Despite the recent poor weather, the boats of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association have been putting together some interesting trips. Sometimes the catching comes easy, and other times the captains have to really work at it. At times they fish several spots and even switch target species in order to provide their parties with fish.
On Saturday, the "Miss Beach Haven" with Captain Frank Camarda had a good day fishing as they found fish everywhere they stopped. Several of the anglers aboard had 7 or 8 keeper sea bass, all quality fish. In addition to plenty of short sea bass for everyone, one angler also snared a codfish. The water temperature was 59-degrees, and even the dogfish were not much of a problem. The pool winner was Pete from Pennsylvania with a 2.5-pound sea bass.
On Sunday Captain Frank tried to catch some fluke but there were so many black sea bass that they dominated and he switched to catch the sea bass. Once again all anglers took fish fillets home including the captain himself.
Captain Adam Nowalsky of the Karen Ann II out of Great Bay Marina reports good sea bass fishing continues. Some recent charter highlights include the Hamilton Post Office Group with 70 keeper sea bass to 3 pounds, Danny and Lin Pang and friends from the Bamboo House Restaurant in East Stroudsburg, Pa., with 60 keeper sea bass to 4 pounds along with numerous released tog, and Gytis Neviadomkis who boated a personal best striped bass of 31-pounds, 7-ounces.
Captain Carl Sheppard on the "Star Fish" took out Mike and Chris Sante's family and friends for an action packed trip of over 250 sea bass, bluefish, fluke and dogfish fishing the deeper depths. On Sunday he fished with Mr. and Mrs. John Brotherton, actors from California who were celebrating their second wedding anniversary. After catching 45 sea bass, they boated assorted sharks and herring in the inlet on small feathers.
Captain Fran Verdi on the "Drop Off" has been taking his parties out for a combination of fluke, striped bass, and reef fishing. One day the Tom Wilczynski party set out after fluke and boated close to 50, but none were keepers.
Another trip started out as a striper trip but with no bunker around Captain Fran went to plan B and hit the Garden State South and Little Egg Reefs for some sea bass. After several stops his party ended up with 13 keepers, mostly over 15-inches. The total catch for the day was a total of 50 fish.
Additional information on the association can be found at www.BHCFA.com