It is a crazy time of year. Mid October will make your head spin with options. We are still a little south of the striper migration but there are plenty of other options while we wait one more week for the bass to be in our range.
We are still catching blowfish in the bay and casting lures at 2 to 6 pound bluefish in the inlet.
The ocean options include big gator blues on jigs, chumming bonita and albacore at Barnegat Ridge, or depending on which way the offshore forecast goes for Sunday and Monday there are still tuna to catch in the 70 to 80 mile range. We could do any of these trips. I am going to leave it to you guys and go with the majority of interest.
Sailing Open Boat or Charter Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, October 17, 18, and 19. Call for info and rates.
Pic: Max DeGennaro with bluefish at the inlet jetty.
I was just recently dropped in and put on a incredible bite of migrating Bass,Blues & Albies that were on a feeding frenzy and also at times just cruising the shallow water without a care in the world just swimming with the school. Just a Amazing Experience & Heading to Jersey Soon , we just need all the bait along the shore line like this ~ Fall Run 2020 call 609-276-6983 Nightstrikes Surfcasting Guide Service LLC
Striped Bass Erupting and feeding on White Bait Striped Bass Cruising the shallows with the White Bait
The Fall sea bass season opener is here and the weather has not been cooperative at all through this past Columbus Day weekend. At the end of fluke season with a couple weeks of down time, we worked on the boat and installed a Rhodan 96” trolling motor with spot lock for wreck fishing. Although the weather has not allowed us to use it as much as we’d like, when we did get to use it, it was a total game changer!
Friday 10/9 was the only wreck fishing trip that we were able to squeeze in this weekend with the weather. We had return clients Mike and Will out for their 7th trip of the season with us. We hit the first wreck and they had no problem boating their limit of sea bass along with a dozen real nice porgies, 3 big trigger fish, as well as a couple bluefish. Towards the end of the trip, we switched gears to target tog much closer to home and they quickly put a limit of tog on the boat while releasing many more before calling it a quits. Great day on the water and an awesome mixed bag of fish to go home with!
We have also been able to get out for some evening striped bass trips when conditions have allowed. There are plenty of local striped bass around that are tons of fun on light tackle poppers and plugs. The Oceanside should also be heating up later in the month with striped bass once the water temps fall a few more degrees as there is plenty of bait around for them to feed on.
We have some weekday dates available in October for wreck fishing as well as limited dates available in November for striped bass and tog, but they are filling quick! 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
Another great weekend here on Long Beach Island. The weather cooperated and the island was PACKED with a lot going on. The Annual Kite Festival was the main attraction with 100’s-1000’s of people on the Ship Bottom beaches relaxing on the sand. Also two surf fishing tournaments, the American Angler 500 and the start of the 66th Annual LBI Surf Fishing Classic.
Happy Columbus Day! Too bad it looks to be a gnarly day as the remnants of Delta impact our area with strong winds and potentially heavy rainfall.
We hope you have the fall foul weather gear ready. If not stop by and see us. We’ll get you set up in a new set.
A sour start to the new week but westerlies sweep through Tuesday and clean things up. Looks like another drop in temps into next weekend. Are you ready for the fall run to bust open? I know we are!
Here’s the Long Beach Island Fishing Report Update for Sunday October 11, 2020.
LBI Surf Fishing
The 66th Annual LBI Surf Fishing Classic kicked off this Saturday. Due to the current situation the Opening Day “Kick Off” Seminar was cancelled; however Teddy K (long time LBI surf angler, LBI Fishing Club Member, past tournament winner) and myself would not let the annual event die. We teamed up and put together a two part informative video to help others catch more fish in the surf. We did our best to share info that will bring value to all; rookie, novice and advanced surf anglers.
Surf Fishing 101 Part 1
Planning The Trip & Picking A Spot To Fish – You’ll catch more fish if you plan accordingly so we thought it was the best way to start things off. Here’s some info on things to consider in order to successfully plan a surf fishing trip to Long Beach Island. Then… When to fish? What to fish for? Where to Fish? Find A Spot To Fish? There’s a detailed section on reading the beach which help teach how to pick a spot to fish.
Surf Fishing 101 Part 2
Equipment, Gearing Up & Driving The Beach – New to surf fishing? Gear up right with the proper tackle to be ready for catching, not just fishing. It’s half the battle. Both bait fishing and fishing with lures is discussed as well as info and tips for driving the beach.
Fishing started off good for the LBI Surf Fishing Classic with lots of kingfish weigh ins. Kings are a new addition to the 66th annual event. There’s also an abundance of cocktail bluefish on the surf but so far no qualifying bluefish were weighed in yet. There were two striped bass… an 11.12# by Duncan Turner on an SP Minnow Lure and one 29″ 9.12# by Peg Bucci on clam.
Joe Handley Jr reported fishing this weekend was really good, “At times I had bluefish on every cast.” In order to catch something different he had to move. It paid off!. He caught a good size kingfish (1.1#) on a sand crab. King fish was good enough for third place on the leader board…
Cocktail blues (left) are finding the clouds of small bait (right) made up of mostly bay anchovies and spearing. There’s also a few mullet moving around and peanut bunker.
Neal Belgam reported, “Small blues had the bait pushed up in the surf” This similar topic was reported by many others up and down the beaches this past week. The photos above by Jay Mann show just a quick capture of the abundance of bait and small blues.
There’s other species still around on the surf too. Stephen Pirrello reported, “Only blowfish (photo below), cocktail blues and herring.” We also head of a few spike weakfish. American Angler 500 had lots of anglers and lots of fish made up of a variety of the small species currently here. Craig and Chris Fortino took the win.
Other Land Based Fishing
The blackfish bite has been terrific around structure. When most hear about tog fishing they first thing wreck fishing in the boat. There’s a super fun land based fishery right here on LBI at the Barnegat Inlet.
Togging at the jetty is still on fire. A lot of shorts but also a good number of keeper class fish. They are chewing on crabs… green crabs, Asian crabs, fiddlers, sand fleas… any thing you can get your hands on will work. [Recently green crabs have been in short supply but we are expecting to get a large restocking in mid week Tuesday/Wednesday.] This super fun fishing is a great way to enjoy the day and work on your hook set game.
David Ho @symplexfishing has been in on the action all fall. He shared, “Logging as much time togging, Defiantly one of the tastiest and hardest fighting fish in the area. I hate bait fishing but I’ll make an exception for these fish. The bait is staging and we should see a huge push of our migratory friends very soon.”
More LBI Fishing Information
Black Sea Bass Fishing
Now that Black Sea Bass season is open anglers are getting out and having catching fishing the offshore, inshore and nearshore waters. Usually the sea bass start moving off right about now but the inshore wrecks are producing for those fishing both rigs and jigs. Certain areas have piles of sand eels with black bass on them. Here the jig fishing has been great! It’s a helluva lotta fun light tackle jigging with 60g Nomad Streakers, Tubed 007 & A17 Diamond Jigs and Hogy Sand Eel Jigs.
Store staffer Kelley got out and fished with his day this weekend on some inshore structure. They caught their limit as well as a good number of keeper size tog. Kelley also reported, “There’s lots of small blues and spike weakfish on the bait pods, schools of peanut bunker and bay anchovies.”
Barnegat Bay Bass Fishing
The Barnegat Bay is bearish. The cool nights and shorter days have the water temperatures falling with lower highs (incoming water) and lower lows (outgoing water).
Striped bass are prevalent all around the back bay waters. There’s an abundance of schoolies on the sod banks, bridges, docks and channels. Slowly bass are starting to show on the surf and we soon expect to see a bigger class of striped bass arrive.
Konrad has been having a blast with striped bass fishing on the LBI bayside.
Reel Fantasea Fishing Charters
Striped Bass, Bluefish, Blackfish, Blowfish – They are all here (among other species) and chewing which makes for fun light tackle fishing on Long Beach Island. The Four man crew above recently fished with Captain Steve on Reel Fantasea Fishing Charters.
Reel Fantasea Fishing Charter’s Captain Steve Purul reports solid light tackle action with a variety of species. “Striped bass, bluefish, blackfish, blowfish, among others… We are catching on both artificial and live baits. If one species isn’t cooperating a quick gear shift and we’re back into the action. All good fishing in the local Barnegat Light waters minutes from the dock!” Get out on the water and enjoy some saltwater fishing.
Give Captain Steve Purul A Call Today – 16092901217
Here’s a monster blowfish caught by Andre from Ohio. It weighed in at 1.16 pounds.
Offshore Fishing
When the weather allows anglers are getting offshore and catching a variety of fish. There’s albies, bonita, king mackerel and mahi in the midshore waters and tuna, sharks and swordfish further offshore.
Here’s a couple catch photos from the Fisher’s, father and son on a recent trip aboard the Reel Innovation.
There was one good weather day over the weekend, so we headed to the Triple Wrecks on Saturday where the never ending yellowfin tuna bite has been going on. I delayed our departure to 4AM as not to hit the last of the outgoing tide into any residual swell coming in against it. That scenario in the daylight can be ominous enough, I don’t risk it at night. We broke the inlet by 5AM and made it to the grounds by 8AM. The radio was alive with chatter of guys with their fish boxes full already. I wasn’t panicking, I was just going to make some drifts and do our thing. We couldn’t buy a hit. I even dropped to 30 lb fluorocarbon leader just to try and get a bite. Finally at 11AM one of our guys hooks up on a 200 gram Nomad Streaker jig. He fights him for 20 minutes and the hook pulls. I up the leaders to 40 lb and in the next few hours we go 2 for 6 on big yellowfins. Managed to boat a 75 and 80 pounder. Both hit live spots on weighted lines while we drifted the whales. So while we didn’t hold our own, we couldn’t have been happier with the two fish on ice. Both were epic battles on 50 class. Here is a video of Matt Tengi’s 75 pound yellowfin:
It’s a long clip, around 13 minutes, so you might want to do some fast forwarding. I don’t know how to edit them down, yet, and honestly when I started recording, I thought we were at the end of the battle.
Sailing Open Boat to Barnegat Ridge this Friday, October 9, 10AM to 6PM. Bonita and albacore on light tackle. We’re going to anchor up and chum. I am expecting other visitors to our slick but I don’t want to jinx it. $250 person, 4 people max, all fish are shared. Call me on my cell to reserve a spot. You can call right up until “go time”. Pics:
Tim Walton of Abington, PA with dark shirt (Capt Nick DeGennaro in slickers)
Matt Tengi of Pequannock, NJ with white shirt (Capt Nick DeGennaro in slickers)
Sashimi platter made from tuna at Makoto Japanese restaurant in Manahawkin. Wow!
Hi Flier Sportfishing 732.330.5674 cell hiflier.com
Fall is now in full swing in Beach Haven, New Jersey, and the captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association are raring to go for some action-packed fall fishing.
Thursday, October 8, marks the return of open fishing for black sea bass in the state with a daily limit of 10 fish per angler. Captain Gary Dugan of the “Irish Jig” reports he has been fishing inshore structure the past couple of weeks and has been catching quite a few big sea bass while seeking other species. He has been practicing “catch and release” on the fish, but he is looking forward to putting some nice fish in the box when the season opens.
The tautog daily limit is only one fish until November 15, but these fish are currently plentiful, and very often that one keeper fish has been a beauty.
As the water continues to cool, the area striped bass population has been increasing. There are numerous catches of “schoolie” sized bass in the bay waters with occasional keepers of fish 28-inches and larger to be found.
Captain Brett Taylor of “Reel Reaction Charters” just had a busy weekend with a pair of productive trips. On Saturday he had Max Cavallaro and his 3 buddies on a 4-hour multi-species charter. After working to catch their limit of blackfish, they hit the snapper blues. They worked some feeding birds to box close to 20 along with a few released weakfish. On Sunday he had Robert Kuhn and family out. They hit the inlet area for a quick limit of tog and then played with bluefish to 15 inches for the rest of the trip. Captain Brett’s son Luke worked his first trip as a mate in training for his dad.
There is still good offshore tuna fishing as evidenced by a trip for Captain Dave Wittenborn on the “Benita J.” Captain Dave took his son Luke out on a father and son express trip to the tuna grounds. The lines went in at 6:30AM and were pulled for the day at 9:30. Luke reeled in all three of the fish, and the pair headed in with a great catch of fish on an early day.
Additional information on the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association can be found at www.bhcfa.net.
Here in early October we have a great mix of fishing on Long Beach Island. With the water temperatures still warm (surf in the mid to upper 60’s) and some areas of the bay in the mid to low 60’s, fishing still has that “summertime” feel especially on the sunny days.
Here’s a quick look at the surf on Monday October 5th
Swagmattic is well known for being a jokester but he is also one hell of an angler. Here’s a report from him on Sunday October 3rd.
However soon the transition is going to flip like a switch. The shortening days and cooler nights are trending that way.
Here’s Kyle Olt from Tabernacle with some photos from his weekend fishing. Yup the blowfishing is still good and the schoolie bass are active. Kyle reported, “Thanks for the bait! I had fun catching blowfish and also caught three bass; 18′, 20″ and 21″.”
Land Based Tog Fishing On LBI
By far the best game in town is the tautog fishing. The Barnegat Inlet Jetty tog fishing has been smoking for a number of weeks and there’s no signs of it slowing down any time soon. It’s great to see so many anglers having a blast. We wish we could share all of the reports that have come in. Check our Instagram Story for some of the catch report/photo (reposts).
We anticipate the next few weeks will be very good and we will be doing our best to be fully stocked with live green crabs throughout the fall fishing season. Unfortunately (at the time of this post) we are sold out of live green crabs. This weekend we sold through everything our suppliers could get us. We expect more Tuesday or latest Wednesday.
For those looking to catch their own sand fleas we have a couple rakes still in stock but they will be sold out soon.
Also present and eating crabs among other baits… sheepshead, triggerfish and black drum.
Here’s Team Fish Heads Max with a classy sheepshead he caught this weekend aboard Fish Head Charters.
Surf Fishing LBI
Lots of small blues around and they are increasing in size from what we saw a couple weeks back. Some 2-4 pounders have showed up in the mix of smaller ones. Store staffer Paulie fished the mid-island surf Saturday before sunset and got into a bluefish feeding frenzy. He reported, “Cocktail blues had the white bait pined to the beach and they were feeding. I was catching every cast using a Hogy Epoxy Jig.”
The mullet run has been very slow to date. There were some moving this weekend so we have our fingers crossed that it isn’t over.
Joe Handley Jr reports fishing has been very good on the beach of LBI. A few days ago he reported, “Every cut I fished had kingfish.” Today (Sunday) he enjoyed the day on the south end surf catching fish. Here’s his report. “Perfect day on the beach with great conditions and the fish are chewing! So far today two blowfish and a monster pompano. It weighed in at 3.24 pounds.” Unfortunately pompano aren’t included in the NJ’s saltwater state record fish program or this could be a state record.
Here’s a rare catch from the Long Beach Island surf. It’s actually not Joe’s first. With his experience from fishing the OBX surf, he’s got a knack for catching them.
FYI: As of October 1st, All Long Beach Township beaches are open to 4×4 Beach Buggy Access with valid permit. Permits are available at the Long Beach Township Police Station.
Offshore Fishing
The past couple of months could be summarized with two nouns… First a place… Triple Wrecks. Second a thing… Yellowfin. This historic bite has been on fire consistently for about three months straight. Still this weekend solid reports from anglers catching chunking and jigging. Reports from the edge (further off) have been on the slow side but this weekend we did hear of some big eye tuna and a few makos. Anglers deep dropping are catching swordfish and tilefish.
Here’s a photo from Sloane Endick. She had a good trip offshore to the yellowfin grounds. “The fishing has been slightly stoopid this season for yellowfin.”
Due to change in striped bass fishing regulations, where anglers are allowed one striper in a “slot” (28 to less than 38 inches), the LBI Surf Fishing Classic has adapted the rules and prize structure. There is no more $1000 Striped Bass Grand Prize, BUT there now is three $1,000 segment prizes. To spice up the competition a new species, Kingfish was added with cash prizes for the largest (daily, weekly, segment and grand prize).
Another Upcoming tournament is the LBI Cup… The 2020 LBI Cup Striped Bass Tournament, hosted by the Beach Haven Marlin & Tuna Club, is on Friday, November 13th – Saturday, November 14th.
Monday, October 5, could be the same as above, or if the forecast stays the same, calling for flat calm conditions, we could head to the canyon first for an extended trip that starts at 11PM Sunday night and returns around 6 PM on Monday. We would mix in some tilefish and canyon troll before heading to the tuna chunking grounds. This extended trip would be $550 person, 4 people max.
All fish are shared on our Open Boat trips. The boat is also available for private charter on these days.
The yellowfin tuna fishing has been red hot with boats limited out or close to it. Chunking and jigging has been the ticket with Mustad Moon Risers and Nomad Streakers being the go to jigs.
I have October 2nd, 3rd, 4th (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) available for open boat charters. Price is $400 pp plus tip for mate 4 person max. Give me a call if you want to book at trip… Capt Ryan Horton a call 609-276-8032
Our last report post highlighted “It’s only getting more fishy from here!” By golly the fishing has been great since! Here’s the LBI Fishing Report Update for Sunday September 27, 2020.
While this fishing report post was published in the evening of 9/27, this video was added on 9/28 to supplement this report post.
By all accounts the fishing right now is very good for this point in the year. Usually late September is a doldrum with slow fishing. Not this year!
The resident bass are all fired up and actively feeding in the bay! Small bluefish are making their presence known in the bay and surf. The blowfish are still here in really big numbers. Weakfish run the tides. Blackfish are holding on structure and snapping. There’s triggerfish and sheephead too!
Ryan Curtis caught some tasty sea treats… triggerfish.
In The Bay
There’s a lot of opportunities fishing the back bays. Reports from the Barnegat Bay, Manahawkin Bay and waters further south are good.
Jim Shearn reported, “Non stop action with blowfish. They are plentiful in the Barnegat Bay” Pete E reported having a great day on the bay with his kids, “Got a bunch of blowfish for dinner.”
Store staffer Jordan said, “Slayed some chicken this morning fishing the bay on the south end of LBI.” Looks like he put a solid catch together.
The weakfish continue to show strong. Chistine and Brain got this one fishing the Barnegat Bay. This year the local area saw a resurgence of these amazing light tackle game fish. Let’s hope this is just the start of their rebuild back to a once vibrant fishery.
Here’s Chistine with a nice Barnegat Bay weakfish.
The local striped bass fishing has been very good both day and night for land based anglers as well as kayak and boat anglers.
Store staffer Max caught ten bass on Saturday evening up to 28″ on topwater. “The fish were stacked up on the screen and they were chewing!” He said, “There’s some cocktail blues mixed in. They are both chasing spearing.”
Max has the striped bass stacked up at Sunday on Saturday.
Jason Wilk shared, “The back bay of LBI has bass everywhere. Fish poppers at the crack of dawn or late afternoon into dusk.”
Konrad caught this striped bass Sunday morning fishing the bayside of LBI. Konrad reported, “Was skunked the last few outings so I was really stoked to pin this one! Thank you for the recommendations!” Striped bass love top water lures and one of their favorite is the Stillwater Smack-It Popper.
Konrad caught this bayside striped bass on a Stillwater Smack-It Popper. These top water lures have been well know for catching fish year in and year out.
On The Surf
Consistent reports this weekend of small blues on the surf. They are chewing mullet. Anglers reported catching on both fresh and frozen. Pat Canti shared, “Non stop blues for over three hours on old frozen mullet and clam.?
Jaime Grant had a fun Saturday afternoon fishing the LBI surf catching snapper blues and a fluke. She also shared a photo of a nice blue claw crab haul from the bay. Expect crabbing to be good for another month or so. All depends on when the cold sets in.
Here’s Jaime with an out of season fluke she caught along with some small bluefish.
Rob Switft reported that he’s catching a lot of (out of season) fluke on the south end surf. He reported, “I’m fishing the holes at low tide and catching.”
Barnegat Inlet Jetty
The tog were snapping this weekend! slaying blackfish. So many positive but we can’t share them all. David Ho (Symplex Fishing) reported, “Fish Head crab getting it done!” Jaws512 posted, “Thanks Fish Heads for the hook up!” R.Grimshaw was also in on the action amongst many other anglers. For photos check out our Instagram feed.
Offshore Fishing
The tuna fishing is far from over! After two months of lights out yellowfin fishing, the “secret spot” is still producing. The yellowfin chunking has been very good and anglers are still catching on jigs and poppers. Hard of a couple fish on the troll too. If chunking be sure to fish light leaders 30-40# and live peanut bunker make a big difference raising fish into the slick.
No only is it the yellowfin that are biting… swords, mahi, tilefish and big eye tuna reported this weekend.
Here’s Fish Head Alumni Captain Nick with a health golden tilefish.
