Capt. Dave’s East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report: September 30, 2022
East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report
When it comes to bluefin, the waters around the Regal Sword continue to produce good numbers of fish, with the jig bite very popular. Caroline Scotti at North Chatham Outfitters also said that a number of fish continue to be caught on bars as well. Stellwagen is mainly a recreational and charter boat fishery at the moment, with the commercial sector closed at the moment. Livelining mackerel and local groundfish is typically the choice of folks looking to sell fish, but squid bars work on giants as well as the smaller classes of fish.
Finally, not much news this week on the canyons, admitted Christian Giardini at Falmouth Bait & Tackle; he did know of few boats that were considering heading that way, but hadn’t heard from any just yet. There is also the possibility that the heavy sea conditions might have resulted in a change of plans. The one bit of news that Christian said continues to be true is that boats were still enjoying a good yellowfin bite down around the Tuna Ridge.
Capt. Dave’s East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report: September 23, 2022
East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report
What is going to happen to the Regal Sword madness after the wind dies is anyone’s guess, but it remained on fire right through mid-week, according to Capt. Caroline Scotti at North Chatham Outfitters and the charterboat Li’ Jaz. She went 10 for 12 on an earlier trip this week using the 8-ounce Hogy Sand Eel Jig. Steve Morris from Dick’s Bait & Tackle in Oak Bluffs on the Vineyard said he heard from a couple of boats who ran into a good yellowfin bite at the Dump on their return from disappointing trips to the canyons.
And Christian Giardini at Falmouth Bait & Tackle doesn’t believe this weekend will spell the end of the offshore scene around the canyons, but it will take some time for things to settle down. He has heard of a good tuna bite down around Coxes and says the key will be determining where the water temperature breaks have moved.
Capt. Dave’s East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report: September 16, 2022
East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report
If anyone had concerns that the wind last weekend would stir up the Regal Sword bite, their fears were quickly allayed this week, explained Capt. Caroline Scotti from North Chatham Outfitters, as the fishing remains unbelievable. She took her Lil’ Jaz there and told me that fish were being caught on pretty much everything, from bars to jigs and there was even some popper action. There are good numbers of recreational fish around, but if you put a bait down – and mackerel a hook up, if you can find the macks – you are almost guaranteed that a giant will gobble it up.
When I asked Caroline if she has heard of any fish at Crab Ledge or from Nauset up to Peaked Hill, she said that pretty much everyone is headed to the Sword, so getting news has been tough. That said, she wouldn’t be surprised if some recreational fish have been taken on bars at Crab Ledge, but one would expect there to be a push inshore of at least recreational bluefin as we progress deeper into September and especially as the calendar turns to October.
In Cape Cod Bay, it’s all giants at the moment from what Capt. Scotti has heard, with nothing under 105-inches caught this week.
As for the canyons, Capt. Christian Giardini from Falmouth Bait & Tackle knows of a number of boats headed that way this weekend, hoping to get into yellowfin, billfish, and perhaps some bigeye, while last weekend pretty much everyone, including the boats from a couple of bluefin tournaments on Nantucket, headed east to you know where.
Capt. Dave’s East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report: September 9, 2022
East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report
When Tim Coggins at the Nantucket Tackle Center told me that boats signed up for this weekend’s tournaments were most likely headed east, I assume that meant the Regal Sword. As Scott Butcher from North Chatham Outfitters said, this area is still holding incredible numbers of both recreational size bluefin and giants. If you are vertical jigging, you never know if you are going to hook with a 50-inch fish or a 100+-incher and the same is true if you are trolling bars, since giants are hitting them as well. Of course, if you want to make it stupidly easy, drop a mackerel – if you can find them – down and just hold on.
What got me a little pumped is that Scott said that increasing numbers of recreational size fish are moving back in around Crab Ledge and in towards Nauset; many folks are trolling them up, but there has been some casting action if you get there early in the morning. Some bluefin in the 30 to 40-inch range have been caught and those are the size fish I am interested in with my 14-weight; anything much larger and I know better. Of course, you can make the run well east of Peaked Hill and find castable tuna; hopes are that they will soon move in closer, shortening trips to get to where they have been most commonly found in about 150-feet of water.
Connor Swartz at Red Top in Buzzards Bay could only say that the giants have moved into Cape Cod Bay since the guys who come into the shop are commercials and they are pretty tight lipped about where they are fishing. What Connor could tell me is that they are fishing bait and that at least two fish over 110-inches have been caught.
The one challenge of offshore fishing is that you check the temperature charts and take your best shot; as Rory Edwards at Falmouth Bait & Tackle said, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. In his case, he went out last weekend with shop owner Christian Giardini to the waters around East and West Atlantis; while they didn’t find the tuna they were looking for, trolling up only one small yellowfin, they did find a floating telephone pole that was holding big numbers of 20+-pound mahi, making for some great casting action.
Rory said the yellowfin were at the shipping lanes, from all reports, while Ken Swartz went out to the Claw and they found yellowfin and longfin albacore – and, yes, Ken sent me a photo since I have not heard of any longfin at all this season
Capt. Dave’s East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report: September 2, 2022
Filmed Last Week!
In this video, Capt Mike is joined by Capt. Rob Lowell of Cape Cod Offshore Charters as they target deepwater bluefin tuna on Hogy Charter Grade Poppers.
East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report
I should keep this written somewhere and just paste it in until it stops being true: the Regal Sword continues to produce tuna. Matt Cody at North Chatham Outfitters said that the topwater popper bite has slowed, with a return to jigging on the menu. The Hogy Sand Eel Jig continues to prove its worth big time and Matt said they have been flying out of the shop. Heavily weighted soft plastic jigs, whether they are paddletail or eel style, are an excellent lure due to their versatility; for example, some folks troll the Hogy Harness Jig, while others deep jig it and it also can be used as a casting lure; the same holds true for the Hogy Pro Tail Paddle. Matt said that he only hooked two giants on his last trip to the Sword before he finally managed to connect with the recreational size fish he was looking for. When I asked Matt about castable size fish for flyrod folks, he said his buddies were casting topwater plugs for bass up off of Nauset this week and hooked a 45-inch bluefin and he added that it’s about time the tuna start moving in closer to shore, including – hopefully – an increased number of smaller fish.
Christian Giardini at Falmouth Bait & Tackle said that despite a clear edge to the east where you would expect to find tuna, the bite out around the canyons was more to the west of the temperature break. Folks who moved away from where the fish “should be” found good numbers of yellowfin on the troll with both bars and rigged/naked ballyhoo. Some folks from the Cape he knows checked out the scene around Coxes and off Montauk where there was a massive tuna bite reported, but when they saw boats casting into and even jigging around the whales in the area, since the tuna were mixed right in with the cetaceans, they opted to head elsewhere since that game wasn’t for them.
Steve Morris from Dick’s Bait & Tackle in Oak Bluffs went to the canyons earlier this week and he was on one of the boats who went east when the fish were more to the west; they did manage one yellowfin, but as he said, “the fish won that day.” Steve did add that there are still good numbers of blue and white marlin out east, along with some bigeye, wahoo, and mahi. As far as the tuna bite south of the Vineyard, it really has died off, although Steve believes that while some people found fish inside, it really never shaped up to be a banner year.
And up around Stellwagen, squid bars in pink, green, and black continue to produce some giant bluefin, noted Ian Field at Blackbeard’s in Eastham and Harwich, while recreational fish that are targeted on casting gear have been challenging to find in close to the backside, with folks having to run well east to locate even small numbers of castable tuna.
Capt. Dave’s East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report: August 26, 2022
Filmed Last Week!
In this video, Capt. Mike is joined by renowned angler Eric Harrison as they target bluefin tuna on Hogy Sand Eel Jigs.
East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report
The bluefin bite at the Regal Sword continues virtually unabated, said Matt Cody at North Chatham Outfitters, with the one change being that there are more recreational size fish in comparison to the huge numbers of giants that have been encountered in this area for several weeks. There have been some topwater feeds, especially in the morning when there have been topwater feeds, and fish in the 40 to 50-inch range have been caught on poppers, plastics, Hogy Epoxy Jigs, and even flies. There are some tuna being caught more inshore of the Sword, but there are far more people looking than fish being caught. In fact, Matt would guess that of 100 tuna caught, 90 have been from the Regal Sword and the remainder from inshore grounds.
Capt. Mike headed offshore this week with Capt. Rob Lowell of Cape Cod Offshore Charters. Jack Pinard of Hogy Lure Company reported that they got on an epic topwater popper bite at first light throwing the 7″ Hogy Charter Grade Popper. Jack reported that they landed multiple fish in the 60-70″ range on both poppers and Hogy Sand Eel Jigs.
Capt. Dave’s East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report: August 19, 2022
East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report
I have to admit that my interest in offshore fishing is really limited, mainly because the thought of trolling around isn’t the way I want to spend my fishing hours – although I realize that assuming that dragging squid bars and skirted ballyhoo is a gross generality. Still, as much as I can imagine the pure adrenaline rush when a spread is covered up by tuna – especially bigeye – or a marlin comes up and slashes its bill all over the place as it moves from one lure to another, I need to cast if I am going to enjoy my fishing.
That is why I was so jazzed up by the report from Steve Morris at Dick’s Bait & Tackle in Oak Bluffs; he was part of a crew that fished Hydrographer’s earlier this week and managed six yellowfin casting plugs, as well as having an estimated 200-pound blue marlin take a swipe at a plug. Steve managed to hook up twice casting a Hogy tuna rigged Epoxy Jig as well, although the hook pulled on both when the fish were close to the boat. Steve emphasized that over the last couple of years they have had more fish on topwater lures than ever before. His favorite lure is the Strategic Angler Espada, especially the floating model. You can also work the sinking model close to the surface as well if you begin your retrieve right away.
I happened to run into Christian Giardini from Falmouth Bait & Tackle in town on Wednesday and he showed me some photos of the nice yellowfin and big mahi they caught on a trip south of the Vineyard last Sunday. All of the fish were caught on ballyhoo, but they did have some knockdowns on bars that Christian was trolling in the spread tight to the transom. Overall, Christian said the bite south of the Vineyard in the waters north of the shipping lanes has been fantastic; Tuna Ridge has also been an excellent location and yellowfin and mahi have also been caught at times as close in as the Claw.
Over at the Nantucket Tackle Center, Colin Lynch reported that both white and black marlin have been caught just five to seven miles south of the island.
And, of course, the bluefin bite remains off the charts at the Regal Sword, where the number of boats targeting these fish is off the charts; Matt Cody from North Chatham Outfitters fished there on Monday and hooked up with four giants before boating a 64-inch fish. As he explained, it’s not as if they are targeting giants; in fact, he was jigging with the Hogy Sand Eel Jig, but you just can’t know what size bluefin you are going to hook up to. Matt did say that it is possible to land a giant on spinning gear, but his rule of thumb is if he isn’t making headway on a fish after about a half hour, he does everything to break it off. In addition, when I asked him what the rule of thumb should be if someone does manage to bring a giant to the boat and they want to release it with the best chance it is going to survive, Matt advised swimming the fish for at least as long as you fought it. Otherwise, even if you contend that it swam away, odds are that it just headed to the bottom to become crab food, an awful waste of such a tremendous creature.
As far as bluefin from Crab Ledge to Provincetown, especially castable fish in the 40 to 60-inch range, there hasn’t been much chatter, Matt admitted, with pretty much everyone gathered up at the Sword.
Capt. Dave’s East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report: August 12, 2022
Take a look into Capt. Mike’s tuna fishing tackle, featuring the Hogy Mesh Crate Storage System.
East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report
Matt Conroy at North Chatham Outfitters reported that the commercial bluefin fishery is closed, which means there are way fewer boats out around the Regal Sword, but there are still plenty of fish there. There is a mix of sizes, with a friend of Matt’s picking up some fish in the 50 to 60-inch range trolling Hogy Harness Jigs and spreader bars. Live bait on the bottom continues to be best if you want to target a giant; if you can find mackerel, you have a prime bait, but folks are also doing well jigging up some of the local groundfish in the area. These fish continue to be packed with sand eels, which makes for a lower quality fish – not as much fat – on the market, but recreational anglers have been happily jigging up fish on imitations of these slender baitfish. Offerings like the Hogy Sand Eel Jig will get down to the fish faster that jighead/soft plastic combinations, but tuna find it tough to resist the action of baits like the Hogy Pro Tail Paddle and Hogy Pro Tail Eel. It seems like most folks are concentrating on the bite at the Sword, with not much chatter about casting action around Crab Ledge and along the backside between Nauset and Peaked Hill, Matt explained; again, if folks are launching out of Cape Cod Bay locations, they have generally headed up to Stellwagen looking for bigger fish on bait.
Capt. Dave’s East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report: August 5, 2022
East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report
The giant bite remains off the charts out at the Regal Sword, with bait such as mackerel and small local groundfish the method being employed by most boats. In fact, Matt Cody at North Chatham Outfitters said he spoke to someone who was out there this week and of the 40+ or so boats in the area, everyone was soaking bait except for five that were trolling. It’s kind of sad trying to catch-and-release or even catch-and-kill these fish since there is virtually no market for them and you might think you are releasing an exhausted fish to swim away, but most likely it is going to the bottom to become crab bait.
Boats that are working the Crab Ledge area are mainly trolling bars and ballyhoo, with the casting bite having died down, but from the Golf Balls around to Peaked Hill and Stellwagen, there are still a good number of “castable” fish. I always laugh when people call at 50+-inch bluefin a small tuna, but I know that in that game, that’s the call. Early morning – around first light – has seen the best surface activity and provided the best shots for folks tossing plugs, jigs, and flies.
Although I keep hearing about all of the mackerel out east, the reality is that the main source of food for tuna thereabouts right now are sand eels, which make for lean fish without a lot of fat on them. This makes them less desirable on the market, so if you are determined to sell, at least have a buyer at the ready and make sure you take care of your fish so that it just doesn’t end up being dumped somewhere.
Steve Morris at Dick’s Bait & Tackle in Oak Bluffs confirmed there are yellowfin being caught between the Dump and the Claw, with a few white marlin the mix as well. I even heard from Bruce Miller at Canal Bait & Tackle in Sagamore that a blue marlin was caught in this area on a rigged ballyhoo. There are good numbers of mahi on the pots and a few wahoo have also been caught.
Of course, if you are looking for larger yellowfin and the chance to tangle with a bigeye, then Hydrographer and Welker Canyons are the spots to be, noted Jake Ryan at Falmouth Bait & Tackle. They are selling a lot of rigged ballyhoo, as well as swordfish squid for the deep drop daytime as well as the nighttime crews. Some big wahoo have been caught on high speed trolling plugs and the slug of warm water out east continues to draw in some big blue marlin.
Capt. Dave’s East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report: July 29, 2022
East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report
More folks continue to get into the tuna game for two main reasons: there are plenty around and they are proving to be a good substitute given the tough bass fishing in so many locations. It kind of blows my mind that people would be more inclined to pursue giant tuna on a catch-and-release basis, but Matt Cody from North Chatham Outfitters said if one of your goals is to try catch-and-release giant fishing, this is the time to do it.
Mainly, folks are fishing bait such as mackerel or local groundfish – especially the smaller specimens – such as whiting, cod, or hake, but Capt. Mike, first mate Jack Pinard, and videographer Dante Borgese went to the Regal Sword midweek and Jack filed this report of their dealings with a giant: “We went out towards The Regal Sword yesterday. There was lots of life between the whales, porpoises, birds and tuna, but the most amazing aspect of being there was the sheer volume of boats! At one point it seemed like we were looking at the coastline, but instead it was a massive fleet! Earlier on in the morning Capt. Mike hooked a giant on the Hogy Sand Eel Jig in 200-fee of water. About 20 minutes into the fight the hook pulled, but the reality is we had a slim chance of landing a fish of that size on our gear. A few hours went by with not much action except a few stud cod that ate our jigs on the bottom. We made a move south and started marking a few scattered pods of fish in water between 150 and 200-feet and sent our jigs down, with mine getting bit on the way down. This was a big fish, which we estimated was between 80 and 90-inches The fight that this fish put up was nothing short of incredible. From swimming under the boat countless times, coming to the surface then ripping drag back down deep, to going in and out of the “death spiral” multiple times, this fish had zero quit in it. After two plus hours of Capt. Mike and I fighting this fish, it finally chafed through our leader by coming parallel to the boat and getting the fluorocarbon rubbing against its body. With sore arms and weak knees, we both were astonished by the fight this fish put up. Although we lost the fish, there was a side of us that was content with the fish winning that day. Something about doing everything right and still being beaten by that fish was both humbling and rewarding. I am extremely grateful to have crossed paths with that fish and glad that it will pass down its superb genes to its young.”
All I have to say is it must be nice to be young and/or have a strong back.
Matt Cody said that there has also been a return of smaller tuna closer in this week and Hogy Sand Eel Jigs, Hogy Pro Tails and Hogy Harness Jigs have been flying out the door, a pretty good confirmation that a lot of folks are vertical jigging, although the Harness Jig also makes a good trolling option. Ken Swartz shared his experience of casting for smaller bluefin up off of Peaked Hill and the Golf Balls last weekend; he reported good numbers of fish in the 40 to 50-inch range and he noted that while they had shots when they were closer in towards land, they found the best action several miles out. The one takeaway I found most illuminating was Ken’s thoughts on the challenges of casting a big tuna spinning outfit.
The concept of illumination also came up in Bob Lewis’s canyon trip report; he went out to Hydrographer’s Wednesday morning in Frank Torbey’s 41-foot Valhalla, along with Dave Ryan, and returned the next day. It took about four hours to reach the canyons from Osterville, even in sloppy conditions, and they were rewarded with a really good yellowfin bite. Bob said their spread included bars, skirted ballyhoo, and daisy chains and he emphasized that they caught fish pretty much on everything they dragged behind the boat. They tried nighttime swordfishing with no success, but the yellowfin bite turned on again at first light and overall they caught 11 tuna up to the 60-pound range. In addition, they found a nice piece of flotsam – Bob described it as looking like a piece of a boat – and soon had mahi chasing their lures and he landed a couple on his fly rod on a plain white flat wing. What I was really struck by was how Bob’s description of all of the lights from the large number of boats in the area reminded him of looking at Hyannis from a boat at night – reminiscent of Jack’s comment about all of the boats at the Regal Sword.
Capt. Dave’s East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report: July 22, 2022
Latest Video
In our latest video, Capt. Mike Hogan heads offshore targeting bluefin tuna on spinning gear using a combination of the Hogy Harness Jigs and Hogy Charter Grade Sliders.
East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report
Rory Edwards at Falmouth Bait & Tackle offered up a roundup of the action during last week’s (July 12 to 16) Oak Bluffs Bluewater Classic Tournament, noting that “the canyons have been on fire; there were a lot of yellowfin caught during the tournament and some fairly big bigeye in the 200-pound range. There were some marlin releases and at least one swordfish. What was really cool were two huge wahoo, one 87-pounds that typically would be the largest of the tournament, but it was topped by a 103-pounder. It’s hard to say any lure was best as fish were caught on a mix of everything, including bars; skirted and naked ballyhoo; trolling lures; and one boat even rigged up a dredge with ballyhoo. On the way back in from Welker and Hydrographer, where most boats fished, some stopped out east of Chatham and picked up their bluefin release points.”
In the old days, Steve Morris at Dick’s Bait & Tackle in Oak Bluffs was known as a big striper angler, but since he has been bitten by the bluewater scene, he saves up his time for boat trips downtown and last weekend he had a great day, picking up a number of yellowfin up to 60-pounds casting plugs from the bow when fish were raised on trolled lures. As he explained, “I have been doing this for a while and it works great. I use a custom, seven-foot rod that I made out of a Calstar blank with a 14000 Shimano Twin Power and 65-pound Power Pro Max Quattro braid to an 80-pound fluorocarbon leader.” While a lot of time has been spent on creating the thinnest, smoothest knot for casting with braid and a longer, wind on leader, Steve doesn’t like the feel and sound of the knot going through the guides, so he opts for a 235-pound Spro swivel to connect line and leader and has had no problems. Steve had heard of rumors of fish south of the Vineyard and there is 70-degree water around Tuna Ridge, so it could break wide open as the scene out east did a couple of weeks ago.
Speaking of east, Matt Cody from North Chatham Outfitters said a lot of the inshore tuna have moved farther out; Crab Ledge has slowed and there is more jigging going on than popping, with butterfly and other metal style jigs working better than soft plastics in the deeper water. He added that if you want to catch-and-release giant bluefin, this is the time to do it down around the Regal Sword; all you need to do is put a mackerel down deep. Frankly, I can’t imagine how high the mortality rate is for released giants is. Evan Eastman from Eastman’s in Falmouth advised that any topwater action at Crab Ledge and closer to shore from Chatham to Provincetown has been an early morning activity recently, with jigging producing most consistently. A couple of kids on his staff have been commercially fishing bluefin and they had reports of fish in the 95 to 105-inch range from the Sword; mackerel and whiting are both effective baits, with small bluefish tough to come by. To give you an idea of how big these fish are, they had an 80-class reel spooled the other day.
There are still good numbers of bluefin in the 50 to 60-inch class from Race Point to Peaked Hill and the Golf Balls, although I spoke to Ken Swartz who fished on a casting charter and that put over 100-miles on the boat according to the captain; they didn’t find fish until early afternoon and had one hook up on a plug, but there were good numbers of fish around the plenty of life.
Capt. Dave’s East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report: July, 15th 2022
Latest Video
The schoolie size bluefin tuna bite off of Cape Cod has been one of the best we’ve seen in years! Here’s a look into our latest video, trolling for bluefin tuna just east of Chatham!
East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report
Along with plenty of other folks, the Salty Cape crew
went tuna fishing this week and Jack Pinard filed this report: “Headed
east early Monday morning, and while there is no secret the bluefin
tuna bite has been good lately in certain locations, we opted to try and
find some fish away from the fleet. Bluebird skies, high sun, and calm
conditions weren’t ideal but there were still fish around willing to eat.
There was minimal life compared to last week, just lots of birds. Started
off “walking and gunning” as Capt. Mike likes to say, to different pods
of birds working bait. One of the first feeds we came upon, Capt. Mike
using the “kerplunk method” threw in an olive colored Hogy harness jig.
He got bit on the drop by a 55-inch class bluefin. There were a few
scattered feeds, but the fish wouldn’t stay up long enough to get a cast
on them. This is when we started noticing large schools of fish pushing
water. Our videographer launched his drone giving us an aerial view
and what we saw was nothing short of incredible. Hundreds of 60-80lb
bluefin cruising just below the surface. We switched over to both
throwing Hogy sliders, and would lead the school of fast moving fish.
Lure placement was very important as the fish were moving quickly,
and you had to lead the school of fish for them to react to your lure and
not spook. We ended the day with plenty of fish using this method. On
our way back we were greeted by huge bass and bluefish feeds at
Monomoy. Tons of birds, bait, and fish all feeding in the sizable swells.
Landed a couple blues before shooting back west to beat the
forecasted high winds.”
Matt Cody at North Chatham Outfitters said that Crab Ledge has had
plenty of tuna, although he did say that if someone was looking for
more fly rod size fish, then the Provincetown bite might be more
appropriate. The fish closer in to the backside have been eating plugs
and plastics, but it has been an early morning bite before the fish drop
deeper in the water column, making vertical jigging a better approach.
While some folks might be interesting in pulling on 70 to 100-pound
fish on the fly, I liked Ian Field’s report that there were good numbers
of 30-pound fish from Race Point to Peaked Hill.
Steve Morris from Dick’s Bait & Tackle in Oak Bluffs fished the Regal
Sword this week and while he successfully fought a 70+-inch fish on
stand up gear, he did acknowledge that he wasn’t too disappointed
when he hooked up on a similar size fish on spinning gear and it broke
off. While jigging with soft plastics or metal/Epoxy Jigs is one way to go,
some folks continue to troll squid bars and others have been jigging up
mackerel and livelining, with whiting an alternative if you can’t find the
macks.
The giant bite up around Stellwagen isn’t on fire, but there are enough
fish being caught on live bait to keep the fleet steady in size.
Capt. Dave’s East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report: July, 8th 2022
Coming Soon…
Here’s a sneak peek into Capt. Mike’s latest offshore tuna trip. Stay tuned for the full length version!
East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report
Capt. Mike and the Salty Cape crew decided to check out the
tuna bite east of Chatham and first mate Jack Pinard filed this report:
“We left the marina at 4:30 am, heading offshore in search of tuna. The
winds were forecasted to pick up in the latter half of the morning so we
had a pretty tight window to make things happen. We had heard of a
solid bluefin bite going off east of Chatham in 200′ of water. As soon as
we got to Capt. Mike’s coordinates we immediately started seeing tons
of life. Acres of birds sitting on the surface as well as plenty of whales
breaching. The amount of sand eels out there was outrageous. We
started off by chasing the whales as tuna would
sporadically start surface feeding behind them. The
topwater feeds wouldn’t last long and it was difficult to get a cast into
them before the fish would go back down. We tried the jig and pop for
an hour or two but after noticing the fish were more spread out we
opted to start trolling. Using the Hogy Bird bars rigged on the Hogy
Hybrid Rods, we set out a five rod spread. Before we could even finish
setting up our spread we were tight on fish. We ended the day with five
fish, all between 60-80 lbs. The key was the olive colored
squid bars that mimicked the sand eels perfectly. We left the fish biting as we
had to get back to the marina before the wind and the swells got too
bad. All in all a great first tuna trip for the Hogy & Salty Cape Crew!”
Pretty much everyone I spoke to this week spoke of the tuna action
from Peaked Hill around the Race and up to Stellwagen; these are
definitely castable fish, with Ian Field at Blackbeard’s noting that there
are fish between 30 and 80-pounds feeding on a mix of sand eels and
mackerel – sometimes right among all the bass that are there as well.
White or sand eel olive colored larger soft plastics are working well
either casting or jigging, but fish are also being caught on surface plugs.
Capt. Dave’s East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report: July, 1st 2022
Run and Gun Bluefin
Tuna fever is in the air! A lot of people will be “calling out sick” from work these coming weeks due to the appearance of bluefin off of Cape Cod.
East of Chatham Offshore Fishing Report
The best news I gathered by far on the tuna front
came courtesy of Matt Cody at North Chatham Outfitters who said it
seems like all of the bluefin in the ocean showed up east of Chatham
this week. There have been fish reported from 50-inches to 100+ and
while the generally accepted method at the moment is livelining
mackerel, which can be jigged up from the small concentrations in the
area. Matt suggested that trolling squid bars is worth a shot, especially
on the smaller fish and he looks forward to perhaps getting some shots
casting at them if they move close in – with some folks reporting
sightings close in to the backside.
There are plenty of boats livelining mackerel or pogies around
Stellwagen and an occasional fish has been caught from the fleet, but
the action isn’t hot-and-heavy.
But that’s still better than south of the Vineyard, where there is a ton of
life including birds, bait, and whales, but no signs of Charlie. Things are
quiet from New Jersey to Rhode Island, with Steve Morris noting that
this is late to not have any fish for boats running out of southside ports,
as well as the Vineyard.
Jack Ryan from Falmouth Bait & Tackle knew of one boat that made a
run to the canyons and managed some small yellowfin, but overall folks
have been a little hesitant making the long run without some solid intel
and results just yet.