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4th Annual South Jersey Fluke-a-Mania Tournament

Looking for a family fun fluke fishing tournament that supports a great cause?

Save The Date! Saturday July 6, 2019

The 4th Annual South Jersey Fluke-A-Mania Tournament is right around the corner. This is one of the best if not the best fluke tournaments on Long Beach Island!!! Last year there were 65 boats, 368 anglers, $4800 in the Fluke Calcutta and $580 in the Bluefish Calcutta.

Every year it’s a great time and it supports a great cause. All proceeds go to support the Support Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

There’s prizes for men, women, teen and junior categories. Captain’s meeting and registration Friday July 5th 7-9pm.

Don’t miss out on the party, Saturday July 6th at 3pm. It kicks off with weigh-ins, followed by a complementary BBQ, live band, cash bar and awards ceremony!

For more information got to… www.flukeamania.com

Fishing Report Update Wednesday June 26, 2019

The weather has been hot and the fishing is even hotter.  With summer in full swing Long Beach Island is hopping. With lots of participation come lots of reports. Here’s the Long Beach Island Fishing Report Update for Wednesday June 26th.

Surf Fishing Report

The beaches of Long Beach Island have so much to offer surfcasters all year. While the spring surf fishing has past, there’s still a lot of great action to join in on.

David Ho of Symplex Fishing caught this fluke fishing the Barnegat Light Jetty with Gulp. The reports on the North End have been great all season long and they continue on.

The fluke fishing is good and the kingfish are making their presence know. Since our last report they’ve had a good upbeat trend. The ghetto fishing as we like to call it is full on. Both rays and sharks are picking up meaty baits and putting out some pull.

Here’s a junior angler and proven summertime kingfish slayer!

Fluke Fishing Report

Bay, inlet and surf fluke fishing is good. Limits are hard to reach but recently some quality size were reported. Here is store staffer Max with a beautiful fish caught in the Barnegat Bay on a Magictail Squid Hoochie Jig.

Here’s store staffer Max Bambara with a proper fluke he caught fishing a Salmon Magictail Hoochie Jig. These super hot selling lures are a new product from Magictail. From those unaware of them they are basically a lead head jig (like a bucktail) with a silicone tentacle like skirt. They have a beautiful breathing action in the water and are best fishing with Gulp.

Another nice Barnegat Light fluke report came in from John MCIlvaine. He caught a 27″ flounder on Monday, June 24th.

Fish Head Alumni Nick Deg reported a good pick of fluke off the surf fishing white gulp. 

Ocean fluke fishing is still slow, but some fish are being caught. The Carolyn Ann III reported a big surprise on their Sunday morning trip. Hal Frommelt of Bayville, caught a 9.1 lb doormat. They reported lots of throwback sea bass (season is closed). 

Swaggmatic took the cheese on his third fluke tournament in a row. He’s been on fire. Stay tuned as he will be writing a great guest blog in the near future. 

Matt better know at Swagmattic is here showing off his winning fluke. This is three in a row for Matt as he’s on a roll winning the fluke fishing tournaments he enters.

Offshore Fishing Report

It’s prime time bluewater fishing and the canyons are producing tuna, sharks, marlin, mahi, tilefish. More reports everyday and it only seems to get better. Boats fishing the Hudson down to the Toms were pounding them. The other day the Hendrickson and Mey had the action. It sounds like it moved into the Toms. The “Edge” isn’t the only areas though. The mid-shore waters (Glory Hole/Princess, Chicken, Rezor, Cole, Lemkes) have had their days with crazy top water bluefin feeds.

Recently the big eye have made a strong showing and the yellowfin tuna bite for most boats have been steady. Not all are filling the boats but some of the sharpies are.

CK Lauder picked up a few Magictail Hoo Magic Heads from us and went out to the deep. He reported back, “We had an awesome trip with 12 yellowfin… 9 were on the Hoo-Magics! 

Captain Deane on the Canyon Runner caught 32 yellowfin on a recent trip.

Jim Perkins just returned in this evening and reported a good trip. He reported, “We were out on the hunt about to give up and turn back to look inshore for bluefin. Twenty minutes later BAM! It turned on. In the end we finished with four bull mahi, four yellowfin (to 30 pounds) and we went six for six on bigeyes up to 200 pounds!

Now that’s a cockpit photo! This wolfpack came up on the wrong crew of dudes!

Greg Lally sent in a thanks, “Mission accomplished! Thanks to Fish Heads for always taking care of our gear and bait needs! We got out and found ’em, big eyes and a white marlin.”

Dewey Knapp got this bluefins fishing the mid-shore waters. He said, “Lucy and I getting it done by ourselves. Two rookies making it work. Thank you to Fish Heads and the others who helped me along the way.”

Dewey got this bluefin tune trolling the mid-shore waters out of Barnegat Inlet. The tuna went for a Chatter Lures Side Tracker Spreader Bar. The past two seasons these bars have been the hottest and best producing bar out there. Due to high demand they’ve been in and out of stock. We just got a delivery so right now we have them. Sleep on it a couple days and they will be gone!

Congrats to Taylor Jean Sportfishing with the win of the Mid Atlantic Tuna Tournament. Their 58 pound yellowfin tuna took 1st place and a total of 178 lbs for firth place stringer category, for heaviest tuna.  The Magictail Hoo Heads were the weapon for the win!

The Magictail Hoo-Magic Trolling Lure did it’s job and earned the crew of the Taylor Jean some money at the Mid Atlantic Tournament.

Dan Rosetto was out on Sunday (June 23rd) and reported,  “Went big eye hunting and found the one we wanted, but pulled the hook. The guy next to us boated three big ones, all 230-250 pounds.  We landed a couple yellowfins to make another solid trip on the “Sushi Grade” with friends Ryan, Michael & Chris.” 

I was stoked to get out on Sunday to fish with fished with the DiPasquale’s Mike, Dan & Pat as well as friends, Kelly & Jeff.  We had an awesome time offshore and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Unfortunately, we were a bit late to the bite, but managed one medium sized yellow fin tuna and missed two bites at first light.

Store staffer Kelley holds up his first proper tuna. This yellowfin tuna was caught trolling offshore aboard the Reel Tunacious with Captain Mike D.

Fish Head Charters

With work (at the shop) and other fishing invites I haven’t been on the water as much as earlier in the month. My last charter I had Joe P aboard for a fun light tackle dawn patrol session. We started the day with some small striped bass and a couple bluefish. Things slowed down so we looked around. Mid trip we switched gears and took a look outside the inlet. Got into a active body of bonita and caught ten casting lures. Bones are always a blast on light tackle!

With summertime setting in and the waters of Barnegat Light getting crazy I’ve shifted gears to nighttime fishing. The toothy ones are cruising around. For the next three weeks I’ll be having fun catch, tagging and releasing sharks and rays in the southern bay. Anyone looking for a fun time one upcoming night??? Jump aboard! Give a call (P: 6093899963) to book a date and get in the game.

LBI Fishing Report Update Friday June 21st

It’s officially summer and the fishing on LBI is in full summertime mode. The near shore waters offer up fluke, bluefish, sea bass and resident striped bass and the offshore game is firing. The mid-shore and offshore shark fishing as well as the ghetto land based scene is on!

Dan D. reported school sized striped bass at night. He said, “There’s lots of peanut bunker schooled up but are very small. The fish are keyed in on the small bait. It’s a lot of fun between the offshore trips.” More on that below under, Offshore Fishing For Tuna & Sharks.

Sea bass fishing continues to be good but boats are looking further off to find the best fishing. Tomorrow is the last day to get in on it. The NJ Black Sea Bass season closed tomorrow June 22nd. It reopens July 1st with a 2 fish bag limit (12.5″).

Store staffer Sam was out fluke fishing this past week in the bay. He said, “We caught thirty fish but only one keeper. It seemed that the fish were there but sluggish. We had more action during the colder part of the tide. When it warmed up the bite turned off.”

Surf fluke fishing is good. This past week all reports were solid with productivity. The White Gulp 4″ Swimming Mullet is the crowd favorite because it produces! Anglers chunking bunker are catching bluefish and the occasional striped bass. As hinted on the June 14th Report, “kingfish would be here soon if not already.” Sloane Endick caught some fluke on Thursday off the surf. She also caught a small kingfish, so they are here. She said, “It was a nice little surprise!”

Land Based Bigger Game

The land based ghetto sharking really kicked off this week. Numerous reports of brown sharks and sand tigers flooded in. Here Mike hooked up with a good one.

Here’s the Beach Boys posing for a quick picture just after dehooking and tagging a large sand tiger shark.

Local Great White Shark

I’m sure by now everyone has seen the local great white shark action from the boys of the Big Nuts Required. If not here is a link to a short clip that Captain Krilly sent us to share.

Tuna & Sharks

It’s on! When the weather allows, the big game fishing has been very good.

Store staffer Blake fished Wednesday with Dante from Magictail aboard friends’ Joe boat. They hunted the 30 fathom line about 40nm offshore of Barnegat Inlet. Blake shared, “We got two fish trolling Magictail Hoo-Magic with ballyhoo. Boated one but pulled the hook on a larger fish boatside.”

The crew aboard the Reel Innovations fished the Southern Canyons and roasting the yellowfin tuna. First mate Dan D said, “We had about 30 yellowfin bites and one white marlin. The night life was a lot of fun with a bunch of makos and a big tiger shark.”

Giant Fluke

While on assignment reviewing Shimano’s hot new 2020 products, store staffers Max & Frezza got into quality bottom fishing aboard the Helen H. The guys reported, “The drive up to Hyannis on Monday morning wasn’t bad. The next morning we pushed off the dock and after a three hour steam to the Nantucket Shoals we were fishing. The first drift was epic! Everyone was hooked up with big fluke.” It was a different world that what the Jersey boys were used to. They were flipping 3-4 pound fluke over the rail. There were numerous double digit, with the average fish about five to six pounds. Frezza said, “These guys are into serious fish on the regular. Talk about anxiety! With no nets on board, watching the mate swing a gaff at the largest fluke I’ve had on my line was an experience.”

Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association Report Update

by Jim Hutchinson Sr.

Strong winds and thunderstorms have played havoc with fishing conditions in the Beach Haven area recently. Some of the captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association do have some fish stories to tell, however.

Captain Carl Sheppard took the “Star Fish” out for two hours between rain squalls and caught 17 black sea bass and one short fluke. The water was 67 degrees on the surface but much cooler 60-feet down on the bottom. Captain Carl took note of many schools of bunker on the water.

The highlight of the past week for Captain Brett Taylor was fishing the JCAA fluke tournament with Team S&S Bucktails. The team won the port prize Fisherman’s Headquarters on Long Beach Island with a 5.83-pound entry which also took 6th place overall in the state. The next day Captain Brett was back on his own boat with clients, Joe Antonelli and son Marcus. Despite strong wind against tide conditions, they used the Minn Kota trolling motor for fishable drifts. After a few short fluke, they tried the inlet for stripers and bluefish. The anglers managed a bunch of striped bass to 24-inches and bluefish to 8-pounds on the 1 ½ ounce bucktails tipped with artificials.

Captain Gary Dugan reports fluke fishing in Great Bay has been producing decent action with a couple of fish for the cooler on a daily basis. In addition, the cow nose rays have made it fun for a few anglers with smooth dog fish being added to the menu as well. Captain Gary is now planning some ocean fluke trips this coming week.

Although the weather cancelled the recent trips for Captain John Lewis on the “Insatiable,” he says there are good numbers of sea bass on the inshore wrecks along with lots of short fluke with some keepers mixed in. High numbers of dogfish are also around to keep the rods bent.

Captain Alex Majewski of Lighthouse Sportfishing reports there are still plenty of 1-4 blues blitzing around the inlet feeding on rain fish and bay anchovies. There are some bigger blues still in the mix. He has also been finding a daybreak bite on schoolie bass in the inlet. One recent trip with buddy Dave Werner resulted in some 2 dozen short bass caught and released. Captain Alex adds his crab pots are producing very good numbers of big crabs.

Anglers on the head boat “Miss Beach Haven” have started catching good numbers of fluke including some happy anglers on Father’s Day. Many youngsters were successful fishing with Captain Frank Camarda. The popular head boat will be starting its regular schedule in the near future.

Captain Dave Kreines only managed to get his boat “Byte Me” out by himself for a few hours recently. After no luck drifting off Beach Haven, he headed to Great Bay where he picked up a dozen short fluke and one 19-inch keeper

Captain John Lewis, president of the BHCFA, reports the fundraising for the Jr Mate reef replenishment program is in full swing and can now take donations online from PayPal… Here’s the link to support the cause. For more information www.BHCFA.org – “Jr Mate reef tab” has details.

Hoo Magic Trolling Lures by Magictail

How did Hoo Magic Trolling Lures by Magictail come to be?

After many years of successfully targeting saltwater game fish, the skilled tournament angler Dante Soriente turned his hobby and passion into a business. In 2014 Dante started selling his bucktails to tackle shops and Magictail was founded. What started out as a bucktail company soon evolved into a full fledged saltwater lure company offering all sorts of custom lures and specialty jigs.

As the business grew, Dante’s drive to offer more innovate products kept strong. Magictail helped anglers catch big time during the “mojo trolling crazy” of 2015, ’16, ’17 which still goes strong now. Before most knew what a tog jig was Magictail perfected one. Dante recalled, ” In 2015 I made some tog jigs but sales were slow. A couple years went by and then they caught on like wildfire!” From day one Magictail products were made right and they caught fish so naturally anglers became repeat customers.

Tuna fish love Hoo Magic Lures from Magictail

“All of my products were for inshore fishing but with my passion for big game saltwater fishing I wanted to offer offshore tackle. Over the past couple of years I watched the success of Magictail Mojos take over the striped bass trolling game. They now dominate the spreads of most tournament winning boats. I decided to take one of my Bullet Head Mojo Lures and modify it. By hand drilling it, I made a heavy bullet trolling lure that I tried for tuna. The first trip out with Captain Jeff Warford aboard the Reel Innovation it proved successful. Five minutes in, it got the bite. During research and development, the lures caught wahoo, mahi, white marlin and four different species of tuna; bluefin, bigeye, yellowfin and longfin.”

White marlin love the Hoo Magic just like everyone else.

Finally in the summer of 2019 Magictail released the Hoo Magic!

Magictail Hoo Magic Trolling Lures come in three sizes and nine colors.

Hoo Magic Trolling Lures by Magictail

The Hoo Magic Trolling Lure by Magictail are great all around lead bullet head trolling lures. The Hoo Magic features unique, large bug eyes which offer superior action. These extra realistic traits attract and fool tournament winning big game species like Tuna, Marlin and Wahoo. The Hoo Magic are available in three sizes and nine fish favorite colors. At the time of this post the 3 oz and 6 oz sizes are available. The 1 oz size is expected to be released in late July/August.

The Hoo Magic is best trolled with a rigged ballyhoo. The eyes prevent the lure from rolling, always keeping the ballyhoo’s black back up in a natural swimming position. The eyes also improve the side to side swimming action adding an extra kick to the ballyhoo. It can also be trolled with a softbait (like RonZ Softbait Tail). It’s suggested to troll the Hoo Magic Lures in the long rigger position.

The crew at Fisherman’s Headquarters loves Magictail Fishing Products! They have produced very well for us over the year and one brand we have grown to depend on. We suggest Magictail Lures to anyone looking to put meat on the deck. From inshore bucktails, to midshore tog jigs and Mojos to offshore Hoo Magic Magic tail has you covered! Gear up for success with Magic tail Lures at Fisherman’s Headquarters.

Big tuna fall for the Hoo Magic everytime.

LBI Fishing Report Update June 15, 2019

Here’s the Fisherman’s Headquarters fishing report update for Saturday June 15, 2019.

Today was the 25th Annual Jersey Coast Anglers Association Fluke Tournament. Fortunately it was a beautiful morning but the wind came up hard making for difficult conditions. Out of the 18 registered boats, only six checked in fish. All reported much better fishing early in the day. Some boats fished the bay and some fished outside. Word from the bay was most all of the fish were choking on grass shrimp.

The top honors at Port Long Beach Island went to Stan Gola, Phil Natale Jr and Brett Taylor with their 5.83 pound 23.75″ fluke. The group reported good fishing with a cooler full of nice fish. They had 5 fish over three pounds!

A 4.51 pound fluke caught by Mike Sorrentino earned second place. He said non stop action but only got the one keeper.

Dave Werner and Austin Pound caught six keepers with the biggest checking in at 3.76 pounds. This fish was good enough for third place. Austin said, “The best fish was on a Berkley Gulp Grub.”

JCAA Port Long Beach Island Results

While having nothing to do with Port LBI we do have alittle info to share from our buddy Swagmattic. He fished Port Barnegat Bay and slayed the fish. He said it was great fishing before the wind picked up. They were weeding through shorts all morning and the crew managed to box a limit. They got a 6.64 pound fatty that took first place in the port. He also said they caught lots of fish in the 19-22″ range, with a couple in the four pound class. The hot ticket was the white Gulp with the winner coming on the white Magictail Hoochie Jig.

Fishing Report Update June 14, 2019

Here we are in mid June with a lot happening on the fishing front. As we transition out of spring and into the summer season some things fade but new opportunities arise.

Anglers continue to enjoy striped bass and bluefish with still some quality fish around. Recent reports of the occasional twenty pound class bass this week. Blues have mostly faded in size but 8-10+ pound are not uncommon. Black drum are still here and any day (if not already) kingfish will be on the beach.

Jake Lapp from PA caught a 34″ striped bass on bunker mid-island this week. He also had blues in the mix. He said fishing was best 2 hours before high tide. Another customer who pick up some live eels and fresh bunker reported no bass or blues, but he did have a couple dog fish and two sand tiger sharks.

It’s prime time fluke fishing season. Reports from the north and south end both themed on plentiful shorts. Tomorrow is the JCAA Fluke Tournament so it will be interesting to see what comes in. Yesterday (Thursday) we got in a big delivery of Gulp so we are stocked up for the foreseeable future. All Of The Top Catching Gulp Styles & Colors Are In Stock Now. Keep an eye out from some new colors from Gulp with summer as we expect to have some soon.

Dan D. got out last night with Back Attach Sportfishing for some back bay action with Captain Dan Piazza and first mate Jacob Bowles. The crew reports they had bass and blues all night and even got a surprise six fat fluke up to 18 inches. “We had to work a little bit to get them last night after that storm but we found some.”

Surf Sharking!

It’s that time… The water is warm and they have arrived. Shark and rays are here and will only make their presence more known over the coming weeks. Big rays, sand bar sharks and sand tigers are cruising the local waters. Chunking any meaty baits like bunker, bluefish, and carcasses will get them.

Just Beneath The Surface

Just Beneath The Surface continues on with the third season this summer. Episode 1 premiers on Friday June 21 at Ship Bottom Brewery in Beach Haven. I can’t wait to see it as a good portion features toothy critters. Last year the production crew jumped aboard Fish Head Charters and we had a really fun night on the bay ghetto sharking. Be sure to check it out!

Big Game Fishing

When the weather allows the tuna and sharks are waiting on the mid-shore and offshore grounds.

Here’s a report from the crew aboard the Waterproof from Wednesday June 12th, “Back at it with Tom Kelly and crew. Mother Nature gave us a small window for a day trip, so we took advantage. Got to the grounds around 4am. Day started off really slow but eventually we found some bites. Landed a 250lb bluefin around 9 am. Caught a few mahi and finally had some yellowfin bites early afternoon. Picked away at yellowfin, keeping nine and releasing about a dozen. About 4pm got a good bite and boated a 130lb big eye. Set back and shortly after got a good bite on our smallest outfit, 20 class reel. Two hours and 47 minutes later we pulled a 260lb bigeye through the door. With the boxes stuffed, we pointed home with a happy crew and harvest.”

Artificial Reef Pot Survey

The Division will be conducting an Artificial Reef Pot Survey at the Little Egg, Sea Girt and Manasquan Reefs. Watch out for high flyers! Pots will be deployed the last week of June through July, possibly into August. High flyers will be deployed throughout the reef sites. Please avoid them as best as possible.

LBI Spring 2019 Recap

This past May and so far this June the inshore ocean water were above average. This has helped a variety of things and could be one of many factors that made this spring’s surf fishing on the beach of LBI one of the best in many years. Another factory is the lack of near shore bunker pods. While this has hurt boat anglers hunting striped bass it has helped the surf guys. Some years migrating fish move into the area and stay with the bunker schools for weeks. Unless persistent westerlies set up, the game takes place in 30-50′ of water. However with the lack of bunker schools inshore/near shore the transiting fish are forced to look close to the beach for food. This spring was unique, some might say odd. The lack of bunker schools/pods left striped bass very scattered but one thing that did stand out was the abundance of really big fish that were caught. From May 5th to the 21st some very big fish) were consistently taken on the troll. The lack of middle aged fish in the 18-28lb class was very concerning.

LBI Fishing Report Update June 11th

Here’s an update to supplement yesterday’s more comprehensive post.

We are always happy to help customers with information and guidance. That’s what we are here for and why we dedicate so much time to this fishing report blog page. It really keeps us going strong and puts a smile on our face when we get feedback from happy customers.

Ken Pescatore sent this in…

“Hey guys, I wanted to thank you! I stopped by the shop yesterday and picked up a new sand spike and a few bunker. Went up to the beach in Loveladies and caught my first quality striped bass of the season, a 40 incher! You guys always come through with the best bait!”

While the striped bass spring surf fishing season is dwindling there are some still cruising the suds.

LBI Fishing Report Update Monday June 10th

Here’s the Fishing LBI fishing report update for Monday June 10, 2019.

It was great to see another beautiful weekend of weather on LBI. Lots of anglers got out on the water and the fishing was good despite the chilly upwell. Fortunately, the easterly blow brought back some water temps that we lost due to the previous southerly winds.

The Barnegat Bay has a lot to offer, from fluke to blues with bass, blowfish and blue claw crabs. John Lapchak of High Bar was in to get a flat of bunker. He reported the crabbing is heating up and there’s small bass and fluke around.

Store staffer Jay was on the hunt yesterday but only found some shorts.

Blowfish are roaming the bay. Anglers fishing the Ship Bottom bayside have caught medium sized one using squid. I can share a note from the north end… I was sight casting striped bass on the flats and saw three blowfish swim by. Shortly after an osprey flew by with one in it’s mouth.

It’s great to see the abundance of bay anchovies, spearing and sand eels. The fish are keyed in on it so be sure to match the hatch!

Striper Shootout Results

The High Point Vol Fire Co.’s Striper Shootout went down this past weekend. This year was light on boats with 35 boats fishing. Only 12 fish total were weighed in; three striped bass and nine bluefish. First Place was won by Captain Mike Greene on the Lucky Stripes with a 42.7 pound striped bass. Second Place went to Captain Ken Nutt on The Striper who had a 42.4 pound bass. This fish was caught by Amanda Nutt who took the Top Lady Angler Award. Junior angler award went to Babe Fanelli’s 8.9lb bluefish which was caught aboard the NoNo/Laura with father and Captain Mark Fanelli. Babe’s fish was good enough to win the “Yellow Eye” Bluefish Calcutta too.

Big Game Fishing

June is prime time for big game fishing the waters in the north east. Tuna and sharks are here. Gear up so you are ready to go on the next weather window!

After having fun on the mid-shore grounds, the crew aboard Reel Innovations reported a good first trip to the edge. Captain Jeff said, “Our first trip to the canyon saw great action with yellowfin, bluefin, longfin, white marlin, and mahi. The new Magictail HooMagic head and side tracker bars continue to fill the fish boxes!” More recently we heard more big eye tuna reports from 100-200 lb class. We heard of one 220 pounder.

Captain Deane on the Canyon Runner had a 96″ mako.

JCAA’s 25th Annual Fluke Tournament

It’s coming up quick!

This year’s Jersey Coast Anglers Association’s Fluke Tournament is June 15th, 2019. The coast wide tournament is one of the oldest and best summer flounder fishing tournaments going.

For this year there’s 7 regions which are basically tournaments within the main tournament; Jersey City, Sandy Hook, Shark River, Manasquan, Barnegat Bay, Long Beach Island, South Jersey. Each region has a $1200 cash first place prize and merchandise prizes fro 2nd-10th place. All together there’s 11 weigh stations.

Entry free is $180. Awards presentations are on June 20, 2019 at the Clarion Hotel in Toms River.

There’s also a number of calcuttas from the $50,000 Doormat (largest fish over 12lbs), regional and overall.

For more details go to www.JCAA.org

LBI Fishing Report Update June 7th

Right now in early June, the waters of Long Beach Island have a lot to offer. Good inshore, offshore and from shore fishing all make this one of the best times of year to be an angler in the area.

From Shore

Striped bass and blues continues to cruise the suds of LBI. Anglers are finding fish chunking bunker and fishing lures.

Pete Figueroa and Bob Misak put in some time on the surf this past week. Bob had an outstanding catch reeling in a cobia. He also caught a baby sand tiger shark.

Pete got some big blues off the beach. Anglers in the shop continue to report a good umber of bluefish on the suds.

Jeff C. stopped in the shop with a 24.5″ fluke that weighed in at five pounds. He reported, “The Inlet has been good. Today I caught this one and a 19″ keeper among other shorts. Some other keepers were caught too.”

Thursday was the 11th Annual Battle On The Beach, a surf fishing competition between the local High School Fishing Clubs. Southern Regional High School successfully defended their title and won taking back to back wins. Final Standings: 1st Place Southern with 556.5″, 2nd Place Mates with 88″, 3rd Place Lacey with 45″, 4th Place Barnegat with 29″. The largest fish was a 31.5″ bluefish caught by Southern Regional’s Anthony Rutler. The high hook was Southern’s Killian Horne who caught 114″ of fish.

Inshore & Bay

The striped bass, bluefish and fluke continue who offer lots of fun for light tackle. The inlet, sod banks and main thoroughfares all have fish. In the ocean the wrecks and reefs from 3-15 miles off are well stocked with sea bass.

Jerry Barnes of West Charters PA caught this monster 26.5″ fluke on Thursday fishing a live minnow working the waters near Barnegat Light Inlet.

Zach Michot got a nice weakfish while fluke fishing this morning.

Offshore

What started out as a banger just keeps going strong. Can the big game action get any better? Tuna reports are solid. The mid-shore grounds continue to produce with anglers having a blast on bluefins in all a variety of sizes. Now the canyons are lighting up and productive water is pushing even closer to home.

Store staffer Blake was out fishing the mid-shore grounds today, Friday. They boated three bluefin as well as a ton of albies. Blake reported it was a good day fishing about 30-35 miles out of BI.

Captain Dean on the Canyon Runner had an epic haul on a recent trip! The crew caught seven big eye, thirty yellowfin (many released), released one giant, charter limit of bluefins, 10 more released and a white marlin. Dean reports, “June is the best month to fish offshore!!! Gear Up & Go!”

Fish Head Charters

The past week was full of good times aboard Fish Head Charters. Early June usually means bunker, bunker, bunker; however, this year… sand eels, spearing and bay anchovies. This forage is autumn-esque but I’m not complaining. It’s much easier for “match the hatch” presentation for the light tackle and fly fishing approach.

Thursday morning local angler Steve and his buddy (in from Montana) were on. The veteran fly duo made my life as captain very easy. I put them on the fish and they caught ’em. The morning was very good with both bass and blues hamming the fly. Once again the clouser minnow was the MVP. When is it not? As the day went on things settled down. We explored the back waters of Barnegat Bay and managed to find a couple schoolies. These ones wanted the shrimp. What lives in the bay that doesn’t love grass shrimp?

Today (Friday) I had Jay Hoffman with Jim Gallasso and son on for a dawn patrol session. The crew from Fort Washington PA put the smack down on the striped bass and bluefish. The guys tried keeping count but lost track around 25-ish. From that point on they were really getting dialed in and having a blast. No question it was a triple digit day for the trio.

LBI Fishing Report Update June 4th

It’s time for slams! Striped bass, bluefish and fluke are here and the opportunity is prime. The next couple of weeks are right time to make it happen. There is an abundance of sand eels around setting a stage for an awesome summer (and fall!?!?!?!?).

LBI Striped Bass Fishing Report

Coming out of June’s New Moon, the quality striped bass are still here. Both the surf and jetty as well as boat anglers are finding some good ones. The waters are warming so these days are limited.

This morning a customer who requested to be anonymous was buying a large bag of fresh bunker. When asked, “How are you doing?” He replied, “Good!. Lots of long nights battling dog fish but there’s good fish around. I released a thirty pound class fish last night as well as two medium size bluefish.” Other customers are reporting fish but not epic fishing.

The inshore boat anglers have experienced spotty at best trips. Those that are putting in time and trolling hard are pulling on fish. Some days better than others. The snag and drop bite this year has not really came alive. Most of the action had materialized further north in the Monmouth County waters and westerly Long Island. Locally we’ve found the bunker to be few and far between inshore. The concentration has been “out of range” holding in the 5-10 mile zone. We’ve still got our fingers crossed that some bait will move in close and fire up.

LBI Bluefish Report

The bluefish are still around in good number. Areas of the bay, inlet and surf are all productive on any given day. The size range from 1-3 pound cocktails all the way up to 15 pound gators. We’ve found the beach to be best for surf rats chunking bunker, while the inlet and bay are best targeted with lures. Our top lure choices are bucktails, SP Minnows, Rapala X-Raps among many other like metals.

LBI Fluke Fishing Report

Early season fluke fishing is solid. Bay inlet and surf are all great areas to look that all are producing. Swagmattic shares this valuable info on the fluke fishing front, “I’m fishing the shallow section of the bay near major thoroughfares and sod banks. Working these spots around the top of the tide is the way to go. Slack tide has been very good to me!” It would be good to listen because he know the deal and just took some serious cash in a recent fluke fishing tournament.

Store staffer Frezza has been fluking the bay and finding them. He reports, “The shorts are plentiful with some better fish mixed in. All of my fluke are chock full of grass shrimp and crabs!”

Fluke fishing on the Barnegat Inlet Jetty is good (as well as blues and bass).

Sloanna sent in this photo of a recent pair.

The next couple of weeks would be a good on the beach

Local angler Jared stopped in and got some tackle on Monday. He reported, “I’m fishing just about every morning. It’s good. I got two keepers on Monday on large Gulp baits.”

More reports of houndfish at the Inlet.

Upcoming Fishing Tournaments

The 12th Annual High Point Vol Fire Company is coming up! The Captain’s Meeting is this Friday June 7th at 7pm. Fishing goes down on Saturday. For more info www.hpvfc.com

The state’s top fluke tournament is right around the corner… The 25th Anniversary JCAA Fluke Tournament is June 15th. Save the date! For more information go to www.jcaa.org

Big Game Fishing

Both the midshore and offshore waters are productive. It’s time to seek out weather windows and get out there! Big eye tuna have showed up in the local canyons! We got word today that Dean aboard the Canyon Runner got six big eye on their recent trip. We also heard the Ocean City boys got into big eyes in the Southern Canyons.

We heard some good word from the waters outside the Rezor today. Some medium class bluefin with a couple giants mixed in.

Linda Lee Sportfishing Report

The inshore bluefin has been very good over the past 3 weeks. The false albacore are mixed in with the bluefin to keep the action going all day. Most fish are hitting Chatter Side Tracker Bars and 5oz Joe Shutes for the bigger 80-100+lb fish. I also have spinning gear on board if the feeding frenzies start going off. The Shimano Saragosa matched up with an 8ft Star Rod handles these fish no problem. If you’re looking for those trophy striped bass there still around mixed in with the blues. The Tony Maja #4 Bunker Spoons do the trick along with Magictail Bucktails. I have Saturday 6/8/2019 open for 2-3 guys at $450 pp for bluefin or we can do a seabass wreck fishing trip in the morning and then target a trophy bass in the afternoon $150 pp up to 4 guys. Weather looks good! As long as it stays that way we’ll run off.

Give Captain Ryan A Call 609-276-8032 To Get In On The Action!