LBI Fishing Report Jan 12, 2020

Spring was on the mind today! What a beautiful sunny day with a high of 62 degrees. That forecast sounds more like a spring day and it felt that way on the beach. Thanks to a strong sou’wester, I enjoyed the south swell that was pumping on the Ship Bottom beach today.

While walking the beach (up current) I talked to a couple surf anglers, but notta. With the mild ocean temp and abundance of birds roaming I’m confident there’s linesiders roaming the surf.

Just a heads up… the ocean/surf is open to fishing; however the inlets, back bays and rivers are close. With the striped bass stocks in need of help, please know the law and respect the species. Right now there’s basically two fisheries… tautog and white perch.

Tog Fishing Report

NJ Tautog Fishing Season is open Jan1 to Feb 29th, 15″ 4 fish creel.

Store staffer Blake was out this week (a couple days ago) aboard the No Moores. He reported some a savage bites on the ever so deadly Magictail Tog Jigs.

Big tog love crabs presented with the subtle-ness of Magictail Tog Jigs. Their superior design and super strong hooks are responsible for some really big blackfish.
This late season 14lb togzilla went for a crab baited Magictail tog jig aboard the No Moores!

Blake landed a monster, his new personal best 14 pounds, on a 1.5oz jig! Word is Dave will be keeping his boat in the water cause the fishing and weather is good. We are looking forward to more solid reports from the crew. Dave and the boat has had a killer 2019 and their 2020 is off to a great start!

Dante at Magictails was into good fishing recently aboard the No Limit down Delaware. He said the hogs were hammering, “Seven biggins from 10-18.5 pounds!!!!”

White Perch Fishing Report

So far this year, white perch fishing has been good. We got a few reports from local angler Gary Adair. A few days back “I caught a quick 70 perch for a fish fry. It was fun fishing because it bring me back to my childhood.”

Florida Fishing

Store staffer Frezza and Jay are finishing up a strike mission down in the sunshine state and they reported fishing has been good all week. Frezza said, “We have mangrove snapper at our dock along with pinfish (catching for bait). We hunted down some sheepshead and got them up to 20″. Looking for redfish but only found a couple.  Lots of speckled trout at the mangroves! In total we caught 11 different species and had a blast doing so. We are already planning our next trip back.”

Fish love hiding to stategically ambush prey but also for protection from larger species. Mangroves offer the perfect maze for hiding and feeding. Here is a speckled trout that was caught fishing lures close to the edge of the mangroves.
Here’s store staffer Jay with one of many speckled trout caught along the mangroves.

Reel Reaction Charters – Winter Report

First, I have secured a sponsorship with Humminbird / MinnKota and will be replacing all of my “other brand” electronics with 2 Humminbird SOLIX units/SONAR/GPS/RADAR. We will start doing charters early March for combo Winter Flounder and schoolie Striped Bass charters. April will bring Tog or Blackfish in the crosshairs. I’m very excited for 2019 and can’t wait to get back on the water.

In addition, I have been asked to do fishing seminars at the Edison Boat Show, Philadelphia Fishing Show, and Atlantic City Boat Show. I will be also doing several appearances in Atlantic City January through March! February will be a busy month, followed by splashing the boat in early March!! Lastly, we are in the beginning stages of possibly adding another boat and captain to the fleet to target skinny-water backwater fishing. But more on that in the future. FHQ has some nice deals going on right now and throughout the winter months. I will be stopping in to gear up for the 2019 season, so hopefully will run into some of you there!

If interested in booking a charter, book our site (reelreactioncharters.com) or call/text 609-290-7709. As always, we use the highest quality gear and everything is included: gear, tackle, fish-cleaning, and ICE! It’s “no worries” fishing. Just come aboard and FISH.

Fishing Report Update – March 25, 2018

What a great weekend! So many of us have waited for the dewinterization process to begin! Turning on the water and opening seasonal homes as well as pulling the shrink wrap or boat cover, the Island was lively and the shop was buzzing. After a snowy, cold, windy winter, it was great to see all the familiar faces.

Some anglers got out and fished. A couple guys hit the surf, but no report rebound. One can only assume, no report is bad news. For the most part local fishing is still concentrated to the winter hold over locations. Soon the early season hot spots will kick into gear.

In terms of one hold over location, Oyster Creek, there’s been lots of action but with that comes lots of fishing pressure. The traffic can be tough but fun fishing is there to be had.

Striped bass and winter flounder are the two main target species. Some small blues(hold overs or new arrivals?) were recently caught and bunker have been in there too. Guys catching bass are fishing with small bucktails, jigs and soft plastics. Baits like live blood worms and clam are also getting bites for the crew posted up on the bridge. Winter flounder are also chewing live bloods there too.

One customer reported, “Caught a handful of fishing today (Saturday). Yesterday was was much better!” Another report came from Finn Krokus of Little Egg. He fished this weekend and caught both bass and winter flounder. Here’s a photo of one winter flounder.

Here’s Finn Krokus with a winter flounder that he caught on March 24th fishing Oyster Creek.

Just a heads up… For the time being we are still on winter hours (7am to 6pm). Soon we’ll extend. It all dependent on the weather, fishing and in store traffic.

Upcoming Fishing Tournaments

— Save The Dates —

The 15th Annual 2018 Berkeley Striper Club Spring Striped Bass Catch & Release Tournament starts May 24th. For More Info

The 17th Annual LBI Spring Surf Fishing Tournament starts April 21st. This year a bluefish division was added. For More Info

Summertime Striped Bass On LBI

Summertime Striped Bass On LBI

Summertime striped bass on LBI show their stripes and hint that fall fishing is right around the corning. These resident bass are around all year but we have a recent uptick in linesider actively with the full moon. Here’s some reports from the surf, inlet and the bay…

Frequent FishingLBI blog readers Will Kocher and his father of Camp Hill geared up at the shop this weekend. They got a pair of new Tsunami Airwave Elite surf fishing rods and put them to work quickly. They stopped in Sunday night and shared their success. “We headed up to the beach in front of our mid-island rental house and had some fun. Caught fish on both bait and lures.” They caught three short fluke caught, a shark and a skate. Will also got a summertime striped bass at sunset swimming a plug by the jetty.

A report came in from a kayak angler who shared while picking up Tactical Angler Clips and Seaguar Flourocarbon leader line. He said, “Launched off the Dike in High Bar Harbor Dike then worked the sod banks and some skinny water. Found fish chasing bait. Caught a pair of bass among a number of small blues fishing poppers and metal jig.” Other reports of bass in the bay came from anglers fishing the docks at night. These summertime striped bass are feasting on spearing and baby bunker.

Here’s Aimee Wool with a nice Barnegat Inlet resident striped bass. She caught some stripers this past weekend aboard the Reel Fantasea with Captain Steve Purul. With all of the fluke and bluefish around now is the time to get your Barnegat Bay Slam!!! There’s weakfish in our waters too, so a grand slam isn’t out of the question! Test your home run swing and take on the challenge.

Aimee Wool caught summertime striped bass on LBI this past weekend fishing with Captain Steve of Reel Fantasea.
Captain Steve on the Reel Fantasea had Aimee Wool catching summertime striped bass on LBI this past weekend.

 

Sharking continues off the Long Beach Island surf. Both brown sharks and sand tigers are caught and released. Soak a large piece of meat (mackerel, bunker, bluefish, skate, etc) and get ready to hold on!

Fluke Fishing

Here’s an article from Jim Hutchinson, Jr. at The Fisherman on the results of the 23 Annual JCAA Fluke Tournament… “For the second year in a row the top fish across the board in the statewide tournament was weighed in at Liberty Landing in Jersey City, with one of the very youngest competitors in JCAA history nabbing top honors in 2017 as 10-year old Dylan Cole of Andover, NJ brought a monster 9.69-pound fluke to the scales. All awards will be presented on Thursday, August 10 at the Clarion Hotel on Route 37 East in Toms River.

Jack McLaughlin, Tommy “The Hook”, Jumbo and Joe fished Barnegat Light’s 14th Annual Mercy Home Foundation fluke tournament this past weekend with Captain Greg Carr of LBI Charters. The crew reported a slow bite but the boyz bounced away! They boxed five keepers with Jack getting the largest at 5.56 pounds. It was good enough to take first place in the great charity event. Nice work, Jack congrats!

Jack McLaughlin took first place in Barnegat Light's 14th Annual Mercy Home Foundation fluke tournament.
Jack McLaughlin took first place in Barnegat Light’s 14th Annual Mercy Home Foundation fluke tournament.

 

This past weekend, store staffer Willie weighed in a couple of fish his buddies brought by. Taylor and Nick fished the Garden State South and put together a good catch. Here’s a photo of the largest fluke and a keeper seabass. The classic minnow and squid combo was hot!

 

Taylor and Nick caught fluke and sea bass on the GSS reef.
Taylor and Nick put together a good catch fishing a local reef.

Feels Like Fall

With the chilly westerly breeze, it really feels like a fall day here on LBI. The Island’s beaches have a fading south east swell leftover rolling across the sandbars. Over night the water cleaned up (lost some of that chocolate tint) and fish are cruising the white water. We are dropping into low tide (on the surf) at 12:39PM. High tide is this evening at 6:52PM.

Scott Shirey from Carlisle PA just weighed in a 41″ 26.30 lbs striped bass at 11am. Scott caught the linesider off of the Ship Bottom surf on FishHead’s Bunker at about 10am.

 

Store staffer Dan was out on the water yesterday (Sunday) searching. He fished the three mile line off Island Beach State Park. Dan said, “Trolling was slow, with little to no bait. We did come across a deep pack or two of bunker (photo below). This time last year we found some good fish. We’ll get ’em soon.” Water temp was 52 degrees. We heard through the grapevine there were a couple fish pulled this weekend. This is the start!

 

Here a photo of the surf and rainbow 🌈 from last night off the Surf City beach. Thanks to Melanie Cassie Photography for the photo