Caveman Sportfishing
07-04-2016, 07:37 AM
Bluefin up to close to 80 lbs. were caught this past holiday weekend on jigs, trolling and chunking within 25-35 miles of our dock in Cape May. This season is starting to shape up like in past years when we used to jig 10-15 Bluefins per trip in the 80-140 lb. range on our good trips. It is not there quite yet but with the massive amount of sand eels on our 20 fathom lumps and hills it is looking like another great year on inshore Bluefins out of South Jersey much like we used to have in the past. There also have been a few Yellowfins and Mahi-Mahi caught the last few days mixed right in with the Bluefins feeding on abundant sand eels. One summer we never ran more than 50 miles from of our dock until early September when we started canyon fishing and caught Yellowfins in the 40-50 lb range and Bluefins in the 130-170 lb range in numbers that we only dream about now. Some of us that have been charter fishing over 25 year still talk about those days much like our Northern NJ counter parts talk about giants in the Mud Hole. We are far from that great inshore tuna fishing today but at least it is shaping up that we can offer some decent inshore tuna fishing without the expense of an overnight trip or the long boat ride.
As soon as the Big Eyes show up in our local canyons like they have for the last 3-4 years we will be offering combo Bluefin-Big Eye 14 day trips when we target both species. We can do these trip because one of the local canyons that has been providing very good Big Eye fishing is only under 75 miles from out dock in Cape May. 40-100 plus lb. Bluefins and couple 200 lb plus Big Eyes would make for one great fishing experience especially on a day trip. We will see how this plays out in the next week or so.
I just added this as I got a report from friend a few minutes ago they jigged up 5 nice Yellowfins late yesterday (Sunday) (along with their three legal Bluefins) Not a bad tuna catch for being only 38 miles of the Cape May. They caught good at grey light in the am and then nothing all day until the boat traffic thinned out and that is when the Yellowfins showed up spitting sand eels all over the cockpit. We have 3 spot available this coming Wednesday departing early am from Cape May to be on the tuna grounds before daybreak. See our open boat post. We will be doing another open boat on Friday 8th for up to 6 anglers.
As soon as the Big Eyes show up in our local canyons like they have for the last 3-4 years we will be offering combo Bluefin-Big Eye 14 day trips when we target both species. We can do these trip because one of the local canyons that has been providing very good Big Eye fishing is only under 75 miles from out dock in Cape May. 40-100 plus lb. Bluefins and couple 200 lb plus Big Eyes would make for one great fishing experience especially on a day trip. We will see how this plays out in the next week or so.
I just added this as I got a report from friend a few minutes ago they jigged up 5 nice Yellowfins late yesterday (Sunday) (along with their three legal Bluefins) Not a bad tuna catch for being only 38 miles of the Cape May. They caught good at grey light in the am and then nothing all day until the boat traffic thinned out and that is when the Yellowfins showed up spitting sand eels all over the cockpit. We have 3 spot available this coming Wednesday departing early am from Cape May to be on the tuna grounds before daybreak. See our open boat post. We will be doing another open boat on Friday 8th for up to 6 anglers.