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.
Blue Fin Tuna Fishing Report
2009-07-19
This was a make-up trip with a few Barners who had fished with us in the past plus a friend and his son joining us for his son’s 16th birthday. His dad had wanted to take his son offshore fishing but was experiencing some tough times lately and I thought this might help him forget about his personal problems plus allow one of those special days between father and son on his son’s birthday. It turned out really well seeing how a father and son bonded together throughout the trip and it truly made my day also. Kind of reminded me of fishing with my late dad many years ago that are etched so strongly in my fondest memories. We started out on some 20 fathom lumps to the North from where we have been fishing lately that had been so good to us on BFT on almost every trip in July 2007. This area never produced slob BFT in the 150-170 lb class like we are seeing now but was very consistent in nice size tune in the 45-55 inch range and we did boat a few bigger ones over 125 lbs here but most of the ones we caught were not quite that big but provided us with 6-10 fish when we did catch and release after keeping our legal BFT. It seemed to me it was well worth giving this area a look see as I had not heard of anyone fishing here yet this summer and I really thought we might find a few nice tuna on a weekend day and avoid all the boat traffic on the more popular well known locations.
What I saw were decent pockets of bait on the bottom but did not mark any tuna fish. Overall it did not look anything like two years ago when the great tuna bite was happening at this location and there was nowhere near as much bait on the bottom compared to the past. I do not plan any more trips here unless something changes but I took a blind shot and it just did not work out as I had hoped.
Our game plan changed real quick when I heard a couple of friends fighting multiple BFT in the 67 inch or bigger range about 15 miles SE of us so we quickly brought in our spread and off we went at over 30 knots and this is what we saw which makes me feel very positive about what is to come over the next few weeks on bigger BFT over 70 inches and 200 lbs that I expect to see caught and not behind scallop boats. While running out to the area my friends had their tuna bite, we saw tuna rolling up on the surface and it reminded me of what I have seen on a few occasions down off Morehead City, NC when Giant Bluefin fishing. I just bought a new high end popping rod and reel to use but had not set it up yet as I did not expect to see BFT up top in the middle of the morning but do believe they could have been caught this way. Well, we put out trolling tackle as quick as we could and did manage one bite but the tuna was big and busted our 130 lb florocarbon leader and that was the only bite we got. The tuna could have been chunked, jigged or trolled from what I saw as they were thick under our boat but almost all were down along the bottom in 160-190 feet of water. Maybe not quite as thick as past years but as good as I have seen it so far this season and the best part there was not a boat within a mile or so us where we saw the tuna busting on the surface and got our one bite. If we had been there at daybreak we would have had an excellent chance of catching a very big BFT but unfortunately we arrived later in the morning and missed that early am bite we so often see when tuna fishing. I know one of the boats had 4 on all in the 64-70 inch range and lost 3 but did manage to boat a nice 64 incher but that was early am and about 5 miles south of where we were. The real message is the tuna are spread out now over a pretty large area and I do believe they can be caught chunking and jigging now as well as trolling especially early am at quite a few different locations. From what I saw it is not necessary to fish in a fleet which is always better if you are trolling the wwwwwwayback thing and is this one of the main reason I try so hard to find tuna on those unnamed remote lumps and hills if possible. Unfortunately it does not always work all the time but I still try.