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Home › Waters › New Jersey › Barnegat Bay
Estuary · Jersey Shore · New Jersey

Barnegat Bay Fishing Guides

New Jersey's signature back bay — forty miles of shallow sod banks, sedge islands and inlet current behind Island Beach and Long Beach Island.

A boardwalk crossing tidal marsh at sunset on the southeastern coast
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Barnegat Bay

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

Order on this page: premium and outfitter plans first (labelled Premium placement), then claimed free profiles, then unclaimed — one published price, no bidding for position. How placement works

About the Barnegat Bay

Barnegat Bay stretches roughly forty miles behind the Jersey Shore barrier islands, from the Manasquan area south past Island Beach State Park and Long Beach Island to Little Egg Harbor. It is a shallow, largely wind-driven estuary — much of it under six feet — exchanging water with the ocean through Barnegat Inlet and Little Egg Inlet. The USGS gauge at Mantoloking tracks tidal elevation, which is the number that governs everything here: which sod banks are fishable, when the sedge drains, and how hard the inlet runs.

Striped bass are the headline fish and are present in some form most of the year, with the heaviest concentrations in the spring and again from September through the fall run. Bluefish push in behind the bait, summer flounder fan out over the channel edges and drop-offs from May into September, and weakfish still show in the deeper holes though at a fraction of historic numbers. Black sea bass and tautog work the bridge pilings and rock, and northern kingfish take small baits on the sand flats. Blue crabbing is a serious secondary pursuit across the whole bay.

Guided trips here run the full range. Light-tackle skiffs and flats boats work the sod banks and sedge islands on the west side, fly anglers sight-fish the shallow edges on calm mornings, and larger center consoles fish the inlet, the bridges and the channel structure. Because the bay is shallow and the tide moves a lot of water through two inlets, local knowledge of where and when the current sets up is worth more than tackle here.

Access is excellent by New Jersey standards, with state park, municipal and county ramps spread along both shores and long stretches of wadeable and walkable shoreline in Island Beach State Park. The bay is heavily used by recreational boaters through the summer, so guided trips tend to start early. New Jersey marine fishing requires registration rather than a saltwater license, and the Division of Fish and Wildlife link below carries current seasons, sizes and bag limits, which change year to year.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Barnegat Bay.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

Mantoloking bridge area — shoreline and small-boat access at the USGS gauge.
Island Beach State Park — extensive walk-on bay-side and surf access with parking.
Barnegat Light and the inlet jetty — rock and current access at the main inlet.
Seaside Park municipal ramp — trailer access to the mid-bay reach.
Toms River and Cattus Island county ramps — west-shore access to the sod banks.
Waretown and Forked River state ramps — access to the lower bay and Oyster Creek channel.
Beach Haven and Little Egg Harbor ramps — southern access to the sedge islands and Little Egg Inlet.

Seasons

Spring: striped bass move onto the shallow west-side flats from April, with the first bluefish behind them.
Summer: summer flounder on the channel edges, early-morning topwater on the sod banks, heavy boat traffic midday.
Fall: the strongest season — the September through November striped bass and bluefish run through the inlets.
Winter: mostly closed out, with occasional holdover striped bass in the warm-water discharges and deep holes.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Barnegat Bay?

Anglers target Black Sea Bass, Blue Crab, Bluefish, Northern Kingfish, Striped Bass, Summer Flounder, Tautog, Weakfish on the Barnegat Bay in New Jersey.

Are there fishing guides on the Barnegat Bay?

GuidedFloats lists 2 guides and outfitters on the Barnegat Bay. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the Barnegat Bay?

Mantoloking bridge area — shoreline and small-boat access at the USGS gauge. Island Beach State Park — extensive walk-on bay-side and surf access with parking. Barnegat Light and the inlet jetty — rock and current access at the main inlet. Seaside Park municipal ramp — trailer access to the mid-bay reach. Toms River and Cattus Island county ramps — west-shore access to the sod banks. Waretown and Forked River state ramps — access to the lower bay and Oyster Creek channel. Beach Haven and Little Egg Harbor ramps — southern access to the sedge islands and Little Egg Inlet.

When is the best time to fish the Barnegat Bay?

Spring: striped bass move onto the shallow west-side flats from April, with the first bluefish behind them. Summer: summer flounder on the channel edges, early-morning topwater on the sod banks, heavy boat traffic midday. Fall: the strongest season — the September through November striped bass and bluefish run through the inlets. Winter: mostly closed out, with occasional holdover striped bass in the warm-water discharges and deep holes.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Barnegat Bay?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the New Jersey agency site: https://dep.nj.gov/njfw/fishing/marine/