Report Update for Wednesday July 22, 2020.

Inshore – Midshore Bluewater

By far the most spectacular topic on the local fishing front is the abundance of school bluefin tuna (in the 27 to <47″ range) surprisingly close to port. These fish are and have been hanging around the 10-15-20 fathom inshore/midshore lumps and ridges. Some of these areas have good water (beautiful clean blue water) with bait (sand eels and squid) and that’s the receipt for good fishing. It’s not only bluefin! There’s king mackerel (southern kingfish) and a few small mahi. Soon the bonita and albies will join the party too. Here’s some recent reports from anglers fishing out of Barnegat Light the past couple of days.

Matt Thomas shared, “After hearing some reports that tuna fish were close we tossed together a last minute trip to get my son Dexter his first tuna. We got out there and got one. He did awesome and would not quit! Needless to say he is a very happy kid and I’m a very proud father!”

Frequent customer Joe Franckowiak has been out fishing every chance he gets and his catch count shows. He was reporting tuna near shore for some time now. Tuesday he had another good day (previous report included on the July 14th post) going four for seven on bluefin.

Fun Trip Aboard The Pal’O Mine

I got the call from Paul D’Aloia (friend and owner of the Pal’O Mine) on Monday, “Let’s go fish!” Tuesday morning we (Paul, Max, Matt, I) pushed off and headed east about 15 miles. We quickly found positive sings (tuna chicks and slicks) and got our trolling spread in the water. First a few good bait marks showed up on the sounder. Then tuna marks and shortly after we were tight on our first fish of the morning. We kept working the area and stayed with it for most of the morning going five for five on school bluefin tuna. Almost all of our bites came on spreader bars from splash bars from Chatter and Tormenter.

There were not that many boats out there, so we did the right thing and shared some intel to help others get blood on the deck. We were happy to get feedback! Richard Applegate said, “Heard you on the radio. Thank you. You helped us get tight on one.” Another thanks came from Mike Pritsch, “You called us in on the bite today. Thank you!!!”

With piles of sandeels and squid, school size bluefin tuna are hanging well within reach for small boat anglers. Gear up and be ready for the right days to get out thee and enjoy this great fishing!

LBI’s Near Shore Fishing Report

Solid fluke fishing reports continue from the ocean’s near shore waters, open bottom, wrecks and reefs. The game is good at certain areas and certain times. Having the right tackle and a skilled hand is paramount! Some of the snags have good sea bass fishing too.

One angler with the right tackle and a good hand is store staffer Jared Grady. He was out on the Carolyn Ann Tuesday and took the pool with a health one!

Today (Wednesday) Robbie Gagliardi had a great day aboard the Miss Barnegat Light. He caught five keepers. Since others fishing near him were struggling he was a nice guy and shared.

Another great ocean fluke report came in from Tyler Leary. His crew limited out at an undisclosed reef site.

The reports from the two local party boats (Miss Barnegat Light and the Carolyn Ann) are positive the past cope of days. It’s great to see some limited as well as some quality fluke and also knuckle head black sea bass. They are sailing everyday from 8am to1pm. Get out there!

Fishing the Long Beach Island Bays

The fluke fishing in the bay continues strong with an abundance of shorts but still a great number of quality keepers. You just need to work for them. Blowfish and weakfish continue too.

Here’s a nice weakfish from Chris Wright, safely release. “Wind against tide made easy with my Rhodan Trolling Motor!

Fishing the Long Beach Island Surf & Inlet

Right now there’s fun land based fishing opportunities on LBI. Kingfish (northern kingfish) and fluke (summer flounder) are both possibly at the best stage of the season. Anglers fishing the beaches and the Barnegat Inlet State Park are catching fluke, kingfish, small bluefish, Spanish mackerel, weakfish, an occasional striped bass and the sharpies are picking sheepshead too. Be careful of the cow nose rays!. They can be a time consuming handful.

Fishing with worms for kingfish, Gulp fluke, small meaty bait (bunker, mullet) for blues/bass. Fiddler crabs would be the ticket to target sheepshead.

Yes there’s some spike weakfish in the surf. Matt Listor shared a photo and gave us heads up. He got three from the LBI surf. A number of spike weakfish were reported this past week from the surf and bay. It’s great to see they are here. Let’s hope this stick around all summer!

Yes there’s Spanish mackerel being caught off of the Long Beach Island surf. Here is a photo sent in from Greg O’Connell from the Merchantville Fishing Team. He reported, “Landed three off of the north end surf and lost two others.” Some of the best producing lures for these as well as bonita and false albacore are the Hogy Epoxy Jigs and Tsunami Fork Tail Candy among some other small slender metals.

Sorry the FishingLBI.com site was down for a couple of days. We had technical difficulties but got things it updated. Thanks for your patience!

After Tropical Storm Fay gave us a wet and windy couple of days this past weekend, things settled down. Monday was a beautiful day with light winds and residual ground swell in the 3′ range. Tuesday was another day of the same. Two perfect days to get out and enjoy fishing Long Beach Island! Did you get out? Let us know how you made out.

Fishing The LBI Surf

Anglers fishing the LBI surf should be primarily focused on fluke and kingfish. Both are present in good numbers offering fun summertime fishing on the beach of LBI.

It’s best to target FLUKE with a cast and retrieve (slow) using natural (squid, spearing, sandeels, minnows) or artificial baits (GULP!).

Kingfish love live bloodworms and also love Fish Bites Bag Of Worms too. The classic rigging for them is a small hooked hi-lo rig outfitted with hi-viz pill floats.

Also on the surf right now… STRIPED BASS and BLACK DRUM! Not saying these two species are blitzing the beaches but recent catch reports prove they are present.

STRIPED BASS hang around the Long Beach Island waters just about all year long. In the dead of winter they can be found in the bay and surf and in the summer they are there too. Usually once the surf temperatures peak above 70 degrees for summer they are few and far between however they can’t resist a summer work out in the suds. Case and point – Sunday we were surprisingly happy to hear received four separate striped bass reports. Two of the reported bass were small. One was in the low 30″ range and other was 40″. We’ll chalk it up to…

1. The presence of small bait (spearing and sand eels) and crabs (calico and sand flea)
2. TS Fay churning up the surf offering oxygen rich water.
3. TS Fay’s southerly winds cooled off the surf temp by a few degrees making the striped bass feel more comfortable hunting.

BLACK DRUM call the waters of Long Beach Island home in the spring, summer and fall. They are not one of the most popular species however they are fun to catch and can grow to a surprisingly large size. Black drum are definitely an underrated game fish for surf casters on the Jersey Shore.

Fishing The Bayside Waters Of LBI

In the bay fluke and blowfish are plentiful. Anglers drifting the channels are putting good catches together. More recently the feedback from customers is positively trending to a lower keeper to short ratio. Fishing small jigs (like the Magictail Tear Drop Hoochie 1/2-3/4-1oz) tipped with Gulp and/or natural bait (Dead: Spearing, Squid – Live: Minnows, Baby Bunker, Spot) is doing it right!

Blowfish are plentiful this year. They started early and been on offer in waves this entire season so far. It’s best to anchor up and chum while fishing small hooked rigs baited with clam or squid. When fishign Gulp for fluke save your the pieces after bite offs. These can be cut up and to be a very effective way to catch puffers and use up Gulp baits rather than waste them. Anglers chumming up blowfish are also attracting some “summertime pan fish” like kingfish, croakers, spot, snapper blues and…

Also showing in good numbers… weakfish. Some spikes and mediums appeared this past week and more reports continue. Store staffer Grey shared, “At night some spots are loaded with bait and the weakies are popping! A couple nights ago I caught them good fishing small plastics on a light jig head.” If looking for more details stop in and talk to Grey. If approached the right way, he just might share some of the finer details.

Fishing The Inshore Waters Of LBI

Fishing the inshore waters of Long Beach Island and the central Jersey coast is great in July for it’s abundance of variety. The open bottom areas and wrecks/reefs are producing everything from fluke and sea bass to porgies, tog, triggerfish and sheephead. These latter two also offer a challenge for all of the jetty jockeys. Targeting them with small shore crabs (fiddlers, Asians, sand fleas) on a specialty jig like the Bottom Sweepers or Magictail Bay Bay Series is the way to go!

Sloane Endick was out fishing the inshore waters today and caught a solid haul. She managed to cross two species off her list… triggerfish and porgies. In the mix were some sea bass too.

Also in the mid-shore/inshore waters are bonita, Spanish mackerel, and king mackerel. Here’s Joe with his first king mackerel of the season. Joe also mentioned there’s bluefin tuna in close!!!

by Jim Hutchinson Sr.

Today, Friday, July 10, the Beach Haven area is being buffeted by tropical storm Fay. All the boats of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association are safely in port. However, the weather report for the upcoming days is a good one, and the captains will be back on the good fishing bite.

The fluke action continues steady even as the fish begin their summer migration into the ocean. This means the inshore reefs and structure will be receiving the best action. Also on these reefs, are a goodly number of black sea bass, many of them above average in size. The offshore bite on tuna and other pelagic species is ongoing, and there has been a sudden influx of warm water fish such as Spanish mackerel and cobia in the past few days.

Captain Dave Wittenborn fished the inshore tuna grounds this week on the “Benita J’ from Captain Dave’s Charters in an area called the “Lobster Claw.” The ride out was beautiful, and he had lines in the water at 5am. There were dolphins and whales feeding on the surface with tuna underneath. After three hours of steady fishing, they boated five 50-pound class yellowfin tuna and released a white marlin. With the anglers soon tiring they headed home by 9:30am.

Captain Gary Dugan has been fishing charters steadily and catching fish on the “Irish jig” with some days having two half-day bookings. As an example, one group had multiple throwback fluke while managing to put 4 keepers to 24-inches into the cooler. 

Captain Carl Sheppard has had the “StarFish” booked practically every day and is finding very productive action on his inshore trips.  Mate Max Goldman reports black sea bass and fluke are around, and action has been constant. Many short fluke have been biting, along with 16-inch sea bass. On many recent trips they have had upwards of 8 keeper sea bass.

Captain Brett Taylor of Reel Reaction Sportfishing reports the bite in the bay waters is still good with his charters averaging 6-7 keepers per 4-hour trip. He will be targeting the ocean fluke soon in his Parker Sport Cabin. Recent trips included the Bob Reim charter who boxed 14 keeper fluke to 5 pounds and the Ralph Rodio group with 6 keepers. The Jerry Fanelli crew caught their 9 fish limit in just under 4 hours one morning, and the afternoon trip was similar with John Wittlieb and his wife Jenna bringing home 8 keepers – one shy of another 3-man limit.

Additional information on the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association can be found at www.BHCFA.net.

Happy Birthday America!

While we are into a new month, not a lot has changed. We’ll keep this short and sweet… the great fishing continues on Long Beach Island. As reported in the last fishing report update, the water temperatures are warm and stable. This stability helps with the consistency of the fishing. For the most part we’ve had consistent tranquil weather for a couple weeks and it looks to stay that way. Keep an eye out for a two day southerly blow Tuesday/ Wednesday.

Here’s the Long Beach Island Fishing Report for the 4th Of July Holiday Weekend.

Fluke Fishing Report

Fluke fishing is strong. As one would expect for this time of the year, all areas (bay, inlet, surf, ocean) are fishy. I would have to say the bayside has slowed up a little this past week but it’s got A LOT more to offer. The ocean fluke fishing this week has more than made up for the slow week in the bay.  The ocean fishing has been nothing less than stellar when you are in the right place, at the right time and using the right stuff with the right application technique. Shop Ambassador Swagmattic has been on the ocean fluke grounds all week and has good catches to show. His photos and reports hopefully get your blood pumping.

LBI Surf Fishing Report

On the surf there’s a variety to target. The summer times species have taken up resilience… kingfish, fluke, small blues, resident bass and the larger summertimes hoodlums… sharks and rays. Sand bar sharks, sand tigers, rough tail rays, butterfly rays and cow nose rays.

No matter which one you go for it could be a struggle finding some beach to fish. The island is jumping and the beaches are packed. Sunrise and sunset is the best time to fish for bass and blues with lures or bait. Night time is also an option. During the day kingfish and fluke can offer great fishing fun.

Steve George from Night Strikes Surfcasting Guide Service shares some great information…” Fluke fishing on the surf is good and spread out all along the beaches of LBI. The Inlet, north end, mid island and southern beaches are all producing nice fluke. Small resident bass were out along the surf line this past week feeding on mole crabs during their shed. Some of the mornings were good. These bass are also feeding on sand eels which are abundant in the local LBI waters right now. Cocktail and taylor size bluefish continue to cause havoc. The bunker pods which are still around and in strong numbers. Have a great weekend! Happy  4th of July everyone!”

Midshore/Offshore Fishing Report

The offshore and mid-shore fishing for yellowfin and bluefin tuna has been off the chain! It continues thanks to good sea conditions and life filled productive waters. Store staffer Jay reports, “The tuna fishing mid-shore was very good yesterday. Good size 50 class yellowfin with bluefin mixed in. All on side trackers and daisy chains. There’s a ton of life out there. Heard of some wahoo showing up too.”

Areas like Chicken Canyon, Triple Wrecks (and east of there), Lemke’s, the Claw, and the Fingers have fish. Further offshore the Spencer and Lindy have produced for a couple days.

Sharking is firing up with reports of makos, threshers and blacktips sharks.

Fish Head Charters

I’ve been out on the water just about every morning or afternoon for the past two weeks. During this time I’ve witnessed first hand the transition from spring fishing into summer. 4th of July holiday weekend is here and summer is in full swing.

The striped bass had come down in size as did the bluefish too. The fluke in the bay slowed up for me but the ocean picked up the slack. Some bonita and spanish mackerel showed up near shore. Further off I’m expecting mahi and king mackerel reports to fire up!

Here in the final stretch of June the fishing opportunities on and around Long Beach Island are plentiful. Bluefish are snapping and the fluke fishing is rocking. Also offshore tuna are on the chew. Here’s the Fishing Report Update for Sunday June 28, 2020

Two key trends to take note of right now for near shore anglers. The ocean water temperatures have been somewhat stable for the past 3-4 days, hovering in the low 70’s. There’s an abundance of small slender baits. Spearing, bay anchovies and sand eels are the primary forage for the local striped bass and bluefish. Hatch The Hatch!

LBI Bay Waters Fishing Report

In the bay summer flounder (fluke) is the main target. They can be found in the back bay (mid-Island) and in the areas closer to the inlet. Anglers are doing good fishing Gulp as well as live and natural baits. At times certain areas have grass/weed/snot which makes things difficult. In these situations pay attention. Drifting and dreaming with balls of grass isn’t productive. Simply just a waste of time. Keep your rigs clean and you’ll find fish.

Vinnie Pena got out early before the boat traffic and worked the structure and edges. He reported, “Did a few quick drifts and put a 25″ and an 18″ fluke in the box. Back home by 9.”

Store staffer Grey Colston was out on the bay this morning fishing some channels and reported catching a bunch of fluke but only one keeper.

With all the pressure anglers fishing live bait seem to be outproducing with classy fish. Most all of the fluke we have heard of over five pounds were caught on live bait.

In the bay, blowfish as well as other smaller “pan fish” critters are beginning to arrive. A couple kingfish and spot were recently reported by anglers fishing Fish Bites for blowfish. There’s also a few weakfish present.

James Walker had a good day today with blowfish in Barnegat Bay. He reported, “70 blowfish and 17 kingfish using squid in 6′ of water.”

LBI Surf Fishing Report

Fluke and kingfish are the two most abundant species on the beach of LBI. Both are great fun to catch and even better table fare. Get out on the beach and catch a fresh fish dinner!

Ryan Sherwood has been on the beach finding fish… he always does! Here’s his Sunday morning trip report, “Quick beach limit plus released another keepers this morning before the rain. The mid-Island surf has been good to me. I had one keeper yesterday and four today. I’m using a hi/lo rig and baiting up with white Gulp. Today was the best day I had on the beach so far.” Ryan said the bunker pods are still stacked up right off the beach, “They are thick but just out of casting range.” There’s striped bass, bluefish and sharks on them as well as the occasional show off dolphins and whales.

Kingfish on the surf chewing bloodworms and bloodworm alternatives. Rig up with a hi/lo small hook (size #2-#4) rig and bait up with Fish Bites, DynaBait or Live Bloods.

The sharks and rays have around so keep an eye on your rods. They can be pulled down, out and into the water in a split second. Our suggestion is to get a Quality Sand Spike to better protect your investment.

Offshore/Mid-Shore Big Game Fishing

The Jersey Shore big game fishing season is in full swing! At times the tuna fishing has been lights out. Offshore reports at the Lindy-Carteret have been good. The midshore bluefin action at the Triple Wrecks (a bit east) has been red hot for days/weeks. The sharking is kicking into gear.

Dan Rosetto was out on the Let ‘Em Run this weekend and reported great trip. “We went big eye hunting and had another epic trip. Going 3/4 on big eyes and four yellowfin. What a day with an amazing crew. We found them in the fog and mid day kept pounding them until they cam back up.”

Here coming off the late June new moon, the LBI waters are full of opportunity for anglers. Everything from fun fishing with toes in the sand to inshore light tackle fishing and even offshore big game fishing mid-shore and offshore. It’s a great time to be fishing Long Beach Island!

Here’s the LBI Fishing Repoirt Update for June 22, 2020

LBI Surf Fishing Report

Blues – Fluke – Kingfish – Striped Bass

Off the surf bluefish rule the roost. The reports flooding into the shop all have a similar theme. Bunker and mullet are producing bluefish from small size, through cocktails (1-4 pounds) and occasionally medium sized ones. These blues are a ton of fun on light tackle!

Kingfish and fluke are also present in good number. For kingfish you’ll want to rig up with small hooks and bait up with live bloodworms. A convenient and effective alternative is Fish Bites Bag O Worms. For fluke you can’t go wrong with a bucktail and Gulp!

There’s still striped bass cruising the LBI surf too. This one was reported on Sunday by Ryan Blemings, “I got this 24″ striped bass off of the LBI surf with Fish Heads fresh bunker.”

Barnegat Bay Fluke Fishing

Now’s a great time to target summer flounder in the Barnegat Bay and the thoroughfares. Today we got a nice photo from Rich Labor. He got a 6-lb 10-oz fluke today in the bay. Rich reported, “My buddy Sam and I caught 25 fluke with three keepers. Last fish of the day on the bucktail tipped with Gulp!“

Inshore Fishing

Black Sea Bass fishing was the name of the game at the inshore structure as well as deeper waters. It was very god fishing for the past number of weeks. However today June 22 was the last day of the “Spring” Sea Bass Season. It is now closed until July 1st when it opens, 2 fish at 12.5″.

We expect the inshore/near shore fluke fishing to kick into high gear soon. It’s still slow with the cooler ocean water temperatures (61 degrees today). So far this season some fluke have been caught in the ocean but most all of the action is in the shallow water along the surf and in the bay.

Some big thresher sharks along the beaches and inshore waters. These whip tails are nothing new as these guys have made their precent know for a number of weeks now. They are active on the bunker pods just about daily.

Midshore/Offshore Fishing

The big game blue water fishing offshore has been on a solid run as of late! Thanks to Lake Atlantic like conditions, the mid-shore grounds 30-50 miles are producing for small boat anglers. Even areas as close in as the Barnegat Ridge and the AC Reef have had bluefin tuna. The primary areas such as the AP, Glory Hole, Chicken Canyon, Triple Wrecks, Resor as well as areas further south like the E. Cole and Lemkies all had fish in recent days. Some better than others. Gotta find the bait and the life!

Further offshore at the edge anglers are filling boxes with yellowfin and bigeye tuna. Closer to home the Spencer and Wilmy are holding a lot of fish and life! Reports from the Poorman’s was great with tons of Bigeyes and good size yellowfin. We got one report of some blue marlin, “Had 10 yellowfin hooked up and a 500lb blue ate 6 of them off!”

Mark Haley reported going 12 for 13 on bluefin.

Mike Schermerhorn reported, “First time on the tuna grounds! Thank you to Capt Jef Warford for all of the help and support!”

Sunday report from Jacob Bowles, “Absolutely lights out fishing today out east! Doubles and triple headers all morning long. Finished the day going 15/17 heading home with sore arms.”

The tuna fishing is the only thing going down out in the deep… “Just because the gyms are still closed doesn’t mean you cant curl 40’s and 50’s. Here Rob Pompilio with a pair of big golden tilefish.”

Report from Paul Haertel “Left at the crack of non and plowed through confused sea for 2.5 hours before arriving to the fishing groups. The seas eventually calmed down and we had another great mixed bag including two bluefin tuna, a false albacore, a cod, two blues, and a bunch of ling and sea bass.”

Fish Head Charters

It’s been a crazy year so far to say the least… super busy with great fishing! All spring was solid and now summer is off to a great start. Sorry I haven’t had the time to detail out specific charter trip reports. It surly wasn’t or the lack of catching.

Return client Levi Bonnice shared a report after our trip today. He’s on a 40 For 40 quest this year. Forty different species for his fortieth birthday year.

“What an awesome day on the water! Added two more species to the list and had some repeats. But not before catching my first ever saltwater fish on tje fly. Best part was watching a youngster get his first saltwater fish from the boat. Thanks Fish Heads!” Striped Bass, Bluefish and Fluke. We were just missing weakfish for the grand slam!

Save The Dates: June 26th & 27th, 2020

The 5th Annual South Jersey Fluke A Mania Fluke Fishing Tournament is this weekend! This family fun fluke fishing tournament hosted by the Beach Haven Marlin & Tuna Club raises money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Cash Prizes for Each Category – Men’s, Women’s, Intermediate & Children’s Categories.

$125 Boat Entry Fee – 6 Anglers Per Boat.

Registerer at www.FlukeAMania.com

June 26th – Registration, June 27th – Fishing Day & Weigh In

Flukeamania Final Results

56 Boats 226 Anglers

Directors: Matt Garabedian, Brendan Graham, Weigh ins: Bob Percopo

Juniors (Under 11): 1 – Riley Lynn – Riley Lynn – 4.82 ($100)2 – James Biddle – Anthracite – 2.66 ($50)3 – Matt Kopenhaver- Yahoo Fishing – 2.20 ($25)

Teens (11-19): 1 – Connor Johnson – Shore Thing – 3.54 ($200)2 – Owen Fizulich – Sales Calls – 2.68 ($100)3 – Walker Ryon- Anthracite – 2.52 ($50)

Women: 1 – Denise Hart – Nana Got a Fat Bass- 6.06 ($500)2 – Heidi Larson – Torment – 5.94 ($250)3 – Kare Matrisciano – Magic Man – 2.62 ($125)

Men: 1 – Rich Aster – QT – 5.78 ($500)2 – Sean Carey – Francesca Marie – 5.58 ($250)3 – Joe Casaletto- Francesca Marie – 5.30 ($125)

CALCUTTAS

Total Calcuttas – $6240 (10% – $624 to Cystic Fibrosis Foundation)

Heaviest Bluefish:L 1 – Boobie Bouncer – 3.84 ($864)

Heaviest Fluke: 1 – Nana Got a Fat Bass – 6.06 ($1026) 2 – Torment – 5.94 ($615) 3 – QT- 5.78 ($410)

STRINGER (Heaviest 3 Fluke): 1 – Francesca Marie – 15.92 ($2700)

Big congratulations to Capt Fran Verdi and the Crew of the Francesca Marie who fished hard in the ocean and walked away with a cool $3075!
Also congrats to Denise Hart and Heidi Larson who caught the TWO HEAVIEST FLUKE of the tournament!

THANKYOU to all the Participants and volunteers that made this an outstanding event to support the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Even though we had many restrictions due to the pandemic, the fishing community came out in force!  We are very appreciative of everyone’s efforts to fish this tournament during these difficult times.

Can’t wait till next year! We are planning to have the biggest and best Fluke-A-Mania yet!  HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL NEXT YEAR!