The boats of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association have been returning to dock with some big catches.
The "Hot Tuna" with Captain Bob Gerkens won the Beach Haven Marlin and Tuna Club's Mako Shark tournament on Saturday with a brute weighing in at 186.5 pound. The crew for the trip consisted of the boat's regular off-shore mate of Rich Stracensky, its junior mate in training Ryan Kellogg, and Barry Thomas of Allentown, P. Capt. Gerkens was near the pole when the Mako hooked up on a whole mackerel and did its first of two spectacular back flip jumps. He had the duty of handling the rod to the end of the battle.
The fishing team did every thing correctly right up to the final gaffing. There were 3 other hookups for the day, one of which resulted in a release of what appeared to be a 75 to 100 pound juvenile thresher shark.
"The June Bug" with Captain Lindsay Fuller made it out to the Lindenkohl Canyon with Dante Soriente and friends. The action was fast and furious as they managed to boat some 25 yellowfin tuna. Most were small, but they did box 3 keepers along with several skippies.
The next day Captain Lindsay had the Catanese family from Hunterdon County out. Despite some rough seas they looked for bass in bunker pods, picked up a keeper fluke on the Garden State South Reef, trolled for bluefish at the Barnegat Ridge, and picked up several sea bass at the Garden State North Reef.
Captain Fran Verdi had a full week of anglers. One day he had Tom and Matt Pitzer for a day of sea bassing on the reef. The two brothers were all about catch and release with 46 fish released including 10 in the 14 to 17 inch range.
Another day Captain Fran shared the Huffnagle party, a large group from Pa., on the "Cousins" with Captain Adam Nowalsky on the Karen Ann II." Capt. Adam fished the waters from 65 to 80 feet and Captain Fran took the waters from 50 to 65 feet.
Capt. Adam ended the day with 40 keeper sea bass, along with a thresher shark that was on the line for a couple of minutes. Captain Fran had 19 keeper sea bass, 4 bluefish, one ling and a keeper fluke. The "Cousins" won the prize for the largest fish, a 3.6 pound sea bass.
Captain Fran was back on the "Dropoff" with the Williams party for some sea bass. He marked plenty of fish but it was hard to get them to bite. He worked 6 areas and managed 10 keepers plus loads of shorts.
Captain Fran finished the week with Lori Dobson's party and Dave from the "Fish Eye" group. Lori's two young sons fished hard and managed 4 keeper sea bass. Dave's group came up empty on stripers but managed to pick up quite a few sea bass including 8 keepers.
Capt. Adam Nowalsky from the "Karen Ann II" reports that fluke are being caught on the ocean in lesser numbers than in the back bays but the percentage of keepers is higher. He says he plans to make the switch from wreck fishing to fluke very shortly.
His recent wreck fishing trips include the Doriety charter which finished the day with a box of 86 fish, mostly sea bass to 3 pounds along with some line and a 12-pound bluefish.
The Sara Madonna Charter, a good group of EMT's fought the rough seas for nearly two dozen keepers for half a morning. The Beskin charter had similar results for half a morning's fishing.
The Marhan Colangelo Charter from the Long Branch area filled the box with 56 fish, mostly sea bass to 3 pounds along with some nice ling to 2.5 pounds. The Fred Verdi Charter from Lawrenceville kept almost 60 fish, primarily sea bass along with some ling and a bluefish.
The Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association held its first Junior Mate's Program last week with 8 eager future mates. It is not too late to sign up for this year with another meeting slated for Thursday, July 2 at the Beach Haven Maritime Museum at 7 pm. For information call Captain John Koegler at 609-290-3349.
Additional information on the association can be found at www.BHCFA.com
