Hurricane Lee spared the Northeast, thankfully, and while it cancelled a few offshore trips, it might have given the Northern New England recreational bluefin bite the kick in the tail that it needed.
Boats fishing off Provincetown and Stellwagen Bank found recreational-sized bluefin willing to take live bait, spreader bars, and even stickbaits and jigs. Fish are in the 50- to mid-60-inch range, with some giants in the mix.
South of the Vineyard, there are still some yellowfin on the midshore grounds, but more boats reported bluefin on RonZs and metals this week. The deadly dead-stick, that is a jigallowed to drift just off the bottom with the only motion imparted by teh rocking of the boat, accounted for several fish. Blueline Charters fishing out of Rhode Island captured one of those bites in a video posted to Instagram this week.
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Stavros Viglas fishing out of Martha’s Vineyard reported great tuna fishing after the storm passed, saying it moved a fresh group of fish even closer to port.
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The yellowfin fishing had been as good as it gets out of New Jersey before the storm. Since then, the bluefin bite seems to have picked up with anglers getting them on topwater on the midshore grounds. Hudson Canyon has been good with yellowfin with some swordfish coming overnight. The canyons are also producing some bigeye, and a couple wahoo, including a beautiful big one caught by East End Angler
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Headboats have been heading to the canyons, overnighting and chunking, and catching good numbers of tuna. That action should keep right on rolling through November. Yellowfin continue to dominate the catch, but fall may bring some longfin into the mix.
Even though the water did cool off after the storm, the yellowfin have been sticking around thanks to an abundance of bait. Bringing some chum and chunks will help get them feeding around the boat, and captains have been loading up with peanuts, mullet, and butterfish chunks on their way to the grounds. Live spot can also be a solid yellowfin bait when the fish are finicky.
But not everyone has been able to find the tuna since the storm, but on those trips, at least from Rhode Island to New Jersey, the mahi are still around in big numbers to provide some light-tackle action.
The weekend looks like a washout and the early week looks like a blowout, so we may be in a holding pattern after the boats get back from their Friday trips. It’s the curse of fall tuna fishing – the fish are here, abundant, and hungry, but the weather can be a major obstacle to getting to them.
Since we’re likely to be stuck on land the next few days, it’s worth noting that there were multiple mahi caught from the Nantucket surf this past week by fishermen targeting albies. Crazy.