The fishing for the boats of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association has opened up on several different fronts.
Last Saturday Captain Lindsay Fuller of the "June Bug" had Jon Kunzman and Adam Brown of Michigan out to the Lindenkohl Canyon for some trolling action. Originally looking for some bigeye tuna which had been reported in the area they began trolling a full setup. Despite the presence of plenty of bait there was no action other than whale sightings from 4 am until well after dawn. Some skipjacks provided some action and were released. Finally a 35-pound yellowfin hit and was boated followed by a 10-pound mahi and another yellowfin for the cooler. When Captain Lindsay went below for a nap, and mate Captain Nate Figley took the helm, a big fish hit. Kunzman fought the fish first and then handed the rod off to Brown. After some 45 minutes the fish showed itself, a blue marlin about 450-pounds. Finally after a struggle of almost 2 hours the fish was brought to the boat and released. The fish hit a Ballyhoo topped with a red and blue 1/4 ounce Mylar Billy Bait. The leader was Stren 300#. Captain Lindsay claims the day shows that fishing from mid to late June offshore is some of the best of the year.
Captain George Finck of "Sparetime Charters" reports that he has had several trips drifting the inlet area for fluke. He has been catching many fish but the ratio is about 20 -1 for keepers. He is hoping the bottom water on the reefs will warm up soon and fishing will pick up out there.
The report from mate Sal Rosa on the "Miss Beach Haven" indicates that the warm weather has helped their fishing. On Saturday it took a mere three minutes to boat a nice 3.5 pound fluke. In addition to many short fluke, they managed 16 keepers along with some nice keeper sea bass. The pool winner was Pete from Beach Haven with a 6-pounder.
Captain Fran Verdi took the "Cousins" out looking for some bluefin tuna last weekend. He started at the 20 Line and worked his way out to the 30 Line. They did not catch any bluefin, but did catch plenty of bluefish. On other trips he has been mugging the sea bass with good numbers coming from both 50-60 feet of water and also in 80-100 feet. Several of the trips had numbers in the 50-80 fish per day with keepers around 30 for the day. Several of the sea bass have been up to 4-pounds. He fished the Atlantic City Reef and one angler picked up a nice 4-pound fluke on a jig head.
Captain Carl Sheppard on the "Star Fish" hosted 10 members of the Brennan family at a fishing party last weekend. The group was made up of youngsters as young as 8, and some who had never fished before. They went to the reefs and found a good number of black sea bass which made all happy. Captain Carl said the larger fish seemed to prefer spearing and clam to more traditional baits. The party was treated to the sight of a number of feeding porpoises and one large thresher shark.
Captain John Koegler on "Pop's Pride" reports good sea bass fishing on the artificial reefs near Little Egg Inlet. One day he tried fluke fishing in the fog near Little Beach and boated 47 fluke, but only 2 keepers.
Additional information on the Beach haven Charter Fishing Association can be found at www.fishbeachhaven.com