The boats of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association continue to find fish in both offshore and inshore waters which include the artificial reef sites and the bay.
The boat "Pop's Pride" with Captain John Koegler had four fluke trips recently. On three of the trips his anglers fished the Little Egg Reef and caught keeper fish on every trip along with lots of fluke and black sea bass releases.
On one trip when the wind was just too strong to fish in the ocean, his group had a surprise trip in the bay where they had a great catch of blowfish in the first two hours of the half-day trip. The rest of the day was spent drifting for fluke where there was a large number of short fluke along with one keeper. The action was fast and furious the entire time of the trip.
Captain Bob Gerkens on the boat "Hot Tuna" along with first mate Dante Soriente continues to work the inshore yellowfin tuna bite while looking for large bluefin in the same general areas. Although nasty weather forced one cancellation, Captain Bob put together a split charter on another day that resulted in 4 yellowfin up to 45-pounds. The big excitement of the day was "the one that got away." Late in the day the center rigger, which was fishing an 80 wide international reel, started stripping line, and the crew moved as quickly as possible to clear the other lines so they could do an aggressive back down on the fish.
The reel was almost stripped of its line when the lines were cleared, but just as the back down started, another boat in the area moved across the line and cut it. Based upon Captain Bob's experience with giant bluefin tuna in North Carolina, he suspects that it was a 500 pound or more giant. The only other possibility was a blue marlin in the same weight class that elected not to do its more traditional jumps.
Additional information on the association can be found at www.fishbeachhaven.com.
