Memorial Weekend greeted the captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association with beautiful weather, and a wide variety of fish were available to make fishing trips productive. Although a nor'easter has hit this week, the upcoming weekend in Beach Haven promises to be a nice one.
Captain John Koegler had a party out of "Pop's Pride" on a back bay trip and found some nice striped bass and black drumfish. On Sunday afternoon Captain John took the "Starfish" out in the ocean looking for stripers to no avail. He finished the day up on the Garden State South Reef where he caught mostly spiny dogfish up to 37-inches along with some smaller sea bass. Captain Carl Sheppard will be skippering the "Starfish" now and says the fishing is just getting started.
Captain Gary Dugan of "Irish Jig" Sportfishing opened the fluke season in Great Bay where he reports he had to weed through a bunch of small fish but did manage to put 2 fat fish in the cooler. The next day he went out for drumfish, and despite finding no drum, he managed some nice fluke, bluefish, and nonstop big dogfish. Captain Gary had two trips on Sunday. In the morning his charter put 5 nice fluke in the box, and his night drumfish trip resulted in a 50-pound black drum.
Captain Dave Kreines had Jim Anderson and son Larry out on the "Byte Me" for a post-Memorial Day of fluking. They fished Great Bay using Gulp and spearing for bait. They picked up three keepers to 23-inches along with about a dozen shorts. They also had action on skates and dogfish making it a fun day topped by a fish dinner.
Captain Bob Gerkens brought his boat "Hot Tuna" back to Beach Haven from Morehead City last week, a "50 hour canyon fishing trip" as Bob calls it. In the southern canyons a number of nice Mahi were caught of which 4 were gaffers. They also caught some blackfin tuna and released a 4-foot mako.
He reports that he reached a nice warm eddy of water in a more northern canyon which is regularly fished out of Beach Haven. They found schools of both bluefin and yellowfin which they worked until dark. Three former US Marines from North Carolina crewed and fished on the trip north. This might be a good time to look into an offshore charter before the crowds start sailing to the canyons.
Additional information on the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association can be found at www.BHCFA.org.
