Labor Day Weekend has arrived on Long Beach Island, but the fishing action in the Beach Haven area has not slowed down for the boats of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association. There are fluke and bottom fish to be had on inshore structure in the ocean, and the bay waters offer a wide variety of fish including panfish, weakfish, kingfish, and even some schoolie sized stripers.
All signs are pointing to a top Fall fishing season.
The head boat “Miss Beach Haven” with Captain Frank Camarda has been scoring well for its anglers on the inshore artificial reefs. Max, the first mate, reports several fluke limits have been caught by some of the sharpies aboard. There have been multiple fluke over 6-pounds with the largest to date weighing in at 6.5-pounds on the scale at Jingles Bait and Tackle. Over the past week or so, there have been at least five days with double digits in keeper flounder. When big black sea bass are added to the total, some of the trips have been pushing 30 keeper fish.
Captain Gary Dugan on the “Irish Jig” has been finding plenty of action working inshore structure off Beach Haven. While the action is good, he has been working hard for keeper fish. On one recent trip his crew brought in four for dinner while another trip was all small fish despite his efforts to find keepers. The next day brought another big catch of small fish but two big fluke of 21 and 24-inches did make their way into the fish cooler.
Captain Brett Taylor of Reel Reaction Sportfishing has been fishing both in the bay and ocean. On a recent trip he had Julie and Bart Toms out for a 5-hour ocean trip. Despite some strong northeast winds, he managed to locate
quick limit catches on black sea bass. The crew finished the day in the bay for some panfish and one keeper fluke along with some short ones.