Northeast Offshore Fishing Report

Fishing offshore won’t be in the cards early in the weekend, but reports from this week indicate that the big-game bite is heating up, so anglers should start getting their gear ready while Thursday and Friday’s weather keeps them indoors.

Sharks are showing up in bigger numbers in New Jersey and New York, and it won’t be long until they begin showing in New England waters as well. In fact, if you wanted to give the shark gear a shake down, I’d be willing to bet there are some big blue sharks south of Martha’s Vineyard and Block Island that would be happy to oblige.

The big news along the South Shore of Long Island was many of the season’s first sharks being caught. Several anglers out of Bay Park Fishing Station in Oceanside have caught many blue sharks, weighed in or released makos to 262 pounds, and even had a catch and release of a thresher. Trophy Tackle in West Babylon also had some offshore news of makos and bluefin at the Chicken Canyon.

Corey at the Hook Up in Orleans, MA was stoked about the Cape Cod bluefin bite saying lots of fish were caught this week, both by trolling and by casting with spinning tackle. The tuna are still running big with many high 60- and 70-inch fish being caught.

Tuna fishing is on the verge of breaking open in New Jersey. Word from the Reel Seat in Brielle is “Let’s Go!”. Dave was off on another tilefish adventure last week and some big goldens hit the deck. A 49-pounder and two more in the 40s came over the rail making for lots of happy anglers. There were also a few bluefin and even a yellowfin trolled up out there which is making all the tuna guys twitch a little!