The 2013 fishing season for the captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association is slowly starting to wind down with a sizeable presence of striped bass just off the beaches. As some captains are proceeding with plans to put their boats away for the winter, other captains are squeezing out some last fishing days out of the year.
Captain John Koegler on "Pop's Pride" had his final trip and boated 3 nice striped bass from 38 to 44-inches. He found the bass were on top and tough to catch. He used some old rubber eel plastics he had that were green and brown and they worked. He was plagued by spiny dogfish when fishing on the bottom. He is taking his boat to the Philadelphia area up the Delaware River by water until spring which is near his winter home.
Captains Carl Sheppard and Jimmy Zavasky fished for stripers last weekend on the "Star Fish" out of Morrison's Marina. They found the fishing was best on a slow troll. The "Star Fish" passed over many large schools of bait, some stretching from top to bottom of the sounder's screen. Some of the schools had Gannets working them. Captain Carl found some scattered large stripers and occasional big blues from the red tower off Beach Haven north to the twin water towers in Surf City. His fishing was best with umbrella rigs trolled at depths between 30-50 feet.
Captain Fran Verdi of the "Francesca Marie" reports that after the impending northeast storm passes, he will be making some "open boat" trips over the Thanksgiving weekend. The bass are still here and he anticipates some good action. He will be either trolling or jigging. He predicts that once the ocean water hits 44-degrees the fish will be on the move south.
Additional information on the association can be found at www.fishbeachhaven.com.
