The captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association breathed a sigh of relief as Hurricane Henri passed offshore. The ocean swells will subside quickly, and the excellent summer flounder action will be back in swing.
Mate Max Goldman reports the “Star Fish” with Captain Carl Sheppard has been making “lots of trips.” He says the catching has been good but keepers hard to come by at times. There have been keeper fluke and black sea bass coming over the rails with sea robins providing almost constant action. One trip had 120 sea robins among a total of 167 fish caught.
In addition to his successful fluke trips, Captain Brett Taylor of “Reel Reaction Sportfishing” had David Urtiaga and his 8-year son David Jr from New York on a 3-hour bay trip targeting blowfish and fluke. They got right on the blowfish with the crew catching puffers for the first time. The father-son duo put 40 nice ones in the cooler. They had time to target fluke and drifted a few calm areas to angle 10 shorts along with a 19-in keeper in the box. Another trip with the Ralph Rodio charter in the bay produced 9 keepers to 23 inches. Live and fresh bait were the key.
Captain Gary Dugan recently had a fun trip on the “Irish Jig” with family members and returned to Cape Horn Marina with several nice fluke for the makings of several fish dinners.
On Friday, the Junior Mates held their annual fishing trip on boats run by the captains of the BHCFA. Despite a little less than ideal conditions, many fish were caught and a good time was had by all.