Northeast Offshore Fishing Report – July 20, 2023
A few days of bad weather always puts a dent in the flow of offshore information, but after a few lay days over the weekend and at the beginining of this week, the boats have been getting back to the grounds to recalibrate the tuna and billfish bite.
This week’s tournament is running out of Atlantic City, New Jersey, Jimmy Johnson’s Quest for the Ring. At the midway point of the contest, teams fishing the canyons from Wilmington north have been heavy on the medium-size yellowfin in the 40- to 70-pound range, with one near 100-pounder in the mix. A couple bigeye approaching 200 pounds have hit the scales, while a wahoo and some good-sized mahi to 30 pounds round things out. There hadn’t been any billfish brought to the scales as of Thursday morning, but several boats were reportedly headed in with marlin on Thursday afternoon.
Fishermen not beholden to tournament rules and fishing times are finding the tuna bite best at first light in the canyons, with some fish coming on the overnight chunk as well.
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Inshore, fishermen have reported 50- to 60-inch bluefin in depths of less than 100 feet off Northern New Jersey. While the short run to tuna is fantastic, the double edge to this sword is that shallow-water bluefin can be maddeningly picky reported Mike Gleason from TAK Waterman. Still fishermen have been cracking the code occasionally, and fooling the fish with poppers or stickbaits.
The mid-shore yellowfin action continues to be hot for fishermen off New Jersey and Long Island. Jigs and poppers are getting good bites, and falling back to the troll, or even live bait like spot or peanut bunker, has helped hook fish when the jig bite gets tough or the fish spread out.
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The Dump, south of Martha’s Vineyard, cooled off after a couple weeks of great action with bluefin and yellowfin, but the fish simply moved, suggested Captain Rob Taylor of Newport Sportfishing Charters, who continues to find excellent fishing on the jig and troll. Finding the life, in particular the whales, is essential to finding the deep-feeding tuna, so if your headed to the southern New England mid-shore grounds, plan on starting the day looking for spouts.
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East of Chatham on Cape Cod, the topwater frenzies of 50-inch bluefin slowed down, but the deep-feeding giants appear to be moving in. After tepid start to the giant tuna fishing this summer, things seem to be ramping up, with good numbers of boats “coming in heavy” with tuna in the 80- to 100-inch range to sell. Live mackerel are working well, and some are being taken on heavy metal as well.
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