The crowds have left Long Beach Island, and with fall about to arrive, Beach Haven is still enjoying the bites of the summer fish species while noticing the arrival of some fall action.
Captain Bob Gerkens on the "Hot Tuna" reports his last overnight trip to the canyons was slow on bigeye tuna but other fish picked up the slack. His crew ended up with 10 yellowfin tuna and a half dozen skipjack tuna. Before heading in they stopped to pick up a couple of tile fish for great eating later. Captain Bob says the bigeye tuna are still around and he has plans to pick up more of them in future trips. He also is pleased to see the yellowfin tuna show up to provide some variety. He has also been hearing some reports of longfin tuna showing up on the chunk and troll.
Captain Carl Sheppard of the "StarFish" continues to load up on the fluke at the inshore artificial reef sites while also finding some good action on small panfish in the bay. Two families from New Hampshire, the Riddles and the Hogans, fished with Captain Carl for two straight days. Denny Riddle topped all of the anglers with her 26-inch fluke in the ocean while her grandson, four year old Liam, performed well in the bay on blow fish and small black sea bass.
Captain Fran Verdi on the "Francesca Marie" is hoping to get as many fluke trips in as he can before the season closes on September 26. Already Captain Fran says he is looking forward to the fall striper season as well as black sea bass re-opening on October 22. He is still running his annual contest of a future free open boat fishing trip for the largest fluke caught for the year. Currently Dan Wade is in the lead for this year. There will also be some new Sharkbite bucktails going to the winner.
Additional information on the captains and boats of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association can be found at www.bhcfa.net
