Reports
- 160 lb Bluefin and 7 Yellowfins on the Hooked Up II today
- Tuna Fishing Report for August 1st-5th
- Outfished by Center Consoles But Still a Great Day
- Blue Fin Tuna Fishing Report
- Updated report on the Hooked UP II
- Tuna report on the Hooked Up II
- 25 Yellowfin, TRIED for Bluefin, Marlin-Big Eye on 55 Hooked Up II
- A very detailed report on new world class jigging-popping tackle on the 55 Hooked Up II
- My thoughts on spinners versus conventionals for jigging those 80-175 lb. Bluefins
- August 24, 2008 Report for the past few days.
August 19, 2008 Report for the past couple days including Trefz Engineering Charter
2008-08-19
We fished both Sunday and Monday at that now famous spot 65 miles from Cape May where parking passes are required on Fridays and weekends. It was not that way yesterday (Monday) as there were only a dozen or so boats and everyone seemed to have room. Needless to say, the bite was red hot with sardines, silver-pink metallic butterfly jigs and, for those with live squid, world class. We had our last fish at 11:00 am well after the boat traffic thinned down to just a few boats after they went home or off trolling for yellowfin. Monday really was a terrific day for our charter (Trefz Engineering) who took home some nice fresh sushi plus a lot of great memories fighting a few big tuna. John Trefz fought one for 1 hour and 38 minutes on a jig by himself with the new jigging technique of putting the rod between his legs and not using a belt. This might scare most guys but it worked for John. Personally I do not think I would want to do it this way being a guy, as it is a little too close to well....., I think you know what I mean. On Sunday’s trip we fished away from the fleet and had a good day as we hooked up and fought 4-5 tuna and never were within 3-5 miles of the fleet. There are many lumps and hills out there that hold bait and fish that are up to 6 miles away from the fleet so that is where we fished and had a okay day on Sunday. Unfortunately, we lost every fish that we hooked into. They were really good sized tuna that had their own agenda no matter how much drag we put on them (up to 26 lbs) and they ran to the anchor line and that was it. We did go on the ball but the fish still ran to the anchor line almost like they had radar to tell them where to go. If there is any type of underwater structure such as anchor line, boats close by, props and running gear, plus other fishing lines, they will find them. These big boys are pretty skilled at breaking off when hooked up and this especially holds true if you go down in leader which we never do period. In our 7 or 8 trips to the Claw the last couple of weeks we have not go down to under 80 fluorocarbon and many of our bites have come on 100 lb leader just as the sun comes up with low light conditions. After 10:00 am we have gone down to 60 fluorocarbon once or twice to try to keep the bite going. We are now using 80-100 leader on all our jigs with large 14/0 circle hooks as I have don’t like the small assist hooks on jigs. I never use the two assist hook thing when fishing for bluefin as the second hook often gets caught in the gill plates and makes the chance when releasing the fish that it will survive when bleeding from the gills. If we're keeping them such as yellowfin, it would not matter but since almost all the tuna are released it does matter.