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.

I have been busy fishing land-based west side haunts finding good action with white perch and schoolie stripers in the dark. This evenings perch bite was good. I kept a few tasty slabs for dinner and released about a dozen fish.

So, check this out. I am a man of science and don’t believe in the supernatural stuff or curses and jinx. A couple of nights ago I had solid action with schoolie bass in the dark. The next night my wife, Deb, joins me. I walk up to the spot cast, one crank, two cranks, three cranks, zzzzzzzzzzzz Fish on screaming drag. Land a 22″ schoolie and that was it. Fished another 30 minutes without Deb and I catching a fishing. Sooooo, is there a curse of the first cast fish? Well, tonight first cast I caught a white perch and continued to catch perch until I left them biting. The moral is science rules and fishing is fishing or what you make of fishing.

I have both this Saturday and Sunday open and I am predicting the fishing will blow wide open before then. Give me a call to get in on the action

Screaming drags, Captain Alex 609-548-2511
Debbie M – Lighthouse Sportfishing