There’s a hurricane coming up the coast, offshore fishing won’t be in the cards for a little while. There were some bluefin caught on Cape Cod. When fishermen can get east of Chatham, the bluefin bite is great. Eric Stewart of the Hook Up wrangled a giant this week, and several other anglers found tuna of all sizes. The bluefin aren’t going anywhere just yet, but many anglers have already pulled their boats. On Thursday, Stewart landed a porbeagle shark and lost a large tuna.
Boats that managed to sneak in a trip to the canyons this week were treated to some incredible fishing. Captain Jack Sprengel of East Coast Charters had a lights out trip Tuesday into Wednesday where they boated 15 big yellowfin to 90 pounds, a monster longfin and lost a wahoo, with many of the fish caught on jigs or topwater lures.
Swells will keep boats at the dock this weekend, but following the storm, there could be one last bit of strong action in the canyons. Bluefin will likely leave their New England feeding grounds with the storm, but may pop up in range of Long Island or New Jersey boats. The past few Novembers have seen good numbers of big bluefin within sight of shore off NJ.
Look at the head of that tuna, under the eye, thats a blueish line, I would say that is a bluefin.
Now looking at it again, its a blueish yellow line, more yellow at the end of the tail.
The best way to ID bluefin vs yellowfin is the length of the pectoral fins. The pectorals of a yellowfin are longer than a bluefin’s, extending to the second dorsal fin. You can just about make this out in the picture.