Category: Fishing Reports

I don’t do nearly as much canyon fishing as I use to, so when I woke up Saturday morning at 7:30 I realized there was time to make the boat. My friend, Capt. Johnny O’Kinsky was leaving for a two day canyon trip at 9AM and so far I didn’t have enough committed crew to make it a go on my own open boat trips. He wasn’t expecting me but I loaded the truck with all my gear and whatever food was in the house for rations. I figured if he had room, I would jump, and if they were too heavy with crew, I could always drive home. I got lucky and they were four guys looking for a fifth. His boat, the Inspiration is a 36 ft custom twin diesel with a 14 ft beam. We threw the ropes at 9AM and Johnny explained our float plan. Head for the warm water break in the Toms Canyon, troll till dark and set up for the overnight chunk. Troll to the Hudson Canyon and drift for tilefish. On the way back, check out the scallop boats for bluefin tuna. Upon arriving at the Toms, we trolled two small mahi. The overnight chunk yielded no tuna but we still had fun jigging squid and catching 5 to 8 lb mahi on light tackle. When they stopped hitting even live bait, I was able to free gaff three of them. Around 5AM we saw a fish break water behind the boat and I noticed the glow sticks right next to it. Turned out to be a legal sword that ate the deep rigged squid 200 feet down and charged to the surface with it without making a sound on the reel’s clicker. Soon after boating the sword we trolled to the Hudson with no bites. Capt Johnny set everyone up with tilefish rods and rigs. We dropped squid, herring, and sardine baits down 500 feet with two pounds of lead. We boated a bunch of 5 to 8 lb golden tilefish. On the second drift I set up on a fish that maxed out my 30 class outfit like I had never before seen it torqued. This fish was taking runs and head shaking all the way. I loosened the drag three times in fear that I would break it off. I had him on adequate gear, an AVET LX loaded with 65 braid on a Shimano Trevalla 80 to 200 class conventional rod. After 25 minutes, the fish came belly up on the surface and Capt Johnny gaffed my new personal best 43 lb golden tilefish. Here’s the video: https://youtu.be/ZqLTE3PFUeE

On the way back we stopped on the scallop boats and caught five 30 to 40 class bluefins. If we sailed with a one or two dimensional plan of a typical canyon overnight trip we would not have enjoyed the success we did with Capt Johnny O’s aggressive multi faceted attack. Well done Captain! So glad I jumped on for this one.

On the inshore scene there are big stripers on the bunker pods as well as trolling bunker spoons. Albies are still abundant and we are casting small metals on light spinning gear for them.

 

 

 

 

Continued fantastic light tackle action for anglers aboard the Reel Fantasea!

Fat Alberts continue to entertain and amaze our anglers with not only their greased lightening speed but their powerful drag scorching runs whether employing light spinning tackle or flyrod!

The snag and drop action with quality striped bass in the mid thirty pound range has broke open along our beaches for our anglers willing to do a little recon .

Unders [ 24-27.9999] and 28″ and over have provided fair to excellent action closer to working our bays and inlet area while employing both live and artificial baits.

Bluefish from 5-12lbs round out the action on a regular basis as well!!

I have this Friday [Oct 27] afternoon 2pm-5pm or 3pm-6pm for open or private charters. We will be targeting all of the above.

Wishing everyone fair winds and calm seas,

Captain Steve Purul

Reel Fantasea Fishing Charters

609-290-1217

 

Guppy Lure Giveaway – For a chance to win three hard to find colors… 1) Follow Us 2) Like This Post 3) Tag Two Friends Winner will be choose on Thursday 10/26 #fishing #saltwaterfishing #fishinglures #pencilpopper #woodplugs #surfcasting #pluglove #fishingtackle #bassfishing #stripedbass #giveaway

A post shared by Fisherman's Headquarters (@fishermansheadquarters) on Oct 24, 2017 at 12:10pm PDT

Another great day on the water today fly rodding albies! The calms winds and drastically less boat traffic helped big time. The morning marine layer kept visibility low and turned out to be a GOD SEND! We had them boiling on top four hours. Once it burned off the bite continued but wasn’t nearly as good. It’s great to see this awesome light tackle inshore fishery here at home. I’m hoping it continues because I’m not ready to switch over to bunkering bass yet.

This morning the bass on bunker continued in the same areas as last night; northern IBSP, Seaside, Lavallette. Word is good!  Lots of bunker are stacked up and bass are on them. We heard good word on the snag and drop and anglers fishing plugs. One customer was in the shop getting replacement shads for his Mojos. He said, “Got one on a White Magic Tail Mojo trolling off the pier in 60 foot.” This afternoon Blake Scholey got a classy bass trolling a bunker spoon.

Kyle Gronstajski got a new personal best today fishing with Dave Werner.

The threasher sharks are inshore…

 

Black Sea Bass season is open! We didn’t get a bunch of reports but those that did talk said good things. We can only assume the wreck fishing for sea bass is good since the areas haven’t been fished since the end of August.

We just had our first weigh in from Bill Dabney of the Village Harbour Fishing Club. He said the fishing was good at the Little Egg Reef. His biggest was 2.3 pounds. Another report came from Dave McDonnal stopped in the shop for some tackle today. He raved on the sea bass fishing. He said, “The Garden State North is loaded with fish. Got on a nice piece of structure at 8am and limited out in less than two hours. Lots of nice fish. My biggest was 17 inches.” Below is a photo he sent of his catch he sent us. We also got word from another angler, “Triggerfish the size of a dinner plate and well as porgies are mixed in with the sea bass as well as some good size tog at some of the inshore wreck.”

Tog fishing at Barnegat Inlet is smoking hot! Anglers in the boat and on the rocks are smoking fish!

Lake Atlantic went off today on the tuna grounds! Store staffer Dan D. fished aboard the Reel Fishers with Dylan and Scott about 60 miles out of BI.  “We got 25 bluefin working the scallop. It was an insane, all out rope session!”

Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association Fishing Report

by Jim Hutchinson Sr.

Cooler weather has come to Beach Haven, and the striped bass are beginning to show up. The captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association are ready to troll spoons and fish live bunker on a “snag and drop” basis. These bass are good sized already with 20-pounders and even a 40-pounder or two coming across the gunnels.

In addition to the stripers, the black sea bass season re-opens on October 22, and that should be a true bonanza if recent catch and release results are any indication. These sea bass are big and in good numbers on structure and artificial reefs within a short trek of the inlet. The daily bag limit for black sea bass is 15 fish, and limit catches are a distinct possibility. These fish make great eating and freeze very well.

At this time the BHCFA captains are finding a great deal of life in the ocean within a couple of miles of shore. There are large schools of bunker along with lots of bird play working over feeding schools of bluefish and false albacore. These false albacore, or little tunny, make poor table fare but they fight very well for their size with 5-8 pound fish common. There have also been some spottings of whales.

To see about getting in on some of this fishing or just to learn more about the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association, go to www.BHCFA.net.

Albies were up on top again today, although a bit on the spooky side. Saturday morning’s boat traffic didn’t help at all but it was great to see anglers out on the water on the hunt! For the most part everyone played nice and allowed for productive close quarters fishing. The opportunities are out there if you get out there.

Dewey Knapp reported, “What a blast these little critters are… already looking forward to the next time!”

Kyle Gronostajski, “Have to love when the ocean is so alive. Bait, blues, albies, dolphin and whales. A few more degrees cooler and the bass should arrive to a giant feast.

Some large bass have moved in! Today the Jen-Jen got into a good bite on the bunker pods off of IBSP, snag and drop in the afternoon. It came alive! They caught one that went 41.6 pounds.

Some big gator blues are chomping!!! Here’s store staffer Dan with a monster he caught today.

1st Annual Merchantville Fishing Club Tournament

Here on LBI, today was the 1st Annual Merchantville Fishing Club Surf Tournament. 30 teams plus about 20 individuals rounded out for about 200 anglers fishing. The winning team taking the $750 cash prize, RH Custom Rods, had 220″ of scoring fish. Equal mix of kingfish and small blues. The $450 Second Place was Ocean City Fishing Club with 180″. The $300 Third Place went to South Jersey Surfcasters with approx 160pts. Most pts individuals was Bill Kephart Jr with 97pts. Most fish female was Lynda Greaves with 60pts. Most points (27.5) and Biggest Fish youth (14.5″ hick shad) went to Lachlan Pirello of Long Beach Island FC. Largest Fish Overall was a 15.25″ blue. Calcutta $480 Largest fish “other than blue” Calcutta was a 15″ kingfish. CHRIS Thatcher of Surf n Land Club. Calcutta $300.

With my son’s fall baseball schedule winding down, weekends are finally in play as the fish have started moving.  The recent cooler nights have chilled our surrounding waters down and the bay/inlet Striped Bass are starting to become active.   We will start targeting Striped Bass and Bluefish for the rest of the season.  It should only get better in the coming weeks and November is almost booked with only two dates remaining.

It was Albie Mayhem! Video from the trip: http://vimeo.com/239233989

I had Bruce Connor from Illinois on a 5-hour Fall Striped Bass charter and we worked a variety of areas.  We started working the back with live bait and Bruce hooked a couple of monster Bluefish to 16 pounds keeping a smaller one for the table.  We were able to pick a 25-inch Striped Bass amongst the Bluefish, which was harvested with a NJSBBP tag.  As the bite died, we got into some bird action with False Albacore busting the surface.  Bay Anchovies/Rainfish were being sprayed as the Albacore rocketed through the schools.  We played with the Albacore for the remainder of the trip as they burned drags on metals and our hand-tied teasers.  It was literally a non-stop bite for 3 solid hours.  Great job by Bruce who went home with some meat and sore arms.

On all of our Fall Striped Bass charters,  we provide “live spot” on every charter which are included at no charge.  Just a reminder, we have our allotted 50 Striped Bass Bonus Tags from the state of NJ for the season and we be using them till the end of the season.

If interested in booking a charter, book through the website (reelreactioncharters.com) or call/text 609-290-7709. As always, we use the highest quality gear and everything is included: gear, tackle, fish-cleaning, and ICE!  It’s “no worries” fishing.  Just come aboard and FISH.

Capt. Brett Taylor ~ www.reelreactioncharters.com ~ Call or Text: 609-290-7709

If you have not heard by now the false albacore fishing is red hot… off the charts… WORLD CLASS!!! Anglers from around the world converge at Montauk and Harkers Island to tangle with “Little Tunny” and all his buddies. Right now the locally fishery stands up to these these legendary locations.

Anyone who has not experienced albie fishing should try it out. It’s a blast! Especially on light tackle and more so on the fly! Get out and enjoy. There have been some caught by land based anglers; however it is not the easiest to accomplish. For those that don’t have a boat, reach out to a friend or better yet hook up with the local charter boat captains. They are dialed in. Give them a call to get in on the action.

Today I was out on the water with Bob Bruns of upstate New York targeting the albies on the fly. After yesterday’s off the charts fishing expectations were HIGH! We started off the morning looking for bass in the dark but could only squeak out a couple blues. Before the sun poked we got on the search and found the albies boiling. The stiff westerly winds made for challenging fly fishing conditions but Bob did great putting the fly where it needed to be… in front of the speeders face. We had a blast catching a bunch of them all morning. Here’s a short clip of one bite with some some screaming drag.

 

On the Surf

The LBI surf striped bass fishing is still on the slow but fish are being caught. For the latest results on the LBI Surf Fishing Classic check out the Live Results Page.

Tomorrow is the ASAC sanctioned Merchantville Fishing Club Surf Tournament. Best of luck to all the anglers. We are looking forward to a great day. It will be interesting to see what species are caught. With all of the anglers fishing these tournaments really provide a great gauge on what’s present. Stay Tuned…

Other Fishing Fronts

Trolling the beaches is a very slow pick but should improve very soon. There have been a couple nice ones pulled locally on spoons. Word from up state is positive. We heard of solid fishing off Sea Girt.

The back bay is still offering great fishing. One customer buying a bunch of softbaits and jig heads said, “You don’t need luck. It’s that good.” Eeling is heating up in the bay with anglers catching bass.

Tog fishing continues to produce!

Good weather window has offshore anglers packing up and pushing off. We got a recent report from the edge that swords are on the chew. Also we heard that some scallop boats fishing the Hudson closed area are chumming up tuna in the slicks. Anglers are getting in on the action.

 

 

 

 

 

The albie fishing presently on hand is as good as it gets! Vast Schools of breaking fish for as far as the eye can see is making not only EPIC False Albacore fishing for the light tackle enthusiast but phenominal visual strikes as well with fish chasing our lures right to the hull!

If  a screaming drag and a bent rod is some of your favorite sights and sounds then get out there now! These gamesters are greased lighting so make sure you wear a pair of running shoes as they will rip you around the boat faster than any other fish that swims  our inshore waters!!

Wishing everyone fair winds and calm seas,

Captain Steve Purul

Reel Fantasea Fishing Charters

609-290-1217

 

  

White Bait & Albies

Piles of white bait are stretched out along LBI’s beaches, Barnegat Inlet and the local waters to our north and south. For the most part these black clouds of white bait have FALSE ALBACORE heavily feeding. There’re  bluefish, weakfish and striped bass in the mayhem too. The scene is Montauk September session esque!

Today I was out on the water with store staffer’s Lou and Blake. To say the trip was sensational is an understatement. It was an all morning blast session with speedsters smoking drags.

On light tackle outfits (3000 size spinners matched up with a 7′ medium action rod) these could be one of the funnest species to target inshore, especially the fly. On spinning tackle the Deadly Dick was top producer and softbaits from Ronz, Fins and Tsunami are a close second. With that said if you can get out on the water, now is the time. Get in the game while fishing is off the charts!!!

More News Local Reds

Joe Hanley knows a thing or two about catching quality redfish. When he saw the report of Cutter’s LBI mullet run surf redfish on the fly he sent in a message… “Just saw the redfish post. Nice fish! I also got one last night (Tuesday) off the mid-island surf. It was a small puppy, about 15 inches. Went for a 3/8oz lead head rigged with a paddle tail. Caught two last year on November 21st on the same lure. There must be a few around.” It’s great to see these fish around! With the way seasons and temps are trending maybe one day we’ll have a solid red drum fishery! Wouldn’t that be nice?

Tautog Fishing Update

The tog fishing at the Barnegat Inlet only gets better! Jeff Crabtree is in the shop everyday, if not every other day. He’s dialed in with togging the rocks and recently has been doing great! Wednesday he was in for crabs in the morning then stopped back at 1pm to check weight on a 20″ white chin. Turns out it was a 5.88 pound fish. Really nice catch for a land based tog angler! Jeff said, “Yesterday (Tuesday) I had four keeper sized fish.” Fishing is good and keepers are holding. Get out and give it your best shot!

Today we had two tog weighed in. Bill Figley of the Village Harbour Fishing Club checked in a 3.72 pound white chin. A 5.14 pound rubba’ lip went for Bob Schlachter’s (from Rutland, VT) green crab on the BL jetty.

NJ’s Black Sea Bass Season Is Almost Open

Lots of anglers are gearing up in preparation of Black Sea Bass fishing which opens Sunday October 22. It remains open to the end of the year with a 15 fish bag limit at 12.5″ minimum size. Word in the shop from commercial pin hookers is the bite has been really good with lots of big knot heads. Everyone is struggling getting clams due to a severe shortage. Unless something changes, fresh/live, salted and even frozen clams look to be a no go this entire fall. Anglers are choosing squid and meat like mackerel and bunker as a substitute. One angler purchased a couple jars of Jig Strips which are squid scented and said, “I trim them with a pair of scissors to the perfect size and add to the hook with bait. The strips are added insurance.” Jig Stripz hold up great to feisty biters!