The boats of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association are finding some of the very best bottom fishing of the season while they anxiously await the arrival of big numbers of striped bass.
The "Star Fish" under Captain Carl Sheppard had two bachelor parties this past weekend. They found small schools of bunker being attacked by large blues from just off shore all the way to the reefs but saw no bass around. The weather could not have been nicer when the Markowitz party went wreck fishing on the reefs, and caught over 100 fish, the majority being black bass and porgies. Sean Nagle's bachelor party found some fish on the reefs and some small blues and weak fish off the Red Tower on open bottom in Beach Haven.
Captain Fran Verdi on the "Dropoff" found very good Fishing on Sunday. He went through Beach Haven Inlet and worked his way north looking for the bunker on the surface. After not locating any, his anglers made some drops off the red tower in hopes of weakfish. They picked off several small spikes but nothing of size. The final stop was the Little Egg Reef, and they fished one area for the next two and half hours. Their total catch resulted in 4 blackfish, one triggerfish, 15 sea bass, and 20 porgies.
Additional information on the association can be found at www.BHCFA.com