Fisherman's Headquarters

We can’t complain about the cards dealt this late fall. This week we’ve got mild weather and today is a beautiful sunny mid December day. Anglers are still catching fish on the boat and beach in the local LBI waters. Yesterday afternoon was good for some surf anglers on the south end of the island. Here’s a fishing report update for Tuesday afternoon December 14, 2021.

How long will the fishing season go on? Only time will tell. Our expectations are positive given there’s striped bass being caught in our local waters as well as the waters to our north and our south.

The five day forecast (excluding Monday) has the coldest low at a mild 44º. Thursday’s (16th) high of 58º looks encouraging as well as the highs next week in the mid to upper 40’s. Until the arctic freeze sets in we will have good fishing opportunities for striped bass. It’s also prime time tog season! Right Here! Right Now! Now’s the time to get some late season fishing in before a long cold winter. Let’s go fishing!

Here’s the Long Beach Island fishing report update for Sunday December 12, 2021

Update shop hours…

• Monday – Thursday: 7am to 7pm
• Friday & Saturday: 6am to 8pm
• Sunday: 6am to 5pm

LBI Surf Fishing Report

Dave Minnick and Jamie Gramley have put in time all year long and it has paid off for them. They are both still catching on the LBI surf. A few other reports came in too.

Yesterday Dave was out giving it everything he had and reported, “It was well worth the drive and getting pummeled by the wind to catch striped bass in December on LBI. The Sea Provides!”

Friday Jamie reported, “Another fun day on LBI!” He caught two. Today he struck out with just a dogfish to report.

Todd Hirchak caught this striped bass off the LBI surf on a Tsunami Swim Shad on Friday. These lures are always a great choice!

Today was the last day of the LBI Surf Fishing Classic. A huge congrats to everyone who fished and caught. An even bigger congrats to those who won prizes. Everything will be wrapped up soon and final prizes will be awarded soon.

On the final day there was a 30″ 9.88# striped bass weighed in by Rich Sherman. He caught it on bunker in Spray Beach. 

Striped Bass On The Boats

The boat reports have slowed down significantly mostly due to the time of year. At this point in the year the majority of boats are out of the water. However for those still in there’s fish being caught.

Today Zach Michot was out and got into great fishing… actually “silly fishing.” He reported, “Silly December Fishing! 30+ caught in two hours all on jig and plugs.” Just look at that sounder’s graph!

Today was the Miss Barnegat Light’s final day fishing of the 2021 season. Well they closed it out on a good one. One of the mates Jason reported, “Really good fishing! Possibly one of the best days of the bass season. You couldn’t drop a jig to the bottom without hooking one. And best of all not far from the dock.” One of the anglers onboard James Berlanger posted a photo of a beautiful bass and said he had a great trip.

This morning the sun is fighting to break through the marine layer. The ocean is a lumpy 2-3′ with an occasional 4′ wave in the water. A breezy south-southwesterly wind is on the beaches now and it will only increase as the day goes on. Maybe it will blow the fog outta here. The past few days have offered fair to good fishing for anglers on the beaches and boats fishing the waters of LBI. Here’s a gloomy Monday fishing report update for the Long Beach Island Area on December 6, 2021.

Long Beach Island Surf Fishing Report

Last week’s sporadic blitz fishing has seemed to sputter out. Our fingers are crossed there’s still more fuel in the peanut bunker (or we are ok with sand eels too) vs striped bass tank. We’ll have to fish and see. But in the mean time anglers are fishing and catching.

Today the fishing musician Rick Wieland stopped by with a 29″ striped bass. “Finally got one!” He said. “It was a long time coming.” Rick caught the fish off the Harvey Cedars surf at about 9:30am fishing a bunker chunk. “The ocean was rough. Lots o waves and white water. I was struggling to hold with 6oz of lead.” He said, “There were a few other anglers in the area but I didn’t see any other action.”

Jamie Gramley reported catching 7 bass today in 23-26″ range. He posted a photo (above) of some striped bass he caught with the caption, “Who said rough water is bad for fishing?”

Yesterday Eli Haegele tagged us in a striped bass photo he posted. The fish fell or a yellow Yo-Zrui Mag Darters.

Today, Randy Hampton caught one on his first cast using a bone Daiwa SP Minnow. He reported, “The guy next to me caught one a minute later on black and silver SP.”

Trevor O’Neil reported, “We’ve been keeping the dog fish population well fed these last few weeks. I finally caught a little luck tonight on some fresh bunker rom Fish Heads!”

Jay Hoffman went fishing yesterday and put a lot of hours in on the beach. He had nothing to show for his efforts until late in the day. “I was posted up at a nice cut and as it got dark two bites. One after the other. Boom! Boom! I beached two plump sassy bass. I would have liked to fish the tide all the way up but Monday morning work rolls in whether I’m ready or not.”

Joe Handley reported, “1000 casted in the morning with no luck. Went back at dark mid-island and got three hits, two striped bass in 20 minutes.”

Striped Bass Fishing Reports From The Boats

Reports from boat anglers have been positive for a number of weeks now. This weekend wasn’t any different. Boat anglers had some great opportunities over this past weekend and a lot of them scored.

From the boats… both striped bass and tog are two great targets. Striped bass fishing is still firing on all cylinders. Anglers are catching good under the bird plays and also working broad areas on the troll. It seems the peanut bunker “match-the-hatch” is still the way to go however some anglers are catching going to the classic last all sand eel imitations. Illesor Retep reported seven trips out and have not struck out yet. Got 14 bass today (this was Saturday or Sunday).

Wreck Fishing For Tautog

Tog fishing at the wrecks and reef sites is good and has been since the season opened up to Five Fish Per Anglers (minimum size 15″) on November 16th.

Some great reports are coming in but none better than store staffer Matt “Swagmattic” from Sunday. He’s always fishing hard and it pays off. His report, “Jumbo’s! Fishing has been pretty rock solid so far this season bu t today was a day. I had three over 10# with two more double digits on the boat! Limited the oat 7 times over, sent more of the fish back swimming and kept a couple for the table.”

As far as land based tautog fishing… The phenomenal bite that seemed to run strong all fall at the Barnegat Inlet Jetty has slowed. With the shorter days, longer nights and colder weather patterns comes colder water temperatures. There are still tog present and anglers are catching however most of the tog have made the move or will soon move to the wrecks and reef sites. Based on reports the shallow water fishing has really dropped off in the past 5-10 days and the 50-70′ depths have really lit up.

Late Fall Bluefin Tuna

Late fall bluefin tuna or as some call them “Jersey Ghosts” have been around or a couple weeks. This past weekend had a lot of boats were out hunting and a lot found them chewing. It’s always rewarding to gear up customers through pout the year and then hear their success stories. We’ve heard from of great reports from numerous of customer in recent days.

Fall fishing continued strong this week with solid reports coming from both the beach and boat. Finally reports from the mid-island and south ends of LBI have started popping. As we enter into December mild temperatures prevail all the way into next weekend. Now’s the time to get in on the great late fall fishing on Long Beach Island. Here’s the LBI Fishing Report for Friday December 3, 2021.

LBI Surf Fishing Report

Abundant striped bass action on LBI this week had anglers catching on the surf with bait and lures. If fishing bait, bunker and clams would be great choices however you’ll need to pick through the doggies.

Fishing lures is highly suggested. Even die hard bait anglers have made the switch and many have reported fun action on the numerous pop up bass blitzes this week.

Best lures choices would be anything that matches a peanut bunker. For the past week plus, peanut bunker rom 3-6″ have been the main forage which striped bass in the area are keyed in on. Always match the hatch! Think bucktails, rubber swim shads, Yo-zuri Mag Darter, Twitch Bait, Pencil & Popper. They have all been good to me!

I’ve also seen some small clouds of micro bait around so teasers could be effective but aren’t suggested because they cut down your casting distance. Usually I fish teasers and depend on them when small slender sand eels are present. Right now that is not the case.

As far as timing, the afternoon incoming tide push into sunset has offered good success. But some mornings have produced too. There’s not tell when the next blitz will hit the beach so go when you can and hopefully you’ll connect!

Recent Weigh Ins At Fish Heads

Click HERE for details on other weighs or the LBI Surf Fishing Classic

In light of the good striper fishing and nice weather coming up I decided to keep the boat in for one more weekend. We have been casting lures into migratory fish under flocks of birds. Mostly 24 to 26 inch stripers with a few pushing 30 inches. When that slows down, we go on the troll where we have been getting a few bigger fish for the cooler. The bellies have been loaded with peanut bunker. 

Congratulations to Capt Nick DeGennaro and his crew, John Cavaliere and Colby Capri for landing our boat’s first Fall/Winter bluefin yesterday. A 60 pounder that Colby coaxed into crashing his popper. 

Nick will be working deck on the Hi Flier this weekend and it probably won’t be hard to convince us to give that fishery a try if everyone wants to. For now, I’m going to call these trips striper trips because we certainly are no experts in this winter bluefin fishery. If you add Nick’s fish from yesterday to all of mine, it comes out to a total of one, if that tells you anything. I’ve been in them a bunch of times, watching them air out, and crash bait on the surface, but getting them to eat has been a difficult task for me personally. It’s fine, though, I’m enjoying the ride. If any of you guys on board, want to try, we”ll make the run. We have the gear for it, as well. 

Open Boat or Charter: Sat Dec 4 and Sun Dec 5. 6AM to 2PM $250 person, 4 people max, all fish are shared. $950 for private charter.If we go chasing bluefin, either exclusively, or combined with striper fishing $350 person, $1,350 for private charter. 
Dave DeGennaro

Hi Flier Sportfishing

732.330.5674 cell

hiflier.com 

The final week and a half of the 67^th annual Long Beach Island Surf Fishing Classic is here, and it appears the striped bass are going to make it an exciting finish. 

The last few days of November and those of early December have produced some hectic action on the front beaches of Long Beach Island. Prior to November 29, a total of 13 striped bass had been weighed in for the tournament. With six arriving on the 30^th and another five on the 30^th, that total almost doubled to 25 fish! Check here for the live results page.

Nick DeGennaro still holds the lead with his 18.02-pound linesider he caught in Barnegat Light on a lure.

Lures of several types now seem to be catching the most bass as opposed to bunker which was the hot bait early in the Classic. Successful offerings have worked well on the fish including bucktails, Hopkins, Daiwa SP Minnows, rubber swim shads like those from Tsunami. Also topwater plugs are stand out producers. One of the best is the Tsunami Talking Poppers.

Bird play is marking schools of bait and feeding bass. The fish can be seen breaking the surface as they chase and feed on large schools of peanut bunker. At times these feeds have been full on blitz conditions.

Greg Cudnik from Fisherman’s Headquarters in Ship Bottom attributes the success of artificials to the presence of spiny dogfish in the wash. These scavengers feed ravenously on any bait they come across. They do not attack artificials with the same intensity. He recommends anglers try to “match the hatch” using artificials that fit the profile of peanut bunker.

Cudnik says he was pleased as the fish arrived and notes this arrival is in line with previous years. A goodly number of the fish being caught are in the keeper-size range making them eligible for the Classic. “There are still good numbers of fish to the north, and they should keep arriving on our beaches well into December.”

Jingles Bait and Tackle in Beach Haven reports the surf temperature on the beach recently has been slowly dropping with the most recent reading coming in at 52-degrees. They are especially encouraged for the upcoming actions as the heavy surf fishing action has reached Surf City and is moving south. Earlier in the week they heard of a ”peanut bunker frenzy” with particularly good action in Harvey Cedars. 

They officially weighed in a striper weighing 8.72-pounds caught by Frankie Lenetti was weighed in on Tuesday. Frankie works at Surf City Bait and Tackle and Fisherman’s Headquarters. As per Classic rules, he brought the fish to a shop he is not associated with.

Aimee Welsh from Surf City Bait and Tackle calls the arrival of the striper schools “a breath of fresh air.” She is hoping for “neck and neck excitement” for the last week of the Classic especially since the fish are in the 8–12-pound range.”

Welsh expects the next couple of weeks to be just as good for bass and perhaps even better. She admits being pleased at the success recently of bass being taken on artificial presentations rather than bait. “I think that adds to the sport of it.”

The Classic will conclude on Sunday, December 12. It is not too late to register for the contest. Registration can be handled at any of the bait and tackle shops mentioned above. Complete information on the contest can be found at www.LBISFC.com. 

The northern Ocean County waters have been hot for five days plus. Finally this blitz fishing arrived to the shores of Long Beach Island. Yesterday 11/29/21 was a great day for surfcasters on LBI. Fortunately again today surf anglers got into flurries of bass blitzing. Late fall fishing offers some of the best opportunities for surfcasters on the beach of LBI. Let’s go fishing!

With true fall-like temperatures finally showing up and water temperatures dropping into the mid and lower 50’s, the striped Bass action in the 67^th annual Long Beach Island Surf Fishing Classic is showing an uptick.

Although no bluefish have been entered in the contest yet, the number of striped bass entered continues to rise.

While the bite along with weigh-ins in the Classic has been spotty at times, there have been enough good catches scattered in to inspire optimism for the upcoming days. In addition, fish caught by anglers registered in the contest, other fish have shown up the length of Long Beach Island.

In fact, the three top fish on the leaderboard have been caught in the past week. Currently sitting on top is a bass weighing 18.02-pounds caught by Nick DeGennaro on November 20 in Barnegat Light. Taken on an artificial presentation, the fish measured out to 34.5-inches.

Richard Bergman rests in second place with an 18.0-pounder also caught in Barnegat Light on mullet. Merle Van Liew beached a fish weighing 17.06-pounds on bunker in Beach Haven good for third place at the moment. The fish measured out at 37 and seven-eighths inches.

With the four-day Thanksgiving weekend on the horizon and plenty of prizes left in the Classic, there seems to be optimism for action to pick up.

Aimee Welsh from Surf City Bait and Tackle says she is keeping her fingers crossed that the ocean water temperature continues to drop. “If the cooler weather continues, I think the action will get better and better.” She feels the action will be strong right into 2002.

Connor Smilon from Jingles Bait and Tackle in Beach Haven says he expects the 4-day Thanksgiving weekend to be a good one for catching bass on the beach. “I am looking forward to a push of bigger stripers and maybe even some bluefish.” He added that he has heard of some large blues appearing north of Long Beach Island.

Smilon also stated that he anticipates striper action in December to be much like last year when the fish were around throughout the month.

One problem that has been plaguing surf anglers this fall has been a surge of spiny dogfish that attack natural bait. Their aggressive presence makes it difficult at times keeping the bait around long enough for the stripers to get to it.

Although the stripers continue to prefer natural bait, artificial presentations have been catching fish. Greg Cudnik from Fisherman’s Headquarters endorses the use of artificials to avoid the pesky dogfish. One of his customers picked up one on a Kettle Creek soft bait paddle-tail on a lead-head. The same anglers also beached a linesider on a diamond jig.

The Classic will run until December 12. With lots of prizes still up for grabs, it’s not too late to register for the contest. Registration can be handled at any of the bait and tackle shops mentioned above. 

Complete information on the contest can be found at www.LBISFC.com.

Recent history has shown that the next two or three weeks ahead produce the most fish weighed in for the tournament.

From the wicked westerlies (Monday and Friday) to the full moon eclipse early Friday morning, this past week has offered an interesting string of event and some good fishing all along the way. Right now we are in the heart of the fall fishing season on LBI. Let’s go fishing and enjoy time on the water before winter sets in. Here’s the Long Beach Island Fishing Report Update for Sunday November 21, 2021.

Tog Fishing Report

Tog fishing opened up from one to five fish on November 16th. So far solid reports have came in from anglers fishing the wrecks and reef sites. Also the Barnegat Inlet Jetty continues to produce good fishing.

James Walsh sent in this photo and said, “Thanks for the green crabs!” On Saturday he caught his limit on the jetty.

Magictail Tog Jigs changed the game and they keep on providing for so many anglers. Providing much more fun (than rig style bottom fishing) and more and bigger fish. Yesterday the boys from Magictail were out and reported good fishing. Peter boated this 11# tog with aboard’s Zach’s boat. They caught a four man limit.

Striped Bass Fishing Report

Reports right now can range from poor to great all depending on who you talk to, the waters they focus and the techniques they employ. Without question there’s a very strong range of size class in the Central Jersey waters from unders to slots (28 to <38″) as well as overs (38″+). Land based and boat anglers are catching striped bass in the bay, inlet and surf.

LBI Surf Fishing

The LBI surf is spotty. A few anglers are catching but no spectacular reports fired up this week. We have our fingers crossed that this week and next week will shine. In regards to quantity of striped bass, usually these two weeks are the best dates for Long Beach Island surf casters.

Regular customer Dave Glassberg from the Tackle Tank shared a video report which was added to the most recent video report post (link above). He caught a nice striped bass off the Ship Bottom surf this weekend chunking fresh Fish Heads bunker. Most anglers fishing bunker chunks are reporting pesty dogfish. There’s no delaying they are running rampant and a major nuisance. Fish through them and hopefully you’ll be rewarded.

Anglers fishing lures are staying away from the dogs. They are also finding some striped bass. Chris Masino caught a bass today fishing a Kettle Creek soft bait paddle-tail on a lead head. A few other striped bass were reported off the surf on lures.

This time of year you should depend on a couple key lures on the surf. The following are dependable surf staples. Daiwa SP Minnow, Yo-Zuri Mag Darter, Hogy Sand Eel Jig, Diamond Jig with a teaser, soft bait paddle tail such as a Kettle Creek, a slender soft bait sandeel imitation like a Sluggo, Red Gills or a Tsunami Sand Eel, needlefish (Savage Sandeel Pencil),

This weekend we had one weigh in for the LBI Surf FIshing Classic. Nick DeGennaro caught and entered a striped bass that weighed in at 18.02 pounds.

Striped Bass Action In The Boat

Some anglers are finding fun fishing while others are struggling. The reports along the inshore waters of LBI have yet to really fire up. But we did hear of a couple. One big bass reported by Tom Ryan, “I caught this bad boy a few das ago off of LBI.”

Another report came from Dante of Magictails. He found a good body of fish on Wednesday afternoon just off the northern beaches of LBI. Doubled up on a tandem Magictail Mojo rig.

Most of the action for me as well as a lot of other boats has been from Barnegat Inlet north. Some days way up the beach. In the past week 5-7 days I’ve found good fishing from the Inlet’s north pocket (Monday 11/15 was epic) up to Seaside (Wednesday had a solid bite there) and some days the upper reaches of Ocean County (Saturday).

As far as it seems that the troll bite was hampered on the days around the full moon. We are expecting the action to open up as we finish off the month strong.

We heard of a couple blues this past week. Nate Caloiaro caught one. Also heard of a few others that were caught trolling umbrella rigs on the hunt for striped bass.

BHMTC LBI Cup

Congrats to Captain Mike Villanova and the crew aboard the No Limit! They won 1st place overall, 1st and 2nd place striper calcuttas and top female angler. Captain Mike reported, “Awesome day on the waters with great friends! It was a slow morning but we ended up finding the right bites, going 4/5 on bass up to 35 inches.”

“The stripers are here! The stripers are here!” These words could be heard on the beaches of Long Beach Island the past few days as the contestants in the Long Beach Island’s Surf Fishing Classic found striped bass on the ends of their lines.

After the first few weeks of the tournament that began on October 9 were dominated by large numbers of big kingfish, bass making their way down the coastline are making some surf casters happy.

As of Friday afternoon, November 12, six striped bass have made it to the scales for the Classic. The first fish entered was a 31-inch bass caught by Paul Donnelly in Barnegat Light on October 30 on a clam bait. The fish weighed in at 11.12-pounds and is currently in second place in the entire tournament.

The top fish so far was caught by Randall Krieg on Friday, November 12, in Surf City on bunker. The fish weighed 12.32-pounds and measured just over 34-inches. A 12.32-pounder caught by Randall Krieg resides in third place.

Surf City Bait and Tackle reports that Tyler Leary weighed in a fish caught on an artificial lure weighing 8.88-pounds. Tyler, a high school student, leads the tournament in the juvenile division.

Of the six fish currently entered in the Classic, three were caught on bunker chunks, two on clam, and Leary’s on the lure. All stripers weighed in thus far have been caught on the beach at the northern end of Long Beach Island from Surf City to Barnegat Light. Fish have been active both in the day and at night.

ADDED / UPDATED on 11/18/21
11/16/21 – 9.46# caught by Carl Gramley on bunker
11/15/21 – 17.06# caught by Marle Van Liere on bunker CURRENTLY 2nd
11/14/21 – 7.06# caught by Robert Braack on bunker
11/14/21 – 18# caught by Richard Bergman on mullet CURRENTLY 1st

For more on the current standing go to www.lbisfc.com/live-results

In addition to the Classic entries, local bait and tackle shops report catches of oversized fish that had to be released. Jingles Bait and Tackle in Beach Haven heard of two lunkers that were landed on the beach and released.

Fisherman’s Headquarters reports Greg Sadowski and Ernie Ernst were fishing together this week and landed a pair of 43-inchfish just 15 minutes apart on bunker chunks.

A total of forty-three kingfish have been weighed in thus far with Jim Spiewak’s fish topping the field. With none entered since October 25, it appears the water may be too cold for any more entries.

No bluefish or red drum have been weighed in so far.

At this point there are seventeen teams entered in the Classic with a total of 495 anglers. 

It is not too late to sign up as there is just about a month left until it ends of December 12. The bulk of the striped bass are still to the north of Long Beach Island and heading south. Many prizes are still available on a daily, weekly, bi-weekly, and grand prize basis.

Registration can be accomplished at any of the official weigh-in stations including Surf City Bait and Tackle, Fisherman’s Headquarters, and Jingles Bait and Tackle.

Complete information on the tournament can be obtained at any of the official weigh-in sites or at www.LBISFC.com