7/26/2008 Detailed report on the Bluefin bite yesterday trolling, chunking and jigging HU 2

2008-07-26

We had the Lance Seeton group out yesterday from Seeton Turf Warehouse in Southern NJ targeting the bigger Bluefin on the Hooked Up II. We left Cape May at 2:00 am to run down south to where we fished the other day and hooked up a very big tuna right away plus another and were sure the big slob bluefins were around as it had only been two days since we were at that location. As we left Cape May, our radar showed an armada of boats right behind us and almost every one of these were headed to the more popular 20 fathom locations where the fleet has been chunking and jigging bluefin this past week. When we passed the 20 line, our radar showed almost nothing and I was so pleased to see this as we planned to put in our lines right at sunrise about 64 miles SE of Cape May in water that was 204 feet deep. I was marking tuna and bait very well from outside the 30 fathom line down to where we were but it was not quite as thick as on Tuesday’ trip to the same location. Either way there were tuna being marked on our color machine and it looked very promising. We got our lines out wwwwwwwwwwwwwback and had two deep on # 32 planers and it did not take long before one went off screaming and we all thought we had the big one we were looking for. Well after a long fight with 38 lbs of drag we finally saw a huge sea turtle that had eaten our ballyhoo and that turned out to be the best catch of the day for us trolling. When we finally got our lines back out there were boats everywhere and by 7:00 we could not troll without a boat being within a few hundred yards of us. There were not too many boats from our area down by us as most stayed up about 15-20 miles to the North West of us. The rest of our friends decided to chunk and jig which was a wise decision. We covered a lot of ground trolling and worked all the spots where we have caught big bluefin in past years and with only a couple of knockdowns which were Dolphin bites or King Mackerel. We changed our ballyhoo and sea witch colors 12 times along with different sizes, as well as colors, and it still did not produce for us. The one difference from past troll trips is we used 150 lb fluorocarbon leaders instead of 130 lb leader as we had a really big one chew the 130 leader on our last trip with 42 lbs of drag and approximately an hour fight. I do not think that made any difference as we fished around some of the top trolling boats in our area that have been catching 175-200 lb plus bluefin pretty regularly recently and I can honestly say I did not see one boat fighting a fish in 9 hours of fishing yesterday. We marked tuna quite a few times inside and outside of the 30 line almost as far north as the Tea Cup. We stopped tried jigging and chunking a few times also when we could not get one to come up and bite our trolling lures which our crew loved. The problem was simply way too many boats everywhere and it almost always shuts down the bite. Our best chance would have been right at day break but we wasted time fighting that big sea turtle and after that the fleet had arrived and for us it was all but over for the day. We did mark lots of tuna and bait so it is far from over from what we saw yesterday and we, of course, do not know if some boats got on the tuna but as mentioned we did not see any boats stopped and doing battle. I did talk to a couple of my charter captain friends who were chunking and jigging inshore of us and as of around 11:00 am they had not done too much so I did not run inshore and stayed out in the deep trolling. I was out at one of the popular locations early this week with only 3 boats there on Tuesday but yesterday I could not even count how many boats were anchored on these lumps when I checked out the inshore lumps on my radar. Bottom line, from a charter boat captain's prospective, is you do what you have to do to get bites regardless if the fish is lost to light leader and I am sure my charter yesterday would have enjoyed themselves more if I had moved inshore to where the chunk and jig were fishing and gotten at least some action but it was not until late in day that I heard some consistent action from the chunkers and jiggers as it was pretty slow for most through out most of the day. I was really surprised to hear the size of the bluefin the chunkers got into yesterday with fish a few in the 65-68 inch range and probably over 150 lb plus. Those are very big fish for inshore bluefin along the 20 line. I do not know if I can ever remember as many large tuna being caught overall as this season compared to past years. The secret to catching big tuna on light leader is to follow the fish with your boat with light drags and use chafing gear on your leaders to keep the fish from chewing thru the 30-40 fluorocarbon. Visit your local tackle store and they should be able to provide you with what you need as they are supplied in different weights. I personally do not like fishing light leaders or going on the ball with our big boat and losing our slick but truthfully, I think it is the way to go if you are going to chunk these days as the fish are bigger this year. I still prefer to troll them overall but as mentioned when you run charters you better do what it takes to get the bites and congratulations to those that got on the fish with all the boat traffic yesterday. There are some nice size wahoo showing up down south where we trolled yesteday along with the bluefin and I hope to see at least a few yellowfin showing up along the 30 fathom line so we can have some additional species to target along with the bluefin.
Capt. John