After a week's worth of northeast winds making ocean fishing uncomfortable if not impossible, the boats of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association are optimistic that conditions are starting settling down for a return to the outstanding fishing occurring before the northeaster.
The inshore reefs were producing some fine catches of big fluke while schools of small bluefish in the inlet and inshore ocean waters made for good sport. The offshore canyons were giving up good catches of tuna as the normal good fall tuna bite was just getting underway.
Captain Gary Dugan of Irish Jig Sportfishing had a party out to the Garden State South Reef before the winds started to blow and had "drop and reel" action. His party had 10 nice keepers to 26-inches along with many throwbacks that were just short of keeper size. He was using live peanut bunker. Once the winds started to blow, Captain Gary was forced to fish the bay due to the conditions and ended up with small sea bass, some bluefish, and some dogfish. He got out to the Garden State South Reef again over the weekend and found rough conditions but his group managed four nice fluke to take home along with many other close throwbacks.
Captain John Koegler had the "Star Fish" and a party of 4 out looking for fish inside the inlet with the unstable ocean conditions. As they neared the south end of Long Beach Island a bluefish jumped close to the boat. Out went the trolling tackle, and a great day was had by all as over 30 bluefish found the lures to be irresistible. The big surprise of the day was two of the fish put up much more of a fight than the others. After a lengthy tussle requiring the boat to be out of gear, they discovered why. Rather than being the suspected foul hooked blues, they were the first of the fall stripers who were feeding with the blues. This put an optimistic spin on the day's fishing.
With only a week and a half left in the summer flounder season, time is running out for anglers to end the fluke season with some more fish fillets.
Additional information on the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Asociation can be found at www.BHCFA.org
