LBI Fishing Report Update

Update: Saturday, September 22, 2018

Today was the 72nd World Series Of Surf Fishing Tournament hosted by the Long Beach Island Fishing Club. For anyone who was on the island or better yet the beach… the place way jumping. There were 52 teams and a total of 283 anglers fishing (23 women and 27 youth anglers under 18). All together there were 425 fish caught; 320 bluefish, 10 king fish, two fluke.

Harvey Cedars ASAC Tournament Results

1st Place: 35 Fish – 435 Points – SJ Surfcasters A
2nd Place: 27 Fish – 335.75 Points – Anglesea – A
3rd Place: 30 Fish – 316.50 Points – RH Custom Rods A
4th Place: 29 Fish – 225.5 Points – NJ Beach Buggy Ass
5th place: 18 Fish – 185.75 Points – Merchantville FC – C

First place largest fish men’s went to Dave Bosch for his 19″ Fluke. First place largest fish women’s went to Lisa A for her 13.5 ” bluefish.

Alex Thaler got the largest fish youth (14-17) with a 15.75″ bluefish. Brett Clark got the largest fish youth (13 & Under) with an 11″ bluefish.

Most Fish Men’s – Bob Rienir with 159.75 points, 12 Bluefish plus one other. Most Fish Women’s – Lynda Greaves with 57.75 points, 5 blues plus one other. Most Fish Youth (14-17) – Alex Thaler with 64.25 points, 5 bluefish. Most Fish Youth (13 & Under) – Brett Clark with 11 points, one bluefish.

Other Reports From Today

Dennis and Elise Fortuna from Runnemede, NJ had a fun day off the surf today. They fished the mid-island surf and caught a number of kingfish. Dennis reported, “Kingfish were chewing on Fish Bites. Elise got a pompano too. We fished a mullet rig with fresh mullet but it didn’t get a touch.”

Some anglers down on the south end reported lots of small blues and a few fluke on the beach in Holgate.

Swagmattic Matt S. was aboard the Carolyn Ann today for the last day of fluke.  The boat fished the Garden State North. It was good fishing early then it turned off.  Matt was fishing live snappers and got a five pounder. It was a nice fish but not enough for the pool. However it was enough to take top honors in the South Jersey Saltwater Anglers Fall Fluke tournament weigh in. Matt took the top a 5.12 pound fluke.

I have a few spots open for Sunday morning 630-1130am will be targeting weakfish [ grass shrimping] , stripers and blues [ live bait and artificals ] . There has been plenty of light tackle action and fun for all the above.

LBI Fishing Report Update

Update: Sept 21, 2018

Fluke season is coming to a close tomorrow on Sept 22th and like every year it’s prime time fishing. Good reports coming from the from the surf, inlet, ocean and bay. Be sure to get out and enjoy the last of it. Don’t over look to power of live mullet… fluke love them!

We had a five pound fluke weighed in today from a boat angler who was working the Barnegat Light Reef. He said it was rough but full of life, catching about forty shorts.

Herb Weikel of Ship Bottom stopped in the shop for some fresh mullet and shared he found good fishing this week, “Fluke and blues are chewing cut mullet! A few days ago I got some some keepers near the Inlet. Wednesday only shorts.”

On the bayside blowfish continue in good numbers. Anglers having fun with them are also getting a couple weakfish and spot.

Anglers fishing the Barnegat Inlet are into tog on live green crabs.  The bite is strong and has been for a couple weeks. We expect this to continue right into October mid possibly later.  Gear up with live crabs and hop some rocks. The NJ Recreational Limit for Blackfish aka Tog is one fish at 15 inches until November 15 when it goes up to a five fish bag. Speaking of regulations, in a couple weeks we will have Black Sea Bass… Oct 8th to Oct 31 is 10 fish 12.5″ and then in November it bumps up to 15 fish.

The Fishing Musician Rick happily reported his magic shad was his ace, “Got a weakfish, fluke, bluefish and a sea robbin. The blowfish were also present and taring me up.” Rick’s land based fishing adventures have been good all summer. He’s looking forward to soon switching gears to the fall striped bass run.

Store staffer Kelley is finding fish at night on soft plastics. There’s tons of snappers but if you weed through them there’s bigger fish. Got a nice fluke, some striped bass and bigger blues.

Hot New Products

The all new Heavy Duty Bullet Jig Head from Magictail is finally in.  This is the jig head for anglers who demand a heavy hook jig head. Whether targeting gamefish in heavy water or big pelagics these are the go to jig head. Great for rigging Lunker City’s Slug-go, Ronz and Megashads among many other softbaits. Check them out today!

Today we received a monster delivery of Grundens All Weather Gear. We are  stocked up and ready for the fall weather. Are you? Stop in to check out our selection of bibs, jackets and much much more.

Beach Haven Charter Fishing Fishing Report Update

Update: September 20, 2018

by Jim Hutchinson Sr.

Beach Haven was spared Hurricane Florence, and the strong winds and large seas which have been present for over a week have begun to subside. The captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association are ready to catch fish despite the closure of the summer flounder season on September 22.

A recent uptick in bluefish action has been stirring interest the past few days. Naturally, the bay waters are filled with snapper blues, some grown to a pound already, but good numbers of bluefish in the 2-6 pound class have been making their appearance in the ocean.

Captains choosing to troll in the waters not that far off the beach have been finding some pretty good action on these bluefish, Spanish mackerel, albacore, bonita, and small mahi-mahi.

The reports coming from the offshore waters indicate that there is a decent bite on tuna when the ocean conditions permit boats to make it there. Captain Lindsay Fuller of the “June Bug” reports some of these fish can be caught on the troll, but he recommends overnight trips to the canyons with a combination of trolling and chunking through the night hours.

A plethora of bait in the bay and inlet waters is a positive sign, and eyes are already looking to the north awaiting the arrival of the fall run of striped bass. There are small, “schoolie” sized bass in the bay which are being caught casting lures around the sod banks, especially during the hours of low light.

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

Although fall is 5 days away, Mother Nature has shown enough signs to signal the fall run is about to begin. Bait from micro ¼” fish fry to 5” peanut bunker and mullet. With the weather not so ideal to fish around the inlet and ocean recently, I have spent some time in the back bay creeks targeting small blue and schoolie bass. Though these fish are small and young, I can tell you they are surely wise. For example, the other evening my BFF and I watched schoolie bass consistently blowing up with the feed bag on. While it looked like it was going to be like catching fish in a barrel, it was far from it! Throwing everything at em we could not connect. Even live peanut bunker drifted in the tidal outwash drew little attention. They were feeding on the smallest of small fry. Think about the smallest Sabiki rig you have seen and that is how small the fish were that the bass and blues were feeding on. Wait a minute……….Maybe I should have used a Sabiki rig! Next time.

I was out with the Tindall gang Saturday. First off, making bait was hard to do. The bunker were all down in the lowest part of the water column making it impossible to get a cast net on them. We fished the back creeks to the bridges to the Island Beach sedges and came up with a snapper and a small blue. Hey, that’s fishing sometimes. The incoming water was dirty and warm. Most of the bay was still a little turbid although we found some spots with clear water mid bay.

With the downtime I was able to get back to the video editing room and put together this video from 9/7/18’s magic hour trip. We slayed the blues that night and the magic hour lived up to its name. You can view the video here Bluefish Slayfest

If you like please subscribe to my YouTube Channel.

On the nature side of things: this past weekend some unfortunate person lost their life when attacked by a great white shark in Cape Cod. What is going on here is, we are seeing Mother Nature rebound from decades of over-harvesting species to the brink of extinction. Once hunted to almost extinction, our seal population is finally coming back. Their comeback is attributed to the protection granted under the Mammal Protection Act of 1972. Well, once the seal numbers started to increase so did their primary predator, the great white shark. Predator/prey relationships, it’s ecology 101.

With the best fishing of the year about to unfold, if you are thinking on getting on board the Debbie M you better think quick as my days a filling in.

Screaming drags,

Capt. Alex   609-548-2511

Last weeks weather was a solid mix of miserable[s] in the way of foggy , overcast, wind driven rain for most of the week turning our waters into a murky off color broth and froth.  With the weather settling back down and conditions returning to a bit of a normal pattern [ for now] we cleared the line and got back to business .

LBI Fishing Report Update

Updated: September 15, 2018

Finally things have settled down and it’s a big weekend for surf anglers on Long Beach Island. Today September 15 is the day beach access opens to four wheel drive beach buggies in Ship Bottom and Beach Haven (permit required). The rest if LBT as well as Harvey Cedars opens October 1st. Due to the recent north east blow and powerful swell some beaches might be closed due to erosion. As always drive slow with caution.

The Holgate Section of the Edwin B Forsyth Wildlife Refuge is open today and access is allowed all the way to the point! This is great news because most the section has been closed since the main entrance gates opened on September first.

One step closer to fall this week… blinking lights on the north end! The trek from shop to Light only takes 10 minutes.

Now’s the time to enjoy Long Beach Island… It’s better in September!!!

News On The Fishing Front….

The rough seas have kept most boats tied up for too many days. Still ground swell from the combination of the week’s Nor’easters and Flo’s rage have the beaches churning. The white water is a beautiful sight (especially if it was late October or November) for surfcasting but also demanding 5-8 ounces of lead to hold.

The mullet run is on! As reported on the September 11th, 2018 Fishing Report Update mullet are active and on the move. Everyday fresh baits are arriving. These baits are prime for targeting bluefish and fluke. Resident striped bass are also on the bait but best targeted using lures.

In recent days few anglers have worked the surf. Most have opted for the more protected areas like the bayside and inside section of the Inlet. There anglers are putting together good catches. This entire week the Inlet has been loaded with small blues ranging from snappers to cocktail size with an occasional bigger ones ruling the roost. Anglers fishing lures (small metal, poppers, bucktails, swimming plugs) as well as cut mullet are having lots of fun.

Other good reports from the Inlet spoke about fluke, striped bass and tog. One anglers that purchased a new Penn reel stopped back with a 20″ fluke from the rocks that went for a chunk of mullet. Maybe due to the wind and swell, the trigger fish reports have disappeared.

Rich Beverley was in the shop today and shared a report from the inlet. He got into good fishing this morning, “The tog bite was on. I caught a bunch of blackfish and some how managed to loose a five pound fish.” The heart break is real! While here he raved on his recent trip to Matapedia Quebec. He caught his first Atlantic salmon and had a great fishing trip.

Boat anglers fishing the bay are catching great numbers of blowfish. Also weakfish are present.

Side Tracker Spreader Bars by Chatter Lures

For the offshore anglers… The Side Trackker Spreader Bars from Chatter Lures took the offshore trolling market by storm this summer. It was impossible to keep up with the demand. Finally now that things slowed we’ve been able to stock up. If you haven’t seen or fished one of these you are missing out. Here’s info about the bars and the advantage they offer.

Just a heads up we expect the all new 36″ Side Tracker Spreader Bar from Chatter to be in this upcoming week.

Upcoming Events

72nd Annual World Series Of Surf Fishing – This tournament hosted by the LBI Fishing Club is on September 22, 2018. The tournament is open to individual ($25) and team anglers ($100). Register now for this great event! For more info call Frank at 856-904-3062

64th Annual LBI Surf Fishing Classic – This 9 week surf fishing tournament event is 21 days away, October 6th. Join and have fun fishing for daily, weekly, segment, grand and special bonus day cash prizes. Registrations has begun! For more information www.LBIFT.com

Fall Classic Striper Side Bet – Be sure to join the Fish Head’s shop side bet! It’s an additional $10.

          Surf Fishing Seminar

The LBI Surf Fishing Classic Opening Day Surf Fishing Seminar is 9am Saturday October 6th at the Ship Bottom Firehall. This is a great learning opportunity and a perfect place to network with other surf anglers.

Everything from the basics of Surf Fishing 101 to diving deeper into the specifics of reading the beach, when/where to fish, lure talk, and much more. There will be hands on demonstrations as well as a segment on the beach (weather dependent).

Complimentary Coffee Sponsored by How You Brewin.

Pre-registration is recommended for this FREE event Email:  patatnj@aol.com to let us know you are coming. See you then!

Beach Haven Charter Fishing Report Update Sept 13, 2018

by Jim Hutchinson Sr.

Recent storms accompanied by high winds and large waves have kept the boats of the Beach Haven Charter fishing Association at the dock. These conditions along with the landfall of Hurricane Florence to the south have the captains thinking of their own storm contingency plans.

Captain Dave Kreines of the “Byte Me” says he keeps an eye on the weather and plays it by ear. He adds extra lines and plans to pull his boat out of the water on a trailer if the storm looks bad. If it just looks like a lot of rain he inspects his bilge pumps to be sure they are ready to go with batteries fully charged. .He plans to be back at the fluke grounds when things calm down.

Captain Carl Sheppard of the “Star Fish” feels it is necessary to provide enough scope on the dock lines so that the boat can raise with the water level, and not be held down by the lines.” In Hurricane Sandy there was a rise of about seven feet. The second issue is to assure that the moorings or pilings or dock cleats to which you are securing your vessel are up to the strain, if in doubt, move her to another location that will be secure. If you are thinking of hauling, most insurance companies will pay 50% of the cost of hauling for a named storm hitting your area. Place split rubber hose over the line where it might chafe the boat. Expect to lose power for a while, so take out anything from your fridge or freezer that will go bad when the power goes off. Be sure your bilge pumps are working and the battery fully charged.”

Captain Carl says after the storm it will be time to go fishing. Fluke season will be followed by black sea bass and then by stripers. He was catching lots of short fluke, with a ratio of 20 shorts to 1 keeper, and many sea bass out on the inshore reefs before the storms started.

Captain Lindsay Fuller had run two Mid-Range Tuna trips on the “June Bug.” right before the storm to the 30 Fathom Knuckle finding no tuna but did catch some mahi to30-pounds. Captain Lindsay has made deposits on foul weather availabilty to get hauled at Jersey Cape Yachts in case of a real hurricane threat.

Additional information on the BHCFA can be found at www.bhcfa.net