A sudden warm spell has raised water temperatures in southern Ocean County, and the boats of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association are finding the fish are in a feeding mode.
The boats bottom fishing in the ocean have seen some very good catches of big blackfish, but that season ends on May 1. Fortunately, black sea bass have started to arrive to pick up the slack.
Captain Adam Nowalsky of the "Karen Ann II" reports some good catches of tog or blackfish. Along with the tog, he has been noticing more nice sea bass showing up. Some recent limit catches of blackfish on the "Karen Ann II" include George Johnston of Philadelphia, Keith Stickles of Princeton, Robert Key of Reading, Pa., Johnny Lucario of Somerville to 5 pounds, and Bob Craney of Parsippany to 7.2 pounds,
Capt. Brant Whittaker took over the chores on the "Miss Beach Haven" from Frank Camarda last weekend and found some nice blackfish and sea bass on inshore wrecks and reefs. Dave Agar was the pool winner with his fat 12-pound tautog.
On Sunday the boat found even better fishing with a mixed bag of sea bass and tog with high hook being 7 fish.
Captain Fran Verdi ran some "open boat" trips on the "Cousins" recently and caught fish each time. One day he had Steve Richter and his son out for some bass. They fished in 55-degree water off Graveling Point. After a slow start, the fish started to bite when the tide turned and the rain started. In addition to several short fish they had keepers of 34 and 29-inches.
On Sunday Captain Fran tried bottom fishing in the ocean. After trying several spots with little success, they found a sweet spot on the Little Egg Reef. They managed to boat about 30 fish mostly blackfish with some sea bass mixed in. Many of the fish were shorts, but they did manage several keeper blackfish.
Additional information on the association can be found at www.BHCFA.com