Captain Lindsay Fuller of the 'June Bug,' a member of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association, had an outstanding offshore tuna trip last weekend. Fuller had Jim Hutchinson Sr. and Jr., George Roma, Bob Opperman, Paul Hopkins, and Dave Rinear to the Toms Canyon on an overnight tuna trip combining trolling and chunking. The group caught 19 longfin tuna from 40-75 pounds, all on the troll. They also put another 25 mahi-mahi in the box. The chunking produced no tuna but did result in releases of small swordfish and mako shark as well as numerous mahi. The almost non-stop action on the 24-hour trip kept mates Dante Soriente and Nate Figley busy the entire time.
Other Association boats continued their strong catches from bottom fishing. Captain George Finck of 'Sparetime Charters' had Bill Dalton, Harry Festa, and Dom Ferrante out for an action packed reef trip. The half day venture produced many sea bass and porgies.
Captain Fran Verdi of the 'Dropoff' started last Friday looking for bunker but had difficulty due to the light chop. They then drifted off the red tower for strong weakfish action on small fish. A stop at the Little Egg Reef resulted in over 100 fish but only several were keeper sized. Verdi fished an open boat on Saturday at the Little Egg Reef. They worked three spots on the reef and it was fish every time. They ended the day with 16 keepers and 2 porgies.
The 'Star Fish' with Captain Carl Sheppard fished the reefs Saturday with a father and son team from Ireland. In two hours they caught over 75 sea bass. The surprise of the trip was a 3.5 lb porgy. On Sunday he teamed up with Captain John Koegler for another big catch of sea bass and porgies.
Captain John Koegler fished the 'Pop's Pride' on Saturday and despite a constant increasing NE wind had a great day catching sea bass and Porgies. His comment on the reef fishing was 'There is presently a good supply of sea bass available plus some of the biggest porgies anyone has seen in years. No matter what, you will return with quality fish for dinner.'
Additional information on the association can be found at www.BHCFA.com
