Canyon Tuna Report - Big Jamaica 9-10/9-11

[bigjamaica]

Canyon Tuna Report 9-10/9-11 31hr Trip

Our first Canyon Tuna trip of the season was pretty good. This was a 31hr Tuna-Tilefish –Mahi,trip.
It was a little breezy to drift for tilefish Tuesday so we started off looking for Mahi and tuna.

Our first stop did not produce any mahi but, Rob Finkle from Sparta NJ hooked up with a Longfin tuna. We set up and made a drift and after about 20 minutes Rob hooked up another tuna. We let the drift go but, did not really mark any more fish under the boat so we went back looking for Mahi.

Some stops only produced a few but some produced multiple hook-ups of 6 to 12LB Mahi. On one move Capt. Morgan spotted a few swirling on top, we turned around, stopped and had one of the best drifts of the day. We had as many as 10 on at a time and the Mahi only left when, after one blitz, no one had a line left in the water to hold the fish next to the boat.
We had a number of good drifts after that and then went back to drifting for tuna. There were a number of Humpback whales and loads of anchovies in several areas of the canyon it really looked good,but, we did not mark many tuna.

We went back to the area where we caught the first two tuna to set up for the night. We did not have any tuna bites at night but had several swordfish around the boat. The first sword was landed around 11PM. Later in the night Garth Reeve from Brick NJ landed a fat, 100LB swordfish that yielded some beautiful steaks (thanks Garth).

As the sun rose I did not see tuna schooling under the boat like I expected, so we headed to another area of the canyon that I thought would be good for tilefish and tuna.

We set up on a drift and after about 10 minutes Tuna schooled under the boat 250’ – 300’ deep.
Rob Finkle dropped his jig down and hooked up right away. As he reeled his fish up the school followed, and were just 70’ to 150’ under the boat. We had some good shots with 3 or 4 on at a time for about an hour. Most of the tuna were caught on jigs and a couple on bait.

Pink Metalic Sardine jigs were hot but the high hook: John Zapella from Westfield NY landed 5 tuna on an 8oz Hammered finish Silver Jig.

Nuno DeCosta landed two tuna and several Mahi,
Rob Finkle finished the day with 3 tuna,
Gary Yearwood from Staten Island NY landed two tuna and 10 Mahi Mahi,
Garth Reeve Brick NJ a 100LB Swordfish,
Dan Gregory Howell NJ landed 3 longfin tuna.

Several other passengers caught tuna and Mahi. We did not catch any tilefish this trip because the current and drift were too strong the first day and on day 2 when the wind diminished the tuna started to bite so, lines were brought up from the bottom to prevent tangling the tuna.

This weekend the big Jamaica will be sailing for bluefish day and night at 7:30AM & 7:30PM.
Bluefishng has been excellent for 10 to 18LB bluefish.
The Jamaica Star fished for blues Wednesday and had a limit catch for everyone on board.

Our Next Canyon trip Sails 7AM Tuesday September 17 and Thursday Sept. 19. There is space available. Call 732-528-5014 for information.


I was not able to load any photos but you can see them at our Facebook page.

[Andreas Toy]

Nice mixed bag Captain!

[nmc02]

Great to hear. Thanks for the report.

[SnackAttack]

Great report especially for the first trip. No tile, well that's how it goes, you have to fish for what is available for everyone and it sounds like you sure did that. Hope to be back at it real soon. The finger is back in fishing shape and I hope to have some fresh deer back straps for it.

[Capt. Debbie]

sounds like a very productive trip.