Stellwagen Bank, Cape Cod Fishing Report

I think that today was a pretty incredible day of fishing. We ran a combo trip, and it wasn't a "let's get it done in a regular-length day" trip. It was a marathon trip. We started out with tuna on our mind. Now the bluefin tuna on Stellwagen and around haven't been busting the surface lately, but they're around. We took up residence on the SWC for a while, jigging around for them where we marked bait, saw birds/slicks, but nothing but blues, big blues. We moved east for a while and saw a few tuna busting here and there on half-beaks. Fast movers. Some more casts later, we set up residence again for some jigging before slack tide. It worked! Tom dropped one of the new Stingo-Fish Star jigs (250g) to the bottom and hooked up hard.

 

 

 

At first, I didn't think tuna at all. Just a heavy, heavy bouncing going on without taking line. I thought "halibut", actually. The fish never ran!!! It was a pain getting it off of the bottom, but man did it pull for it's size. I got a kick out of the first comment on the boat.."what do you use for line?"...."Tuf-Line", I repsonded to a good smile. At 80' below the boat, the fish put on the brakes and really got tough, but Tom held on and battled it nicely. We started getting a group of boats around us, which is always nerve-wracking. You don't want to lose a fish in front of others... As he gained line and it came to 'go time', I once again went over the size rules... When I saw it first and briefly, I knew it was an under... Of course, with eyes all around, you really want to be sure... We popped the boat in gear with the fish boatside and made sure.... Plenty of room for error, gaff, tail-gaff, over the rails! Nice tasty 53/4" bluefin for the table. Great start to the day.

 

 

Pollack fishing was pretty good. Some non-stop action as the fish coursed through. We put some more good meat on the table, some redfish as well. Off to cod.. With the winds increasing and the current picking up, we didn't have the easy-bottom-holding that we had earlier. It required a long cast into the drift and then some quick jigging action while everyone paid attention. A few small-fish holes and then we found some great action a bit away from the crowds. In fact, we left the fish biting and came home happy with fillets for everyone! Great day and great guys to fish with.

 

 

See you on the water, I have a shared tuna/cod trip on Friday, Sept. 17th..... There were solid reports of smaller tuna coming our way in great numbers... Maybe our 53" fish was the tip of the iceberg? I love when guys make the transition from stripers/blues; hell even largemouths to tuna... Expectations are the best! When you're jigging and you bang a blue...it's still exciting even though it's not a tuna. I was thinking of this the other day when we banged out a 57" tuna on cod gear...It was the customer's first tuna and the biggest fish he's ever caught by about 80 pounds...That photo will be on his desk forever! I still have a photo of the first yellowfin that I ever caught on my desk....a 50# fish hauled in on a 50-wide....so what? It is a fish that I'll never forget. In fact, the other "tuna virgins" with me will never forget it either...and they didn't catch it!! This is what fishing is all about. And if the tuna fishing doesn't pan out, at least the blues are biting and guys are still fighting fish...or we can spread out and go cod fishing instead... It's all good.

 

 

Capt. Rich Antonino, Black Rose Fishing Charters, 508-269-1882....almost three months of my season left!!! Make reservations soon.