Saturday's BFT Report: The center console guys out fished us big time yesterday

[Caveman Sportfishing]

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We fished in the general neighborhood where we fished last August that had such a hot Bluefin bite. This was our first trips 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 within 35-50 miles of 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 yesterday as they opted to fish the local locations where they have been fishing most of July and I do not think many If any 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 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 as the 20 fathom lumps start to produce less and less BFT as water continues to warm up and the bait moves offshore more and more on the deeper lumps. Over my 25 plus years fishing inshore for BFT we have seen this many times in August and we on some years 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 overall and we continued to fish inshore BFT but only on the 30 fathom lumps in the deeper water from 170 to 190 feet mainly. These lumps and hills are in much deeper water the 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.

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 that had 8-10 slobs BFT yesterday afternoon within ½ mile of us. I personally need to quick 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 yesterday trip. One of my good friends that is a master flounder fisherman but fairly new to the offshore scene followed us out from Cape May early am yesterday morning 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 yesterday 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 trips dream trips and it made me so happy to hear I was able to help out a friend and I am sure yesterday’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 yesterday 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 yesterday 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 yesterday but this was only radio chatter and I have no specifics on any of this.
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One of the nicest parts of yesterday’s trip was almost everyone fishing by us went to a less than popular VHF channel and many of us helped each other out as the area we fished is pretty spread out. It was so nice when anglers work together and we were able to talk to some boats that we had never communicated with before and look forward to continuing this in the future. Overall a great day for myself, my crew and charter customers even if the center console guys out fished us big time everyone had a great day on the water which is what it is really how about.

[paul708]

nice report.
hopefully it will be good for a little while.

[Capt. Terry]

THAT WAS A GREAT REPORT.....NICE TO SEE EVERYONE GET ON THE SLOB BFT ACTION.

[tunacity]

Wish I was down there with you guys...

[Agitated88]

Excellent report...

[Caveman Sportfishing]

We had one of the best tuna trips ever all on fish over 160 lbs later in the week on jigs only. Kil reported about the trip under the jigging and popping forum.