Captain Bob Gerkens has been running his boat the "Hot Tuna" out of Morehead City, NC. Recent charters of his have been catching black fin tuna, wahoo, king mackerel and lots of mahi-mahi. Captain Bob will be leaving the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and returning to his berth in Beach Haven in another week or so. He is looking forward to jumping into shark fishing as soon as he arrives in the Garden State.
Captain George Finck and his son Steven of "Sparetime" charters took Valerie Zak and daughter Jackie out for a day of bottom fishing last Saturday. Val owns Oceanside Bait and Tackle and her daughter just returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. Jackie's husband Dan and shop worker Rob also fished. It was drop and reel action for a nice catch of black sea bass and one nice codfish.
Captain Fran Verdi of the "Dropoff" fished last Friday in the back bay looking for stripers and black drum since ocean action had slowed down. Bill Ross and Russ were aboard for a 15-pound drum and another nice striped bass. Captain Fran took advantage of the opening day of sea bass season on Saturday and had the Chris Gadd party out early. After a slow start in depths of 55-feet, they moved to deeper water and got into the fish. The anglers had fish up to 20-inches with several doubleheaders and four guys hooked up at once. The group took home 24 sea bass and one ling.
The "Miss Beach Haven" and Captain Frank Camarda started the sea bass season last Saturday with a full boat. The anglers left the boat happy with the amount of keepers they finished with. Most of the fish were in the 1-3 pound range with the pool winner a 4-pounder.
That night Captain Frank had the Joe Metzger bachelor party out fishing. After several stops, the fishing turned on with a tie for the pool winner at 3.5 pounds. Sunday's open boat trip was a repeat of Saturday's with lots of nice fish for all.
Captain Carl Sheppard on the "Star Fish" also had a bachelor party of 11 anglers on Saturday who managed to boat over 100 fish, mostly sea bass. After starting at the reefs, Captain Carl moved to 90-feet of water where he found a higher ratio of keepers.
Additional information on the association can be found at www.BHCFA.com
