We made a valiant effort in far from ideal sea conditions yesterday to catch our first 100 lb plus Bluefin of the season but Mother Nature would not allow us a fair chance to succeed. We made the early am run down to the Pork & Chicken lumps that are 45-60 miles from Cape May and worked a few of the more popular ones where in past season always held big Bluefin but never in our experience this early in the season as we usually got our first bigger BFT in early July at the earliest. There were only a few boats out today from the Southern DE and MD ports but none from any NJ port except for us to the best of my knowledge probably due to the distance we ran in less than ideal conditions. There had been a very good early season bite on BFT over 100 lbs the last few days and decided with these reports it was time to go and do our first inshore BFT trip of the 2009 season. What we found was the strong NE winds had dropped the sea temps about 4-5 degrees from last Friday when we were down in this area sharking and had BFT over 100 lbs plus busting all around. The more northern lumps closer to Cape May had 65-66 degrees water temps and we did find 67 degrees maximum on one of the southern lumps about 56 miles from Cape May but that was not close to the 71 degree clean blue water we saw last Friday. Due to the seas building after daybreak we never made it out to the 30 fathom lumps that we would have liked to have tried yesterday as they always seem to hold bigger tuna than the inshore ones at least for us but it is early season and we will be going again as soon as the offshore weather improves in a few days. The NE winds were gusting where we fished over 20 knots with some pretty substantial swells only 3 seconds apart which made trolling difficult and drift jigging impossible. Today would have been a great day to anchor and chunk live or dead bait we did not plan on chunking on this trip as it was for trolling and jigging only and we brought no dead or live bait with us. Since this was our first tuna trip of the 2009 season we did not know which lumps and hills the sand eels and tuna were set up on and planned to troll early am until we found the fish and then put away all trolling tackle and jig from then on. I did mark loads of bait on almost every hill we trolled over but the tuna were all holding right on the bottom above the sand eels much like we see later in July which told me a story about the size of the BFT down there right now. Usually early season we see the smaller BFT all up above the thermocline in the warmer water since the younger smaller ones have not yet developed the thicker fat layer that the older fish have to protect them when in colder water. It is this fat layer that allows Giant Bluefin Tuna to move north off Canada and New England in the summer months and feed on Mackerel and Herring in sea temps that probably are in the 50’s at the warmest plus deep dive to 1500 feet on occasion where the ocean waters would be very cold at these depths. It is the larger BFT with the high fat content that is prized as Sushi grade tuna and commands top dollar when the BFT are sold. Almost all the tuna I marked were down deep and that told me these have to be pretty decent size BFT since they can tolerate the colder water down at the bottom which probably is in the 50’s at the most this time of year. We also marked squid that if I am correct have moved inshore now to spawn and the tuna are feeding on them also but that is not a proven scientific fact but just something I have picked up from many years of tuna fishing inshore along the 30 fathom lines and I could be wrong on this. In past years the squid boats would always work the famous Pork Lumps & Hills and it was from them that I heard about this but again who really knows about squid and I am far from an expert. My old friend, the late Capt Billy Verbanas used to discuss this with me all the time and one of the reasons you might be able to find a few quality size Mako’s in early June inshore but mostly at night as they would follow the squid to the 30 fathom lumps for a short period of time in June and but again only a theory at best. I think catching live squid on yesterday trip would have been the ticket but with the current ripping at over 2 kts it would have been next to impossible to do this with the tackle we had on board. We decided to give up on trolling and try jigging for a short while before heading back to Cape May much earlier than we had planned as the the conditions kept getting worse and worse with the ever increasing seas due to the strong NE winds. We were over 55 miles from Cape May and it was getting a little ugly out there especially on the shallower hills with the seas starting to break with white water on top of honest 5 footers. We even tried anchoring to allow are jigs to get down to the bottom to try keep them from hydroplaning up in the water column and that helped a lot but did not result in any bites as I think live bait would really have been the ticket with about 12-20 oz of weight with reels loaded with 80 lb spectra only. We really did not jig very long as everyone on board agreed the conditions were flat our ugly and getting worse even on our big boat and it was time to head back to Cape May before the seas built any bigger. This was one of those days that I was so glad to be on board our 55 Hooked Up 11 as we ran around 56 miles with our bow just a few points off from heading directly into the swells and everyone on board slept for over 2 hours on the ride home except yours truly who was the skipper and drove the boat back to Cape May. We cruised at moderate 22 knots all the way home and never once felt any pounding what so ever and this speaks volumes for the design of those world famous Carolina Deep Vee hulls when running into head seas and the soft comfortable rid they provide. I used the ride home to calculate different fuel burn rates at various speeds and RPM’s since we have two brand new Caterpillar Diesel engines and averaged 16 gallons an hour per engine at 22 knots so the fuel burn was more than expectable in my opinion.

For those interested in detailed information on how we troll for Bluefin in the 100-175 lb class there is an article in this May's issue of SWS or there is an article write here on SportFishermen.com where I wrote last year about trolling for BFT off the Mid-Atlantic Coast.

I have enclosed some information from Dan Harley who joined us on this trip as a paying customer to try out some of his new jigs his company CAPE MAY CUSTOM TACKLE distributes and this is what Dan wrote up about yesterday trip.

We were hopeful and anxious to land our first Bluefin of the season on some of the new C.M.Custom Tackle Sushi jigs so as we started out first drift, I rigged several of Capt John's new jigging outfits with Sushi 230g holographic (8.25 ounce) jigs in a variety of colors (Silver, Pink, Blue/Pink) - however we quickly found that our 2 knot drift necessitated some heavier irons. We quickly re-rigged with 320g and 380g jigs and began our second drift.

We could barely hold bottom without increasing the scope (paying out more and more line to hold bottom) and had to switch to the very few 400g jigs we had on board.

Today's 2 knot drift and having 5 angles onboard - showed me the necessity of bring a wide variety of jigs and plenty of them on board - to handle all possible sea conditions.

CM Tackle Sushi 230g (8.25 oz) Sushi jigs are available at tackle shops and direct in 4 colors at a suggested retail of $12.99 ea.

Dan Harley

Cape May Custom Tackle

http://web.me.com/danharley/Fishing_...an_Harley.html

Some of Dan’s he distributes come in some awesome colors and sizes that look like they might just be the ticket when the BFT decide they are ready to start eating jigs which should be real soon now.

I am an old fashioned hammered diamond jig guy when jigging for tuna but after seeing how much new tackle in now available and all the various styles jigs Dan can supply along with other quality jigging and popping suppliers the tuna might not stand a chance this upcoming season. We will know any day now as the BFT are now here up and down the 20-30 fathom lines.

We will be ready to go again for tuna either down to the southern lumps and hills off Maryland or Northern Virginia next week or sooner or do a canyon run for the great troll bite now going on in the Lindy and Spencer. It is looking that now is tuna time and contact us for regular 6 person charters or small party and make-up trips at our lowest offshore pricing of the season prior to July 1, 2009.