Offshore Report

Wow...what a weekend!  Beginning this past Friday, we ran two Canyon Overnight trips and four Day Trolls.  Starting out on Friday, I ran the day trip and ended up in the Spencer after checking out some inshore action in about 210' which didn't produce.  We arrived in the Spencer about 10am and it didn't take long.  As soon as we got to 65 fathoms, a nice Blue Marlin comes charging up on the flat line.  Everyone on board saw the bite, it was awesome!  He ate a ballyhoo 15' from the boat.  One of the coolest Blue Marlin I've caught in some time.  He stayed close and on the surface the whole time, jumping from one side of the boat to the other.  It was pretty sporty out there Friday, which made things pretty wet in the cockpit as we got the quick release on the estimated 300# fish.  After getting the linesback out and working our way back up sea to where we had the bite, we got jumped by the tuna for the first of two times.  This time we came tight to 3 of about 5 bites.  Again, the bites were great...eating the flat lines off the transom.  We boated all three and trolled the area some more, but no more bites.  With it getting more "sporty" by the minute, I decided to troll us inshore a bit, and we got jumped again at just about 55 fathoms.  Think we came tight to 1 or 2, honestly can't remember anymore, it’s sort of a blur, but I know we had 4-5 explosions again.  We boated the fish and headed for the Barn. 

As we were running home, Joe was running our 55' out for an overnight and heading up towards the S. Toms/Carteret area.  They put the lines in about 40 fathoms and in about 45 fathoms they started picking at fish pretty good.  I think they put 9 in the boat before dark, with only 2 anglers aboard.  They set up in the Carteret and picked at fish the whole night, till they decided to head for the Barn about 2am, with plenty of tuna in the box and two pretty worn out anglers.  The chunk bite was good, with a fish about every 45 minutes and only fishing two rods. 

To read the rest of Captain Trey's report click here!

Click pics to enlarge

Another offshore view...

Well, well, well, it’s what we’ve been waiting for since 2007. The tuna are finally cooperating very well on both the troll and the chunk as of late with some nights easily catching our limit. However it seems you don’t need to keep more than a dozen or so of these 70 lb fish. Last Friday we had our first overnight where we concentrated strictly on tuna. We began the troll this day at 3 pm inside the Carteret in 43 fathoms quickly putting 9 nice yellowfin to 70lbs in the box . We then ventured offshore to pick our spot for the night going 1 for 2 on whites. We set the drift up in 620 ft which would eventually take us to about 300. The bite was on and it was all you wanted on the chunk. All the bites came on sardines 70 ft down and we decided to call it quits at 1 am with a lot of sore arms.

Next day we got a late start putting lines in at 7pm and quickly putting a white and 2 yellows in the box. The night bite in the same area was not to be had however as we only had 1 tuna bite. Back up on the troll we did get it going a little putting some yellowfin and longfin in the box ,once again trolling inshore of the Carteret.

It’s shaping up to be one of the best years we have had in quite some time with an actual chunk bite at night. It’s been great to see such quality fish. In the midst of all the tuna we are also seeing one of the very best white marlin years as we haven’t had a trip yet without catching one. On most trips we’re seeing 4 but have seen as much as 17 fish. Unbelievable! Get out there while it remains hot. I strongly recommend doing the longer 22 hour trips right now!

Tight Lines,
Captain Joe Trainor
joe@overunderadventures.com