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

Mid-May is a great time for fishing Long Beach Island and the local central NJ waters. Whether inshore, offshore or from shore right now offers arguably the year’s best fishing opportunities. Below is a morning fishing report video from yesterday May 17 and then it’s followed up by a quick fishing report below. To All… Good Luck Fishing!

Striped Bass

It’s prime time spring bassin’ on LBI. This year the bass fish showed up a little earlier and surf anglers have scored. I’ll go out there and say it… so far this spring on LBI has been one of the better if not the best run we’ve seen in a handful of years. As more post spawn striped bass migrate into and through our waters the already lit stage will pop off!

Expect solid fishing from here through June’s new moon (6/9/21) and then things will taper off fast especially if the water stays warm. Some years we get upwelling events that keep the big bass until 4th of July. Once that wave moves through it’s all about the residence bass population which are a special treat to us on LBI! They really showed early this season in a strong way.

Bluefish

So far the blues haven’t showed in the number that everyone would have liked but there have been some yellow eye flurries. A couple gators were caught in the Barnegat Bay. Many more however smaller blues in the cocktail size (1-2#) are frequenting the Barnegat Inlet.

Eli Haegele reported two days in a row catching some small toothy ones fishing the rocks on the north end. Here’s three he kept of the 20 he caught.

Black Drum

Black Drum were caught in recent days in the bay and surf but boat and land based anglers.

Weakfish

They are here. Hopefully is matches up to last years run which was a big improvement from what we have seen over the past five or so years.

Summer Flounder

Very good showing of fluke pre-season! Their abundance in the surf, inlet and bay is telling that opening day May 22 and the beginning stretch will be strong!

Black Sea Bass

Bottom fishing – Wreck fishing for black sea bass is a fun especially jigging. Lots of boats have been out since opening day May 15th with good catch reports to share. Get out there while the weather and fishing is good!

I’ve found that the slender sand eel jigs have been best for me in terms of the jig game. I went out Sunday and we jigged up a bunch. We opted to leave the clam and home and it paid off.

If you are looking for clams we are doing our best to keep a stock in all spring for black bass, rock bass and drum.

First I would like to say I hope everyone had a great winter/off-season and everybody is doing well.

I am now back on beautiful LBI for the summer and the 2021 Surf Fluke/Flounder season and running surf fishing trips/ fishing lessons daily until Labor Day.

I have already been scouting the island and have caught keeper size Fluke/ Summer Flounder in good numbers in multiple places, so the season should be off to a great start on Opening Day this Saturday May 22nd.

I have some open dates the rest of May -5/24, 5/25,5/26.5/27 & 5/28 to kick off the season plus of course dates during June, July & August. I provide all the bait-tackle-gear and beach access to multiple towns (beach badges) on the island and the Hot Spots where the action is happening. Best times are in the morning early after sunrise until around noon but I also do late afternoon Sunset Trips as well.

Call me at 609-276-6983 to discuss a trip or email me at nightstrikes@Comcast.net for rates and additional information. Thank you and look forward to fishing with you all again this summer.

~Steve George / Nightstrikes Surfcasting Guide Service LLC 609-276-6983

Here’s the Fish Head Friday Fishing Report Update for May 14, 2021. The Long Beach Island area has offered great fishing this past week and the weekend is looking like a good one. Quality striped bass are being caught on the beach and boat. Get out there and enjoy the great spring fishing!

Angler in the title page thumbnail above is Paul Sowney with an awesome striped bass he caught off of the LBI surf on a lure Thursday (5/13/21) evening.

Let’s Go Fishing!

We will be running Open Boat this Thursday afternoon, May 13, Noon to 6 PM, for Stripers and Blues. The plan is to fish the bay and/or the ocean depending on conditions and what’s happening. If it’s nice outside the inlet, we could go look for bunker pods along the beach or put the trolling rods out depending on what you guys want to do. We could cast lures at the inlet jetty. I will have a pail of shucked and salted surf clams to try anchoring up in my favorite spot of Oyster Creek Channel. We could try casting the channel edges for schoolie stripers in the bay. There are a lot of options and we can try any combination of them. 4 people max, $175 person, all fish are shared. 

Pic: Dave Thompson and his son Baxter with Baxter’s 26 inch striper he took on a topwater in the bay Saturday. 

Dave DeGennaro

Hi Flier Sportfishing

732.330.5674 cell

hiflier.com 

May is off to a great start and it’s only getting better. There’s bass, blues and bluefin as well as much more. Here’s the LBI Fishing Report Update on Mother’s Day May 9, 2021.

Happy Mother’s Day! Thanks you to all the great mothers in the world.

Striped Bass On The Move

This week a new showing of striped bass was welcomed by beach and boat anglers. Number reports of bass over 40″ tells without a doubt the first wave of migrating fish is in our area now!

Early this week the surf had a slow but steady pick of bass but as the weekend arrived so did a nice wave of striped bass. Anglers are fishing a variety of baits but it seems those fishing clams are most successful. We expect this to soon switch over to the spring time favorite, BUNKER! This is only the start so hopefully it’s just a hint at what the spring’s surf fishing on LBI will be all about!

Store Staffer Paulie, fishing the Northern LBI Surf was able to pick up this 42” bass (photo above) on Fish Head’s Clams on Friday. As of yesterday we had many more reports of keeper fish. Customer Paul Lindsey reported many keeper fish yesterday but kept his one 29.5 inch fish for the table. It seems that if you want in on the action now is the time to get down here and make it happen.

Also on the surf… Reports of blues, fluke and kingfish.

Boating Big Bass

The cows came hone today and showed their stripes and bucket mouths! Randy Townsend and Evan Toal fished outside Barnegat Inlet this morning and were quickly covered up on the troll. Evan’s first ever bass wasn’t one but two, a double header on a Magictail Mojo tandem rig while the other rod was hooked up too. They caught and released four bass, all overs.

Black Drum Fishing

To make this week even more interesting some good size Black Drum showed their faces. Store Staffer Frezza smoked a nice one on clams fishing the prime tide in the bay (LBI’s south end).

We heard a handful of other black drum reports too from both in the bay and on the surf. One black drum report from this weekend came from Wei Phin Tan. he stopped in the shop and got some fresh clams on his way to the surf. He reported back, “Got a nice 30″ drum on the surf!”

Bluefin Big Game

For big game crews, if you didn’t get the word… there’s big tuna here right now and they aren’t too far away! Gear up and get out on the hunt. We just got our Baitmaster’s Ballyhoo delivery this past week so we are fully stocked up on premium offshore baits.

Nick Deg is now working aboard the Mushin Sportfishing as a mate. He shared this report as well as a chunk of fresh bluefin tuna. “Yesterday’s Mushin crew trip with Capt Alan, Darryl, Jon and I was a good one! We got the right bite and it took about 45 mins on the Shimano Tiagra 130 Fish was 102″ and weighed in at 582#”

This is a quick report to update on the recent happenings in the first few days of May. For a comprehensive fishing report take a look at the recent blog post published on April 29.

Monday May 3, 2020 Fishing Report Update

There’s striped bass, bluefish, black drum, weakfish, kingfish and fluke in the local waters of Long Beach Island. The bay, inlet and surf are all good to

In recent days the surf reports have become more consistent. Having almost 200 anglers fishing the American Angler Surf Fishing Tournament on Sunday helped out for sure! The tournament was help on the mid-island surf on the Long Beach Township beaches.

Anglers caught 10+ kingfish, short striped bass and a quality 40″ striper. Surprisingly no bluefish because Saturday there were numerous bluefish report.

Boli Mamm caught the 40″ bass and the largest kingfish at 11.5″… he was clearly dialed in and in the right spot! The bass was “over” so it didn’t score however, his 11.5″ king earned Top Over All.

A 10″ blowfish was also caught. All of this kingfish and blowfish talk has us thinking summer is getting closer. But until then we have some awesome fishing to enjoy here on LBI.

Carl from the American Anglers reported, “The first annual tournament was a success. There wasn’t epic fishing but the conditions were goof and some fish were caught. It was great for everyone to get out and enjoy the LBI surf while fishing on a sunny west wind day.” Be on the look out for next year’s event!

We just put the Hi Flier in the water yesterday, Wednesday, and Capt Nick ran a trip today (Thursday) in the bay with his friend, Colin Scott. They have been throwing topwater lures on light tackle and connecting with stripers all morning. Most are 18 to 24 inches but they have three slots already (24 to 28″), and some bigger fish that follow the lure all the way to the boat and then veer off. Bigger: Older: Smarter. Poppers and Zara Spook walk the dog type lures are drawing fire.

It looks like the wind is going to blow pretty hard Friday into Saturday morning. Right now the Saturday afternoon marine forecast has the wind dropping out to 6 to 9 knots. We will be sailing Saturday afternoon, May 1, from Noon to 6PM. Sunday, May 2 and Monday, May 3, 6AM to Noon. Available for charter or Open Boat. Also available during the week for afternoon departures. We will be targeting stripers and blues on light tackle, casting topwater lures. 

Pics: Colin Scott of Cape May, NJ with a nice back bay slot striper. (White slickers)
Capt Nick DeGennaro with one of his bass. (Orange slickers)

The Pink Moon earlier this week set our next phase of Spring. The extreme tides from the first of two super moons this year were wild to see. The large swings from very high to very low had lots of water moving and defiantly got things going. The warm sunny days also helped big time! Here’s the Long Beach Island Fishing Report Update for April 29, 2021.

Reports are firing in from the bay, beach and inlet this week with a variety of fish showing in the local waters. Striped bass fishing is and has been good. It’s only getting better as the spring migration hits our local waters in the next couple weeks. Bluefish are starting to show and their performance on Wednesday was the best yet this year.

LBI Surf Fishing

For a couple weeks now the winter time swells have given way to a more spring like pattern. A couple smaller size long period swells came in with rotating winds which is a receipt for putting sand back on the beaches, naturally. Right now most of the Island’s beaches are set up beautifully for a great spring run with beach profiles that are some of the best we’ve seen in along time. The mini points and bowls, toughs and cuts are very promising! The recent super low tides offers prime opportunities to scout spots.

Reports from the LBI surf are becoming more and more promising. In recent days bunker were present on some of LBI’s beaches. Chris Masino sent in a photo, “Bunker all over the beach!”

“Nice day on the surf before work.” Aust Bunl fished Wednesday morning and caught a nice size bluefish from the surf. Another report came in from Steve George at Night Strikes Guide Service. He had clients out on the surf and they caught both striped bass and bluefish today. “We enjoyed the gorgeous late April day fishing the surf. It’s only improving more from here on out!”

A couple days back two striped bass catch and release reports came in from the surf. Tim Daly shared a report, “First bass off the beach this season. Caught it and had it right back in the water after a quick picture. Measured 22”. Great conditions along the mid-island surf with high tide and the super moon. “

Tim Stumpf shared a report, “First striper of the spring for me. It measured 25.5″ and had a tag from the Berkley Striper Club. I quickly released it.”

So far we have heard of three fluke caught from the surf. Let’s hope this hints at strong summer surf fluking

Barnegat Inlet Fishing Report

For most of April anglers were targeting tautog (blackfish) at the Island’s north end inlet. While we can’t say it was epic there were some days of good fishing. There’s only Thursday 4/29 and Friday 4/30 left in the New Jersey Tog Season. It will be closed on May 1st.

More recently striped bass have begun to show their stripes! This past weekend Paul Lindsey was fishing the Inlet jetty for tog and had a slow crack at them. He switched gears and pick up a small bass.”

Hello Mr. Yelloweye!

Bluefish are showing in much better numbers as of late. Only time will tell how good things turn out but if today is any hint at what’s ahead we are stoked! Paul Lindsey weighed in a 31″ bluefish and he reported others were caught and some were lost due to tackle failure.

Barnegat Bay Fishing Report

Striped Bass and black drum are the name of the game. There should be some weakfish around but direct no reports yet. Perch fishing continues on strong!

Brian Sullivan caught this black drum a few days back fishing Barnegat Bay.

Some anglers are doing really good with the resident and new arrivals. Ed Plichta reported getting into some good action recently fishing a small lead head with a softbait. “Released over 40 bass today.”

Some areas of the bay have an abundance of small slender bait what is mostly spearing but also could have other baits commingling.

Clamming and crabbing reports are great. Seems like the warmer days have got the crabs moving and feeding. The extreme tides helped clammers get to areas not frequently worked.

Today’s nice breezy morning turned sour with afternoon storms. Some anglers reported slow fishing due to conditions but report from recent days have been great. Here’s the LBI Fishing Report Update for April 21, 2021.

Bass Is The Best Game In Town

The best game in town right now is striped bass fishing in the bay. Both land based and boat anglers are finding striped bass in a range of sizes from micro to keepers. To get after these look towards the sod banks, rolling flats as well as the many docks in the area. Bait anglers are fishing live worms and clams are doing it. Fishing artificials is putting good numbers up too. You can never go wrong fishing a bucktail jig. Top softies are the Kettle Creek Shads. Picking one or two top hard baits is a tricky one but we give the nod to the Yo-zuri Mag Minnow if looking for a swimmer or the Stillwater Smack-It Poppers if going topwater.

Steve George reports, “At this point in April the water is warming up and coming to life again. Days are getting longer and the fishing is improving. Everyday is a new day come down and let’s fish.”

There’s some bass showing in the Inlet and surf and we expect these ares to get better with time.

The areas first (that we know of via direct report) BLUEFISH was caught just a couple days ago locally here in the Barnegat Bay by Dan Coghlan. Dan reported, “I’ve been catching a lot of bass in the bay since early march. Was great to see a big blue. Let’s hope they show up good this year!”

Tog Fishing Report Update

With the NJ Tautog season closing at the end of the month we are currently in the final days. Some days have been fire on the wrecks.

Fishing hasn’t been on fire for land based anglers but some days are good.

60 Days Left Of Spring

Summertime isn’t far away! Already had a kingfish and a summer flounder caught from the waters of LBI hinting that winter is in the rear view mirror.

Our first fluke was reported in from Connar McGlynn. He got the bite on Monday fishing a Daiwa SP minnow on the Long Beach Island surf.

Other Mentions

White Perch fishing continues on strong with great reported flowing in. Liam sent in the photo recently.

Black Drum, winter flounder and cod are other species to target right now.

NJ Black Sea Bass Season Opens On May 15th with a minimum size of 12.5″ and a 10 fish bag limit.

The Double Creek Channel Shoaling situation is a hazard to navigation. This was originally published on 4/19/2021 but since the hazard still exists we’ve updated this on 8/12/22.

Barnegat Bay’s Double Creek Channel is well know for shoaling and shifting sand bars and in recent years it was closed. Right now (04/2021 and still in 08/2022) there’s two areas of potential navigation hazard in Double Creek. Shallow draft boats have no issue however at mid and lower tides some vessels are grounding.

Notice To Mariners – Double Creek Channel Shoaling – Shallow Water Hazard.

The best way for medium and large size vessels is always Oyster Creek Channel.

South End Of Double Creek – Hazard “A”

The southern end of Double Creek Channel at the elbow is pinching off again. For many years this area has shoaled. It was dredged a number of times, but never enough. At the time of this post there are two danger buoys at the site alerting mariners of the shallow water here. The area is very narrow with little to no room for error.

North East End Of Double Creek – Hazard “B”

On the northern eastern portion of Double Creek Channel, west of the tip of the Dike, there is a very shallow area inside the marked channel. It is marked by a danger buoy which is right by at Red #8 Nun Buoy. The danger buoy and #8 are both in ~5-6′ of water (depending on tide) however just to the west it is very shallow. The Green #7 Can Buoy is in very shallow water especially at low tide, +/- 1-3′ of water and even less.

This shallow area should be known by all operators/captains. Proceed with caution!

West End of Oyster Creek – Hazard “C”

Many small boats navigating westerly through Oyster Creek with a southern destinations short cut off to port in the areas of buoy 37-39. No more unless you really know what you are doing!

There is a new sandbar (sort of mini-island) that is dry even at higher tides. This is west of the classic Oyster Creeks West Dredge Spoil Island (not to be confused with OC Island East) and was the spoil site for the most recent Oyster Creek dredge work over the winter. I was told by a dredge company working this new island was named Trump Island because someone staked it out with a few Trump Flags which stood for a couple weeks.

It is not in the channel however it can catch someone off guard.

This original blog post was to highlight the shoaling in Double Creek however it is worth mentioning an area which has caught many boats high and dry. There is a sand bar creeping south and into the channel in the area of Buoy 38. Do not run this area offset to the red / north side because it might not end well. There’s much more water on the green / south side of the channel. Running straight from 37 to 39 is clear and safe water.

Navigate With Caution

Mariners must always navigate with caution. Be aware of shifting sediments which impact the entire bay. Each spring it’s best to review your common routes and adjust waypoints accordingly. This way when navigating in conditions with limited visibility you are aware of the dangers. It’s always good to have a handle on the lay of the land.

I hope this alert helps save someone from grounding and possibly injury to boat or passenger. Recently a friend witnessed a mid-range center console hit bottom (Hazard A) running on full like a brick wall. Hazard B has caught a lot of boaters too. It’s no joke!

Right now there’s no telling if and when the situation will be address.