Tuna quota info.

[Caveman Sportfishing]

And lots of them from contacts we have. Talked to commerical scalloper that has been fishing way off shore somewhere around the Grand Banks today and they had a decent number of GBT behind their boat this summer but also lots of blue sharks and mako's following them. I am pretty sure he said they were scalloping in 60-80 fathoms in a restricted area but legal. He did not elaborate but we got into the conversation about GBT because he fished with us down in MHC a few years ago. He now scallops full time and makes way more than working on a charter boat. I found last season that there was not nearly as many bunker schools as in past years down in MHC. We used to see tuna busting on bait over around the D wreck and Atlas right on the surface many times in years gone by. Not last year and many times we were fishing temperature breaks way offshore than in past years. I can remember early Dec fishing right next to the bunker boat just a few miles from inlet and hooking up before we got the second line in the water. No bait no fish. We had great BFT fishing this summer on fish in the 80-170 range and caught on our best days with good anglers up to 25 on diamond jigs, squid or butterfish.
There was no shortage of the smaller bft up our way this summer at all. Note: We could keep two per day and called everyone in to he NMFS as manadated.
Again my gut feelings is if the bunker are not there in abundance like past years then the GBT will not be there. One other thing I have found fishing for all sizes of BFT is boat traffic kills the bite. We always catch best before the traffic arrives and on weekends forget it. I think there are just more boats fishing for the tuna these days and they sound the fish and scatter them when trolling in shallow water. I think that we will have all the quota we need with hardly with very few restricted day ljust like last year. This could change if the bite gets real hot and bunch are tuna are caught but we will have to see how the bite is this winter. Hoping for good winter GBT fishing and part of our crew will be leaving in a few hours to looking for the big boys in the Mud Hole. We will see if there are any around up here.

[O-SEA-D]

I agree with you Captain John. No Menhaden, no BFT. After all, studies have shown that Menhaden are 99% of the GBFT's diet.

[chumtini]

MY CONTACTS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE ....CAPE COD AND MAINE TELL ME THAT BFT FISHING HAS SUCKED SO FAR THIS YEAR.....AND THAT CANADA IS KICKING ASS WITH THEM......AND WE ALL KNOW WHAT JAPAN, SPAIN AND THE MORROCONS ARE DOING WITH THEM


I HEARD OF THE SHORT LIVED BITE ABOUT A MONTH AGO IN THE MUDHOLE AREA I BELIEVE ......BUT FOOD IS THE KEY.....BUNKER BUNKER BUNKER

From my point of view, Marty heard about right. I've been BFT fishing E of Nantucket and Chatham MA to some degree. And a few time S of MV out of desparation. It started out slammin in Aug with shorties everywhere, bait everywhere, whales everywhere, birds everywhere, plankton everywhere and commercial boats everywhere. Then it just sort of fizzled. Go figure. They are catching big fish here, but I haven't heard anything mind blowing.