Gambler- Hudson Canyon 9/29-30

[2na]

Headed out Friday afternoon on a last minute chance on a Gambler 24hr Tuna trip. Capt. Mike took us to the Hudson thru nice soft 2-3ft seas. Lines in around 21:30 into a slate blue water. Tic...toc...tic...toc...not much happening. Some large, jiggable, squid in the slick and a renegade mahi from time to time but, not much else. No where near as many squid as before the blow but, still enough to get a couple dozen for the livewell. Mike made a move around midnite to look for thermal breaks but, there were none to be found. We ended up in the same 68.4* all night long. We drifted a nice .5 knot drift with everyone's lines straight out the port side until about 01:30 when she started to blow a pretty steady 20 out of the South. Capt. Mike put us on the hook where we swung uneventfully (except for and Ocean Sunfish display) until 06:50 when the first 50lb Yellow Fin came on line. Bob in the stern landed her about 10 min later. We SLOWLY picked at 50-70lb yellows AND BLUEDOGS until the triple toot at 09:30. New first for me...before this trip I'd NEVER seen picking tuna share a slick with sharks but Saturday morning we were positively having simultaneous bites from both species. My only action came from 2 bluedog bite-offs. The final tally- 6 yellows for 5 anglers...Duffy the Mechanic schooled us with 2. Got BEAT UP on the way home head on into 6-8ft tight seas. All-in-all a good trip...Gambler crew is ALWAYS top notch. Gonna try again Wednesday.
Shorts

[AndyS]

Hope it gets better. Thanx for the report.

[Charlie Tuna]

Next couple days there should be more boats venturing off so more real estate will get covered and more reports.
Also real clear sky the next couple days so there will be good temp charts to work with.

I'm On Wednesday/Thurday's 36 see there!

[Pennsy Guy]

See you guys Wednesday. Hopefully we'll get better reports from the Sat/Sun trip & tomorrow's trip...

[capt74]

Just got in from the last trip, Not to good. Bad weather and no fish.

[Jigman13]

Yikes. That doesn't sound very promising. Fishing south or the Hudson?

[tunajoe]

Yikes. It's just absolutely horrible (yet again) this year. Yes, there will be a good trip here or there, but more often than not, 80% of trips have been sucking. Things change over the years. Tuna fishing off NJ is just not the same. They are crushing them up in New England and only 1 hour to 1 1/2 hour trip. With that in mind, wondering if anyone on the board has driven up to Mass and gone out up there? With a 4 1/2 hour drive, and 1 hour to the grounds, its about the same time spent getting to the fish - AND at least there are fish up there. Thoughts??

[capt74]

Its early yet its only the first week of Oct. Been doing this for over 40 years. Yes we do have years that are better than others. But some of the best tuna CHUNK fishing takes place in Oct. thru Nov. in NJ. Hang in there guys they will turn on.

[Jigman13]

We're outta Montauk and there hasn't been very many reports of fish in the eastern canyons. Then again, with the weather lately not many recs have been going out. Hoping we can make our own positive report later this week.

Sporadic reports of small bluefin inshore of the canyons but that's spotty at best.

[John D.]

Agree it’s still early but the past few years have been not good re the fall canyon fishing. Yet this year the canyons are loaded with squid and still the fish don’t seem to be holding. Don’t know if this is true but hear the Long liners are doing very well about another 50-80 miles out and we just haven’t had the nice gulf strea eddies or filaments the past years. Last year we had a real nice patch of water and then it left us right after the tropical storm came through and took the fish with it. IMO, you need the right water and the bait for tuna. Sometimes you only get one or the other, sometimes neither. Let’s hope some better water makes it way through.

There are some very experienced capts in this forum and welcome their thoughts on this.