Above: Captain Rob Taylor of Newport Sportfishing Charters and Chris Megan with a first light bluefin from August 8. 

The biggest catch of the past week was the 6-million-dollar marlin caught during the White Marlin Open abord the Floor Reel. The 640-pound blue marlin earned a world record for the largest payout for the catching of a fish.
 
There were a mess of white marlin caught during the billfish’s eponymous tournament – more than 500 – but none met the minimum size requirement of 70 inches or 70 pounds. It was the fourth time in the tournament’s 50-year history that a qualifying white marlin was not caught. The other years were 1984, 1985, and 1986.

Overall, it was a big tournament for billfish numbers. For the 400 boats fishing the tournament, which were allowed to depart from any inlet between Rudee Inlet, VA and Barnegat Inlet, NJ 558 white marlin, 48 blue marlin, 1 spearfish, and 10 sailfish were caught. All but three were released.

Bigeye tuna made a strong showing in the southern canyons throughout the tournament, with a number of 200-pound-plus fish taken, topped by a 265-pounder that gaffed the crew of Reel Tight a cool million bucks.

 

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While not big enough to knock the bigeye off the leaderboard, the mid-Atlantic canyons are still cranking out yellowfin tuna, and more recently, the mahi bite has lit up.

After a few weeks of boats reporting fair to middlin’ mahi fishing, it seems like the late-summer fishing fired up, with floating structures from Maryland to Massachusetts covered up in mahi. While plenty are being caught by boats trolling close to the structures, captains like my friend Capt. Eric Kerber of On A Mission Fishing out of Belmar, NJ run dedicated trips targeting mahi on fly and light tackle.

Mahi under the buoys are usually in the “chicken” class, that is, 1- to 5-pounds, so figure on bringing albie-level spinning gear and 8-weight fly rods. There are the occasional fish into the teens, and sometimes you just find a structure with bigger fish, so having one heavier spinning setup could help you hang onto any bulls you spot.

 

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Off New Jersey, the live bait bluefin bite is still going on the inshore grounds, and a light-tackle topwater bite for yellowfin on the midshore grounds is giving fishermen a reason to push a bit further. For a few days, fishermen had been reporting finicky yellowfin on the midshore grounds off Jersey, but then over the last couple good weather days, the bite popped off. Captain Gene from Shore Catch Guide Service posted a shot of the fishfinder showing nearly vertical red slashes going through the balls of bait – a sure sign of active, feeding tuna. Metal jigs and poppers have been doing the damage on the yellowfin.

Fishermen east of Block Island, south of Martha’s Vineyard continued to catch a mix of yellowfin and bluefin through the weekend. Some fishermen reported that the tuna were feeding along a temperature break with bluefin on the cool side and yellowfin on the warm side. North winds in the forecast will shuffle some of the water temperatures in that zone, so those tuna could be moving. The weather recently hasn’t allowed for many runs to the Southern New England tuna grounds, but a few boats battled the elements and found the jig bite still going. Rebecca Delabs and Capt. Kevin from Blueline Charters posted some epic videos of fighting tuna in victory at sea conditions over the last couple days. Captain Rob Taylor of Newport Sportfishing Charters was out Thursday and had a good day jigging tuna with an experienced crew, and said while he had all bluefin, the yellowfin are still around.

 

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Tuna action is good from 15 to 40 miles out off the South Shore of Long Island reported Jeff Lomonaco at White Water Outfitters. There’s been a mix of football bluefin, good-sized yellowfin, and giant bluefin.

Some very big yellowfin have been caught over the past week, including a 101-pounder caught with Captain Rob Radlof. In fact, the class of yellowfin seemed to go up a notch all over this week, with boats reporting more fish in the 60- to 70-pound range taking poppers and jigs.

 

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Giant tuna fishing has been pretty lock and load, both south of the Vineyard and east of Chatham. Boats have had luck with live mackerel. Off the tip of Cape Cod, the giants are dialed in on the thick bluefish schools, and more than a few fishermen have had tuna attack hooked blues very close to the beach.

 

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