Little Egg Harbor, NJ Fishing Report & Live Conditions

Little Egg Harbor, NJ fishing report

Little Egg Harbor Bay and the surrounding back marsh fish differently than the open surf just over the barrier island. Spring pushes weakfish and striped bass into the bay as water temps climb into the low 50s, with bass staging around the inlet and creek mouths before pushing up into shallow marsh creeks at night. Summer belongs to fluke drifting the deeper channel edges and the sandy flats near the bay mouth, while bluefish move through in waves chopping everything in sight. Fall is the best all-around season, when stripers bulk up aggressively, bluefish return on their way south, and the occasional kingfish shows up in the surf-adjacent shallows.

Work the marsh edges on a dropping tide, since baitfish funnel out of the creeks and predators stack at the mouths waiting. For fluke, slow-drift bucktails tipped with Gulp or strip bait along channel breaks, keeping contact with the bottom. Stripers in the marsh respond well to soft plastics and small swimmers worked tight to the banks after dark. Watch water temperature closely in shoulder seasons — weakfish especially disappear once the bay cools into the low 50s or heats above 72. A light southwest wind chops the surface just enough to help you approach shallow fish undetected, while a hard north wind in fall often triggers aggressive striper feeds along windward shorelines.