CaptainRickyWheeler

The Sea World show this year off of our coast has been nothing short of amazing. Today the humpback whales and two tone dolphins were mixed together and putting on quite a show. We managed to put 7 nice size yellowfin in the box and even released a white marlin!

Like many others we went Blue Marlin Hunting for July 4th, but we didn’t enter the World Cup, just the Mid Atlantic Cup on Saltitude. We started in the deep of the Wilmington where there were some whales and lots of bait, but no bites. We made our way to the corner of the Baltimore Canyon and found scattered weed and a 2 degree temp break and released a white Marlin there that switched to the blue and white Party Skirt. That was pretty much it for us. Not one blue caught in the Mid Atlantic unfortunately. Try again next year.

Amazing tuna fishing for us this week. Plenty of yellowfin tuna on Tuesday with some smaller bluefin in the mix during a quick trip on the 27’ Contender “Trade In”. Wednesday a limit of yellowfins on the “Low Profile” and then 9 yellowfins on Thursday battling in the crowd.

I ran out on the 55′ Gwaltney Low Profile on this beautiful Sunday. We started inshore looking for tuna only to get mauled by 10-12 pound bluefish. Fun action but not what we were looking for. We then ran offshore to the Lindenkohl Canyon only to find it to be lifeless. From the sounds of it on the VHF radio it was the same up and down the line. We trolled down to the Spencer canyon in the 72 degree blue green water and managed to release a white marlin and boat a nice 60# long fin tuna, both of which were firsts for the anglers. Tough fishing but we scratched it out.

I ran the 52’ Ocean Yacht Saltitude today and we pounded it out for our bites on the west wall of the Wilmington Canyon in the SW 15-20 knot winds and managed to catch 6/9 yellowfin tunas ranging from 40-55 lbs. fun day of action with a steady pick on the yellowfins in the 69 degree blue green water.

I mated on the 55′ Gwaltney “Low Profile” today. Things started off kind of slow with no signs of life and we kept searching until our first bite at 9am. We continued to pick away at some doubles and triples that were swinging and missing like crazy but we managed to hold on to 4 yellowfin tuna and a fat long fin tuna putting plenty of meat in the box. Beautiful flat calm day in the Northern Canyons.

I have been too slammed to have a minute to post my reports so here they are.

Friday June 19th. Ran the 41 Jupiter Reel Work for Day 1 of the South Jersey Tuna Tournament. We started in the Poormans and could not buy a bite. Picked up and ran to just below the Baltimore Canyon but were arrived to the bite there too late and only caught 1 throwback yellowfin tuna. Tough Day!

Sunday June 21st. Day 2 of the South Jersey Tuna Tournament on Reel Work we ran to the Wilmington Canyon and had great action in the morning going 2/6 on yellowfin tuna and 1/1 on white marlin. We could not get a bigeye bite and then everything shut down until 1:30 when we got a double header Bigeyes on. Unfortunately as bad luck would have it we pulled the hook on one and busted off the other. YOUCH!

Monday June 22nd. I ran the 52 Ocean Yacht Saltitude and went back to the Wilmington. It looked entirely different, less bait, no life or birds around, and no bites. We shoved out to 800 fathoms when we found a nice 2 degree temperature break and grabbed a double header of 50# yellowfin tuna in the whales, but that was it for us for the day.

Unfortunately for us, 3 tough days of fishing. Not what I was hoping for.

I ran out today on the 52’ Ocean Yacht Saltitude on a nice little shakedown trip. After working out a few boat kinks in the morning we made our way to the 30 fathom lone looking for bluefin tuna and ended up filling out limit of unders in an hour and a half.

We switched over to shark fishing in the 65 degree water and had decent action on blue sharks and a dusky. We released them all searching for Mr. Mako but no mako encounters today. All in all great shakedown trip and sashimi on the table!

We ended up running to the Heyes today looking for a bigeye bite but no go. There was a nice 69-72 degree break right on the 100 fathom line, and we did manage to release 2 out of 2 white marlin. It looked lifeless so we ran inside to try and get on the bluefins like we did yesterday but only caught a throwback. With things being slow we decided to give shark fishing a go and managed to release a 200# blue shark to end the day. Tough fishing today but we scratched out a fun day of catching.

Today I ran out on the 55’ Gwaltney “Low Profile” searching for tunas! We got started at first light and found the whales, birds, and dolphins with some false albacore and a few bluefin tuna in the 30” class. We picked through the false albacore until we had our under bluefins in the box. All bites came on plastics in 64 degree water on the 30 fathoms line.

Once we had our under bluefins we made a move to go look for something different in the canyon. The water was 66 degrees and green, and we managed to lick out on a really nice 60” bluefin tuna to round out our bluefin tuna limit.

We continued to work towards the break and ended up finding 71 degree blended blue water but not much to it. At the end of the day I trolled into the cold, green water for a bit and we did end up getting a quadruple header of small throwback bluefins to end the day.

All in all it was a fantastic day on the flat calm Atlantic with meat in the box!