Above: Chris Megan trolled up this well-fed “over” bluefin off Cape Cod last Friday.
No matter where your homeport is, there’s some excellent tuna fishing within range right now. From bluefin off Cape Cod to bigeye off Cape May, July got off to a sizzling start on the tuna grounds, helped along by some great conditions and good water in the canyons.
Video Report
The Canyons
There’s warm water in the Southern Canyons, and with the South Jersey Yacht Sales Offshore Showdown happening out of Cape May this week, there’s a number of boats fishing from Spencer to the Baltimore. Last year, during this tournament, water temperatures were in the 60s, forcing fishermen to focus on bigeye tuna, but this year with water temperatures approaching the mid-70s, competitors are seeing good action on yellowfin and mahi, along with some white marlin in the mix. Some of those yellowfin have been running large, with 100-pound-plus fish being reported, including a few with those big “Allison Tuna” sickle fins in the Wilmington.
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The bigeye are there too, and boats have hooked fish in excess of 200 pounds in the southern canyons over the last couple days.
Hudson Canyon is holding yellowfin, for the northern New Jersey and Western Long Island fleets.
According to Jeff Lomonaco at White Water Outfitters in Hampton Bays, NY, most of the canyon-bound boats on eastern Long Island are headed for West Atlantis and Veatch, where a gyre of warm water and some sharp temperature breaks have brought in yellowfin in good numbers.
Andy Nabreski kicked off the month in Veatch Canyon with Captain Larry Backman. They reported boats catching a mess of yellowfin, 40 to 50 pounds, along with some bigeye. Boats deep-dropping during the day stuck some swordfish as well.
Inshore/Mid-Shore
Some of that warm, blue canyon water drifted into day-trip range for boats from Cape Cod and Rhode Island, where fishermen working “South of the Vineyard” found yellowfin this week. The yellowfin joined good numbers of bluefin in the 40- to 60-inch range in what’s been a good trolling bite. Small boats, taking advantage of the good conditions and relatively short run are fishing side-tracking spreader bars are catching plenty of fish, even without outriggers. Productive colors seem to be all over the map. I was out there on Wednesday, and boats were reporting fish on black, green, rainbow, pink, and just about any other color bar they deployed. The key, it seemed, was finding the big concentrations of bait and life. Once you found that, color didn’t seem to matter. Bait down there is a mix of sand eels, squid, and butterfish.
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East of Chatham, there continues to be good numbers of recreational-sized bluefin. There’s good action on the troll, and the run-and-gun fishing is continuing as well, but foggy conditions and spread-out fish have made that game a bit challenging in recent days. Ian at Goose Hummock said the area from Crab Ledge to the Sword has been the most productive.
There had been some good bluefin action off Provincetown, but those fish seem to have scattered as well, with fog doing no favors for the fishermen seeking surface feeds.
Most of the bluefin around Cape Cod are in the 40- to 50-inch range, though some giants, and larger recreational-sized fish, are in the mix.
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Moving south to Long Island, Jeff at White Water Outfitters said some yellowfin were popping up on the midshore grounds, 30- to 40-fathom range, which is a bit ahead of schedule. There’s some bluefin around as well, but Jeff said these fish are running large, mostly in the “large-medium” to giant category (73 inches and above). Trolling has been the primary tactic, but some fishermen are getting opportunities to cast at the fish as well. Jeff noted that the mid-shore yellowfin off Long Island have been quality fish, with some 80- to 90-pounders being caught.
In New Jersey, there’s some good light-tackle fishing happening for bluefin right now 15 to 30 miles offshore, but the fish are scattered all over in that range, so plan on doing some hunting. Mike Gleason at TAK Waterman in Long Branch said he and his pals found some outstanding bluefin action. The tuna were on sand eels and mackerel and several fish in the 50- to 65-inch range were hooked and the day ended with an epic battle with a giant bluefin.
Sooooo good to have you boys back. Love to read about it even if I can’t get there myself. Fins up!
Good to see a mix of tuna being caught in many areas in the northeast both close and offshore . after missing season of fall 2021/2022 I look forward gearing up fall of 2023 and getting back out to the canyons and resume my 44 years of tuna fishing weekly late Sept. and October. my tactic is free floating good bait or chum chunks and feeding line out . It works every time even when reading fish 200 feet plus below . Hang ’em high too all………