It’s been a true roll of the dice out on the edge this week. Some boats scoring big and a whole bunch of sunset pictures being taken by those who couldn’t fill their fishboxes. This season has been off to a great start with some phenomenal topwater Bluefin fishing and quality Yellowfin mixed in, but now the summer doldrums seem to have arrived. There’s still some good action, but it’s been spotty with fish biting once a day and fishing pressure putting the tuna down. If marlin’s your thing, there’s some nice whites and blues to be had in the warmer water with the skippies. The Mahi seem slow to arrive with the pots being uninhabited, or maybe with the slow tuna bite they’ve been picked clean early.
Offshore Fishing Forecast
The Blue Runner fleet reported some decent action. Capt Jon Azato did a private trip and had a great bite on big Yellowfin, landing 11 in a short trip … there was also very good Bluefin action within our range .. weather looks great all week and we have open boat spots available for this Thursday into Friday July 20-21. Spots are $675 per person To reserve a spot, contact Capt Ryan at (732) 547-2633.
OTW’s own Andy Nabreski fished the West Atlantis and Veatch and brought this report,
“SLOOOOOW!
We deep dropped for swords in west atlantis first day… nada. There have been at least 2 swords caught deep dropping in the past 2 weeks. Lot of guys doing it now.
We had a whitey in the spread on the evening troll. One bite at night but dropped it (sword?)
On the morning troll we had a couple breakoffs and one nice mahi. We were going to deep drop again, but went for tilefish instead. We pulled in 10 small tiles.
No one else was doing well, from Veatch to west of West Atlantis. A few 50-pound class yellowfin around. No mahi on any of the pots, not even on the weather station buoys. Water was still gray. Not much life out there. A few porpoises, no whales. Not much life in the lights at night, couple of squid, a couple needlfish and one flying fish all night.
The inshore bite at the Dump was hot, I think a lot of the fish pushed up in there. bluefin and yellowfin. Saw some white marlin around gordon’s gully but couldn’t get them to eat.
We saw a whale shark which was pretty cool.”.
Offshore Fishing Forecast
If the weather allows, make the run! Check the latest SST shots and Chloro shots and head towards the best looking water, It always beats sitting at the dock. Be sure to bring tile and mahi and sword gear, and be PREPARED! You may only get one shot, so make it count. If trolling be sure to try and get multiple bites by jigging your lines and bumping in and out of gear after you hook up. Get the spread back out as soon as the fish is landed and POUND that area. If you hook a white marlin consider keeping it for the table they are plentiful and delicious!
We’re headed out to oceanographers tomorrow night . Will give you the full report …..
So we went out 3 boats strong and basically pounded the entire canyon. Night bite was non existent but the day troll landed plenty of smaller yellows with a few decent 50 pound plugs mixed in . The Mahi were there and plentiful but not on the high flyers. One nice big eye at about 250 lbs. was caught, and we did catch a few sharks on the chum slick. It’s early yet but sure to start turning on real soon.
Wish some peoples would report how the dump, jefffereys, and Stellwagon is doing?. All I hear is this is the BEST BFT fishing in 20 yrs, and there aren’t any reports being done????
Have you updated this report?
How come there isn’t any weekly reports for offshore?, I hear that the BFT bite has been going off this season, acquiring minds want to know
Hit the Claw last Wednesday and got some decent action. Broke off a bluefin who hit our ballyhoo first then was hooked on the green machine but broke off. Had another hit on the ballyhoo but didn’t see what it was. Hooked and landed a small mako on another ballyhoo rig and released him no worse for the wear but he was super pissed. Last sighting of the day was a big mako checking out our squid bar and thankfully he didn’t tear in to it. Saw lots of dolphins but not much else, nothing in the way of birds feeding or any other signs of life.
Anglers please post your trips, I hear people are doing good, for the first time ever, onthewater did a add on 94.9, saying, tuna fishermen are using live macks, are cathching BFT from 300-500, never have I heard a add like that here in NH
REALLY WISH WE HAD SOME REPORTS
Fish South 8/21 started at the Claw in 66.5 water, lot’s of porpoises no tuna. Birds started attacking our bally so picked up and ran to the fingers. Set up and trolled SE, had a white free jump next to the boat, and a giant ray in the distance. Found some 69.5 water and had a knockdown by a whitey, a few cutoffs, and finally hooked a decent white on a short blue/white Islander. Pulled the hook after one short run. Heard one boat into some Mahi at the Dump.
west atlantis aug 16, zero tunas of any kind, hooked and lost 2 large blue marlin. decent amount of mahi life . day troll night chunk etc
I heard here in NH, that tuna fishing is at a quota for the month, and a owner/operator, of a well known boat said her cant fish until, Sep?, why has ONW not posted since JULY?????, we want to know there expertise
Just want to know how the tuna bite it????
2 trips to veatch last weekend and it was dead. Saw a few Marlin but no hookups. 3 other boats out there.. 1 guy caught a yellowfin on the troll blind but that was it. We did snag a few mahi on the high flyers to at least get some meat in the box.
Thank you for all who do POSTs
Last report July 20???, we just want to know how the offshore bite is???
Hey Robert Mitchell…how about you actually go out and fish instead of relying on everyone else to do it for you
lol
Fished Hampton Jetty on my 15 ft skiff and bunker are everywhere, I tried everything from plastics, snagging a live bunker and live lining it, and trolling, there is so much bunker in the water at the mouth that fish were actually finicky, I know they are there, seen many keeper sized fish follow my live bunker and turn on it. At the landing I spoke with 3 different tuna boats, and they confirm that CHARLIE is just 2-4 miles off of Hampton beach, sorry for the complaining last year, im just used to the reports every night on the west coast
Wow no tuna seen in over a year they must be all down south still
Stellwagon produced nada yeaterday. We were our from 7 to 6 with 5 lines in the water. Three dunking whole baits for tuna on the bottom and one jigging and one plugging at every depth.
PLENTY of whales to amuse us though 🙂
I went out to jefferys for some haddock fishing, caught allot of cod from 20-30 lbs. Haddock were plenty, ranging from 17-19″, and some pollock up to 15 lbs. We were metering for what I was told, some big bass off of the isle of shoals, and at the SECRET SPOT, we were encountering blitzes of BFT, from 150-300 lbs. Well that is what we were told, as for what I seen was BFT no smaller than 300 lbs. Tight lines and hope for a GREAT FALL RUN.
Are the striper migration maps coming back?
Will start again in mid-March!
With such a short Off Shore fishing here in the cold NE states, how about hooking up with some of the charter boat groups in the southern Florida, Gulf of Mexico area and do winter reports from there. Possibly getting involved with the local chamber of commerce and maybe lure them into kicking in monies for the promotion of their fair city or town.
Just a thought.
Went down to N. Carolina in the beginning of Feb, left from Oregon Inlet ( and yes Wicked Tuna outer banks was being filmed )….in the two weeks we were down there we landed 8 giants from 400-525 lbs….two nice bigeye, a couple of yellowfin, one small sworfish, and of course a few Sharks, beautiful thing is it’s just 32 mile to the edge, and then keep heading southeast until you find the warm water and the rest of the fleet!..and it was on!!