Current Waters: Bluefin Blast

Well, another Bluefin Blast Fishing Tournament is in the books. This is one of the weekends we look forward to all summer. It is a little bittersweet, however. It’s a great chance for a lot of us to get together throughout the tournament weekend, but it marks the beginning of the end of our fishing season soon to come.

We had great weather leading up to the tournament, but Sunday morning, the actual fishing day, we had some pretty dense fog for the start of the day which was a tough start for some.

I would like to say congrats to the Starrfish Charter Crew for the win. We followed the lead with Topspin Fishing taking second place. Third place was secured by Lights Out. I would also like to point out that the Town Pier charter fleet represented well in the tournament this year!

On any given day, any of the boats signed up for the tournament could have made a win happen. The fishing was a little slower than previous years and we had to work for our fish. Not everyone was lucky. Out of 33 boats entered, only eight landed any tuna. This is primarily a catch-and-release tournament with Starrfish landing nine, Topspin with five, and Lights Out with four. 

But it’s not the number of fish that necessarily keeps anglers coming back. As usual, Jonas Baker puts on a great tournament with lots of comradery to be had among the fleet of anglers.

This year, the prize for the biggest fish weighed in goes to Christie Baker. An experienced angler, Christie made sure to say it was a family effort with her dad, brother, and daughter helping as a team aboard Fatal Attraction. We’re already looking forward to next year’s tournament!

Earlier in the week, pre-storm prep, we mixed things up and headed south of the island to get into the yellowfin tuna bite. Topspin and Albacore both went in that direction on tuna charters and we had a blast. We were fortunate to come home with some yellowfin tuna and mahi-mahi, my wife’s favorite.

Since then, we’ve all been busy with storm prep, pulling, or securing boats with no time for fishing on Thursday and Friday.

The storm will certainly change things moving forward, but it will take a few days for things to settle down and water to clear a bit to know what’s up. So, what should we expect for fishing after the storm? It’s hard to say. But I think bonito, for one, will be even more scarce after Lee. Hopefully churning things up will actually help the striper fishing. Bluefin tuna will still be around. Albies and bluefish will be around. There are still plenty of fish. And there is still the Nantucket Angler’s Club Inshore Classic to participate in! As of Thursday evening, anglers in the Inshore Classic tournament have caught 108 bonito, 102 false albacore, 102 bluefish, and 27 striped bass collectively. That should tell you everything you need to know about striped bass right now. The inshore classic runs through October 7^th, so there is still plenty of time to sign up and fish!

For those with boats still in the water this weekend; Make sure the bilges are clear, the batteries charged, and your dock lines are doubled up. I’ll be checking my dock lines throughout the weekend hoping the effects of Lee pass quickly. This is nothing the island hasn’t seen before. We got this!