Happy 4th of July! We are in full swing and so is fishing. The bay and wrecks are loaded with fish and some trips have seen 5 species bending the rods. The main target is bay fluke using bucktails, teasers, Gulp! and a live bait. The fish are abundant and we’ve seen multiple doubles on the teaser and bucktail, even with a keeper on one of them. The fish are starting to favor the incoming for the best bite. Wrecks are loaded with sea bass, ling, and even the occasional tog, which unfortunately doesn’t open again until 8/1. Wreck fishing is perfect for kids, and even the adults, as it is nonstop, immediate action. All 5 trips last week had clients leaving with fillets, including fluke, sea bass, ling, and blowfish. We still have some weekday trips available for the remainder of the summer, but they are becoming increasinly limited. All tackle, rods, bait and ice are included. Call, email, or text and come catch with us. Facebook!
Captain Kevin Schmidt
www.oldbarneycharters.com
267-918-1746
oldbarneycharters@aol.com
Category: Fishing Reports
Fishing Report Update July 3, 2019
Summer fishing Long Beach Island is kicking full swing with the bay, inshore, midshore, and offshore bite all on fire. Time to break out the patriotic apparel and hit the water.
Bay Fishing Report
Lots of blowfish in the bay! Reports from many customers are all positive. This is a great family fun fishery. Rigging up is easy; small hooks with a weight on bottom baited up with clam or squid. Chumming helps attract and gets the puffers active.
The bayside waters of Long Beach Island have great fluke fishing all summer long and this year isn’t any different. The reports flood in however finding keepers isn’t easy. It requires honing in on what they want and properly presenting it. If you need guidance it would be best to frequent the shop and get some info from the crew. The depth of knowledge is here and we are willing to share.
While fluking has the spotlight, bluefish and resident striped bass are abundant. At the right times these two offer great light tackle fun. The school bass love soft plastic, plugs and bucktails going the trick.
Back Attack Sportfishing reported a good bluefish bite on Monday morning. They loaded up on shark bait!
Jeff Davis of Let It Fly Charters is putting his clients on fish everyday. A couple days ago they caught a big hound fish. Over the past couple weeks we’ve heard dozens of reports of these crazy cool creatures. Here’s one that Cam Conrad caught off the surf. More on the Long Beach Island surf fishing report below.
Another surprise catch report came in from Kirsten Holloway. She recently caught a nice cobia while fluke fishing Great Bay. It went for a Magictail Hoochie.
Inshore Fishing LBI
The summertime inshore – nearshore fishing on LBI is primarily based around summer flounder fishing. On all accounts it is good with anglers in the bay (report above), inlet, surf (report in the next section below) and ocean are all picking fish. Ocean reports are becoming more consistent and we expect that to continue all summer on the open bottoms as well as the wrecks and reef sites.
NJ Black Sea Bass is open! As of July 1st it’s a two fish bag limit with a minimum size of 12.5″ until August 31st when it closes.
With the clean warm inshore waters things get very interesting this time of year. The bonita showed up early this year. Aboard Fish Head Charters the crew was into them mid/late June and the action continues now. Cobia have already arrived and made their presence know. We hard of a few nice ones caught in addition to Kirsten’s report (we shared above). Spanish mackerel, albacore and mahi are also present inshore/midshore. More on the bluewater fishing below.
Surf Fishing Report
Kingfish have made a strong showing this week. Anglers fishing DynaBait, FishBites and live bloods are all catching. Live bait is always best however availability can be tough. We are selling out fast. The convenience and fish catching ability of DynaBait and FishBites is spectacular. Try them today!
Fluking off the surf is very good! Tons of shorts with keeper-sized fish in the mix. Time to stock up on Gulp and bucktails! Here Jared Grady with a healthy 21.5″ fluke that he recently caught off the LBI surf. Jared has been doing great this summer. He reported, “All those early mornings are string to pay off. The bite has been on fire lately!”
Chunking the beach with meaty baits will result in line screaming fun…
LBI Land Based Shark Fishing
The inshore, nearshore, from shore shark fishing continues STRONG! The abundance of brown sharks and large sand tiger sharks is staggering. This year more than ever there abundance is visible.
Anglers are catching some really big fish and good numbers of them on a consistent basis. The photos and stories at the shop are all awesome. Get out and tangle with some to test your tackle and angling abilities. Always know the laws! These sharks (sandbar aka brown sharks and sand tiger sharks) are prohibited to be possessed. They must not be landed and must be released in the wash, as seen in the sand tiger shark photo below sent in from JKT Fishing.
Store staffer Jordan has been catching consistently. He’s releasing a number of sandbar sharks as well as some very large sand tigers. It started out with mostly browns. He stepped up to bigger baits and got bigger fish. It’s funny how that works out. On Sunday he went three for six on large sand tigers.
Bluewater Fishing
This holiday week is rolling strong with great weather which allowed access to the offshore waters. We hope you all are enjoying it because the offshore action this season has been great. The midshore grounds were lit up early and the action continues now.
Store staffer Pat was out today and had an epic morning. He reported, “We fished away from the fleet and got it done. Went four for four on bluefin tuna with a nice over, all on bars/chains. Green was the hot color today.” They were done fishing by 8am and to work by 1pm for the afternoon shift.
Another report came in from Mark Finelli from Laura Sportfishing. He sent in this photo below and said, “That Nomad DTX Minnow was the bomb!”
The offshore canyons are lit up with life too! Earlier in the week we heard of a big eye bite in the Hudson. Other news from customer who filled the boat with yellowfin. Also some talk of swordfish on this new moon!
Reel Fantasea Fishing Charters – Mack Attack!!
I know it’s been awhile but I’ve had no chance to get caught up with reports as it seems as though I’m on the water more than I’m on dry land!
This summer season continues to offer excellent opportunities for the light tackle enthusiast! Stripers , blues, fluke, Spanish Mackerel and Atlantic bonito have been entertaining and exciting anglers aboard the Reel Fantasea while employing light spinning tackle!
Exciting sight casting to surface breaking southern speedsters [ Macks and bones] has been rewarding in both sport and table fair as both are excellent sashimi ,bbq, ,fried,grilled….
Stripers and blues are still offering excellent sport with most trips seeing 12-20 stripers per trip once techniques are coached, practiced and executed properly and even a couple still hitting the ice! Blues ranging in size from 1-6lbs also have been testing our tackle and angler skills . Fluke round out the catching but it’s been hard to pull away from all the more exciting action and sport!
Wishing everyone fair winds and calm seas,Captain Steve PurulReel Fantasea Fishing Charters 609-290-1217
Lighthouse Sportfishing Report 7/1/19
Hope you all enjoy your Fourth of July! Fluking in the bay has definitely been on the upswing, however, with the recent NW winds traditional drifting was not the way to go. Power drifting, aka slow trolling, is the way to go when the wind is up to much or you are faced with wind against tide. The resident bass has been hard to come even with live bait like bunker or Atlantic thread herring (threadfin: pic below). Thread herring, say what? Thread herring occasionally come up to NJ waters. Last time I saw them in good numbers off our coast had to be about 10 years ago. They are a primo live bait in Florida and run around 7”-8”. If you see something on the surface that you think are bunker and you can’t snag one to save your life they are likely threadfins. You can’t snag or cast net them. The best method is a Sabiki rig. You need a good livewell to keep them happy. Still lots of blues around although Saturday’s trip was slow on the bluefish front. Sunday’s trip land a bunch in the 5-6 lb. range.
Have dates open and I always personalize your trip, so give me a call to get out fishing.
Screaming drags,
Capt. Alex
609-548-2511
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… http://www.flukeamania.com
Old Barney Charters Report
School is finally out and we are fishing. Before the sea bass closure we had Kyle Smith of Ridley, PA out with Barry, Dave, and Gary. The group had their 50 sea bass limit in a couple hours. In the afternoon, I took my family out to get in on the action before the close. The following day we had return clients Rich Krakowski out with his son Rich and friend Alex for a bay fluking trip. The group worked bucktails with Gulp! and live bait along channel edges. They boated 20 fluke with 2 keeps at 19.5″ and 18″ as well as a 14″ weakfish. We are fishing 7 days a week now. Sea bass opens again July 1 and we will be fishing combo sea bass/fluke trips throughout the summer. Many of our weekend dates are already full, but some weekdays still remain. All tackle, bait, and ice is included. Call or email and come out and catch with us!
Old Barney Charters
Captain Kevin Schmidt
267-918-1746
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.”
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!
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.
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.
No Limits Sportfishing – Fishing Report
Sorry for the lack of reports but we have been keeping very busy! We were able to squeeze in a few wreck fishing trips and ended the spring sea bass season this past Saturday with a 4 man limit of nice sea bass.
Sunday we made it out to the mid shore grounds with our friends from New Level Clothing. As we were closing in on the area where we wanted to fish, it looked like the New York City skyline with lights from boats everywhere so we changed our plans to stay away from the boat traffic. Within 1 minute of setting out our first rod, the reel started screaming and we boated a nice 44″ bluefin. We stayed a little longer but could not find any more life. We knew we had a short weather window and were back at dock before lunch time.
With sea bass season closing we will primarily be targeting fluke in the bay, inlet, and ocean. After July 1, sea bass opens back up with a limit of 2 fish per person which will be a nice addition to our daily catches.
We are also running site seeing, sunset, and lunch/dinner cruises this summer! On Sunday evening’s sunset cruise we were greeted with lots of porpoises around the inlet. There are also several restaurants located on the Barnegat bay that can be accessed by boat instead of having to worry about driving.
If you’re interested in booking a fishing charter or just going for a cruise, Call or text Captain Mike to get out on the water! (609)-709-7264
Reel Reaction Charters – Fishing Report – LBI
The Summer Flounder or Fluke fishing has been getting better the past few weeks in terms of keepers. We are averaging 25 to 40 fish per trip with 2 to 4 keepers making it home for the table. This past week we had 13 year old catch his 1st ever keeper Fluke at 24.5 pounds just shy of 6 pounds. There are some other species around as Bluefish and schoolie Striped Bass can be caught on the tide changes. Since installing the Minn Kota trolling motor, it has opened us up to fishing in all types of weather (except T-storms/lightning) – as Friday’s trip had winds close to 25 knots and we still we’re able to put 3 keepers to 23 inches in the boat.
Currently, we are booking bay/inlet charters and won’t start running the Ocean Fluke charters until the water warms enough for productive catching. I have limited openings each week as I’m running two trips per day until September 5th. We are on the water full-time everyday, so call or text to join us.
If interested in booking a charter, book our site (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.
Lighthouse Sportfishing Report 6/23/2019
Blues, fluke, schoolies bass, and now some bonito in the mix. Been on the water 5 of the last 7 days. The light tackle action is pretty much stellar. Saturday morning just outside the inlet there were hundreds of porpoises. Check out my fishing report video here: June 23, 2019 Fishing Report to see some of the pods of porpoise we encountered. I have no problem taking a break from fishing to hang with some marine mammals. If you like my video please subscribe/share.
I have some open dates this week, so give me a call if you want to get in on the action. Also, I will be back at guiding kayak ecotours tours this week. These tours are a great way to learn about the Barnegat Bay ecosystems.
Screaming drags,
Capt. Alex
609-548-2511