The captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association have been putting most of their attention on summer flounder and offshore game fish in the past week.
The "Miss Liane" with Captain Ray Lopez headed out to the canyons for her first offshore trip of the year. They left the dock shortly after midnight and had lines in the water by 5am. Two yellowfin tuna were caught within the first 45 minutes. They then picked up three nice mahi- mahi around some lobster pots and missed out on a big one. Later they had a white marlin in the spread but it would not take a bait. They observed many signs of life in the canyons including sharks and porpoises.
Captain Bob Gerkens and mate Dante Soriente had the "Hot Tuna" out on a split charter to the mid-canyons. The bite was a bit slow. A white marlin attacked three of the baits but did not hook up. Most of the action came late in the day during the return in at approximately 15 miles inside the canyon. A large school of skipjack tuna with small yellowfin tuna under them was moving quickly towards a northern canyon. The party threw plugs and jigs on light equipment each time the Hot Tuna reached the school which resulted in numerous fun hookups.
Captain Lindsay Fuller had the "June Bug" out for several inshore trips recently looking for bluefish, fluke, and black sea bass. The Durcalec party worked hard for some bluefish but had trouble finding any other than some cocktail blues. They even traveled to the Barnegat Ridge where they tried chumming but only managed some bonito in the slick along with a big brown shark. The Bourakas family fished the Little Egg Reef hard and found action on short sea bass and fluke and some sea robins. They also brought a big brown shark to the boat. They fished with fluke rigs and Ava jigs tipped with various baits, but spearing seemed to work the best.
Captain George Finck of "Sparetime Charters" has been out several times this week. Tuesday he had the Spencer party out in the bay and inlet due to the threat of thunderstorms. They had a nice catch of fluke and lots of fun with a 20-pound bull nose ray
Captain Fran Verdi has been putting the hours on the "Francesca Marie" chasing fish. Captain Fran has had several fluke trips fishing wrecks and reefs close to shore and some in deeper water. The action has decent, but most of the fish have been throwbacks. He tried closer to home with the Pickert party and they put three keepers in the box. He made a trip on Sunday to the canyons looking for tuna. Leaving at 2 am, they had lines in the water at gray light. He saw signs of tuna and had a couple of big ones on but was unable to get the fish to the boat. They did hook up with a nice white marlin which they released. Captain Fran expects the ocean fluke bite to improve as the fish leave the bay waters on their annual migration.
Additional information on the captains and boats of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association can be found at www.bhcfa.net