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Sorry the FishingLBI.com site was down for a couple of days. We had technical difficulties but got things it updated. Thanks for your patience!

After Tropical Storm Fay gave us a wet and windy couple of days this past weekend, things settled down. Monday was a beautiful day with light winds and residual ground swell in the 3′ range. Tuesday was another day of the same. Two perfect days to get out and enjoy fishing Long Beach Island! Did you get out? Let us know how you made out.

Fishing The LBI Surf

Anglers fishing the LBI surf should be primarily focused on fluke and kingfish. Both are present in good numbers offering fun summertime fishing on the beach of LBI.

It’s best to target FLUKE with a cast and retrieve (slow) using natural (squid, spearing, sandeels, minnows) or artificial baits (GULP!).

Kingfish love live bloodworms and also love Fish Bites Bag Of Worms too. The classic rigging for them is a small hooked hi-lo rig outfitted with hi-viz pill floats.

Also on the surf right now… STRIPED BASS and BLACK DRUM! Not saying these two species are blitzing the beaches but recent catch reports prove they are present.

STRIPED BASS hang around the Long Beach Island waters just about all year long. In the dead of winter they can be found in the bay and surf and in the summer they are there too. Usually once the surf temperatures peak above 70 degrees for summer they are few and far between however they can’t resist a summer work out in the suds. Case and point – Sunday we were surprisingly happy to hear received four separate striped bass reports. Two of the reported bass were small. One was in the low 30″ range and other was 40″. We’ll chalk it up to…

1. The presence of small bait (spearing and sand eels) and crabs (calico and sand flea)
2. TS Fay churning up the surf offering oxygen rich water.
3. TS Fay’s southerly winds cooled off the surf temp by a few degrees making the striped bass feel more comfortable hunting.

BLACK DRUM call the waters of Long Beach Island home in the spring, summer and fall. They are not one of the most popular species however they are fun to catch and can grow to a surprisingly large size. Black drum are definitely an underrated game fish for surf casters on the Jersey Shore.

Fishing The Bayside Waters Of LBI

In the bay fluke and blowfish are plentiful. Anglers drifting the channels are putting good catches together. More recently the feedback from customers is positively trending to a lower keeper to short ratio. Fishing small jigs (like the Magictail Tear Drop Hoochie 1/2-3/4-1oz) tipped with Gulp and/or natural bait (Dead: Spearing, Squid – Live: Minnows, Baby Bunker, Spot) is doing it right!

Blowfish are plentiful this year. They started early and been on offer in waves this entire season so far. It’s best to anchor up and chum while fishing small hooked rigs baited with clam or squid. When fishign Gulp for fluke save your the pieces after bite offs. These can be cut up and to be a very effective way to catch puffers and use up Gulp baits rather than waste them. Anglers chumming up blowfish are also attracting some “summertime pan fish” like kingfish, croakers, spot, snapper blues and…

Also showing in good numbers… weakfish. Some spikes and mediums appeared this past week and more reports continue. Store staffer Grey shared, “At night some spots are loaded with bait and the weakies are popping! A couple nights ago I caught them good fishing small plastics on a light jig head.” If looking for more details stop in and talk to Grey. If approached the right way, he just might share some of the finer details.

Fishing The Inshore Waters Of LBI

Fishing the inshore waters of Long Beach Island and the central Jersey coast is great in July for it’s abundance of variety. The open bottom areas and wrecks/reefs are producing everything from fluke and sea bass to porgies, tog, triggerfish and sheephead. These latter two also offer a challenge for all of the jetty jockeys. Targeting them with small shore crabs (fiddlers, Asians, sand fleas) on a specialty jig like the Bottom Sweepers or Magictail Bay Bay Series is the way to go!

Sloane Endick was out fishing the inshore waters today and caught a solid haul. She managed to cross two species off her list… triggerfish and porgies. In the mix were some sea bass too.

Also in the mid-shore/inshore waters are bonita, Spanish mackerel, and king mackerel. Here’s Joe with his first king mackerel of the season. Joe also mentioned there’s bluefin tuna in close!!!

by Jim Hutchinson Sr.

Today, Friday, July 10, the Beach Haven area is being buffeted by tropical storm Fay. All the boats of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association are safely in port. However, the weather report for the upcoming days is a good one, and the captains will be back on the good fishing bite.

The fluke action continues steady even as the fish begin their summer migration into the ocean. This means the inshore reefs and structure will be receiving the best action. Also on these reefs, are a goodly number of black sea bass, many of them above average in size. The offshore bite on tuna and other pelagic species is ongoing, and there has been a sudden influx of warm water fish such as Spanish mackerel and cobia in the past few days.

Captain Dave Wittenborn fished the inshore tuna grounds this week on the “Benita J’ from Captain Dave’s Charters in an area called the “Lobster Claw.” The ride out was beautiful, and he had lines in the water at 5am. There were dolphins and whales feeding on the surface with tuna underneath. After three hours of steady fishing, they boated five 50-pound class yellowfin tuna and released a white marlin. With the anglers soon tiring they headed home by 9:30am.

Captain Gary Dugan has been fishing charters steadily and catching fish on the “Irish jig” with some days having two half-day bookings. As an example, one group had multiple throwback fluke while managing to put 4 keepers to 24-inches into the cooler. 

Captain Carl Sheppard has had the “StarFish” booked practically every day and is finding very productive action on his inshore trips.  Mate Max Goldman reports black sea bass and fluke are around, and action has been constant. Many short fluke have been biting, along with 16-inch sea bass. On many recent trips they have had upwards of 8 keeper sea bass.

Captain Brett Taylor of Reel Reaction Sportfishing reports the bite in the bay waters is still good with his charters averaging 6-7 keepers per 4-hour trip. He will be targeting the ocean fluke soon in his Parker Sport Cabin. Recent trips included the Bob Reim charter who boxed 14 keeper fluke to 5 pounds and the Ralph Rodio group with 6 keepers. The Jerry Fanelli crew caught their 9 fish limit in just under 4 hours one morning, and the afternoon trip was similar with John Wittlieb and his wife Jenna bringing home 8 keepers – one shy of another 3-man limit.

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

It’s been a busy couple of weeks fishing on the Hi Flier. Inshore we connected with bluefish, weakfish (only one), fluke, and spinner sharks. The weakie hit a jig tipped with shedder crab, it was only a 20 minute try so I am optimistic about going on the hunt for them again. There are 3 to 5 pound blues all around the inlet. The spinner sharks are terrorizing the bunker pods just a few miles outside our inlet, we caught them on the snag and drop. They were 40 lb class, maybe 4 footers.

Offshore we ran to the mid range grounds (50-70 miles) for bluefin and connected on the troll, 5 for 9 on 20 to 50 pound fish. We ran two trips to the southern canyons, 4 for 4 on the first with 30 to 50 lb yellowfins and then yesterday we went 2 for 2, a 50 and 80 lb yellowfin, all trolling Chatter Side Tracker bars. We also jumped off a white marlin. We are also trolling albacore with a few bonita mixed in at Barnegat Ridge.
Thurs, July 9 is available for charter to fish inshore or the bay for any number of species. Sat, Sun, and Monday, July 11, 12, 13 are also available for charter or we will run Open Boat for Barnegat Ridge or Mid Range Tuna. Things are really heating up with both of these fisheries.

We hope everyone had a great Fourth of July weekend!

Last week we had new clients Ed, Matt, and Brendan from Harvey Cedars out for a 4hr bay charter. Ed was the high bidder who won our charter that we donated to the Memphis Rank fundraiser. The bite was good with constant action on every drift. They caught 25 shorts and boxed 2 respectable keepers at 21” and 20”.

Friday 7/3, we took a trip to the mid shore grounds for our annual 4th of July tuna trip. This year we were able to bring our clients Mike and Will out there for their first time. We were able to get Will his first tuna! Mike’s tuna fell to a mako before we had a chance to boat it. It was a tough trip as we went 2/6 on yellowfin. The tax man was around and the 4 fish that we lost were from makos getting to them before we could get them to the boat. Great day on the water and everyone went home with some nice steaks!

Sunday 7/5, we had new client Mark out with his son Andre along with his friend Alex and his son Oliver who were visiting from Chicago. This was our first ocean fluke trip of the year and the life was very promising! We scouted out several areas and caught fish on every single drift. The full moon tide plus hard southwest wind definitely did not make conditions favorable, but we found fish everywhere. The guys ended the trip catching 20 fluke which were almost all between 17-17.99”. They were able to box 2 keepers at 20” and 18” along with 2 nice sea bass.

Dates are booking quick but we still have a few available throughout July and August, so BOOK NOW before it’s too late! If you are interested in getting out please contact us to book your trip. Call or text Captain Mike to get out on the water or send us a message through our website! (609)-709-7264

www.nolimitssportfishingllc.com/

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July Holiday with your family and friends and the weather was just perfect to top it off. Prior to the weekend I had the pleasure of meeting and fishing with just some fantastic people all with a passion for Surfcasting the beaches of LBI and we did have fun catching some fish during our trips. Today 7/6/20 AM ~ nice surf variety this morning feeding ~ Fluke,Snapper Blues and now Northern KingFish in the mix . Also still an Abundance of Bunker pods drifting South just over the sand bar close enough to where you could smell them 😉. Great Morning Tides this week – water temps into the 70’s ~~ South Breeze coming up the beach /Water. Coolest place in Jersey #LBI > Contact Me for available days/dates. Call Steve George Nightstrikes Surfcasting Guide Service LLC 609-276-6983

Sunday June 28th we fished the Triple Wrecks. It was lights out fishing with epics feeds going on. We had 6-7 whales, 2 tone dolphins, Bluefin tuna, small brown sharks, and birds all feeding on sand eels. We threw poppers and baits at them and we were hooked up instantly catching 6 on spinning gear. After the top water action subsided we set out the spread with Chatter Lure Side Trackers, daisy chains, and Joe Shutes rigged with ballyhoo. Caught 4 more. We kept are 2 unders but couldn’t find the over.

We set up for sharking after about two hours and had a 5 ft mako to the boat. We hooked up with it and it put on a show jumping twice. The clients were happy to get in on that kinda of action. We were able to remove the hook and safely release.

If you’re looking to fish the mid-shore tuna/shark grounds give me a call 609-276-8032. Trips are $450 pp up to 4 people max.

~ Capt. Ryan Horton, Linda Lee Sportfishing

Happy Birthday America!

While we are into a new month, not a lot has changed. We’ll keep this short and sweet… the great fishing continues on Long Beach Island. As reported in the last fishing report update, the water temperatures are warm and stable. This stability helps with the consistency of the fishing. For the most part we’ve had consistent tranquil weather for a couple weeks and it looks to stay that way. Keep an eye out for a two day southerly blow Tuesday/ Wednesday.

Here’s the Long Beach Island Fishing Report for the 4th Of July Holiday Weekend.

Fluke Fishing Report

Fluke fishing is strong. As one would expect for this time of the year, all areas (bay, inlet, surf, ocean) are fishy. I would have to say the bayside has slowed up a little this past week but it’s got A LOT more to offer. The ocean fluke fishing this week has more than made up for the slow week in the bay.  The ocean fishing has been nothing less than stellar when you are in the right place, at the right time and using the right stuff with the right application technique. Shop Ambassador Swagmattic has been on the ocean fluke grounds all week and has good catches to show. His photos and reports hopefully get your blood pumping.

LBI Surf Fishing Report

On the surf there’s a variety to target. The summer times species have taken up resilience… kingfish, fluke, small blues, resident bass and the larger summertimes hoodlums… sharks and rays. Sand bar sharks, sand tigers, rough tail rays, butterfly rays and cow nose rays.

No matter which one you go for it could be a struggle finding some beach to fish. The island is jumping and the beaches are packed. Sunrise and sunset is the best time to fish for bass and blues with lures or bait. Night time is also an option. During the day kingfish and fluke can offer great fishing fun.

Steve George from Night Strikes Surfcasting Guide Service shares some great information…” Fluke fishing on the surf is good and spread out all along the beaches of LBI. The Inlet, north end, mid island and southern beaches are all producing nice fluke. Small resident bass were out along the surf line this past week feeding on mole crabs during their shed. Some of the mornings were good. These bass are also feeding on sand eels which are abundant in the local LBI waters right now. Cocktail and taylor size bluefish continue to cause havoc. The bunker pods which are still around and in strong numbers. Have a great weekend! Happy  4th of July everyone!”

Midshore/Offshore Fishing Report

The offshore and mid-shore fishing for yellowfin and bluefin tuna has been off the chain! It continues thanks to good sea conditions and life filled productive waters. Store staffer Jay reports, “The tuna fishing mid-shore was very good yesterday. Good size 50 class yellowfin with bluefin mixed in. All on side trackers and daisy chains. There’s a ton of life out there. Heard of some wahoo showing up too.”

Areas like Chicken Canyon, Triple Wrecks (and east of there), Lemke’s, the Claw, and the Fingers have fish. Further offshore the Spencer and Lindy have produced for a couple days.

Sharking is firing up with reports of makos, threshers and blacktips sharks.

Fish Head Charters

I’ve been out on the water just about every morning or afternoon for the past two weeks. During this time I’ve witnessed first hand the transition from spring fishing into summer. 4th of July holiday weekend is here and summer is in full swing.

The striped bass had come down in size as did the bluefish too. The fluke in the bay slowed up for me but the ocean picked up the slack. Some bonita and spanish mackerel showed up near shore. Further off I’m expecting mahi and king mackerel reports to fire up!

Here in the final stretch of June the fishing opportunities on and around Long Beach Island are plentiful. Bluefish are snapping and the fluke fishing is rocking. Also offshore tuna are on the chew. Here’s the Fishing Report Update for Sunday June 28, 2020

Two key trends to take note of right now for near shore anglers. The ocean water temperatures have been somewhat stable for the past 3-4 days, hovering in the low 70’s. There’s an abundance of small slender baits. Spearing, bay anchovies and sand eels are the primary forage for the local striped bass and bluefish. Hatch The Hatch!

LBI Bay Waters Fishing Report

In the bay summer flounder (fluke) is the main target. They can be found in the back bay (mid-Island) and in the areas closer to the inlet. Anglers are doing good fishing Gulp as well as live and natural baits. At times certain areas have grass/weed/snot which makes things difficult. In these situations pay attention. Drifting and dreaming with balls of grass isn’t productive. Simply just a waste of time. Keep your rigs clean and you’ll find fish.

Vinnie Pena got out early before the boat traffic and worked the structure and edges. He reported, “Did a few quick drifts and put a 25″ and an 18″ fluke in the box. Back home by 9.”

Store staffer Grey Colston was out on the bay this morning fishing some channels and reported catching a bunch of fluke but only one keeper.

With all the pressure anglers fishing live bait seem to be outproducing with classy fish. Most all of the fluke we have heard of over five pounds were caught on live bait.

In the bay, blowfish as well as other smaller “pan fish” critters are beginning to arrive. A couple kingfish and spot were recently reported by anglers fishing Fish Bites for blowfish. There’s also a few weakfish present.

James Walker had a good day today with blowfish in Barnegat Bay. He reported, “70 blowfish and 17 kingfish using squid in 6′ of water.”

LBI Surf Fishing Report

Fluke and kingfish are the two most abundant species on the beach of LBI. Both are great fun to catch and even better table fare. Get out on the beach and catch a fresh fish dinner!

Ryan Sherwood has been on the beach finding fish… he always does! Here’s his Sunday morning trip report, “Quick beach limit plus released another keepers this morning before the rain. The mid-Island surf has been good to me. I had one keeper yesterday and four today. I’m using a hi/lo rig and baiting up with white Gulp. Today was the best day I had on the beach so far.” Ryan said the bunker pods are still stacked up right off the beach, “They are thick but just out of casting range.” There’s striped bass, bluefish and sharks on them as well as the occasional show off dolphins and whales.

Kingfish on the surf chewing bloodworms and bloodworm alternatives. Rig up with a hi/lo small hook (size #2-#4) rig and bait up with Fish Bites, DynaBait or Live Bloods.

The sharks and rays have around so keep an eye on your rods. They can be pulled down, out and into the water in a split second. Our suggestion is to get a Quality Sand Spike to better protect your investment.

Offshore/Mid-Shore Big Game Fishing

The Jersey Shore big game fishing season is in full swing! At times the tuna fishing has been lights out. Offshore reports at the Lindy-Carteret have been good. The midshore bluefin action at the Triple Wrecks (a bit east) has been red hot for days/weeks. The sharking is kicking into gear.

Dan Rosetto was out on the Let ‘Em Run this weekend and reported great trip. “We went big eye hunting and had another epic trip. Going 3/4 on big eyes and four yellowfin. What a day with an amazing crew. We found them in the fog and mid day kept pounding them until they cam back up.”

Some Great “Sunset Tides / & Open available Dates are setting up nicely for this upcoming week.
Contact Me if you want to get out and have fun fishing the beaches of LBI ~ Long Beach Island NJ for some really nice Fluke/Summer Flounder off the beach. #LBI ~ Visit >Fishermen’s Headquarters ~ Ship Bottom NJ CALL Me @ 609-276-6983 Nightstrikes Surfcasting Guide Service LLC/ Steve George