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
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.
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!
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
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.
David Ho of Symplex Fishing caught this fluke fishing the Barnegat Light Jetty with Gulp. The reports on the North End have been great all season long and they continue 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.
Here’s a junior angler and proven summertime kingfish slayer!
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.
Here’s store staffer Max Bambara with a proper fluke he caught fishing a Salmon Magictail Hoochie Jig. These super hot selling lures are a new product from Magictail. From those unaware of them they are basically a lead head jig (like a bucktail) with a silicone tentacle like skirt. They have a beautiful breathing action in the water and are best fishing with Gulp.
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.
Matt better know at Swagmattic is here showing off his winning fluke. This is three in a row for Matt as he’s on a roll winning the fluke fishing tournaments he enters.
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!
Now that’s a cockpit photo! This wolfpack came up on the wrong crew of dudes!
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.”
Dewey got this bluefin tune trolling the mid-shore waters out of Barnegat Inlet. The tuna went for a Chatter Lures Side Tracker Spreader Bar. The past two seasons these bars have been the hottest and best producing bar out there. Due to high demand they’ve been in and out of stock. We just got a delivery so right now we have them. Sleep on it a couple days and they will be gone!
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!
The Magictail Hoo-Magic Trolling Lure did it’s job and earned the crew of the Taylor Jean some money at the Mid Atlantic Tournament.
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.
Store staffer Kelley holds up his first proper tuna. This yellowfin tuna was caught trolling offshore aboard the Reel Tunacious with Captain Mike D.
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.
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
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.
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.
It’s officially summer and the fishing on LBI is in full summertime mode. The near shore waters offer up fluke, bluefish, sea bass and resident striped bass and the offshore game is firing. The mid-shore and offshore shark fishing as well as the ghetto land based scene is on!
Dan D. reported school sized striped bass at night. He said, “There’s lots of peanut bunker schooled up but are very small. The fish are keyed in on the small bait. It’s a lot of fun between the offshore trips.” More on that below under, Offshore Fishing For Tuna & Sharks.
Sea bass fishing continues to be good but boats are looking further off to find the best fishing. Tomorrow is the last day to get in on it. The NJ Black Sea Bass season closed tomorrow June 22nd. It reopens July 1st with a 2 fish bag limit (12.5″).
Store staffer Sam was out fluke fishing this past week in the bay. He said, “We caught thirty fish but only one keeper. It seemed that the fish were there but sluggish. We had more action during the colder part of the tide. When it warmed up the bite turned off.”
Surf fluke fishing is good. This past week all reports were solid with productivity. The White Gulp 4″ Swimming Mullet is the crowd favorite because it produces! Anglers chunking bunker are catching bluefish and the occasional striped bass. As hinted on the June 14th Report, “kingfish would be here soon if not already.” Sloane Endick caught some fluke on Thursday off the surf. She also caught a small kingfish, so they are here. She said, “It was a nice little surprise!”
Land Based Bigger Game
The land based ghetto sharking really kicked off this week. Numerous reports of brown sharks and sand tigers flooded in. Here Mike hooked up with a good one.
Here’s the Beach Boys posing for a quick picture just after dehooking and tagging a large sand tiger shark.
Local Great White Shark
I’m sure by now everyone has seen the local great white shark action from the boys of the Big Nuts Required. If not here is a link to a short clip that Captain Krilly sent us to share.
Tuna & Sharks
It’s on! When the weather allows, the big game fishing has been very good.
Store staffer Blake fished Wednesday with Dante from Magictail aboard friends’ Joe boat. They hunted the 30 fathom line about 40nm offshore of Barnegat Inlet. Blake shared, “We got two fish trolling Magictail Hoo-Magic with ballyhoo. Boated one but pulled the hook on a larger fish boatside.”
The crew aboard the Reel Innovations fished the Southern Canyons and roasting the yellowfin tuna. First mate Dan D said, “We had about 30 yellowfin bites and one white marlin. The night life was a lot of fun with a bunch of makos and a big tiger shark.”
Giant Fluke
While on assignment reviewing Shimano’s hot new 2020 products, store staffers Max & Frezza got into quality bottom fishing aboard the Helen H. The guys reported, “The drive up to Hyannis on Monday morning wasn’t bad. The next morning we pushed off the dock and after a three hour steam to the Nantucket Shoals we were fishing. The first drift was epic! Everyone was hooked up with big fluke.” It was a different world that what the Jersey boys were used to. They were flipping 3-4 pound fluke over the rail. There were numerous double digit, with the average fish about five to six pounds. Frezza said, “These guys are into serious fish on the regular. Talk about anxiety! With no nets on board, watching the mate swing a gaff at the largest fluke I’ve had on my line was an experience.”
Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association Report Update
by Jim Hutchinson Sr.
Strong winds and thunderstorms have played havoc with fishing conditions in the Beach Haven area recently. Some of the captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association do have some fish stories to tell, however.
Captain Carl Sheppard took the “Star Fish” out for two hours between rain squalls and caught 17 black sea bass and one short fluke. The water was 67 degrees on the surface but much cooler 60-feet down on the bottom. Captain Carl took note of many schools of bunker on the water.
The highlight of the past week for Captain Brett Taylor was fishing the JCAA fluke tournament with Team S&S Bucktails. The team won the port prize Fisherman’s Headquarters on Long Beach Island with a 5.83-pound entry which also took 6th place overall in the state. The next day Captain Brett was back on his own boat with clients, Joe Antonelli and son Marcus. Despite strong wind against tide conditions, they used the Minn Kota trolling motor for fishable drifts. After a few short fluke, they tried the inlet for stripers and bluefish. The anglers managed a bunch of striped bass to 24-inches and bluefish to 8-pounds on the 1 ½ ounce bucktails tipped with artificials.
Captain Gary Dugan reports fluke fishing in Great Bay has been producing decent action with a couple of fish for the cooler on a daily basis. In addition, the cow nose rays have made it fun for a few anglers with smooth dog fish being added to the menu as well. Captain Gary is now planning some ocean fluke trips this coming week.
Although the weather cancelled the recent trips for Captain John Lewis on the “Insatiable,” he says there are good numbers of sea bass on the inshore wrecks along with lots of short fluke with some keepers mixed in. High numbers of dogfish are also around to keep the rods bent.
Captain Alex Majewski of Lighthouse Sportfishing reports there are still plenty of 1-4 blues blitzing around the inlet feeding on rain fish and bay anchovies. There are some bigger blues still in the mix. He has also been finding a daybreak bite on schoolie bass in the inlet. One recent trip with buddy Dave Werner resulted in some 2 dozen short bass caught and released. Captain Alex adds his crab pots are producing very good numbers of big crabs.
Anglers on the head boat “Miss Beach Haven” have started catching good numbers of fluke including some happy anglers on Father’s Day. Many youngsters were successful fishing with Captain Frank Camarda. The popular head boat will be starting its regular schedule in the near future.
Captain Dave Kreines only managed to get his boat “Byte Me” out by himself for a few hours recently. After no luck drifting off Beach Haven, he headed to Great Bay where he picked up a dozen short fluke and one 19-inch keeper
Captain John Lewis, president of the BHCFA, reports the fundraising for the Jr Mate reef replenishment program is in full swing and can now take donations online from PayPal… Here’s the link to support the cause. For more information www.BHCFA.org – “Jr Mate reef tab” has details.
