Outfished by Center Consoles But Still a Great Day

2009-07-25

We fished in the general neighborhood where we fished late last summer in the deeper water that had such a hot Bluefin bite. This was our first trip to this location as it quite a few miles from our home port in Cape May but it turned out to be well worth it. This enabled us to be many miles away from the cluster of boats that mostly fish the local lumps and hills much closer to Cape May. Last summer we were one of the only charter boats that made this run in August almost every day the marine weather allowed and we flat provided our customers with some world class jigging and mostly chunking on so many trips. Very few charter boats I know made the longer run as they opted to fish the local locations where most of us have been fishing throughout July and I do not think very many boats had a trip like we did or others that fished around us. I am wondering if we will see the August bite on BFT come to an end on the shallower 20 Fathom lumps and hills with the warmer water moving in as it did last summer in August and along with other years when we targeted inshore BFT. I think you will see the bigger BFT set up out in deeper water below the thermo cline and that is exactly what they have done now for quite a few years now as the 20 fathom lumps start to produce less and less BFT as this water continues to warm up and the bait moves offshore more and more to the deeper locations along the 30 Fathom line. Over my 25 plus years fishing inshore for BFT we have seen this happen many times in August and some years we just quit targeting BFT for the most part and switched over to Yellowfins, Wahoo and Mahi along with spending more time out in the canyons. Last year was not one of those years with the our local canyons being virtually void of Yellowfins and we continued to fish inshore BFT but only on the 30 fathom lumps in the deeper water from 170 to 190 feet mainly. I should mention that there was a decent bite on smaller Yelllowfins mixed in with some nice size Bluefin in August last summer outside of the 30 Fathom line and I am hoping to see this happen again so we can provide our customers with mixed catch of a slob BFT, 10-20 lb plus Mahi, Wahoo and some smaller Yellowfins on the same trip. These lumps and hills are in much deeper water than ones most of the southern NJ fleet is currently fishing and has started to produce some real slobs that we are now seeing in the 65-70 inch range and bigger. That is exactly what we saw on yesterday’s trip. Overall if the weather will cooperate I look for some great offshore fishing during August but you might have to run farther to take advantage of it and we will do exactly that on every trip if that is what it takes. Regardless if the best bite is 45 miles or 80 miles from our home port we will take you there on any of our 12-15 day trips during August as we have the speed and size to go where we feel the best opportunity is to put a great catch together for our charters. With diesel fuel prices now dropping it bolds so much better for all of us this season compared to last August and we plan to take advantage of this and do whatever it takes to catch a whole bunch of fine eating game fish on every trip.

For some of my friends fishing by us it was flat out awesome BFT fishing. On our boat we had one of the biggest BFT we have ever seen off NJ, DE coast right at first light but the best bite to my shock was later in the day starting around 11:30 am. Have not seen this happen too often in all the years I have been inshore tuna fishing but it did yesterday. We fished a totally different set of lumps than we fished last summer but we found tuna spread out over many different locations but generally speaking probably within 5-8 miles from where we fished last summer although as I mentioned we were in the general neighborhood and I think that is enough said about this. Of course not every boat slammed them and we did not set the world on fire trolling on our boat after the early am bite but a few others that were all chunking and jigging slammed them. By far the best bite on huge BFT was by dropping down live bait but quite a few of really decent size tuna were caught on jigs and as well as some in the 160-180 lb class by the trollers but overall the small boat guys out fished us trollers 10-1 after the great early am bite and we will leave it at that. I was not prepared to chunk at all since we had planned to troll only but we will be getting our chunking tackle in order this week as you really can never tell what will produce the best on any given day. We never could get a bite on a jig or chunk when we quit trolling and I have a pretty good idea why after talking to my friend who had 8-10 slobs BFT in the afternoon within ½ mile of us. I personally need to quit thinking about perfect trolling spreads and prepare more for jigging and chunking if that is what produces the best tuna bite. As we were leaving an angler by us was fighting one of those big bad nasty BFT's on a heavy fly rod which he put out with a sardine. I wonder how he made out.

Now the best of today’s trip. One of my good friends who is a master flounder fisherman but fairly new to the offshore scene followed us out from Cape May early am and had one of the greatest day’s ever inshore BFT fishing. He had his dad on board and along with his regular inshore crew and he called me last night and was so happy and proud that he could experience a day like today with his dad. It did not take him more than about 30 seconds to hook up a BFT over 150 lbs and this went on for a few hours non-stop as they could hardly get a second line in before the first line in got slammed all right on the bottom. Absolutely one of those dream trips and it made me so happy to hear I was able to help out a friend and I am sure today’s trip was one my friend will never forget and be telling his grandchildren about many years down the road like I still talk about fishing with my long gone dad and grandpa. In my opinion this one of the best parts of fishing when memories are passed down from generation to generation along with the family bonds that fishing helps establishes.

I heard about a few busted rods, reels that were spooled or very close too, busted off jigs and baits due to far too light of leader and tackle just not suited for BFT in this size range. Although these fish can be caught using lighter tackle it is better to beef up some if you plan on doing battle with these size tuna since they will put a hurting on both the your tackle as well as most anglers. My friends who started out using 50 lb leader busted off every fish until they went up to 60-100 leader and once they put out the heavier leader which did not shut down the bite they were able to fight and release all their tuna in short order with only one fish lost to a pulled hook. One thing I heard was some of those store bought jigs with cheap hooks and swivels may not be the right ones when the BFT are the size they were today but this was only radio chatter and I have no specifics on any of this.
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Overall a great day for myself, my crew and charter customers even if the center console guys out fished us, everyone had a great day on the water which is what it is really how about.