The boats of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association are seeking fish both offshore and inshore at this point in the season.
Captain Lindsay Fuller and the "June Bug" fished a bachelor party on Saturday hosted by dad Marty for son Andy due to wed in September. While they worked offshore a little further than an inshore trip normally would go, they didn't find any bluefin tuna on the lumps and holes northeast of the 28 Mile Wreck. Andy did get tired out on a nice Mahi on the long rigger way back.
The sea conditions were super. Captain Lindsay noticed unusually high numbers of squid between 30' and the canyons. What he doesn't understand is why various game fish. are not all over this huge biomass.
Captain Fran Verdi ran an open boat Saturday on the "Drop Off" They fished in 75 to 100 feet of water and found a nice pick of sea bass. The water temp was 71 degrees, and they filled the box with 8 keeper sea bass and 2 bluefish.
On Sunday Captain Fran had the Ben Allicker party on board at the reef for sea bass and fluke but only found short fish in 50-55 feet of water. They headed in close to shore to drift for fluke and did pickup up a keeper to go with several throwbacks there.
On Monday the Dave Diaz family with two young daughters had a great time catching short fluke around the inlet on the incoming tide. Both little girls managed to catch their first fish.
Captain Carl Sheppard of the "Starfish" reports finding "lots of black bass" on the reefs, especially the Garden State South. On another trip he found lots of small sea bass on the Little Egg Reef but few keepers. He attributes this to it being their breeding season. On Saturday he had a party of 11 anglers that caught over 50 sea bass, sea robins, ling, blues, and one keeper fluke. The largest sea bass was about three pounds.
Captain Dave Wittenborn of the "Compass Rose" spent a week at the Outer Banks and visited a couple of his favorite marinas-Pirate's Cove in Manteo and the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center. He says the boats were loaded down with yellowfin tuna and mahi-mahi.
Captain Dave adds that he hopes this is a good sign of things to come for the canyons within reach of the BHCFA's boats out of Beach Haven as they gear up for offshore trips later this summer and fall.
Capt. Adam Nowalsky of the "Karen Ann II" reports he did not get out fishing this past week as his boat received her annual maintenance. Captain Adam reports hearing of some nice mahi-mahi being trolled in the 30-40 mile range along with some bluefin in the 40-80 pound class.
He adds there have been good catches of smallish yellowfin tuna in the offshore canyons from the Lindenkohl to the Hudson.
Additional information on the association can be found at www.BHCFA.com