The messy weather is already gone and the wind has switched to hard west. Then it’s going NW, which is our best wind for Fall stripers. All that W/NW wind should help flatten out the ocean to make for a comfortable few days of chasing stripers. The velocity is up, 15 to 25 mph, but the harder it blows, the flatter it gets, for the first 1 to 2 miles offshore, anyway. Which is all we need as the fish have been closer than that to the beach, so far.
We will be running Open Boat Stripers: Sunday Nov 13 and Mon Nov 14. 6AM to 2PM. $275 person. 4 people max. All fish are shared. These dates are also available for your private charter.
We will be ready to snag bunker, cast lures, or troll. Whatever it takes to put fish in the boat.
Pics are from last weekend’s fish that we caught very close to home. Pics: Dave Flood of Mantua, NJ in brown camo shirt
Fishing continues to be good as the great fall rolls on. The weather has been somewhat of a rollercoaster ride and that looks to remain. All we can do is fish the prime windows and make the most of it. Right now an abundance of adult bunker and squid in the local waters has the body of striped bass sitting like happy fat cats. The waters have stayed unseasonably warm so most fish don’t seem to be flying through the area. So far this fall striped bass and some really good size ones have moved in and called the Barnegat Bay home. It’s been a number of weeks now. These fish are here now and continue to feed offering a lot of fishing fun.
Tautog fishing continues strong for land based anglers. Fishing both green crabs and sandfleas are working well and keeper size fish (15″ minimum size) are common in the right areas. Prime time tog fishing is now! The season opens up to a five fish bag limit on November 16th. We currently have live green crabs, live white crabs and sand fleas in stock.
Frustrated catching dogfish? Each year they invade right around Halloween and usually stick around all fall. This year is no different. For sure doggies are never wanted but since they are around in good numbers and not going anywhere it’s important to know how to fish around them. Don’t quit fishing in frustration! I’ve caught some of my biggest striped bass while catching doggies. Sometimes weeding through them is necessary. If chunking the surf try fishing heads to cut down on dogs. Striped bass will take a bunker head and usually dogfish will not. If fishing in a boat it is very important to understand and know our sounder. Being aware of the differences in marking striped bass vs dogfish is paramount! Also try not putting baits on the bottom. Usually that help. Also fish lures as doggies will rarely touch a lure.
Lure recommendations from the boat? Match the hatch! Right now it is adult bunker and squid… casting mojo, bucktail, metal lip, large top water spook, pencil popper, flutter spoon, glider/slider, large rubber swimbaits. Later this month I expect peanut bunker and hopefully sand eels so some smaller profile lures will be more valid.
Lure recommendations from the surf? Bucktail, Super Strike Lures Bottle / Darter / Popper / Needlefish, Hopkins (with dressed hook), Gibbs Danny Surface Swimmer (or one of many metal lip swimmers) Yo-zuri Lures Mag Darter / Hydro Monster Shot / Hydro Twitch and of course the Daiwa SP Minnow.
Stomach contents of a 30″ striped bass caught on the morning of 11/9/22. This bass had a baby blowfish, 8 squid ranging from 6-15″, a few crabs (both sand fleas and a calico) as well as two partially digested smaller fish that looked like bunker.
LBI Cup Hosted By The Beach Haven Marlin & Tuna Club
Due to the weekend’s weather the LBI Cup Striped Bass fishing tournament schedule was changed. Sunday was added to offer extended fishing through the entire weekend. Registration is 5pm Friday with the Captain’s meeting following at 7pm. Lines in right after the meeting. First weigh in on Saturday 3-5pm. Lines out at Sunday 3pm and the final weigh starts then and ends at 5pm. Awards dinner at 7pm on Sunday night. This is a great local event and part of the three way Striped Bass Grand Champion Series; Sea Shell Derby, LBI Cup, Stafford PBA Tournament (Nov 18/19th).
November is one of, if not the best month for striped bass fishing the Central Jersey coast. So far this month has been off to a stellar start with lots of quality striped bass. There’s a lot of bait in the local waters making it a buffet for hungry migrating striped bass. The recent weather has been unseasonably warm, near record breaking. The water temperatures have actually warmed some the past few days and all signs point to strong fishing in the days and weeks ahead.
The only bummer is there’s lots of dogfish that are also in the area too. There’s some techniques to resist these pesky scavengers. The first and foremost is fish lures. Rarely will dogfish hit a lure. If chunking fish heads as doggies love the meaty parts of baits but usually leave the heads alone. Striped bass will take head like gum drops.
Soft plastics are one of the best games in town for fall striped bass and shops like Fisherman HQ have a variety to put anglers on the bite. The mainstay of selecting the right lure depends on the type of bait the fish are feeding on. Striped bass are very opportunistic and aggressive feeders, especially during the migration as the need to fuel the migratory muscles and pack on calories for the winter drives the feeding. The use of plastics work in both the skinny backwaters, inlets as well as the beaches out to 3 nautical miles.
Spearing, anchovies, and smaller baitfish are mimicked perfectly by 3 to 4 inch Fin-S, paddle-tails, swim-shads, Zoom baits, and several Gulp baits. Depending on situation and depth 1/2oz, 3/4oz, and 1oz jig-heads will suffice for using these baits. When the fish are on larger baits such as mullet and bunker, the larger 5 to 6 inch swim shads will do. 1 to 2 oz weights or lure sizes may be needed to get down to the depths of feeding bass. Anglers can slow retrieve this lures or work them close to the bottom and when the bass are schooled – it’s usually game on for these types of baits.
If we get a run like last year, sand-eel impressions are also fantastic lures for migrating bass. These can be either added as a teaser or used as the main lure. Jigging metals with soft plastic sand-eel teasers work great when are bass feeding on these types of baits. There are quite a few manufacturers that have soft plastic sand-eel body types and these are an absolute necessity for anglers targeting November bass.
Next time your in the store, check out the soft plastic options to add to your arsenal!
The weather looks good for the upcoming weekend. Wind is moderate, not thrilled about the southerly direction, but the velocity is reasonable, and the traditional weather forecast has temps into the high 60’s. Not bad for November.
Running Open Boat Sat and Sun, Nov 5 and 6, 7AM to 3PM. $300 person, 4 people max, all fish are shared.
We will be ready to snag bunker, cast plugs and soft plastics, jig, or troll if we have to. There is a good mix of size right now so we should be able to get some under 38″ fish in the cooler.
The past 7-10 days has to be some of the best bass fishing Barnegat Bay has seen in a VERY long time. I first shared info about bigger fish showing up on my Oct 21 report. It then got going with a lot of anglers catching 30-40-50″ bass on lures and live bait (spot, eel) in the bay. This is not normally a daily occurrence but it has been! The team at Fish Heads has been in on the bite every day and night since they arrived. It has been phenomenal. What’s great about fishing the bay is it isn’t blitz fishing mayhem like most times in the ocean. Working the right tides at the right locations with the right lure/bait presentation have provided great fishing!
It seems that we’ve had a fall off after Monday morning’s tide but we have high hopes that November will be full of great fall striped bass fishing. Here’s a recent video report from Sunday evening.
UPDATE 11/2/22 @ 10AM
Monday Rick Bragg reported good striped bass fishing up the beach on live bait. Also store staffer Robbie caught and released a couple bass. One large over on live bait and one slot keeper on a white shad. Both in the bay thoroughfares. Tuesday evening Greg Kopenhaver reported, “What a beautiful night on the bay. We released two 40″ bass!” Sunset catch photo is at the end of the post.
I experienced a fall off Monday, a break in trend for two tides but it bounced back. And strong. I planned a boat engine maintenance (oil change and fuel filters) for the afternoon. Got up to the boat and before I could get on I got a call from Dante at Magictails that the bite was on, “bass going crazy on bait, get out here!” While on the phone Jake at Vans popped out of his duck blind that he was working on and said, “It’s on? Can I jump on?” I ran a straight fly trip Monday so I mainly had fly gear. Jake grabbed his rod and off we went. We had a solid hour of awesome fishing and then the tide faded and so did the feeding. After running the boat all weekend it was great to have Jake take the wheel and put me in position to cast the fly. Conditions were perfect with light wind and the bass were hungry. So stoked it all worked out!
Tog fishing at Barnegat Inlet remains strong! Fred Finger weighed in a new tournament leader, 4.8# tog that he caught in Barnegat Light on green crab.
Also more reports coming from the surf side of shorts, slots and overs. This past weekend Matt Shapiro caught and releases a 46.75″ x 25.5″ bass, ~40#. On Halloween, Tom Beaty weighed in a 33.5″ 13.26# striped bass that he caught on a plug fishing the south end. Yesterday evening, Chris Masino weighed in a 28.5″ 8.94# bass that he caught on a lure fishing Barnegat Light. (photo below) This morning Emmit from Top Notch Tackle weighed in a 28.5″ 8.64# bass he caught on bunker fishing Harvey Cedars.
One of the Parker boys with a beautiful striped bass that was caught and released off the LBI surf in recent nights.
There’s bait and fish here on Long Beach Island… striped bass, albies, tog and more! The past five days were awesome with fall fishing well underway. Here’s my report video from yesterday October 13, 2022 LBI Fishing Report Update. Weekend is looking good. Let’s go fishing.
Here are two short video clips from our epic day at the canyon on Monday: https://youtu.be/joalOTWOzXY and https://youtu.be/CRVbylc1B4A We broke the inlet in the dark around 3AM, arrived on the grounds at 7AM, looked around for a while and found a spot to make our first drift by 7:30 AM. Set up three rods for chunking and bait fishing. By the time the third rod was set, the second rod was already screaming. Set up on that fish and the bow rod goes off, two on! I was clearing the third rod and reeling fast as not to tangle one of the two hooked fish and a big yellowfin hit this squid on the retrieve like a train…..three on! It went like that for three hours. One drift over a mile and a half. We went 9 for 11 on 70 to 90 plus pound yellowfins. Back to the dock by 3:30 PM.
Inshore there are miles of bunker pods up and down the beach from Belmar to Barnegat Inlet. There are 30 to 40 plus pound stripers, whales, and big bluefin tuna on their heels. We plan on leaving early this Sat, Sun, and Mon, Oct 15-16-17 to get on these pods and pursue both the bass and the tuna. I will have the rods and gear for both on board. The rods are stand up 80 class, so we won’t be fighting them from the rod holder if we are fortunate enough to connect with a bluefin. It will be a belt and harness stand up fight. I had these combos built over the winter just for this fishery. We are going to jump from pod to pod looking for the bunker that have some tuna on them. Live bait fishing will be the primary tactic but I will have the heavy popping rods on board, as well. The focus is going to be on tuna with the stripers being our secondary effort, so I don’t want to mislead anyone. Also, our chances of hooking one of these tuna is not great. Sometimes they won’t even look at what you are offering. But there have been some caught off these bunker pods already, so I want to give it our best shot. Anything over 73 inches has to be released. There have been a few in the 150 to 200 lb class mixed in with the giants, that would be best case scenario, as we could actually take one of those. This is a risky trip, it’s not for everyone. When you pursue quality, that’s the risk. There’s a good chance we never hook a tuna and come back with an empty fish box, as almost all of the stripers are over the 38 inch mark, and the regulations say we have to release those fish. The upside: being in the presence of whales is always a humbling experience, catch and release on big stripers is a lot of fun, and just watching bluefin air out on bait makes you say “Whoaaa!” every single time.
$350 person, all fish are shared (if there are any), 4 people max. Sat Oct 15, Sun Oct 16, and Mon Oct 17, 5AM to 3PM. These dates are also available for charter. If you would like to book a trip for just stripers, we could talk about that, as well.
Pics: Jeff Frazier of Toms River holding tuna vertical and with the bent rod.
If you haven’t heard… BIG STRIPED BASS bass rolled into our local waters on Friday evening and are on the feed! Saturday was a full on epic day reported by many and some nice fish were caught today too. Most of the action is focused around Barnegat Inlet with action radiating a mile or two north, east and south. We also heard good reports from up the beach and in Monmouth County.
There’s large schools of bunker that have pushed into the westerly winds and are stacked up near and on some beaches. Fishing live baits if best but those who prefer more of a challenge are catching biggins on large lures too!
Yes the word epic was used and based on all accounts it is justified. It’s time to get in on the great fall fishing that has erupted about a month earlier than usual.
Here’s my mid day report shortly after leaving the morning LBI Surf Fishing Opening Day Kick Off Seminar. After this report I jumped in the boat and got into a great evening fishing session too.
Yup a couple nice bass were caught off the LBI surf too. The photo below was caught by LBI Classic Tom, Angler 408, Tom Ng.
There’s also very large pods of bay anchovies. Small blues as well has hardtails (false albacore, bonito, Spanish mackerel) can be found on this small bait. Use small lures and get in on the light tackle fun. Tommy Smith Jr had some fun on the surf yesterday!
