The boats of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association are continuing to find plenty of action on undersized fluke, but keepers are still hard to come by.
Captain Lindsay Fuller on the "June Bug" took the Zalewski family from Newton bottom fishing. Fighting cold bottom temperatures they managed to boat a number of fish, but none of legal length. The group enjoyed the weather and ay on the water. Another day Captain Fuller fished the Patterson family from Haddonfield. Rebecca, nine, and Decker, six, worked very hard catching short fluke, skates, and sea robins. On their last drift at a secret spot of mate Nate Figley, the kids boated a 19-inch fluke to take home.
Captain Frank Camarda fished the "Miss Beach Haven" in the bay recently in order to find some warm water. There were not many keepers but ton of action on fish up to 17-inches. The incoming tide brought non-stop action. On Saturday the "Miss Beach Haven found a patch of fish in the ocean holding several keepers along with some ling. Pool winner was Darrel Vandeleur of Hamilton with a 4-pound flattie.
Captain Adam Nowalsky of the "Karen Ann II" reports a change in wind direction brought a return to some decent bottom fishing. The Dave Young party had a mixed bag of ling and sea bass to 3-pounds while Robin Cunningham and Linda Yost caught some nice sea bass on a half day trip.
Nowalsky tried a tuna trip to the 20-fathom line but only picked up some big bluefish.
Captain Fran Verdi of the "Drop Off" had the Van Orden party out for some reef fishing and they picked up nine keeper sea bass to 19-inches. The Butterworth party ran into some problems with thick fog but managed 8 keeper sea bass.
Captain Dave Wittenborn fished the Garden State South Reef with Ed Lawson and party and managed a handful of keepers. The catch of the day was a 6.22-pound blackfish which it a fluke rig baited with squid and spearing. On Sunday heavy fog forced him to fish the fish factory area of Great Bay for fluke. They had some keepers but the throwback ratio was 12-1. Gulp bait on bucktails worked best.
Wittenborn snuck a trip to Lemke's Canyon for tuna around his fluke trips. He saw signs of tuna in the 77-degree water, but rough sea conditions made catching difficult.
Additional information on the association can be found at www.BHCFA.com