200# Class BFT on The Hambone

[jtocean]

Anyone heard about the 200lb BFT being caught on The Hambone this past weekend befor the blow?

I heard a scallop boat was letting her hydrauics cool down and noticed some boils behind the boat, no sooner they threw over some scallop guts and one with a hook and they fought huge tuna the rest of the day.

Anyone get in on this action?

[sideburns]

hell no my boats on the trailer

[neilinov]

Havn't heard bout that

Phil call me.

[frankypettolina]

These rumors start this time of year, every year it seems.

The only BFT I have heard of recently was caught By the Endeavor at the Lumpy (or there abouts) it was 70 pounds and caught on a Ballyhoo. They had one other bite.

Are the scallop boats even allowed on the bone right now?

[Squidnation]

Franky - I think a certain class of scalloper is allowed. We have a scalloper's wife who keeps her horse on our farm. and he told me it is open to some kind of permit holder but I forgot which he said. I have heard of one lg 70+ inches that was lost at the boat a couple of weeks ago. Thats all that I have hard so far. This was first hand info from a credible person.

[Justin time]

I had a few bites on some real nice class fish their the other day. Get out there and catch em.

[jtocean]

These rumors start this time of year, every year it seems.

The only BFT I have heard of recently was caught By the Endeavor at the Lumpy (or there abouts) it was 70 pounds and caught on a Ballyhoo. They had one other bite.

Are the scallop boats even allowed on the bone right now?

I didn't hear of any names or what boat, I just heard from Lee on the Addy Bird that a scallop boat caught a nice fish and i heard from Kevin Webber who used to mate on the old Ebe Tide what the scallop boat encountered. These BFT tuna always make their run this time of year and usually at the Twin Wrecks the Bass guys see the big schools. Chet and Wes Townsed will tell you stories about bassin' their pots about the big schools of BFT boiling all around the boat.
Hey Pino, nice pics of the the youth goose hunt by the way!
Franky, I hear some nicer size stripers have moved into the IR Inlet. Have you heard same?

[frankypettolina]

I have not heard about the stripers in IR. Kevin went with Mark on the Fish Bonz day before yesterday, looking for stripers out of OC, lots of bait and birds. No stripers. Mark said that he felt the water was too warm.

I am not doubting anyone's sources here, but it amazes me that every year I hear of all of these 200 plus pound bluefins sighted off of OC, but the only one caught was caught by Bruce McGuigan about 4 or 5 years ago, and he was quite a ways south (and put in more than a couple of days trying to find one, and put in more than a couple after he caught one). If they are here and seen, how come no one ever catches? Show me a dead one on the dock. There are more Giant encounters in the canyons in the spring or early season (ie. Ronnie Fields 3 years ago in the deep of the Norfolk, and that 500 pounder caught in VA this year)

I asked Dr. Barbara Block why Giant Bluefins aren't caught off of OC in between their time in NE and their time in NC. I always thought they had to move through our 20 fathom line in the fall. Her response was that the GBFT pass through this area in the Canyons when they are traveling, and usually quite deep (both water depth, and the depth they are travelling at). She told me this last January at a class in MHC.

I would not be surprised if there were some 50 to 150 BFT at our inshore spots, but until someone shows me Giants, I am going to chalk most of these sightings up to wishful thinking.

[Caveman Sportfishing]

I agree with what has been posted about the bigger bluefin traveling in the deep heading south. Capt Mark got one 224 lbs 74 inches last year at this time in the Washington with a deep line rigged with a dead bait. There were fish up to 300 lbs in late August in the Elephant Trunk behind the scallop boat along the 30 line also before they closed this area to scallop boats on August 31,2007. We had one over 200 lbs and releashed a couple possibly even bigger and watched while a boat fought one they boated at just around 300 lbs. The trunk is now open again and some scallop boats from Cape May are out there right now working the same area they did in August. Who really knows what is out there presently but hope to go tommorrow and Monday if we can get a crew together. Had freind go this past Monday and tried trolling like we do in NC but bluefish would not allow him to do this as you could not keep a bally in the water without them being attacked in just matter of minutes. They trolled inside the 19 Fathom Lump and told me he saw tuna the size of small cars busting on the surface but could not get baits to them due to the Bluefish in the area. I hear the same reports also every year but to date I have only seen Capt Mark fishing on my boat last fall actually bring a decent size Bluefin back to the dock. My best guess is the bigger fish travel in the deep when heading south as mentioned but there may be some smaller ones feeding behind the boats on scallop guts. My freind marked tons of sand eels and the bluefish they caught were spitting them up all over their boat so the bait is there and again who knows unless to get out there and try.

[frankypettolina]

I hear alot of these reports about large fish busting on bait in the fall and winter as well. I have some thoughts about it.

Last December I came home from MHC for the holidays, and ended up striper fishing with a friend of mine about a mile off the beach in OC. There was bait, birds , whales and tons of stripers. I also saw some huge explosions on the bait, that had I been in MHC I would have swore were BFT or GBFT. Well, I decided to really watch the bait rather than striper fish for a while, and most of the huge explosions were caused by porpoise/dolphin that were slamming the bait. I often wonder how many time these are mistaken for BFT? I know it happens in MHC. I have also seen the brown sharks chasing bait and exploding on it get mistaken for BFT at a distance in MHC.

Just a thought.