Caveman SportfishingTuna @ the Dog

[OffTheHookB&T]

Capt John from Caveman Sportfishing emailed me his report from yesterday. Thought everyone would enjoy reading it.

We started out trolling with heavy gear at the location where the 873 lb. giant bluefin was caught earlier this weekend by Cape Ike of Indian River, DE. We knew there was little chance of finding another giant but we gave it a try for a couple of hours anyway. Did not mark anything resembling a giant and we have caught and releashed a couple of hundred of them down in Morehead City, NC so we know what they look like on the color machine. We gave up fishing for giants after a couple of hours and heard of a pretty decent bite around the Hot Dog so we moved a to that location and caught our biggest of the day on a commerical planner fished deep with 9 inch blue-white Ilander horse ballyhoo combo. Pink Ilander- ballyhoo, green bird-GM fished way back and green spreader bars all were hot yesterday. Hot bite was around two draggers working together just east of Hot Dog. A few boats had 5 or 6 fish over 50-70 lbs in this area in just a couple of hours trolling and some boats only had a few smaller 35 inch fish. Bite slowed down at the Dog when boat traffic was heaviest mid-day but turned on again around 2:00 pm right on top of the dog in 120 feet of water when the boat traffic thinned down. We finished the day by moving inside along the 20 fathom line and caught some smaller fish. On the way home a scallop boat called us over and we stopped behind him and marked tuna but no bites in 30 minutes of fishing. Look for the first bigger fish being caught this week behind a day scalloper because the tuna were there. Heard of a white marlin raised outside the Dog in 40-45 fathoms and a few dolphin caught also. One boat got a 250 lb Mako trolling a green machine in the area and a 20 foot white shark was reported to us by an Indian River, DE Charter boat close to where we were fishing and Captain Diana thinks she may have seen it but it sounded and never came back up. Overall a good day and we were able to find some fish alittle bigger than the footballs that most have been catching recently. Things should get better each day now and it will not be too long until the 100 lb plus fish show up around the Dog, Hambone or Sauage Lumps. Lots of sand eels on bottom and water temperature 73 degrees plus and rising. Only one other charter boat from our marina fished yesterday and he stayed closer to Cape May along the 20 fathom line by the Dump Site and at had least one fish to the boat around 50 lbs but it pulled the hook. Mostly smaller tuna in that area in the 25-35 inch range still with some bluefish mixed in. There were a couple of boats chunking yesterday around the Hot Dog but did not hear or see them fighting any fish. The chunk bite is stil a week or so away but it will not be long. For those not familar with this area the Hot Dog is about 58 miles SE of Cape May along the 30 fathom line. We posted some pictures of our new boat for those that would like to check out the progress of it. We plan to take it right to Morehead City, NC in late October and be ready for the giant bluefin this winter.
Capt John