Some of the boats of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association have been making the long trek to the canyons and returning with some great stories. They have been making some fine catches of tuna, billfish, and mahi-mahi. Captain George Finck of "Sparetime Charters" took Dan Cronin and friends out to the canyon for tuna fishing. In addition to seeing plenty of whales and porpoises, they had five hits and boated a pair of yellowfin tuna to 65-pounds. On another trip he went to the canyon looking for tuna. He first boated two white marlin which he released. He then boated a pair of yellowfin tuna to 80-pounds, and finally five long fin tuna. Captain Lindsay Fuller had a busman's holiday on the "June Bug" and took out some of his mates and mechanics on a trip to the Lindenkohl Canyon. Art Barstow and Garrett Frey trolled on the "June Bug" before sunup with no luck and then at dawn moved into the deeper water. The first fish boated was a 75-pound yellowfin. During their trolling they picked up an 80-pound yellowfin and had a couple of white marlin which investigated the lines but did not bite. Then they found a 10-foot piece of barnacle encrusted wood that held a school of 10-pound mahi-mahi. Although the mahi would not bite on the trolled lines, they were able to catch as many mahi as they wanted using light spinning tackle with pieces of ballyhoo for bait. After catching all they wanted to eat, they spent time catching and releasing. Captain Lindsay says he feels this is the best year for tuna fishing in at least 20 years. The same two captains have had some inshore trips where they had to work hard through loads of small fluke to find some keepers. Captain George Finck had Leslie Nugent and her 12 year old son Cooper in the bay for fluke with one topping the scale at 3.5 pounds. On another bay trip he had the Glen Linhoff family out for a nice catch of fluke on his mother-in-law's birthday. Captain George had the Ross family out in the bay for fluke before getting chased in by thunderstorms. Once again fluke ruled the day plus a nice kingfish. For Captain Lindsay Fuller his inshore docket was made up of family reunions. The Potter family of Montreal, Canada, were out for a day's catch of over 50 short fluke, but no keepers. Another family trip with three children had great action once again on short fluke but keepers were hard to come by.
Additional information on the association can be found at www.BHCFA.com or by calling 1-877-LBI-BHCFA (1-877-524-2423).
