With time running out on the summer flounder season on September 27, the captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association are seeing some of their best fluke fishing of the year.
Captain Dave Kreines had a party out on the "Byte" Me for some bay and inlet fishing. They managed 10 short fluke and a few 1-2 pound bluefish. The big action of the day was two nice size cow-nose rays. Both of these big strong fish put up a good fight and were brought to the boat before being carefully unhooked and released.
Captain Gary Dugan on the "Irish Jig" fished the Garden State South recently and ended up with four nice fluke ranging from 18-24 inches. Another day he had seven keepers to 25-inches. He found the hot bait was live peanut bunker.
Captain George Finck of Sparetime Charters had a few charters this past week where he found the fishing to be good. He had Mike Gilligan and friends out to the reef and for a good catch of 35 fluke with four keepers up to 23-inches along with some bluefish. The charter even had fun bringing in two big skates which gave them a good fight. The ocean temperature was 78-degrees with waves of 1 to 2 foot which increased to 2 to 4 ft just before coming in.
Captain Fran Verdi had the John Cocca party out on the "Francesca Marie" for a four hour trip. The action was good and despite a 10-1 ratio of throwbacks to keepers, they managed 9 keeper fluke. They also had some sea bass and blues, but fluke ruled the day.
Captain Bob Gerkens had the "Hot Tuna" out for some daytime chunking for yellowfin tuna at a southern canyon. After hooking only a small mako shark on the chunk, Captain Bob made the move to switch to the troll. This move paid off as they found a good bite on long fin tuna in the 35 to 45 pound class on the troll. The charter party also caught a mahi-mahi to go with their tuna. Anglers included Scott Damiano, Dave Swarter, and John Clementson along with mate Brian Medford.
Additional information on the association can be found at www.BHCFA.org
