The boats of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association are finding a wide assortment of fish on their trips out of Little Egg Inlet and into the ocean.
Captain Jimmy Zavacky of the "Reel Determined" recently fished the Greater Atlantic Bluefish Tournament with his family and found some nice bluefish northeast of the Barnegat Ridge. They boated 16 bluefish which was good enough to earn them a third place finish in the tournament. Captain Zavacky termed it "a fun day of fishing with family which benefitted a good cause."
The "Miss Beach Haven" under Captains Brant Whittaker and Frank Camarda has been finding some decent fishing for black sea bass. One recent day John Cheeseman was the pool winner with a nice 3.5 pounder. Keepers are ranging from three to the teens per angler with plenty being returned to grow larger. Another day they had Paul and the rest of the crew from Wexcon Utilities on a bluefish trip, and the fishing was hot. All hands on deck were swinging the gaffs to keep up with the hectic action. There was a crew of 15 men and one woman, and she was the pool winner.
Captain George Finck had the Linert family out on the "Spare Time" fishing the inshore artificial reefs. The group enjoyed a beautiful day on the water in addition to a nice catch of black sea bass and a goodly amount of undersized summer flounder.
Captain John Koegler had another good shark fishing trip last weekend on his charter boat "Starfish." He headed out some 33 miles and started a chum slick. Very quickly they had a small mako on which they released. They the released several blue sharks, one of which was estimated at over 200 pounds. As they were washing the deck and getting ready to finish for the day, they had a larger mako in the chum slick and investigating the baits, but he refused to hook up.
Additional information on the association can be found at www.BHCFA.com or by calling 877-524-2423.