The black sea bass season opened last Saturday, and the captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association were on hand to take advantage of it.
Captain Carl Sheppard on the "Starfish" managed to find a real variety of fish for his parties over the past week.
On Saturday he had a family trip with small children. The group first caught cocktail sized blues in the Little Egg Inlet and then headed into the ocean for some big black sea bass on the Little Egg Reef. Unfortunately a large number of buoys marking commercial pots restricted where he was able to fish.
He did fish some smaller structure for a few fish and then moved further off shore to 100-feet of water. Captain Carl said the kids were most excited by the large dogfish, or "big sharks" to them. They boated over 100 sea bass, with the largest about 5-pounds. They also caught some ling and a small codfish in addition to a large blackfish.
Another day before the sea bass season opened Captain Carl had a party inside the inlet for a great bay day with lots of small bluefish and four fluke. He used # 3 Clark spoons for the blues and Gulp for the fluke.
The "Miss Beach Haven" under Captain Frank Camarda fished last weekend for black sea bass and other bottom species. Both days produced a fair bite for the sea bass although first mate Sal Rosa said the water still seems a bit cool for a good bite. Pool winner Saturday was "Black Cloud" Ted with a big sea bass.
Captain Fran Verdi had a party from Australia out on the "Dropoff" and tried the inshore wrecks first. When they could find nothing but dogfish, they made the long run to the deeper structure and found a nice pick of black sea bass. On Sunday Captain Fran ran an "open boat" trip and decided to fish a new site. That move paid off as they made one drift, set the anchor, and fished that spot all day. They had a nice mix of cod, sea bass, blackfish, conger eels, and ling.
Captain Fran also reported the sea bass and ling made for a delicious Memorial Day fish fry.
Additional information on the association can be found at www.BHCFA.com or by calling 1-877-LBI-BHCFA (1-877-524-2423).
