The captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association have been putting the time in and finding fish for their customers.
Captain Carl Sheppard of the "Star Fish" had Irv and Muriel Stoops out for a split day of fishing. They first hit the reefs off Beach Haven for over 50 black sea bass and finished the day up in the back bay waters where they picked up 7 fluke. They told Captain Carl their freezer was "out of fish."
The next day the "Star Fish" had Joe Dawson and a bachelor party of 11 people. Fun was had by all as they boated over sixty fish in a half day trip. Five of the sea bass were over 4-pounds including a 28-incher.
On Saturday the "Miss Beach Haven" with Captain Frank Camarda had fishing that Captain Frank termed "good to fair." They fished four spots to put together a catch resulting in some nice sized sea bass and some ling. A couple of anglers had over 10 keepers with Tom Hook the top angler with 13 jumbo sea bass including one over 3-pounds.
On Sunday Captain Frank had 20 anglers who found the ratio of keepers to throwbacks about 7 to 1.
The high hook was Jeff Salabritas from Marlton N.J. with 10 sea bass, and his son Jeff was right on his heels with 9 keepers including a beautiful knuckle head just a hair over 3.5 lbs which won the pool. Also caught today were several black fish, a cod which were released and some ling.
Captain Fran Verdi of the "Dropoff" fished one day last week and had trouble locating stripers in the ocean despite looking for bunker pods and trolling. A tip helped him locate a pod of bunker, and they picked up a 19-pound bass. The next day he had an open boat trip and once again had trouble locating bunker. He ended up doing some wreck fishing, and after several stops, put 6 keepers in the box and released another 15 and one blackfish.
On Saturday Captain Fran turned to fluke fishing in Great Bay. He boated numerous shorts along with one 19-inch keeper and a bluefish. Gnats made the use of bug spray mandatory. On Sunday he fished the John Nutaitis party for fluke. Once again the short fish kept the anglers busy, and they managed three keepers to 19-inches along with two feisty bluefish.
Monday was more of the same with a keeper to throwback ratio of about 5 to 1. His open boat party had 4 keepers to 19-inches with over 20 throwbacks. Once again the gnats were heavy.
Captain Adam Nowalsky from the "Karen Ann II" reports steady sea bass action. Recent charters include John Bradwell of Philadelphia whose 4 person party boxed 44 sea bass to 3-pounds, Brandon Pfister's 4-man group from Quakertown that boxed 40 sea bass to 2.5-pounds, and the Muldoon family from Conshohocken that had a nice catch of sea bass to 2-pounds on a half day trip.
Additional information on the BHCFA can be obtained at the group's website at www.fishbeachhaven.com