The captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association have been seeing a noticeable improvement in their catches over the past week.
Captain George Finck of "Sparetime Charters" had the Jim Musser family just 3 miles offshore on a trolling trip. They boated 35 nice bluefish, keeping 27. On the next day he had Janet and Margie Mitchell and family on a trip to the Little Egg Reef. The group picked up 2 keeper fluke out of 8 total caught along with 6 keeper sea bass out of a total of 14. Matt Pribila and friends went out with Captain Finck to the Little Egg Reef another day where they managed one 20-inch keeper fluke out of numerous shorts along with 7 keeper sea bass up to 4-pounds.
Dave Wittenborn on the "Compass Rose" says his fluke fishing remains hot. He took Joe McCall and family out who were cashing in Joe's Father's Day gift certificate. They fished the Garden State South Reef and had a steady pick of fluke for the entire trip. They landed 35 fluke and put 9 keepers in the box. The largest was 22.5-inches with several more over 20-inches. They also landed a nice sized ling and a big blue humpback sea bass.
Captain Frank Camarda on the head boat "Miss Beach Haven" said everything fell into place on Sunday with a "perfect drift." Pool winner was Al Benedict from Philadelphia with a 5.5-pound fluke. Many anglers had 4 keepers each along with many shorts.
On Sunday morning Captain Dave Kreines had the Marty Kounitz family on the "Sweet Baby" for a combination of fishing and nature-seeing on the bay. The ocean looked so calm that the group asked for a change of plan. They spent the balance of the trip on the glass smooth Atlantic catching and releasing a half dozen Fluke.
Captain Lindsay Fuller on the "June Bug" fished the Kennedy family from California on Saturday Cpl. Steven McKenney, USMC aboard who just returned safe and sound from Iraq a month ago. It was interesting to find out what is really going on over there. Steve told us that the play that the U.S. media gives the relatively few insurgent attacks is overkill. Things are far more peaceful than portrayed. His job was to set up the computers and communications for all of the outlying bases, both for the U.S. forces and the Iraqi policy and military. Hoping for some Bonita on light tackle, they fished the Barnegat South Ridge. They found no Bonita but plenty of big slammin' Bluefish. Ryan Kennedy (9) caught the biggest fish of his life. There was lots of huffing and puffing to get those 12-15 pound monsters to the boat. Junior Mate Hep Hepburn ran the cockpit for the day. That was a first for him and he handled it well. On Sunday, the Kennedys fished on again with Captain Fuller for fluke in the bay but could find no keepers.
Additional information on the association can be found at www.BHCFA.com