Bluefin Tuna
From Cape Cod to Cape May, the bluefin bite this week was insane. Anglers in the Garden State who managed to track down working scallop boats caught so many tuna, they lost track. Scallop guts and metal jigs did most of the damage on the fish, which weighed as much as 75 pounds.
The Cape Cod tuna bite blew up as well. From the Southwest Corner of Stellwagen Bank to Peaked Hill, live bait has been the ticket for landing these 75- to 80-inch fish. Set up before slack tide with live pogies, mackerel or small bluefish under kits and balloons.
East of Chatham, where more of the tuna land in the keep-able slot limit, splash bars are doing the trick. The large body of smaller tuna south of Martha’s Vineyard and Block Islands have been receptive to topwaters cast by the run-and-gun crowd.
Sharks
Shark fishing is in the sweet spot off Montauk and eastern Long Island, as anglers are reporting enough blue sharks to allow for some action, but not so many that they become a nuisance. Along with the blue sharks, makos and threshers are around in large enough numbers to give anglers hope for landing one of these coveted species.
Makos have been an added bonus for boats overnighting in the canyons recently, and the lightning-fast sharks seem far more abundant out in the deep than at the midshore structures.
Canyons
Though not quite the canyons, the shipping lanes south of Martha’s Vineyard have produced some white marlin recently.
There are more billfish being caught in the canyons, including a 500-pound-plus blue marlin released over the weekend in the Poor Man’s Canyon. The yellowfin and bluefin bite in the Massey has been nothing short of phenomenal. The Spencer Canyon off New Jersey has been on fire with yellowfin tuna, some of which weighed over 90 pounds.