Category: Fishing Reports

So here we are… Friday the 13th, approaching the middle of November and the new moon is tomorrow. Looking back at the first half of November it’s easy to say it has been a great month so far. Until recent the weather was unbelievable and so was the fishing. Even now with unstable weather there’s action to be had.

Here’s the Fishing LBI Fishing Report Update For Friday November 13, 2020.

Don’t Wait… Go Fish!

If you are sitting back, waiting for the “fishing to kick off” you are 100% missing out on great fishing opportunities. Anglers have and are catching striped bass on both the beach and boat.

This morning Jay Shayne caught a pair of big bass. He stopped in this afternoon for two new surf reels and shared a great report. “I had a good morning fishing the mid island surf. I stopped by Fish Heads and got some fresh bunker and then hit the beach not far from the shop. First cast, not more than 15 minutes I got 47″ bass. Then shortly after a 44″ second fish.” We would have to say that is about as good as it gets right there!

Here’s some other recent reports from the Long Beach Island Surf…

Today Mike Cucinotta caught and released a 47″ striped bass off of the LBI surf.

Rob Vallone stopped in the shop yesterday. He was up on the beach in the morning and got one striped bass. He said, “Fish the deep troughs in close with a metal and a teaser rig. You’ll find them.” He reported, “My buddies are picking a few too using the same as well as small rubber swim shads, sand eel soft baits and Deadly Dick Metals.” Robbie hit the LBI surf in the afternoon too. He got the skunk but his dad got one small bass and his buddy Andy got two. Biggest was 24″.

Dante from Magictail Lure Company was in the show today. He reported catching two small bass off the surf today on soft baits, Kettle Creek Paddletail Shads on a led head.

Recent LBI Surf & Jetty Catches

In the past 5-7 days land based anglers fishing the beaches of Long Beach Island have found some quality fish. Numerous fish over 40″ were reported. Here’s some photos of a couple.

These big fish aren’t the only catches from the LBI surf. We’ve also got first hand report from others. Anthony Ventriello recently caught this 26.5″ striped bass off of the LBI surf fishing the south end surf with a Deadly Dick Metal Lure.

Thursday morning Pete Evangelist reported the bass were blowing up on bait just out of casting range. Gary Grippaldi shared he is bucktailing schoolies on the surf. He said that he caught a fish off the surf the last few evenings.

Big Bass In The Local Waters

Barry Baxter caught and released a monster fishing the waters of LBI. He reported, “I took my wife Nicole for a boat ride around LBI yesterday. Saw some birds picking a mile off the beach. First cast… personal best 52″ fish. Then three casts later another big fish in the 40# class.”

What a great run of fishing we had before this recent weather. Thursday (5th), Friday (6th), Saturday (7th), Sunday (8th), Monday (9th), Tuesday (10th) was a great stretch of fishing and phenomenal weather. Not sure what was better… Top water bass fishing with striped bass ranging from teen to 40 class or fishing in shorts in early November.

It’s great to see a smorgasbord of bait here; sand eels, micros baits, bunker and squid. Anglers are finding fish using just about every application one could imagine. Those doing the best are matching the hatch.

Mojos are a great way to match squid and bunker. Umbrella rigs with tubes match a sand eel and shad match peanut bunker. Bunker spoons match a herring or bunker to the tee. Get in the game and have fun!

Bottom Fishing

Bottom fishing at the local wrecks and reef sites is goofd with anglers catching quality tog as well as porgies and sea bass at select areas.

Big Game Fishing

Fall Tuna, Swords & Tiles

When the weather allowed reports came in from anglers fishing the deep for swordfish. Big game anglers were also finding big eye, tilefish and bluefin. Fred Soper reported catching a 68″ big eye and going three for three on swords.

Inshore Tuna Fishing

Captain Adam Sherer gets on some bluefin tuna each year as they move through our areas. Just the other day he found them and got one on the deck! “We avoided the striper crowds and did our own thing. It paid off big time. We had a great day chasing pods of bluefin tuna busting all by ourselves. It’s great to see Jersey bluefin tuna within sight of land.”

Really good striper fishing right now. Everything from 5 to 40 pound fish. Trolling, snagging, jigging, and casting are all producing fish. 
Saturday and Sunday we had to troll to put 10 to a dozen fish in the boat, keeping six each day with our bonus tags in play. We did catch a few casting swimming plugs to swirling bass. On Monday we broke the inlet at 4:30 AM and had the lines in before sun up on the hunt for near shore bluefin. Only five miles offshore we trolled for two hours in the exact spot friends of ours had visual fish skying out of the water on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Never saw a tuna. Lots of stripers. In fact they were crashing our side tracker bars at tuna speed. Had enough of that, so we headed to the Mud Hole to try chunking. Nothing, no readings, no birds, so I didn’t even anchor. I was getting ready to head back towards home when I noticed a cluster of wrecks on my chartplotter. Not being a good wreck captain, I thought maybe with this many so close together, even I could accidentally put the boat over one. I decided to try drift jigging. The drift was perfect and we hovered over the structure drift after drift. All the sea bass were shorts but we caught a ton of huge porgies. Got dinner out of the deal anyway. 
Sunday looks like a southerly blowout, but Saturday and Monday look really good as both have NW and west winds forecasted.  Sailing Open Boat or Charter Saturday Nov 14 and Monday Nov 16 6AM to 2PM. $225 person, 4 person max, all fish are shared.
Available Tues thru Fri for Striper Charters departing at 10AM. 
Pics:
Ross Leahy of Fanwood, NJ with a trio of stripers that crushed one of our custom made umbrella rigs.

Capt. Nick DeGennaro in black sweatshirt with porgy

Dave Flood of Mantua, NJ in orange slickers with porgy

Dave DeGennaro

732.330.5674 cell

hiflier.com

We had a nice stretch of weather from late last week through the beginning of this week and we took advantage of it as we were out there fishing every day. Once this rain rolls through we will be back at it and hopefully pick up where we left off.

Friday 11/6 we had return client Chris and his son Ryan along with their friend Gary out for our first striped bass trip of the fall run. We took a shot in the dark and pea soup fog this morning and went out looking for some life. We ended up finding tons of life with gannets working and bass on top. We got our first fish before we were even able to set out the spread. After getting a few fish trolling, we switched to try and get them on top water. We threw everything possible at them but they had lockjaw and we’re very finicky. We jumped back on the troll and ended the trip going 5/8 with fish up to 40”. Great job today on our first trip guys and we will see you next year!

Saturday 11/7 was a rare day where Jess and myself were able to fish together for the first time this year due to a last minute cancellation and boy did they miss out. We caught over 20 fish up to 45”, keeping our 2 slot fish and bonus tag fish. We then switched it up and went tog fishing, catching close to 50 tog and keeping our limit of 2 up to 5lbs. On the way in we found fish boiling on top water and Jess was able to jig up some more fish before heading home for the day.

Sunday 11/8 We had Harrison and Taylor out for a striped bass trip as a belated birthday gift for Harrison. We have been trying to get them out since august but had bad weather forcing to reschedule 3 times. Today the weather was perfect and we had some great fishing in the morning. We found the bite early, starting the day off catching them 2 at a time. We ended the morning going 10/10 on bass up to 32”, keeping our 4 bonus tag fish and 2 slot fish. Great job today and happy belated birthday Harrison!

Monday 11/9 was another awesome morning in the books! We had new clients Steve, Scott, and Pete out for a striped bass trip. We started off in the same area that we’ve been fishing and were on the fish within minutes. We lost count today but we had to have caught around a dozen fish plus the countless knockdowns and some that pulled hooks behind the boat. We released 2 fish that were in the 32-35lb range according to the scale as well. We ended the trip keeping our boat limit of 5 slot fish plus 2 bonus fish that we tagged. Great day guys we look forward to seeing you again before the run is over!

Tuesday 11/10 we had Al and a friend who had to step aside from some pics due to work reasons (sick days are the best days) out for a striped bass trip. It was another epic bite as we had our boat limit of 4 slot fish and 4 bonus tag fish in just over an hour! They also released 5 more fish before the bite shut off pretty early. Awesome morning on the water!

The fall striped bass run is in full swing. We are booked 7 days a week through the end of the month and we wanted to say a big thank you to all of our customers for that! December is filling in for striped bass and tog very quickly as well. If you are interested in getting out please contact us to book your trip. Call or text Captain Mike to get out on the water or send us a message through our website! (609)-709-7264

www.nolimitssportfishingllc.com/

Recent days have offered awesome fishing in the local waters of Long Beach Island and the surrounding areas. There’s a large body of striped bass here NOW! It’s time to fish.

If you want to score… be sure to HATCH THE HATCH!

We have a great stretch of weather coming up this weekend. Light and variable winds along with comfortable temperatures in the 60’s.

We are going to run either Open Boat or Charter: Sunday Nov 8, and Monday Nov 9. The boat is already booked on Sat Nov 7.
There is a great striper bite going on up north. Early morning you can jig or cast lures. Once the boat pressure gets to be too heavy you have to find your own fish or troll. Anything from 10 to 40 pound fish. Capt Nick DeGennaro ran the Hi Flier to those northern grounds yesterday (Wednesday) and had a slow start but a really good finish, boating 11 bass from 12 to 40 pounds. They were able to catch them on topwater lures and jigs. We have to run a good deal north so I would suggest meeting at the boat at 4:00 AM for the best shot at jigging and casting. 4AM to 2PM, $225 person, 4 people max, all fish are shared. 

The marine forecast is good enough to head to the Triple Wrecks in search of tuna but I don’t have any recent reports. Just throwing it out there for those of you that want “one more shot”. If we run there and there’s no tuna, there’s not a lot of Plan B. I would consider running another 20 miles into the Hudson Canyon for tilefish, but the weather and sea condition would have to be mint.  5AM to 5PM, $450 person, 4 people max, all fish are shared. 

We could also anchor up in the Mud Hole and try chunking for bluefin, again, no reports from here that I know of, just a likely time of year to try. Look for some readings on the machine, anchor up, start chunking, and put out some live baits. Just now heard of some surface bluefin about 10 miles offshore. This is a different game. A lot of fish airing out, very exciting, but tough to get them to eat. We have the spinning outfits and topwater lures to throw if anyone wants to try. We can combine either of these tuna efforts with the striper fishing. We would have to start with the tuna as we can not be in possession of any stripers beyond the 3 mile line. 5AM to 5PM $1,500 for the boat or Open Boat $375 per person if we run to the Mud Hole to chunk and then striper fish, $1,200 for the boat or Open Boat $300 per person if we cast at surface tuna and then striper fish. Both trips are 4 people max, all fish are shared. Keep in mind the tuna fishing is only an option, we can just go striper fishing at the hours and rates described above.

I am game for any of these trips on either day, Sunday or Monday, majority rules, Stripers, Tuna, or Stripers/Tuna combo. The best way to reach me is on my cell. You can call right up until “go time” to get a spot.

Wed,Thurs,Fri Nov 11, 12, and 13, we will be running 11AM to 4PM striper trips in the inlet. These are mostly 20 to 28 inch fish on light spinning tackle. We could also buy live spots and catch them on conventional tackle. 

Pics:
Bill Howard of Egg Harbor Twp, NJ in white slickers

Max DeGennaro of Barnegat, NJ in black hat and jacket

Capt Nick DeGennaro of Barnegat, NJ in blue camo pants

Mike Frezza of Tuckerton, NJ in blue and orange jacket

Dave DeGennaro
Hi Flier Sportfishing

732.330.5674 cell

hiflier.com 

The remnants of Zeta was a doozie here on LBI with high winds, lots of rain and some serious flooding. It brought back memories from eight years ago of Sandy. The storm cleared out and very chilly temps filled in.

Daylights Savings Ends on Sunday November 1st!

So here we are at the end of October with a big bright shinning full moon and daylight savings. Sunday we gain an hour in the morning… Saturday sunrise was at 7:25 am. Sunday sunrise is at 6:36am. Sunset on Sunday will be at 4:53pm.

Jersey Shore Fishing Report

Last week! This Week! Hopefully Next Week! Great fishing is and had gone down over recent days when wether allows. Some days are non stop feeds. Get out and enjoy the awesome early season fishing opportunities that are upon us. The fish are here NOW! Great catches recently on lures, live lining and trolling.

Here’s Fish Heads staffers Jordan (left) and Willie (right) with two quality striped bass that they caught and released on Saturday afternoon fishing off of Monmouth County.

Who knows… Will get closer and stage up? If they do all the more better. But we aren’t waiting. We are going fishing! Historically speaking Long Beach Island and the local waters sees the first wave of quality striped bass in the early days of November.

Last year in 2019 November 5th was a solid day for a number of anglers and an especially great day for Jeremy Mill, Shimmerhorn and the boyz aboard the Who Cares. They caught five quality striped bass on this day. Two of the five classy ones were on the same rod, tandem rig.

Another memory from this time of year that stands out is from 2017. November 1st was the date John Matt caught a 48 pound striped bass off the LBI surf. With this fish Matt won the 63rd LBI Surf Fishing Classic.

LBI Bayside Waters

Striped bass are abundant in the local bays; Barnegat, Manahawkin and Great Bay. This should be news to anyone who’s following along with our fishing report updates. These areas have had bass and will have them all of November.

Tom Lewis reported having a blast with his son fishing light tackle Tuesday evening. They caught a handful fishing in the bay off of Beach Haven using top water and jerk baits.

Store staffer Grey is catching squid regularly fishing the lights at night. He said there’s squid hounds lurking.

Store staffer Max was out in the boat on Saturday evening and shared some water temperature data. Take it for what it’s worth… 53 degrees in Oyster Creek Channel, 57 degrees in the inlet.

LBI Surf Fishing

The Long Beach Island surf temperature is ocean is finally below the 60 mark at 59 degrees. We expect this downward water temp trend to continue.

Since the Zeta blow few reports have come in but we can share the following…

Bob Capri caught and weighed in this 7.98# 28″ striped bass in the early morning Saturday. He caught the linesider off of the Harvey Cedars surf on a lure.

A few small blues reported (snapper small) as well as dog sharks from anglers fishing bunker chunks. Usually right around Halloween the dogies show up in big numbers. Looks like they are arrvingin on schedule as our friend Swag hit the surf today and reported. “Chunked the surf for a few hours… lotta dog sharks keeping me active.” I’ve found over the years that striped bass roll into town almost lock step with the doggies. They both like similar water temperatures.

Another surf side report came in from Craig Harkness. He sharred, “Not much happening off the surf this morning from 5:30am to noon except for a couple of small black drum on bloodworms and squid Fish Bites.” Craig mentioned he was fishing the south end of LBI down in Beach Haven.

Land Based Tog Fishing

Reports on Saturday were not good but rightfully so. A day after a big storm expectations should be low due to residual swell and chocolate milk water.

Paul Michael got a 15.25″ tog and left the blistering cold to warm up. He came back in the afternoon and reported, “the bite picked up around 5pm with the higher tide.” He caught a couple 14-14.75″ fish and lost a keeper size fish trying to lift onto the rocks.

Here’s a look at the Long Beach Island surf on Monday October 26, 2020.

This past weekend kingfish and a couple striped bass were caught. Also tog fishing has been good at the Barnegat Inlet. Get out and have fun fishing!

There were a couple of resident bass reported off the surf this past weekend. Soon we expect more fish and larger fish to move into our waters. Right now they are hanging around the state’s northern waters.

Nick Brewer stopped by Fish Heads and spooled up his reel before hitting the surf. He caught this striped bass on bloodworms. Anglers are also catching kingfish with bloodworms and Fish Bites. Another surf side striped bass was reported by Liam Velit. He reported catching a striped bass on a teaser super close into the beach and the fish spit up sand eels. Good to know the sand eels are still around. They were plentiful all summer and if they stick around all fall things could get really interesting.

Store staffer Grey has been catching squid at night. This isn’t a one time thing. He has caught a number of them on his recent trips.

Captain Jeff aboard the Reel Innovation shared a report from his most recent offshore trip this past weekend. “Took a while to find them but on the last drift of the day we managed to kill two nice ones. Also pulled another one off next to the boat. I think the swell was doing something down deep and that threw off the bite. It was great having young Hunter out for his first canyon trip. This kid is hooked for life and I’m sure he is going to put a ton of swords across the dock throughout his life”

The weather so far this fall has been very uncooperative. We have not been given many days to fish since Labor Day weekend. Let’s home the weather breaks as we enter into November!

Sunday 10/18 we were able to get one trip in. We had new client Sam and Kenny along with their sons Sam and Mike out for a wreck fishing trip. A day that was forecasted to be beautiful ended up being the complete opposite by the end of the trip. It was a tough pick for sea bass as we could not fish where we wanted to, but the jumbo porgies made up for it. We had to end the trip a little early due to deteriorating weather conditions, but the crew ended with a nice mixed bag of some quality sea bass, jumbo porgies, triggerfish, blackfish, and even a bonito. The Rhodan trolling motor worked awesome even in the rough conditions!

Thursday 10/22 was our next fishable day and we threw together a last minute wreck fishing trip with our friends Ryan and Keith. We got a late start but once we made it to the first wreck, the Rhodan trolling motor worked perfectly and we easily boxed our full boat limit of sea bass in under 2 hours. We also had a dozen big porgies up to over 3lbs as well as a triggerfish! We were greeted with pea soup fog on the way in, but great day on the water with some great friends as well as great weather!

Saturday 10/24 we had return clients Jay and Suzie along with their friends George and Matt out for a wreck fishing trip. As we made our way through the inlet in the morning, we were greeted by a huge ground swell along with an outgoing tide making passing through very sketchy. We ran back out to where we had a full boat limit 2 days prior, but the big swell definitely effected the fishing. We had to move around to a few wrecks to put together a decent catch. Every single wreck was also covered up with spiny dogfish which made it even harder to get down to the sea bass as the dogfish were hitting the baits on the way down. The crew fished hard all trip and ended with 2 dozen sea bass, a dozen nice size porgies, and a couple tog up to 5lbs. Great job fishing through the swell and spiny doggies, we’ll see you guys in a couple weeks for striped bass!

As we are coming up on November, we have Election Day, 11/3 available for a tog trip and possibly striped bass if the water temps drop a few more degrees. We only have a couple of dates left in November for striped bass and tog. December is also filling in for striped bass and tog so don’t wait to book! If you are interested in getting out please contact us to book your trip. Call or text Captain Mike to get out on the water or send us a message through our website! (609)-709-7264

www.nolimitssportfishingllc.com/

Here we are with a week left in October. There’s fish here now and we expect things to only get better. Currently solid energy is in the ocean from Hurricane Epsilon. It will be pumping powerful long period swell all weekend. On the beaches of LBI expect 4-7′ Friday and Saturday with easing 3-5′ swell on Sunday.

Here’s the Long Beach Island Fishing Report Update for Friday October 23, 2020.

Attention All Jetty Anglers

Keep an eye out and fish with extreme care. Know the swell forecast and the tides. This might seem like common sense but some don’t check and get into trouble. Case and point… There was a jetty anglers removed from the Inlet’s North Jetty just a few days ago after he was faced with a rising tide and unexpected swell.

LBI Surf Fishing

The Long Beach Island Surf Fishing Tournament is in its third week and going strong. Here is a link to the current leader board and standings. There’s lots of prizes that were won but it’s not too late to join and take part in the fun fishing. Right now kingfish dominate the current catches but we expect that tide to turn in the next week or two as the migrating striped bass show up.

Tog Fishing

Tog fishing continues strong at the Barnegat Inlet Jetty as well as the inshore wrecks and reefs. Things did slow up for a few days around Delta’s stormy weather but it has bounced back. Usually there’s goof fishing on the jetty all of October and most of November. We expect there to be fun fishing

Dave Ho (@symplexfishing) reported fishing the rocks on Thursday, “Took 15 minutes to get ‘er done. Got a keeper tog right away.”

Store staffer Jared (photo below) was out fishing the foggy ocean aboard the “No Moores” today and caught the tog good. Anyone looking to gear up and get in on the great tog fishing we have all the bare bone essentials along with the specialty hot products that will set you apart from the crowd catching more and bigger fish!

Striped Bass Fishing

Any day we are going to see the first wave of fall migrators show in our local waters. We always see the first push of larger fish around Halloween. Some anglers just can’t wait and trek north. More on that soon.

The abundance of residence striped bass continues strong and keeping anglers tight. One local angler Konrad has been in on the action. He’s fishing small plugs along the sod banks and having a blast. He reports, “Been plugging some spots in the bay before and after work and the fish are showing. Tuesday I had a couple. Thursday I slammed them. Landed at least a dozen fish and lost a few more at my feet. When the fog rolled in it was on! I couldn’t see my cast land it was so thick.”

The abundance of classy bass to our north is very promising! I got the invite to fish Tuesday and take part in a new product photo shoot with the crew from Reel Innovation. We went out in the early morning rain and took a ride. Fortunately we found the mother load with only one other boat.

Since it was a product photo shoot for the Reel Innovation Bunker Spoon all we did was troll. We were catching one after the other proving one thing… These spoons catch fish! It was an awesome day filled with too many doubles and triple ups that we could count. Every fish was safely released except one small “slot fish” at 34″ for the dinner table.

Right now, the fishing scene in southern Ocean County is caught between summer and fall fisheries. No matter how hard the captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association wish for the start of the striped bass migration from the north, the warm water temperatures are delaying their arrival.

Surface water temperatures remain in the low 60’s, a bit too warm for the stripers’ liking. There continues to be an excellent bite on bottom fish around inshore structure, however, to fill the fish boxes.

Captain Carl Sheppard of the “Star Fish” has had several groups out fishing recently taking advantage of the hot bottom fishing. One group with Captain Carl and mate Max Goldman fished several wrecks boating over 75 fish including black sea bass, bluefish, triggers, sea robins, and blowfish. Another trip with a family resulted in over 40 fish caught including sea bass up to 15-inches. A final day with two trips resulted in much the same type of action along with a feisty black-tip shark. The afternoon group had some 80 fish keeping 14 sea bass to 16-inches.

Captain Gary Dugan had two anglers out on the “Irish Jig”, and they experienced drop and reel fishing inshore reefs. They ended the day with a fish box packed with black sea bass, triggerfish, tautog, and some porgies. Captain Gary reports he is keeping a sharp eye out for the arrival of stripers from the north.

Captain Brett Taylor of Reel Reaction Sportfishing had a busy weekend with the Hank Wright group on a striped bass charter. Strong winds made a trip to the ocean a poor choice, so they landed a limit of tautog around the jetty rocks of Barnegat Inlet. They switched to stripers and landed 6, keeping two with bonus tags. Paul Kaufmann and Steve Sharf fished Sunday with their sons on a bottom fish charter. They worked hard and managed to box a limit of sea bass, 4 triggerfish, and one porgy. They ended the day boxing a quick limit of tautog.

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