Offshore Fishing Forecast 9-8-2011

Sounds like the weeds have been giving anglers a tough time in some of the canyons this week. Anglers were constantly busy clearing lines of weeds. The weeded up lures may not be immediately apparent, so it’s important to keep a keen eye on the spread. The cost to get to the canyons is way too much for you to have a spread full of weeded up lures when you finally pass over some fish.
The daytime troll produced yellowfin, wahoo and billfish for the Hooked Up II outside the Lobster Claw and in Lindenkohl Canyon. The night bite was slow, with only a couple yellowfin, but reports from Carteret Canyon indicated an excellent overnight chunk bite. Big mahi are also hanging around large floating debris and after the storm and all the rains, there is a decent amount of it out there. Anglers also reported finding large weedlines that held some fish nearby. These weedlines attract lots of small fish, which in turn attract the canyons apex predators, especially wahoo and billfish.
Veatch Canyon sounded a bit slow this week, though anglers who stuck it out there were rewarded with some nice catches including wahoo.
The Helen-H found a big temperature break between Veatch and Hydrographers over the weekend and loaded up on yellowfin, putting 60 of them in the boat during the troll and chunk. A few longfin, a big mahi and a 70-pound wahoo rounded out the catch.
The Viking Fleet found some swordfish on their last overnight adventure, along with a mess of yellowfin and tilefish.
Bluefin reports around Cape Cod were mixed. Some anglers found good fish on Stellwagen and at Peaked Hill Bar, while other anglers fishing those areas struck out. The waters east of Chatham held fish in water as shallow as 70 feet where Captain Eric Stewart connected with a 44-incher on Wednesday. Over the weekend Stewart caught a few 56- to 58-inch fish and released a giant.
Speaking of giant bluefin, a few have been spotted inside Cape Cod Bay, though as far as I know, only the harpooners have gotten any.
The weatherman is doing us any favors this weekend, and big seas and high winds are forecasted through Sunday. Finding fishable windows is the name of the game in the fall, but fortunately, when the weather does permit a trip to the deep, the payoff this time of year can be big.