Although a series of intense thunderstorms has been plaguing the southern Ocean County area for the past week, the captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association have been making their way between the storm cells and finding some decent fishing.
The bay bite has slowed quite a bit mainly due to dirty water churned up from the storms and sharply increased water temperatures. When you throw in hot weather and a goodly number of greenhead flies, most captains are setting course for the cooler ocean waters.
The ocean inshore wrecks and reefs like the Little Egg and Garden State South are producing large numbers of fluke. Naturally, there are more throwbacks than keepers, but if you put the time in, the keepers will show up. The black sea bass are mainly in the deeper water wrecks, but a few are around the inshore reefs also.
Captain Fran Verdi has his new boat, the "Francesca Marie" ready to rock and roll with plenty of room for six anglers. He is completing a couple more things before making his first offshore trip to the tuna grounds, but it should be soon. His recent fluke trips have resulted in some filled fish boxes topped by a very nice 24-inch doormat.
The canyons are still very productive for those boats setting up trolling rigs with good numbers of tuna around in addition to some mahi-mahi and some reports of billfish.
Additional information on the association can be found at www.BHCFA.com or by calling 877-524-2423.