The striped bass bite has been nothing short of phenomenal in the Long Beach Island area for the past two weeks, and the captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association have been getting their fill of it.
Captain Carl Sheppard on the "Star Fish" found stripers in water as shallow as 18-feet on out to 45-feet. He termed the fishing "superb" with the average size of the fish caught around 30-inches. Captain Carl kept moving with the schools for continuous action. He also found that although the fishing further from shore was still good, there were more bluefish mixed in with the bass. He says he is hoping the fishing and weather holds up for a few more weeks.
Captain Fran Verdi on the "Dropoff" fished last Friday for outstanding action trolling for big fish. He dragged Stretch 25's and landed 8 keeper bass to 40-inches, 5 short bass, and 5 slammer bluefish. He trolled a black and silver on one line and a red and white on the other.
Because of all of the boats in the area on Saturday, he switched to jigging with short drifts. He had his 4-man limit of 8 fish by 9:20 and played catch and release for the next 2 hours. Captain Fran is advising his customers to bring their own bonus striper tags with them if they want to bring home an additional fish over the 2 per person limit.
The "Miss Beach Haven" with Captain Frank Camarda has been finding good numbers of blackfish now that the daily limit is back up to 6 fish. Even when it is raining and the winds are up, there have been dedicated anglers sailing and doing well on the wreck fish.
Both days of last weekend were similar with quite a few anglers limiting out on blackfish, and many catching some nice black sea bass. Pool winners have been blackfish in and 5-6 pound class.
Additional information on the association can be found at www.BHCFA.com or by calling 1-877-LBI-BHCFA (1-877-524-2423).
