A coastal blow slid through, and what happens next is going to define the rest of the Northeast offshore season.
East of Cape Cod, life is abundant — whales, sand eels, dolphins, everything — but the school size tuna are scattered. When fishermen find them, the surface feeds are incredible. Stickbaits, poppers, and soft plastics are getting bites. The sand eels are small, which is making the fish pickier than expected for the full on foamers that anglers have seen.
The yellowfin bite just won’t quite off Long Island and New Jersey with 50- to 70-pound fish stacked on draggers and willing to chew on anything that hits the wake. Chunks are performing best, with live peanuts working well to bring the yellowfin off the draggers and behind your boat.
Swordfish and bigeye are still in play in the canyons, but porpoises have made chunking painful. Temperature breaks are unstable but recoverable. It seems like the best action is heading west toward the Hudson. Some captains have reported tough chunking as porpoises have been vacuuming up the chum slick before it can draw in the tuna.
Giant fishing continues to be tough in Maine and New Hampshire. Blue sharks and threshers have been mangling live baits, and fish have been few and far between. The storm may have helped the fishing by concentrating the bait and fish in areas like south Jeffreys and Tillies.
Stellwagen is giving up giants, with fish to 113 inches reported over the past week. Cape Cod Bay and the Regal Sword are producing giants as well. Commercial season has reopened, and fishermen have brought fish back to the dock since the storm.
The mid-Atlantic canyons are light on tuna, but heavy on marlin, mahi, and tilefish, with fishermen going out and enjoying mixed bag fishing for this trio.