Summer like weather and sunny skies finally arrived in Beach Haven. The captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association have been producing some enjoyable fishing trips for their customers lately.
Captain Adam Nowalsky of the "Karen Ann II" reports the fishing this past week was as good as the gorgeous weather. One trip he took the Greg Vilardo party to the Barnegat Ridges for a day of bluefishing. After good reports, the bluefish action there has slowed and moved north. Captain Adam tried chumming, bait, jigging, and trolling, all to no avail. There was excitement when they hooked up either a big shark or tuna that took all 300 yards of line before they could pull the anchor. They finished the day bottom fishing for about 75 sea bass, mostly throwbacks.
On another trip Captain Adam had the Preis party out for a day of bottom fishing. They caught a good number of sea bass to 3.5 pounds, and with 40 in the box, made a few fluke drifts. They found no fluke but did pick up a couple more sea bass drifting.
On the 4th of July, the "Karen Ann II" made a half day trip for Jericho Pacho and his family. They had steady catching all morning of tog to 6-pounds and sea bass. Jericho landed one of the season's best sea bass, at 4-pounds, 12-ounces.
Captain Fran Verdi on the "Dropoff" and the "Cousins" has been finding good numbers of black sea bass. He reports "drop and reel" fishing in various depths of water. Most of the fish have been just under the 12.5 inch legal size, but he has been finding enough keepers to satisfy his parties. At times he also picks up ling, bluefish, and fluke.
Captain Fran had a couple of "open boat" trips over the weekend and found good numbers of fish on some wrecks rather than fishing the artificial reefs. On the 4th he moved into deeper water and found larger fish. He says if the legal keeper size was still 12-inches, he would be limiting out.
Sunday was more of the same but he provided an enjoyable day of fishing for the Paul party and their 8 year old son on his first saltwater fishing trip.
Captain Dave Wittenborn on the "Compass Rose" had the Mike Kirkup crew out for sea bass and fluke at the Garden State South and Little Egg Reefs. With water temperatures in the 70's they had a steady pick of fluke and sea bass until the winds died. Fishing around the Research Buoys produced more nice fluke including a 22-incher. For the day they caught over 20 fluke, 5 keepers, and several nice sea bass.
On Saturday the water temperatures cooled for Captain Dave, and the fishing action slowed although they managed a couple keeper fluke. Sunday's action rebounded with a rise in water temperatures, and the "Compass Rose" had fluke up to 24-inches.
Captain Carl Sheppard of the "Star Fish" reports several decent trips over the July 4 holiday. Captain Vic had the boat on Thursday on a wreck trips resulting in over 40 sea bass and some very large porgies.
Captain Sheppard had a party of 8 anglers wreck fishing out Friday in the morning with a catch of over 50 sea bass, bluefish, and fluke, including one monster sea bass. Captain Tom Masterson ran the afternoon trip on Friday also producing decent fishing.
Strong winds made drifting difficult for Captain Carl on Saturday, and he anchored for a good catch. He also did some successful drifting in the inlet for fluke on the way in.
Captain Tom had the same wind problems on Sunday with a party including 6 young children. Once again anchoring made things fishable, and they caught fish.
The "Miss Beach Haven" and Captain Frank Camarda fished the reefs most of Saturday with a fair amount of shorts caught with some nice sea bass and some ling. The pool winner was "Wall Street Richie" with a 2.5-pound fluke. On Sunday there were not as many shorts with sea bass up to 3.5 pounds. Pool winner was a 5-pound fluke.
The bay fishing trips during the week for Captain Frank have been mostly shorts with some keepers for the kids. The big fish of the week was caught on Friday and tipped the scale at 6-pounds.
Additional information on the association can be found at www.BHCFA.com
