November 16

The captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association are hopeful the fishing will be as hot after last week´s severe nor´easter as it was before it struck.

Captain Fran Verdi of the "Drop Off" fished the day before it hit and began the day with two keepers on the incoming tide on the north bar of Little Egg Inlet. When the white water disappeared, and Captain Fran pulled anchor to look for more white water.

He reports that spot was constant action despite the rolling white water and crashing waves. At the day´s end the crew had seven fish 34-39 inches. He is continuing to fish Wednesday to Monday with mostly open boat fishing.

Captain Carl Sheppard of the "Star Fish" out of Beach Haven says he wanted to fish last Saturday, but it was just too rough. He adds that his action on Sunday helped to make up for missing Saturday.

He started by trying to fish a rip in the bay, but had to stop due to muddy water and an excess of sea weed. He made the decision to brave a few swells in the inlet and see what the ocean had to offer.

The move was a good one as he located a flock of gannets working over an area in 35-feet of water. What he found was a school of striped bass with no bluefish mixed in. He managed to jig up 22 bass with most of them keeper sized. He even tried trolling a diamond jig on his way back to port and even picked up a bass this way.

Captain Frank Camarda and the "Miss Beach Haven" fished Monday taking good advantage of the increase in the daily blackfish limit. Both the weather and the fish cooperated as the every angler aboard limited out except for one. The boat remained in one spot for the day, and most of the fish were between two and four pounds. Darren Garabo of Beach Haven won the pool with a 4-pounder. Captain Frank says he will be sailing Saturdays and Sundays at 7 am.

November 9

The sudden spell of warm weather last weekend not only made fishing comfortable for the captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association, it also produced some nice catches.

The "Miss Beach Haven" with Captain Frank Camarda did some wreck and bottom fishing last Saturday, and all anglers caught multiple blackfish along with some porgies and one triggerfish. "Bam-Bam" from Philadelphia was the pool winner with a 4-pound blackfish. Sunday´s bite was a little slower but hard work by Captain Frank put a keeper blackfish in everybody´s cooler. The pool winner Sunday was 5.5-pounds.

Captain Fran Verdi of the "Dropoff" reports good striper fishing even though he usually has to make a few moves every day based on the tide and winds. One day he had Mitch and Bruce out for limit catches by both anglers. The fish ranged from 34 to 38-inches.

Another day Captain Fran had the Jeff Austin party out, and they started in the inlet and moved to the bay waters. The group ended with four keepers to 18-pounds. A check of the fish bellies showed the ocean fish were eating clam chunks and crabs while the bay fish had clam, sand eels, and a small flounder in them.

On Sunday Captain Fran had the Matt King party out, and he started fishing in the bay first. With a lack of action there he moved to the ocean. Although they lost a couple of big fish close to the boat, they ended up with several bass to 20-pounds.

Captain Carl Sheppard on the "Star Fish" found big striped bass both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday he fished the white water of the inlet with a bushel of clams for chum and bait, eels, and fresh bunker. The clams and bunker both produced fish including David Oppenheim´s first ever bass.

Captain Carl reports Sunday was more of the same except the fish were larger and some big bluefish showed up. The blues favored the fresh bunker chunks.

November 3

The captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association are reporting hot action on some very decent striped bass. The fish seem to be coming in waves with some days being a pick and others very steady action throughout the tide.

Captains George Finck of "Sparetime Charters" went striper hunting with regular mate Jim. They returned to the dock with four nice striped bass from 34-42 inches and report pulling the hook on three others. Captain George adds he has open dates in November for some of this striper action.

Captain John Koegler of the "Pop´s Pride" reports he has been able to get in on the striped bass action. He says poor weather forced him into the bay. He personally boated a 42-inch bass that weighed in at 26-pounds that was too large for the net he had on board. His crew did not want to gaff the fish as they usually release the larger bass.

Captain Fran Verdi of the "Dropoff" has been catching stripers on a daily basis, usually with fresh clams. One day when fresh clams were in short supply, he switched to salted clams and still put keepers of 33 and 34 inches in the fish box. He too has open dates in November for both charters and open boat trips.

Most of the fish he has been catching have been in the 33-39 inch class with some larger fish in the mix. He reports fishing the inlet areas until the seas push him into the calmer bay waters.

Captain Fran had Don Jennings out on his first bass trip of the season the outgoing tide produced four keeper bass up to 36-inches, including one tagged fish.

October 26

The captains of the Beach Haven Charter fishing Association managed to catch good numbers of fish in the past week while fishing vastly different locations.

Captain Carl Sheppard of the "Star Fish" had a good day wreck-fishing on a trip with Chris Metric as mate. At one point they had over 60 fish in less than an hour with many sea bass which would have been keepers if not for the ban. They also picked up some nice sized porgies.

Captain John Koegler took the "Pop´s Pride" out to the canyon on his last canyon trip of the year. The night chunking and jigging was slow although the anglers lost two deep jigs which were bitten off after heavy strikes. The troll produced one yellowfin tuna along with 9 small tuna-like fish which were later identified as "bullet mackerel."

Captain John found some recipes in a Japanese cookbook for bullet mackerel and reports they were delicious. This was his first experience with this species.

Captain Fran Verdi has been doing some striped bass prospecting on his own in preparation for his upcoming bass charters. He reports nice action around the bottom of the tides. He has mostly been fishing the incoming tide with bass from 33-39 inches in length. Most of his fishing has been in the Great Bay area.

Captain Fran says he has some open dates for charters and also spots on his open boat trips still available in November.

October 20

Like everyone else in southern Ocean County, the captains of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association are still drying out and thanking their lucky stars for a lack of serious damage from last weekend´s double northeaster.

The tides were exceptionally high and necessitated a great deal of care and attention on the captains´ parts. Now that the weather has returned to normal conditions, they are once again turning their attention to fishing.

It remains to be seen what the reef and bottom fishing will be like in the ocean. Naturally black sea bass and fluke are out. There should still be some good numbers of porgies around, but the triggerfish will be moving south very soon if they have not already. There are some good numbers of nice blackfish around, and will make for a nice target when the daily limit goes up from one in November.

Several of the captains will be taking parties out very soon and targeting striped bass. Although much of the baitfish seems to have been chased by the storm, there have been some very positive striped bass reports on live mullet, live bunker, and fresh clam.

Captain Fran Verdi of the "Dropoff" reports he is champing at the bit for the bass, and expects to put some in his fish box within the next week.