Fisherman's Headquarters

It’s not over yet! Fluke season ends the 19th and the weather recently hasn’t been the best. BUT! That isn’t stopping anglers from getting out and finding fish. Case and point…

Striped bass are here and the reports contiuies to paint a postive picture for the transition into The Run. “Thank you Fish Heads for the live eels tonight. I caught this one at high tide.” Robert Simkins sent us a thank you message with a report, “I caught my first striper this season at Barnegat Inlet fishing slack high tide. It taped out at 32 inches.”

There’s a strong showing of resident bass in the bay too. They are around all summer be definitely becoming more active with the bait now moving. It was highlighted on our previous post (LBI Fishing Report Update 9/14/20 – Under the “Resident Bass” Section) with John Bells report. Today we got another great report from Bill Wright.

“Don’t let the wind keep you from going out. Just get out there!” Anthony Ziegler shared, “The last two days were non stop fish, both bass and blues. Even had them on the fly.”

Tyler Carlson caught this triggerfish yesterday (Tuesday) fishing the Barnegat Inlet Jetty. He stopped by the shop to gear up and hit up the rocks. He caught it on green crab. Another triggerfish was reported in by Julian H.

Store staffer Grey is back in school but finding time to fish whenever possible. He shares that he’s finding good fishing… The tog fishing at the Barnegat Light Jetty is stupid good. You have to work for the keepers but there are a lot of fish chewing. There’s some sheepshead and triggers too as well as blues (mostly smaller) chasing bait. At the right times I’m catching striped bass on plugs. It has been surprisingly consistent for this time of the year.

In the bay the blowfishing is still very good with numerous reports the past 48 hours all themed around good puffer action in Barnegat Bay.

Kingfish in the surf and bay.

Mullet Are Moving On LBI

https://www.facebook.com/fishermans.headquarters/posts/2507624639545697

Another delivery of Fresh mullet arrived today. We have some beautiful medium large mullet in the cooler. Only time will tell how long they last. We expect them to sell fast. It’s good to see the mullet are starting to move. Match the hatch for the mullet run on LBI… Stillwater Smack-It Poppers, Tsunami Talking Popper, Yo-Zuri Top Knock and the Yo-Zuri Hydro Pencil.

Offshore Reports

Offshore tuna bite is still going strong. Some big boats got out and got on the yellowfin tuna. Reports were due to seas there were only a few boats in the secret spot and the fish were feeding on the chunk and jig. The past couple of days we sold alot of bait flats and jigs; Chatter Streaker Jigs & Nomad Streaker Jigs. Hope to hear more reports from boats fishing Thursday.

The first week of “after summer” and Long Beach Island is significantly less dense and slower. But the annual Tumbleweed Tuesday drop off is noticeably not as pronounced as other years. So here we are… 5 days left of fluke season, 8 days left of summer.

Here’s the Long Beach Island Fishing Report Update for Monday September 14, 2020.

We have a week full of waves and with the tropics active, there’s no end in sight. Right now there’s five active storms (Sally, Paulette, Rene, Teddy, TD21). Putting lots of motion in the ocean. The beaches of LBI had 3-5′ ground swell from Paulette with a north/northwest wind for most of the day. The conditions were clean with little to no weed or debris, just a good amount of sediment from the churning surf. Tomorrow (Tuesday) the winds swing back north east and fade later in the day. Then more north east winds in the forecast for the weekend. Things will be getting fishy in the Inlet and surf.

As far as recent surf fishing reports go we have a few…. Kevin Laverty caught more than a handful of kingfish off the surf. Kevin Benedict also got one kingfish too.

Oh ya… there was a redfish caught off the LBI surf in the dark!

Frequently Asked Question As Of Late – “I don’t have the heavy tackle to fish the surf in the strong ocean swell and wind. What should I target and where can I go fish?”

First and foremost crabbing and clamming in Barnegat Bay are great ways to enjoy time on the water. The delicious harvest is a major perk too! As far as fishing goes, there’s opportunities in the bay and Inlet. Get in on fluke while it’s still open, the 2020 Summer Flounder Fishing Season Ends Sept 19th. Weakfish are here in great numbers and offer fun light tackle fishing. The blowfish and snapper blues are still here. Land based tog fishing is promising. As far as locations… the Island’s bayside docks and bulkheads are fishy all spring/summer/fall. Check out the Ship Bottom Bayfront Park, all four of the Causeway Bridges and last but not least the Barnegat Inlet.

Variety Here Now

Late summer is one of the best times of year to fish Long Beach Island especially if looking for a variety. The usual residents are here like striped bass, bluefish, fluke, weakfish, blowfish, kingfish, perch, tog and sea bass. The structure loving warm water gamefish; triggerfish, sheepshead. The inshore pelagic like spanish mackerel, false albacore, bonita as well as the warm water inshore “exotics” mahi, almaco jacks, banded rudder fish among others like the redfish mentioned previously.

Bait Is Here

Lots of bait is show in the coves, marinas, docks, lights and bulkheads. In some areas they are moving. Spearing, peanut bunker and mullet are the three primary. Some mullet were already moving along Long Beach Island’s north end and south end inlets.We got our season’s first delivery of fresh mullet in a few days ago and expect to get fresh baits more consistently as the mullet run is just getting underway.

Creeping

Fish Head Ambassador Swagmattic was out last night creeping while most were sleeping. “Now’s a good time to go catching. It’s especially a great time to catch Jersey Grand Slams.” He reported, “I went out and tried my luck. Ended up running into Sloane. We caught a bass, a few fluke and a few weakfish. Just missing the bluefish which should of been the easy one. The fluke were a surprise. They were very active, hammering the jig. Most were good health size. Sloan got one that was a keeper. The fishing activity lasted all of the outgoing tide and right into slack. Once the tide turned it was off like a light switch.”

Resident Bass

There’s a good showing of striped bass in the back waters. Sunday evening John Bell reported, “The back bay stripers are putting on a top water show! I caught a dozen this evening fishing poppers on the sod banks.”

Barnegat Inlet

Barnegat Inlet has lots of fishing opportunities in September. Reports from anglers fishing the rocks are mostly positive. Tog fishing most are small but there’s keepers roaming the caves. Bring extra crabs because there’s lots of small sea bass. Fluke, blues and bass all call the Barnegat Inlet home in September.

Tuna Fishing

Before the ocean got swelly, the tuna bite was silly good. A whole lotta boat with bent rods for days. When will the small boats be back on the mid-shore grounds again? Keep your fingers crossed. The weather looks poop and as time goes on the days get shorter and the weather windows get tighter.

by Jim Hutchinson Sr.

The fishing continues to be strong in the Beach Haven area for the captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association even though the current weekend appears to be a washout thanks to some large ocean waves. This is the last week for fluke in New Jersey, but there appears to be a good selection of other fish to keep the rods bent and the fish-box full.

Captain Alex Majewski of Lighthouse Sportfishing reports fluking remains strong with best catches inside around high tide and in the ocean when the conditions are more favorable for ocean fluking.  He sees 1-4 pound blues cruising the inlet and jetty haunts. Schoolie bass are still making a showing with the low light conditions more favorable. He has found enough weakfish to target them. He recommends anchoring up in the bay with chum and bending the rods with species like blowfish, smooth dogfish, baby sea bass, kingfish, snappers, and more.

Last week the “Starfish” with Captain Carl, First Mate Max and Second Mate Marlyn fished with a group of 10 from Bergen County. There were over 110 fish caught, including many keeper sized black sea bass that were released. The group managed three keeper fluke to 22-inches.

Captain Brett Taylor of Reel Reaction Sportfishing had Sean Griffin, his daughter Brooke, and sister Trish on a 4-hour bay charter. Due to a rough ocean, the crew opted for the bay. They started with good tide conditions and the anglers boxed 3 keepers to 5 pounds. Later in the day Captain Brett had his wife Jennifer, and son Luke out for a quick 2-hour trip. Highlight of the trip was Luke landing a dinner-plate triggerfish to take the family pool.

Captain Gary Dugan of the “Irish Jig” took his beautiful wife out fishing on Labor Day and the pair limited out on 6 nice fluke. On another trip Captain Gary had a good trip with a party catching several nice fluke up to 25-inches.

Captain Dave Wittenborn made a trip to the Triple Wrecks on the “Benita J” during the beautiful Labor Day weekend. Blue sky and light winds made for a very enjoyable fishing day. Captain Dave reported he fish gods blessed them with 5 yellowfin in the 50-60-pound class. They had Will, a junior angler, reel in his first yellowfin.

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

Beach Report 9/8/2020: Today after my morning beach charter I had some time to check out the Mid-Island Surf and found some very aggressive and good size Northern Kingfish attacking my Fluke baits. Still plenty of time to target these hard fighting and great tasting fish in the surf through the rest of this month at least. For me personally I still have a few more tides to hit here on LBI before I shift gears and start to head more North in search of False Albacore and the first waves of Bluefish & Striped Bass to start off the 2020 Fall Migration / Run. If your interested in fishing the Monmouth County / Sandy Hook area over the next two months just call me 609-276-6983 Steve George ~ Nightstrikes Surfcasting Guide Service LLC

Here’s the Labor Day Weekend Fishing Report Update for the Long Beach Island New Jersey Area, Monday September 7, 2020.

This holiday weekend had beautiful weather wise and outstanding fishing. Here at Fishermans Headquarters the shop has been jamming. Lots of anglers got out and enjoyed their weekend catching fish from the beach and boat.

LBI Surf & Jetty Fishing Report

Kingfish, fluke and small blues were the mainstay on the beaches of LBI this weekend. This trio has been the primary target species for sometime and we expect it to continue for a few more weeks as we transition out of summer.

Just a reminder the NJ Summer Flounder Season Ends September 19th. Every year the flounder fishing is good on the beach right to the close.

Paul Vancelette caught a 14.5″ kingfish off the LBI surf.

LBI Beach Access Info

As of Tuesday September 8, 2020

From now until September 30th, the Ship Bottom Beach Patrol will guard 7th, 15th and 20th streets. This opens up a lot of “new” mid day fishing territory to anglers.

As of Sept 1st, Holgate Beach Buggy Access Is Open. (Permit Required)

Barnegat Inlet Jetty Report

The Barnegat Lighthouse jetty has been on fire for blackfish with many anglers are catching. Most have reported keeper size blackfish on green crabs. Besides blackfish there are still fluke, triggerfish, sheepshead and bluefish on offer at the Barnegat Inlet rocks.

Barnegat Bay Fishing Report

Here’s a report that Ryan Warford shared… “Fished LBI this weekend. Got down Saturday night and stopped at Fish Heads as soon as I got on the Island to find out was was biting and where they were biting. We got intel, bait and tackle. Fished Barnegat Bay Sunday and caught a ton of blowfish and had to weed through the smaller ones for the eaters. Also caught fluke, snapper blues, kingfish, weakfish and some jacks. It was a tight lines the whole day!”

Offshore Tuna Fishing Report

Yellowfin, Wahoo, Big Eye & Tiles!

The yellowfin bite outside the The Triples is still going strong. The boat traffic is horrendous but the fishing keeps kicking.

Positive feedback from customer who are chunking and jigging. Some are gettin them up top on poppers while others are fishing away from the fleet and trolling up an occasional fish. Those anglers chunking and jigging are doing best numbers wise. Those doing it right are getting fish and keeping them in the slicks. The water is clean and day time chunking means anglers must be concerned about their presentations. Fish are leader shy and they want baits free falling naturally. Scale down with a a lighter tackle approach to get the bites. 30-40# fluorocarbon is suggested. Fish tackle and drag accordingly.

Guys jigging are doing damage with pencil style jigs like the Streakers from Chatter and Nomad. Both of these are great jigs from yellowfin and bluefin tuna when they are feeding on small baits.

Mahi fishing has started to pick up on the one the offshore and inshore pots.

Some decent fishing in the Hudson with some boats putting big eyes on the deck.

WAHOO! Team Fish Heads Captain Nick DeGennaro caught two great wahoo high speed trolling this weekend. The big one was 70# and the “small one” was 50#. We also heard about a number of other classy wahoo caught in Jersey waters. While out hunting tuna it’s a great idea to do some high speed scouting. We have some gear for those interested in looking for ’em.

As the unofficial end to summer passes, we are in what some think as a transitional month for the local fisheries. IMO, there is nothing transitional about it. Fluking remains strong with the best catches inside coming around high tide and in the ocean when the conditions are more favorable for ocean fluking. Blues from a pound to four pounds are cruising the inlet and jetty haunts and can pop up at any time chasing rainfish (bay anchovies). Speaking of rainfish, the amount of rainfish in and around the inlet is like the flood gates opened up and rained fish. LOL. Schoolie bass are still making a showing with the low light conditions more favorable, but I have been able to put my clients on a bass or two during most trips recently. Weakfish are around in enough numbers to target and while fishing for weaks you are bound to catch a few other species of fish. Anchor in the bay and let out some clam chum and your rods will contently be bent with species like blowfish, smooth dogfish, baby sea bass, kingfish, snappers, and more. Intel speaks of false albacore and Spanish macks real close (a few miles off) to the inlet. Will let you know if I get a chance or have a trip wanting to chance down those speedsters. Attached are two pictures from recent trips, kids and fishing. Gotta love it! I’m presently running trips full time, so I am available to fish when you are. So if you’re thinking about going fishing give me a call. Also with so many dolphins around, if you want to go for an ecotour give me a call.

On the nature side of things: lots of brown pelicans around lately, maybe the most ever. Being an avid birder, naturalist, and citizen scientist, I kind of keep track of birds sightings amongst other things. Things such as when and where a bird is seen, and how many. APPs such as EBird run by Cornell University allows citizen scientists to record their bird sightings into a global database. There are literally thousands, if not tens of thousands of sightings, reported and put into the EBird database every single day. Data that years ago took scientists years to collect, is now being collected every minute of every day thanks to technology and citizen scientists. So back to brown pelicans in our area. Over the last two decades, the frequency and the number of brown pelicans in our area have been on the rise. Thirty years ago they were a southern species and very rare to see in Ocean County. As our climate changes, some animals take advantage, or one may say benefit, from such changes. Brown pelican being one. A few years ago they started nesting in the Chesapeake Bay, the furthest north ever recorded. Will they one day nest in Ocean County? Only time will tell and only Mother Nature knows…..

Screaming Drags,

Capt Alex

609-548-2511
Lighthouse Sportfishing

My YouTube Channel 

Today was a good one weather wise. Here’s a quick look at the mid Island beach late morning. You’ll see a small mid-long period swell in the 2-3′ range from Tropical Storm Omar. It’s clean with a light north west breeze.

Hope you got outdoors and enjoyed. If not this weekend is shaping up to be nice. Get out and fish!

Fishing The LBI Surf

On the beaches of LBI anglers are catching fluke, kingfish, bluefish and some other summertime critters (sharks and rays).

The past couple of days Steve George from Night Strikes Surfcasting Guide has got fluke working the suds.

Kingfish are also being caught by anglers fishing bait and weight. Here’s a popular kingfish rig and a very convenient bait if live bloodworms is not your thing… Dynabait Freeze Dried Bloodworms. The kingfish action is not as hot as it was a few weeks ago but they are around. The kings should stick around for at least a few more weeks.

The Jetty Jockeys were in the shop today and shared it was a “righteous morning on the surf! We caught a massive butterfly ray. It took a bunker chunk.”

Fishing The North End’s Jetty

Right now tog, triggerfish and sheepshead are present as well as fluke, bluefish and striped bass.

Fishing The LBI Bay

The fishing musician Rick from Ship Bottom has been fishing and catching on the bayside. He shared the good word, “I’m nailing them on the bayside. A 1/2oz jig head with a 5″ fork tail softbait. Two days in a row with a number of weakfish. The biggest so far was 25″. There is a ton of bait around so they are eating good.”

Lotta snapper blues as well as a few blowfish reported from anglers fishing bayside street end and docks.

Both spearing and peanut bunker are around. Soon the mullet will start moving.

Big Game Fishing

Both yellowfin and bluefin continue. Yellowfin are still stacked up about 70 off and the big bluefin tuna have not moved from the area, in close off of Monmouth County.

Earlier in the week Paul D’Aloia was out with friends. He reported the sea was ugly but yellowfin tuna fishing was good. They got ’em about 70 miles off. More recently (today) Brian Wynn and friends were out aboard the Jersey Nuts. Brian reported, “My first tuna fishing experience was awesome. We caught a bunch of yellowfin and had a great day.”

Newsworthy NJ Catches

Here’s a couple remarkable catches…

A big Cobia caught by Johnny Kostick fishing the waters off Monmouth County!

A Jersey barracuda caught by Kevin Griffin.

Team Fish Head News

Store staffer Gray just returned back from a trip to Bermuda. He said it was an awesome time full of great fishing for a variety of species. “I really wanted to get a bonefish and I caught one. We literally filled the boat one day offshore bluewater fishing. The captain made us keep everything since they sell it at the dock. I was a meat mongers for a day.”

Just A Heads Up

The Holgate Section of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge is open. The gates opened on schedule, Sept 1st.

The NJ Black Sea Bass Fishing Season is closed. It ended on August 31. The Sea Bass Season will reopen from October 8 to October 31 with a 10 fish bag (minimum size 12.5″).

NJ Fluke Fishing Close on September 19th.

Fishing is really good right now. There’s a game plan for every weather scenario. Flat ocean? We’re headed to the tuna grounds where 60 to 80 lb yellowfins are the norm this season. Mahi mahi round out the catch when we are lucky enough to stumble on some debris or they find us. Chunking, jigging, and trolling are all producing. We put most of our effort into catching them on bait, it’s my favorite way to catch them, the hit is frightening.

Semi calm ocean? We are headed to Barnegat Ridge for bonita and false albacore. Trolling and drifting with bait offers great sport on light tackle. Any given day you can also encounter spanish mackeral, king mackerel, mahi, or bluefin tuna. It’s best to expect bonita and albacore and anything else is a bonus.

Windy or rough ocean? We anchor up with live grass shrimp in Barnegat Light where we are catching weakfish. 14 to 18 inch fish on 6 pound spinning tackle. In the mix are also fluke, blowfish, sand sharks, silver perch, snapper blues, and many other critters. Lots of fun on the ultralite gear.

We are available for live grass shrimp charters this Thursday and Friday, Sept 3 and 4, Noon to 5PM. Also Mon and Tues, Sept 7 and 8, 7AM to Noon. $550 for 5 hour trip. 

We are running Open Boat or charter to the tuna grounds Saturday and Sunday, Sept 5 and 6, 2AM to 4PM. $1,800 plus tip for private charter up to 4 people. Open Boats are $450 per person, 4 people max, all fish are shared.

Any of these dates and trips are flexible if you are chartering the boat.

Pics: 
Geri DeGennaro of Barnegat, NJ with a weakfish

Adley J Torres of Rahway, NJ with 80 lb Yellowfin Tuna and Mahi

Keeper (dinner size) Fluke from 18”-21” are still around and are feeding aggressively as we head into the Labor Day Holiday Weekend here on LBI. I have some limited availability this week if you are looking to get out before I shift gears and start looking for False Albacore further up the coastline -just Call 609-276-6983 Steve George ~ Nightstrikes Surfcasting Guide Service LLC

Here on the final days of August it’s safe to say it was a great month of fishing on Long Beach Island. From a consistent fluke bite in the bay, inlet and surf to good sea bass fishing inshore and off the charts yellowfin and bluefin tuna fishing mid-shore. A quick look back and one must be thankful for good fishing inshore, offshore and from shore. What a great month of summer fishing we had!

Here’s the fishing report update for the Long Beach Island area on Sunday, August 30, 2020.

Fishing Barnegat Bay

From drifting for fluke in the main thoroughfares to anchoring up at a hole and catching a smorgasbord, the bay has a good spread with a variety of fun.

On Friday I had a great morning trip on the bay fly fishing with Danny Vilardi aboard Fish Head Charters. He started with the long rod and didn’t put it down all day. He caught his first weakfish, fluke and jack (Almaco) all on his own DYI clouser minnow. All together we had a dozen weakfish, all were nice healthy ones except two spike. Two fluke ate the fly but both were just short. We also has too many small bluefish to mention.

Stew Hitchner was on the bay this weekend with the family today. They caught a pile of blowfish.

Reports from the Ship Bottom bayside tell of blowfish, kingfish, snappers and spot as well as crabs at the Ship Bottom docks. It seems the past week or two the snappers really made a strong showing. They are a ton of fun for the kids! 

Just A Reminder: NJ Bluefish Regulations – All Private Anglers 3 fish, For Hire 5 fish (if on a charter or head boat). Yes this includes snapper blues!

Fishing The LBI Surf

The surf has was churred up from the weekend’s stormy weather. The pass remnants of Laura were wet and windy. Things settled down Sunday and it was a beautiful day on the beach. As the short video report shows it was a great beach day. No great reports but a couple reports none the less… kingfish and fluke in the surf. We recommend fishing live bloods for the best results right now. When the bite is on, artificials work great BUT when it’s a slow pick live bait always outproduced!

Fishing Barnegat Inlet

The Barnegat Inlet has a variety of species to target; fluke, resident striped bass at low light hours, small bluefish, tog, triggerfish and sheepshead.

Ocean Fluke Fishing

Late August and September is prime time fluke fishing in the ocean. The popular reef sites as well as the wrecks and open bottom areas turn out. Gear up and get on the grounds to enjoy one of the best parts of the season NOW!

Today a good report came in from Dale Hawk who fished the Barnegat Light reef (about three miles outside of BI). “Another awesome day. Pink Shine and Nuclear Chicken were catching best. The drift sock came in clutch because without it the drift would have been too fast.