Author: FishHead.Greg

Saturday turned out to be a really nice day on Long Beach Island. Anglers fishing the surf enjoyed great conditions with two to three foot southerly wind swell breaking on the bars. This energy from the recent southerly winds offered beautiful whitewater. The surf is right at the brink of 50.

Anglers fishing the LBI surf today caught bass and black drum. We had two reports. One angler fishing the mid-island surf caught two small bass on live bloodworms. Another report came in from the south end of the island…

Victoria and Matt Pratt geared up with bait and tackle before hitting the beach. They check back in later in the day getting more bait as well as some ice for with catch. Matt caught a 13.06 pound black drum fishing with clam and worm on the south end of the island. They are going to try their luck again on the beach tomorrow.

More report of bass, drum, weakfish and fluke but little to no bluefish action. Anglers trolling the bay looking for bluefish caught FLUKE! Mostly bass and fluke line the Jetty. A customer in the shop mid-day reported seeing an angler walk off the Jetty today with a bluefish but he had little luck, “I fished for three hours. Not a touch.”

Dan D was out on the hunt this afternoon and reported, “Lots of bait! Last night and today I found bunker stacked at different locations. Again I had  hungry fluke. I’m sharpening my skills with catch and release practice for the season. There were small bass snapping too.” Dan also shared, “The bayside bass bite is still good. Some nice fish around back… my buddy had a 30″ off his dock.” That’s a really nice fish considering recent showings.

A boat angler was in getting geared up for the run. While in he reported taking a ride around the inshore waters this morning. “I saw westerly winds so I took a look to see if any bait was stretched out on the beach. Found little to none. All of the bunker was in the Inlet again. Trolled for an hour and called it off. The ocean water temperature was 47-48 degrees.” It got colder due to the recent southerly wind and swell upwelling.

Local angler Todd Luyber took a trip down to the Outer Bank of North Carolina. He sent in this report yesterday, “Slow but steady pick of drum. Fished hard from 2-8 without a fish. Then got two on consecutive casts to end the session. One last night night and two tonight!”

Here’s the Fishing Long Beach Island Report Update for Friday May 4, 2018… Great step forward this week with both fishing and weather. The beautiful sun and temperatures has warmed the bay to the mid to high 50’s in most areas. The LBI surf temperature is in the high 40’s to right at the 50 degree mark. The Inlet and surrounding waters are a mix depending on tide.

Get out and enjoy spring! Good fishing awaits in all waters of LBI with a target species such as striped bass, bluefish, black drum, weakfish and perch on the chew.  Sorry haven’t heard anything on winter flounder. With the recent warm up these more than likely guys jumped on the train outta here but other flounder showed up… FLUKE! These guys will be waiting and ready to chew come opening day May 25.

On The Water Magazine From The Surf article by local angler Steve George is out. He shared this post on Thursday, “Just perfect timing with this months column as the yellow eyed demons are just now invading the surf, inlet and back bays. I can again tell you these are world class type bluefish- as yesterday afternoon (Wednesday) I had the pleasure to do battle with the 3 foot long 15 pound plus blue on a very light tackle set up geared for schoolie stripers. What blast that was in shallow/ clear water – the visuals were incredible. So have fun – stay safe and check out the latest edition of On-the-Water Magazine in between tides.”

Yesterday (Thursday) Brian Petitt of Medford stopped by to share a report. Brian weighed in a 9.7 pound bluefish that he caught while fishing the Barnegat Light State Park Jetty. The racer went for a 4oz Acme Kastmaster Metal “tin” Lure. Blues love metal especially diamonds, tins and slab spoons. Also don’t forget heavy hooked bucktails from MagicTail and Andrus in the 1-3oz range. Now’s the time to gear up and take some casts to be there and ready when they pop up.

Yesterday morning (Thursday) I had store staffers Kelley and Jordan were on board Fish Head Charters. Right out of the gates Kelley hooked a nice keeper size striped bass on a bone Daiwa SP Minnow lure. Soon Jordan followed it up with another bass that ate his white swim bait. These two went back and forth all morning both sticking to their individual go-to’s productively catching. At certain points it was one after the other with numerous double ups. Dozens on dozens. These fish ranged from keeper size to minis. Seemed like the fish were really keen on white today and also they didn’t want it on top. I can say this after stubbornly fishing top water for far too long. A quick switch over to a swimming plug and BANG! Hooked up. Lots of fun on light tackle! The hot lure for Kelley he was the Bone Daiwa SP (DSPM13). Jordan was dialed in with the white Kettle Creek Paddle tail rigged on a 3/4oz jig head.

Again the bunker were stacked in the Inlet thick as thieves. While we did not catch a bluefish we did some caught by anglers fishing close by. We also got to see a large school finning on top that numerous times would not touch a lure placed a head and in front of their eyes.

BAIT UPDATE:

Late in the day yesterday, fresh bunker arrived. Stock is holding up but may sell out before our next anticipated refill (late today). No bloodworms but are expecting some today. Live surf clam in stock with more arriving today. We hope to have live eels in the next week or two and then shortly after live minnows.

Lots of calls, emails and customer inquiries in the shop, “What’s the word with the blues?” So far the bluefish have been few and far between. They are popping up for a quick frenzy but disappearing quickly. Finally today there was a good wave of them. We expect to see a better run of them in the coming days.

I hit the boat this morning and went on the hunt for some fins. Started out looking at the Inlet and we found lots of bunker pushing in. Marked the hell out of them as well as lots of game fish (see photo below). Could only mange to get one bass on a plug. Didn’t see any of the other four boats hook up.  After packing it in and rolling into work at 11am, a call came in.

“I’m heading up to the inlet to take a look.” Shortly after our conversation he was into fish! The blues made a showing and some anglers hooked up.  Dan said, “Some racers ripped through. The bite fizzled but kept fishing. Ended up picking a bass and a fluke.” Congrats Dan on the SLAM!!! Catching the trio from land is no small task.

A number of other bass and blues were also caught.

More breaking news on blues… Joe Antonio from Manahawkin, fished the mid-island bay this morning. He caught a number of nice size blues.

The weather is looking good. Now’s the time to get out and fish.

Bait Update: This evening we got a fresh delivery of premium bunker. Tomorrow (Wednesday) we expect live bloodworms as well as live surf clams.

Hurray Hurray It’s Finally May!!!

The beautiful weather continues and the long range looks great temperature wise. Things are literally heating up! Today there were bunker stacked up on the beach. Two reports came in from the south end of the Island. Unfortunately no fish on them.

Fishing was red hot! Too bad it closed yesterday. The tog season does not reopen until August 1st (8/1-11/15) when it’s one fish 15 inches.

Report Update 5pm

Just had some solid reports from two customers in the shop. One was just up at the Inlet. He said, “A school of blues came through the Inlet towards the bottom of the tide. Some anglers hooked up and then they were gone. I’m heading up to the surf to try the incoming tide.” Another report came in from an angler fishing the bayside sod banks. He reported, “I’m catching all sorts of fish. Bass, drum, perch, weakfish and a couple big eels. Got three to four drum. Biggest one was 41″. Managed a nice mid twenty inch weakfish too.”

More reports of striped bass and black drum on the surf! Another bluefish report from the inlet. One boat angler got a pair fishing metal this weekend.

Christina stopped in to pick up some tackle and shared a photo and report. She caught the black drum below off the LBI surf on Saturday. The fish went for a hook baited with Fish Bites.

Jason Hoffman reported a great day on the beach this past weekend. He fished Saturday’s tournament and caught this 25″ striper (3″ short of scoring). He ended up winning a reel in the raffle.

We got word from Matt Polito who fished today’s surf and participated in the fishing tournament. He reported, “Fishing was slow. I caught one small bass. For the most part it was dead probably due to the low tide. A 33″ black drum took first place, followed by a 28.5″ striped bass and third was a 22″ drum.” We are stoked to hear about some more black drum chewing in the area.

Joe Picariello was out fishing with his dad Mike the other night. They caught some bass (26-36″) fishing Daiwa SP Minnow lures. Joe reported, “We were releasing keeper size fish all night.  Their location was not shared.

Captain Mark Finelli from Laura Sportfishing put his crew on the meat today! He reported, “We caught two good ones and broke the boat record! A 15.5 and a 12 pounder as well as some other white chins.”

The once sort of top secret Floating Jig Heads from Tom Scibek were recently highlighted by legendary fluke sharpie Don Kamienski in the On The Water New Jersey’s May Edition. We have them in stock and available online at Tom Scibek Floating Jig Heads

It’s On!!! While this photo isn’t from today, they are chewing!!! More reports today spoke about the new guys on the block, Mr. Yellow Eye. Dropping tide this morning in the rain a couple blues were caught. Can’t wait to see this bite progress.

Reports of small bass continue. More reports off the surf and the bay continues.

James Hill is in town from Pittsburgh. He stopped in recently and got a new  a new Tsunami Air Wave Elite 8′ light inshore rod matched up with Daiwa BG3000.  Rocking set up!!!

Last night he got into the bass and get ’em good on jigs. He said, “The new set up is a dream!”

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Miles Callisto from Tomorrowland took a break from his space adventures last night and got into some good fishing!

All joking aside good early season fishing continues. The bay is full of small bass some are super dinks as seen in the photo above. It gets me thinking… How old is a 8-10″ fish? I recall reading or hearing that a striped bass doesn’t leave it’s “home” until it is 1-3 years old. Wonder if these are resident fish, maybe Mullica River Rats? Could these be migrates?

More positive reports from the surf. One local Ship Bottom resident said he caught too many small bass to count, “I lost count at about 50!” They were in tight to the mid island beach hamming softbaits. Recently the conditions got difficult. The pumping south east swell today is forecast to stick around for a few days.

Breaking News: Recent talk of some bluefish showing up not too far south, Atlantic City and South Jersey waters. Then today we heard through the grapevine a couple were caught on the bayside on the south end of the Island.

Here’s the LBI Fishing Report Update – April 25, 2018… Finally some positive reports from the beachfront! After our last post (4/22/18) stating “the surf fishing is dead” some anglers spoke up and shared, “There are fish!”

On Monday morning, I crossed paths with Allen Magrini at the gym. He informed, “I caught FIVE striped bass off the mid-Island surf Sunday. All you need is a small rubber artificial and a teaser.” The afternoon’s dropping tide is what produced. Monday afternoon Alaina (Allen’s daughter) caught her first striped bass off the surf. It was a small one but a first is always a great catch!

So far the bluefish have been few and far between. The super early ones hinted at an early bite but didn’t materialize. With focus in or near the warm water outflow they were most likely winter time hold overs. We get calls and emails daily, “How the bluefish bite?” Right now at the time of this post, nonexistent, but could start at any time.

Word on the street is we only need a little more time. As seen above there’s racers way south of here. The reports have been strong. Maybe these brutes will head up the coast soon.

The early season spots are still the place to be with striped bass as the main characters. White Perch, weakfish and black drum help with a supporting roll. The bass are stacked like cord wood in some areas in the bay. They are small but some better (can’t really call 25-30″ fish BIG’er) ones are showing up. These fish are offering lots of fun fishing entertainment.

Yesterday (Tuesday) we had some door troubles and made an emergency call to South Philly Fred at NorEaster Door & Lock Co., the commercial door and lock specialist. He showed up and fixed the problem quickly. After the work was done we went over to the local watering hole and caught a bunch of mini’s (super dinks in the 10-20″ range). These bass were all over small artificial baits. It was a lot of fun catching one after the other, sometimes doubled up. Then we turned our attention over to the Sixers at a real watering hole. It was a great game! Super excited to see where this young team can take it.

Bait Update: Currently at the time of this post we have live green crabs and salted pints as well as all of the frozen fixin’s. The live bloodworm delivery that was expected yesterday is now expected at some point today. We anticipate fresh bunker on Thursday and Friday.