Despite several days of heavy rain, the boats of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association have been able to get some trips in and catch some fish.
Captain Fran Verdi on the "Cousins" had a couple of parties out last weekend after stripers in the Great Bay area. Captain Fran took Nick Rausch and Frank Marrazza to the Graveling point area in dense fog. After fishing an hour of the incoming tide the tide went slack, and a rod doubled over producing a 29-inch striper for the fish box.
Things then slowed again until the tide started out. One fish was brought to the boat but spit the hook. It looked to be short but it was going to be close. Then a combination of increasing winds against the tide made fishing difficult the rest of the day.
Captain Adam fished the next day with the Rob Fraley Party. They set up at Graveling Point and had the incoming tide to work with for about three hours. After 30 minutes a line went down and it was the first striper of the day, a 32-incher was landed.
The tide went slack and they had a doubleheader on with Rob getting his first keeper striper ever. His fish was 31-inches, but the other fish was a very short 10-inches. Ironically that angler's nickname was "Tiny."
The boats of the BHCFA that fish the ocean reefs and wrecks are encouraged over the early showing of some decent sea bass fishing.
On Saturday May 9, the "Miss Beach Haven" with Captain Frank Camarda covered a lot of ground all the way out to 100 feet of water looking for fish. Captain Frank reports he found plenty of life in 90 ft of water, but the problem was they were last years models.
The anglers had a goodly amount of catching going on with a lot of releasing. By the end of the day they were about 14 miles from the inlet with a water temperature of 51 degrees The high hook for the day was 5 sea bass by Jerry from Philadelphia who won the pool with a 3.5 -pound sea bass.
Captain Adam Nowalsky on the "Karen Ann II" reports he was tied to the dock the past week "courtesy of Mother Nature." Now that the weather patterns seem to have straightened up, he has plans to get back to the fishing grounds soon to tangle with the spring humpback sea bass.
Additional information on the association can be found at www.BHCFA.com