A recent fishing report from the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association mentioned strong winds and extremely hot temperatures for anglers on the water. This quickly changed over the past week to a lack of wind and cool water temperatures.
The abrupt change in water temperatures was brought about by upwelling. This is when winds from the west blow the top layers of water to the east resulting in the cooler waters taking over. Once wind directions change, the water temps will quickly warm up.
Captain John Lewis on the “Insatiable” has had several inshore bottom fishing trips recently where he faced the conditions mentioned above. He reports a wide variety of fish coming across the rails including fluke, black sea bass, dogfish, blues, sea robins, kingfish, and even a 4-foot brown shark that added great excitement to the trip. Although keepers were hard to come by at times, his anglers managed to take home some fish dinners. When the winds dropped, he used power drifting for the Schlag family and the Sullivan party to get keeper fluke to 21-inches and black sea bass to 15-inches as well as numerous shorts.
Captain Max Goldman of the “Starfish” reports an improving bite while fishing Little Egg Inlet for a mix of sea bass, rays, blowfish, sea robins, fluke, and sharks. He says the kids have a ball with the different types of fish. When they get out in the ocean, they are reeling in black sea bass and fluke.
Captain Brett Taylor of “Reel Reaction Sportfishing” has been running multiple trips recently. On one day with two half day trips, he managed 10 keeper fluke. Merck employee Mike Galindo and his crew found a very cooperative pocket of fish and the crew boxed 5 solid keepers and released over 75 fluke. They added a few small bluefish around the inlet to top it off. Captain Brett then took his own family out for a quick 2-hour trip introducing his 2-year-old son Jake to fluke fishing. His wife Jen and other son Luke boxed 5 keeper fluke. On another day, the Thompson family reeled in a half dozen bluefish along with 4 keeper fluke while the Tighes boated 5 keeper fluke to 5-pounds.
Captain Frank Camarda of the party boat “Miss Beach Haven” reports good-sized fluke coming over the rails. His half-day and 6-hour trips have become popular this summer. Two of his sharpies, Dougie and Stevo, both had nice fish on a 6-hour trip. One fish measured out at 21-inches and the other just over 23-inches. Captain Frank adds there have been nice black sea bass in the mix as well. He is running 6-hour trips every Saturday and Sunday.