LBI NJ Fishing Report – LBI Surf Fishing, Barnegat Bay & Inlet

In the recent days and weeks, fishing has been good but variable and very dependent on the water temperature rollercoaster. For far this July, we’ve had beautiful nearshore waters but also a number of upwelling events. Some more radical than others. The most recent southerly blow on Monday left a 2-4′ SE swell in the water but it also pushed off the surface waters. When this occurs the bottom (cold) waters from further off of the beach upwell and stretch out along the surf. This chilly water can shit down the surf fishing, as well as have a major effect on the inlet and bay fishing especially during incoming tide stages.

Here’s my latest video fishing report video post…

Fluke fishing reports from the surf have been good but the number of keepers has been few. Most fish are in the 12-15″ range. But there are some keeper fish being caught. Here’s a double header the Steve from Night Strikes Guide Service recently shared.

The fishing musician Rick stopped in the shop yesterday and shared that he is catching fluke off of the beach. He said, “I’m catching 4-5-6 fluke a day using White Gulp on the mid-island surf. I’m slow drag with just a weight and a teaser tipped with Gulp.” Rick was even catching on Tuesday with the swell and cold water. “I’m am catching few keepers but having a lot of fun enjoying the weather on the beach in the surf.” Isn’t that what summer is all about. Get out there and have some fun in the sun and sand.

Kingfish reports from the surf have been steady. Not epic fishing but anglers are catching using both live bloods and Fish Bites. We’ve found when the water is warm fish Bites are much more effective than when cold. In the chilly water live bloods excel. It’s also a great idea to fish both at the same time. First rig up and bait the hooks with small 1″ piece of Fish Bites and then tip off with a piece of live blood worm. You get the best of both worlds; the sent and natural pheromones (which also Dyna Bait freeze dried bloodworms offer) of live bloods and the durability (stays on the hook) of Fish Bites.

Fluke fishing in the bay remains strong, especially when the tide and water temps align. Fluke fishing on the reefs and wrecks has been somewhat spotty. One day is good and then next is dead.

Other species here to target; blues, triggerfish, sheepshead, weakfish, blowfish.

Mid-shore fishing has been offering up tuna, mahi and a few cobia, wahoo, king mackerel among other summertime pelagics

Summer is here and so is summer fishing in Beach Haven. The captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association are finding that while the fishing may have slowed a bit, a rise in the variety of fish to be found balances things out.

The bay waters are providing action on summer flounder, blowfish, dogfish, some bluefish, weakfish, and big cow nose rays. Outside the inlets to the inshore artificial reefs the focus is on black sea bass and fluke but bluefish, ling, porgies, sea robins, and skates are showing up. The offshore fishing is picking up as various species of tuna are available along with some billfish and mahi-mahi.

Max Goldman from the “Starfish” reports a steady pick of fish on the inshore reefs with one half-day charter checking in with a mix of black sea bass, fluke, porgy, and bluefish.

Captain Gary Dugan of the “Irish Jig” has been working various areas for decent catches of summer flounder. Depending upon weather conditions, the tide, and water temperature, the “Irish Jig” can be found working the waters of Great Bay, Little Egg Inlet, and the inshore ocean waters. In addition to fluke, Captain Gary has been working the reefs for sea bass.

Captain Ray Lopez has been sailing the “Miss Liane” for limit catches of black sea bass. One 6-hour charter with Kenneth Shapiro and friends did well catching seabass and fluke. He had Mary Beth Rieasoli and family from Bordentown on the water with a variety of fish to bring home including a ling. David and Laura from Pittstown had a 6-hour bottom fishing trip and caught their limit in an hour and a half.  

Captain Brett Taylor of Reel Reaction Sportfishing ended last week with 45 keeper fluke to 6-pounds on four days of fishing. He noted it was tough with some cold water, but his anglers worked hard. Captain Brett ended the 4-day week with 45 keeper fluke to over 6 pounds. He had Dr. Pat Thomas, curator for the Bronx Zoo, on a 4-hour light tackle trip. They managed over 20 short fluke and 4 solid keepers.

Additional information on the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association can be found at www.BHCFA.org

Fishing is not spectacular but there’s a variety of opportunities here in and around the Long Beach Island waters. Right now we are settling out from another radical upwelling event and full moon. Let’s go fishing and enjoy another great weekend having fun on the water.

Right now the forecast for this Sunday, July 17 and Monday, July 18 looks pretty good. 
I am hoping to run to the 30 to 40 mile grounds for Yellowfin Tuna. If the weather and sea conditions are not perfect for that, Plan B will be the 15 to 20 mile grounds for Bluefin Tuna, King Mackerel, and whatever else might be there. 

We will be prepared to troll, jig, and bait fish in either spot.
$450 person for the 30-40 mile run.3AM to 3PM
$300 person for the 15-20 mile run.4AM to 2PM
Four people max, all fish are shared on either trip.

I just stopped in Fishermans Headquarters to stock up on flourocarbon, gourmet hooks, and jigs!

I am only accepting reservations from individuals who are willing to do either trip. The decision on which distance is appropriate will be made right up until our ride out the inlet and some riding into the sea condition. Keep mind, I always error on the side of caution.

Monday is also available as an inshore private charter if you prefer.

Call me on my cell to reserve a spot. You can call right up until our departure time.

Dave DeGennaro

Hi Flier Sportfishing

732.330.5674

hiflier.com

The local water temperatures have rebounded nicely from the chilly upwell. The warmer temps came a more active bite. Fishing activity has been good in recent days, around the weather and even in the weather. Here’s the Fishing LBI Weekend Report Update for Sunday July 10th.

LBI Surf Fishing Report

The LBI the surf temp is in the mid to low 60’s

On the surf anglers are catching both fluke and kingfish. Reports are most active in the mid island and north end surf. There’s gotta be action on the south end too. We just haven’t heard them.

Most of the fluke are shorts or slots but there are a few larger fish on occasion. Some fluke are spitting up sand eels in the wash. We’ve got reports of this from a couple anglers on the beaches of LBI and to our north on IBSP.

The kingfish made a good showing the past couple of days. As always live bloodworms are best but Fish Bites, Dynabait Freeze Dried Bloodworms and Gulp all work too.

Sharks and rays are also cruising the surf and eating baits.

Local Baits

Summetime baits are moving around and game fish are eating! Spearing, peanut bunker, some mullet as well as some micro bait is scattered about in the bay. Schoolie striped bass are slapping and gorging them in the early and late parts of the day. Focus around golden hour from best results. Store staffers Grey and Jack had a blast yesterday catching bass on light tackle top water.

Sheepshead and triggerfish are here in good numbers!

Fluke fishing is good in the bay, inlet and surf.

Crabbing and clamming offers great family fun.

The yellowfin and bluefin tuna popped up and chewed strong the past few days. Lots of good catch reports from 15-50 mile range, in the usually hot spots. Few kingfish (king mackerel) and cobia reports inshore too. These should only get more consistent as summer progresses.

They blew the forecast for Saturday (yesterday). It was supposed to be torrential rain all day so we cancelled all fishing for the day. I don’t mind a few hours of rain but I’m not scheduling a long day in an open center console with nothing but rain. I woke up at 7AM and checked the Weather Channel forecast, no more rain forecasted for the day. I started mad texting people, scrambling to put a few people together to run to the tuna grounds. Two people jumped at the chance and we were off the dock by 9AM, a very late start in the world of tuna fishing, but it beats staying on land.

I had the GPS set for the 35-40 mile run where the fishing has been good the last few days, but 20 miles in, the sea condition worsened and the two footers we started out in were now three to fours and capping. I opted for the closer grounds, only 5 miles behind us, and we went on the troll. It was not good. The ocean was very sloppy and the lures were not tracking right, and mid day is not the best time to be trolling as it is. 

I did have some good readings on the machine and some bait in the cooler so we reeled in all the trolling gear and got two bait rods ready. You will see trolling rigs in the tuna pic because I was going to properly stow them while we were drifting and waiting for a hookup. I put a sardine on the first rod to go out, a weightless flatline that I was going to go really long with except about 30 feet from the boat, the line was snatched out of my hand and what followed was a smoking run off against full drag on the AVET LX. Obviously a tuna.We decked a nice 35 lb bluefin and ran back to do another drift. Hooked up again on the flatline, only this fish never hit the RPM’s of a tuna run. After a 20 minute fight we got him all the way to the boat for a quick release, looked to be about 130 lb class dusky shark. 
A few more drifts with no more action and we headed for the barn.

Running an Open Boat Tuna trip tomorrow (Monday) July 11. Looks like a good marine forecast to hit these closer tuna grounds. We are going to use bait and jigs. I will have the trolling rods and gear on board but the emphasis is going to be on bait with light 30 class conventional outfits. It’s just more fun to catch them that way. If we are not hooking up and the boats trolling around us are, then we can always change things up to what’s working. 4AM to Noon. $300 person. 4 people max. All fish are shared. Everything is provided.

Herman Diaz of Waretown, NJ with a 130 class Dusky Shark release.
Ross Mansbach from Atlanta, GA with his first tuna, a 35 lb bluefin.

Dave DeGennaro

Hi Flier Sportfishing

732.330.5674 cell

hiflier.com

Lots of options this week for fishing. Fishing the inlet jetty for stripers and blues. We will also be getting our first batches of live grass shrimp this weekend to target weakfish and the mixed bag on ultralite tackle in the bay. Saturday looks like a good day to run offshore for tuna and we have our first good reports from the mid range grounds on that fishery. 

Here is the reality of all the trips listed below:

Our Striper/Blue trips in the inlet have been producing more blackfish (Tog) than anything else. We have to catch 30 Tog to catch a few nice stripers as they are all hitting the same bait. The tog are all 2 to 5 pounders but they are out of season until August 1. The upside is we are catching everything on 10 pound spinning rods and bobbers drifted right into the jetty. As some of our customers have pointed out, there are worse problems to have than catching too many fish. Agreed. The bluefish are in there thick one day and gone the next. The bass are mostly 25 to 30 plus inch fish and we have tags to keep the 24 to 28 inchers. 

Live Grass Shrimp trips. This is the first time we have been able to buy this bait this season. The same slime or snot grass that has plagued our bay fishing has also made it impossible for our shrimp supplier to catch the bait…..until now. So, I don’t have any weakfish reports but shrimping usually stirs some kind of action up and we go all the way down to the six pound spinning outfits for this fishery. I like the idea of combining this with the jetty fishing in hopes one or the other will be successful. 

TUNA!!! For the last 7 or 8 years our inlet has been close to countless choices of mid-range tuna grounds for bluefin and yellowfin tuna. So far, this season, it has been a struggle to locate them at a reasonable distance. Cape Cod is loaded with fish and Cape May/OC,MD just heated up. Yesterday there were finally some nice fish caught at a reasonable distance from Barnegat Inlet. That’s where we are headed on Saturday as long as the marine forecast holds up. It’s not a slam dunk, a few boats went and caught yesterday (Wed), that’s all I got. And no, I can’t share where, as it was given to me in confidence. If I find them first, then I can tell whoever I want. It’s just the code we live by. 

Here is our Open Boat schedule for the next few days, of course, you could charter the boat for your own group, as well:

Fri July 8 11AM to 4 PM Stripers and Blues in the inlet.  $175 person
Sat July 9 2AM to 4PM Mid Range TUNA.  $450 person
Sun July 10 6AM to Noon Bass & Blues at the Inlet and Live Grass Shrimp in the Bay Combo $200 person
Mon July 11 6AM to Noon Bass & Blues at the Inlet and Live Grass Shrimp in the Bay Combo $200 person
All trips are 4 people max, all fish are shared.
Call to reserve a spot right up until “go time”. Phone is best as I am fishing more than I am checking email.

See you on board!

Dave

Dave DeGennaro

Hi Flier Sportfishing

732.330.5674 cell

hiflier.com

Anglers fishing in and around the waters of Long Beach Island have a variety of species to target. For the most part summer flounder are in the spot light but there’s a variety of other species that offer good fishing opportunities… Sea Bass, Sheepshead, Triggerfish, Weakfish, Kingfish, Striped Bass, Bluefish, Blowfish, +. Here’s the LBI Fishing Report Update for Wednesday July 6, 2022.

The most asked question is, “What’s biting on the Long Beach Island Surf?”

Recently catches are mostly made up of fluke and kingfish. There are some sharks and rays cruising the bars. We had a nice striped bass reported by Walter Horner.

If hitting the surf there’s a decision to make… either heavier rod to chunk via bait and weight-wait or lighter outfit to actively fish via cast and retrieve. If chunking, bunker, mackerel and/or clam would be the baits of choice rigged up on a single hook slide rig, hi/o or half bass rig. If going the lighter way use a small hook hi/lo rig with live bloodworms, Fish Bites Bag O’Worms or DynaBait Freeze Dried Bloodworms for kingfish. For fluke a hi/lo rigged doubled up with 3-4-5″ Gulp or a jig and teaser (baited with Gulp) will catch them.

Right now there is some seasonably chilly surf temperatures (low 60’s) due to a minor upwelling event. Some beaches on the island are warmer (mid 60’s) and some colder (in the mid to upper 50’s). Finding warmer water will offer better results with more active bites. I’ve found that while Fish Bites are incredible live and freeze dried worms out fish during the colder water slow day bites.

Fluke fishing is good in the bay, inlet and ocean sites. Not everyday, all day is it on but some days and times offer quality fishing. There’s still some quality fluke in the bayside waters. Ryan Warford caught this one on July 4th.

In the past week or so reports of ocean fluke fishing were good. Reports from some of the reefs have been good. There’s alos some nice sea bass to be caught.

The current Black Sea Bass regulation (July 1 – August 31) is 2 Fish At 13″.

Anglers in the know who are focusing and doing the work are catching beautiful sheepshead. Fiddlers, sand fleas and blue crabs are the best baits. Triggerfish are also here.

Here’s a link to my last video report. It’s a short one, but stay tuned and I’ll have up a more detailed report in the near future.

Offshore Fishing Report

Some yellowfin and bluefin reports popped up over the past week. A few reports from the mid-shore grounds and others from far offshore. A couple customers in the show reported a few bluefin in the area of the Barnegat Ridge. A couple reports from the AP which usually by this time of year is on fire. We heard about some action that popped up for a couple days in the area of the Bacardi and Texas Tower. There has also been some large bluefin only a few miles off the beach.

Store staffer Frezza got into some good fun deep drop fishing for tiles. Here’s a good size blue-line tilefish he caught on a recent trip.

Mako shark fishing is closed!

Effective July 5, 2022 – No shortfin mako sharks may be landed or retained in any U.S. Atlantic highly migratory species (HMS) fishery until further notice. This zero retention limit of zero in the commercial and recreational Atlantic HMS fisheries is consistent with the management measure adopted in 2021 by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) recommendation. For more information on mako sharks, their biology and management check out this recent blog post.

I just spent the last four days on the water and finally got a chance to put a report out. Every trip has been at the inlet jetty fishing a  bobber and worms, targeting stripers. All on10 lb spinning gear. A lot of fun. Catching a few legal fluke and too many blackfish in the effort. We are using in line circle hooks as required, so all the tog are released unharmed. The bass are anywhere from 25 to 30 plus inches and we have tags to keep 24 to 28 inch fish for all on board. Any given day we are catching bluefish on lures there, too, but some days they just aren’t there. 

Running Open Boat to Barnegat Ridge for bonita and albacore Monday, July 4, 7AM to 2PM. $250 person, 4 people max, all fish are shared. I do not have any bonita reports, only albies that I have heard of, but there could be anything there this time of year, it’s just time to try. 
Also available during the week, Wed, Thurs, and Fri, July 6, 7, and 8, 11AM to 4PM for the inlet stripers and blues fishing. 

Dave DeGennaro

Hi Flier Sportfishing

732.330.5674 cell

hiflier.com