Offshore Fishing Report – July 27, 2023

by Jimmy Fee

A stretch of great wind and sea conditions put some captains on an offshore bender over the last week, but a couple lay-days are in the forecast, with seas kicking up, will give offshore crews a chance to re-rig and re-group.

Tournament Check-In
 
TLC Sportfishing hung on to be the big winners of the Jimmy Johnson Quest for the Ring tournament that wrapped up last Sunday. Their 568-pound blue marlin went uncontested after the weigh-in on Thursday. They also caught the second-place white marlin, gaffing them the largest share of the $1.4 million dollar purse.

This week’s big tournament is the Tri-State Canyon Shootout on Block Island. This tournament allows teams to pick one overnight window to fish from Monday-Tuesday to Wednesday-Friday. Judging by the fish tallies, the New England canyons are still holding good numbers of yellowfin tuna (with 91 total recorded). Only six bigeye have been checked in, though the biggest is an arm-wrenching 244 pounds. A pair of longfin albacore have come in as well.

Beyond the tuna, several wahoo to 74 pounds have been caught, and the billfishing was pretty good with 30 white marlin and 11 blue marlin recorded by the teams. With a pair of blue marlin, a white marlin, and a bigeye tuna all adding to their points total, as of Thursday, it’s looking liek Gypsea will be securing the win at Tri-State.

Inshore/Midshore

Captain Brett Taylor, who writes our Southern New Jersey Fishing Report, came across a school of bluefin tuna eating sand eels on the surface just four miles out off Ocean County, New Jersey this week. Bluefin continue to pop up in the 4 to 15 mile range off New Jersey, and Taylor said there have been reports from Ocean City on up to Seaside. If you’re headed out for fluke, might make sense to bring some tuna popping gear (and make sure you have your Highly Migratory Species Permit).

The midshore tuna grounds off Northern New Jersey and Long Island have been relatively quiet, both for yellowfin and bluefin. Boats have been running far east to the grounds off Block Island and south of Martha’s Vineyard, where the fishing has been excellent.

Boats have had some excellent days trolling and jigging a mix of yellowfin and bluefin around The Dump, Tuna Ridge, and at various locations around the vast “South of the Vineyard” tuna grounds.

The fishing hit a fever pitch over the weekend, but fast-moving schools of fish had anglers some anglers returning fishless from the grounds mid-week. I experienced both ends of the tuna action this week, with a great trip Saturday that began with a couple fish on the troll and culminated in a wide-open jig bite with 40-inch yellowfin and 60-inch bluefin.

On Wednesday, we returned to the grounds, and had a dreaded 0 for 0 day, no runs, no hits, no errors, and all the tuna left on base. Other boats, particularly those with a reliable network of other boats canvassing the grounds, stayed on the tuna. In addition to the recreational bluefin, there have been some giants in the mix, with some crews battling and losing large fish on the jig after long battles.

With the strong currents and productive depths of 180 to 200 feet, heavy jigs in the 200- to 300-gram range have been productive.

East of Cape Cod and on Stellwagen Bank, there are giant tuna being caught on live mackerel and bluefish.

There have been sporadic reports of mahi-mahi setting up around high-flyers and buoys from New Jersey’s midshore grounds to south of Cape Cod, but nothing too consistent yet. The water temperatures are prime, and there have been good mahi reports from the canyons, so it’s just a matter of time.

The Canyons

While the midshore yellowfin bite got a little quieter off New Jersey and Long Island this week, the canyons have been much more consistent for yellowfin. Boats have reported catches of up to 30 yellowfin on the troll, with white marlin and shots at blue marlin in the mix.

 

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Bigeye tuna action has been good in the southern canyons, but not quite as good in Atlantis and Veatch, indicated by the low numbers in the Tri-State tournament.

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