<b>Sandy Hook</b>

Waters were warm – 77.6 degrees  – but mako sharks were still around, and a 180-pounder was beaten on a trip Sunday, said Capt. Brian from <b>Jersey Devil Charters</b> from Highlands. Life filled the waters on the trip 48 miles from shore, and two gaffer mahi mahi were also decked. One grabbed a mackerel meant for sharks, and the other was intentionally hooked on mackerel fished for the mahi seen swimming the chum slick. Canyon fishing was good on the troll for white and blue marlin, some yellowfin tuna and a few bigeye tuna, and trips are being accepted for them. Bluefin tuna fishing was spotty closer to shore, and a bunch of trips want to sail for them, but Brian is waiting until the angling becomes more consistent. An offshore wreck-fishing trip was sailing today, and an inshore wreck trip was slated for today.

<b>Shark River Inlet</b>

Dusky sharks were pumped in on a shark trip Friday on the <b>Nan Sea J</b> from Belmar, Capt. Tom said. Waters were warm or 76 degrees and fairly clear, holding life including whales, but few bluefish, and the boat drifted fine. A shark charter was weathered out Thursday. Open-boat trips are sharking every Wednesday. Take advantage of the rare opportunity for sharking on an open trip.

Bluefish covered up a bluefin tuna trip this week, but the anglers switched to wreck fishing, hauling in a load of cod and sea bass, said Capt. Ralph from <b>Last Lady Fishing Charters</b> from Neptune. So the catch turned out well, and he likes that fishing anyway, and the anglers asked to switch. But a friend remained on the bluefin grounds, ending up scoring well. The tuna were there. The wreck fishing was the same type that will sail on an individual-reservation trip 40 miles or farther from shore on July 27 for cod, pollock and ling, and a couple of spaces remain. A trip competed Saturday in the High Rollers Shark Tournament, but no winds blew, and there was no drift, and the fishing “stunk,” Ralph said. Previously shark trips were great on the boat, covered in previous reports.

<b>Manasquan Inlet</b>

A charter steamed offshore for tuna and billfish Monday on a plan to get away from the fleet,  fishing seldom hit canyons and the deep, the report on <b>Andrea’s Toy Charters</b> Point Pleasant’s Web site said. The trip went 3 for 3 on white marlin. A huge, 500-pound blue marlin crashed a ballyhoo, dumped half the spool on a 50 reel, made a run back to the boat, and threw the hook. Four yellowfin tuna attacked the trolling spread and were hooked, and two got off quickly. The other two were pumped in to the boat at the same time, got tangled and were lost. “Damn!” the report said. The trip ended the day by landing mahi mahi that gathered at the lobster pot buoys. Yellowfin tuna angling was a slow pick at the canyons, Capt. Fred said in a phone call, but marlin and mahi were by-catches. Andrea’s Toy often mixes in sharking at night and tilefishing, and specializes in mixed-bag trips. The marlin population was large, and the mahi were spreading to inshore waters. Also closer to shore, catches of bluefin tuna were sporadic. See the write-up toward the bottom of <a href="http://www.andreastoycharters.com" target="_blank">Andrea’s Toy’s home page</a> to check out annual, open-boat, mixed-bag trips that are running offshore for tuna and other fish.

A day-trolling trip on <b>Canyon Runner</b>’s 60-foot Ritchie Howell arrived at Hudson Canyon at 5 a.m. last week on Wednesday, the report on Canyon Runner’s Web site said. Five yellowfin tuna were trolled by 7 a.m., and nine more were trolled by 9 a.m. One more was released afterward, because the anglers had kept all they wanted. Then they dropped big lures in the waters to attempt to hook a blue marlin. It worked. Within minutes a fish popped one of the lines from the outrigger. Nobody saw the bite, and the line started to be reeled in. When the line came even with the long flat line, a big blue piled-on one of the other lines, and game was on! The head of the charter, Pete Guaditis, landed the fish in 1 ½ hours. The blue, measured at 126 inches, was estimated to weigh 600 pounds. This was Pete’s first-ever blue, “so he went swimming back at the dock,” the report said. “Congratulations!” A trip last week on Tuesday to Wednesday on Canyon’s Runner’s 48-foot Viking was the only tough one of the week for the company. But the crew worked harder, and salvaged the trip by the end. The trip arrived at Hudson Canyon at 4 p.m. that Tuesday, spending the rest of the day looking for tuna, but finding none. The night was uneventful, and a small mako shark swam up to the boat but refused to take a bait. Up on the troll in the morning, no tuna bit, and the crew decided to leave the fleet that was picking away and find their own fish. They did. Stretching the trip out a few extra hours, they finally  found a school of yellowfin tuna, going 8 for 12, “making for a  very happy charter,” the site said. A turnaround charter left the dock at 8 p.m. that day on the Viking, and tried sharking at night in waters inshore of the canyons. A few blue sharks were released, but no makos showed up. In the morning the trip trolled “down the line from the Hudson,” the site said, quickly nailing a double of longfin tuna and a triple of yellowfins. A short lull took place, until a bigeye tuna exploded on a ballyhoo with an Ilander. The 202-pound 69-inch fish was landed after 2 hours. In the afternoon nine more yellowfins were trolled. So the trip totaled 12 yellowfins, two longfins and the bigeye bagged, and a few blue sharks released. Most of the yellowfins bit in 500 to 800 feet on Canyon Runner Squid and Green Machine Spreader Bars and ballyhoos.

<b>Little Egg Inlet</b>

A Green Stick is the “cat’s meow,” said Capt. T.J. from <b>Legal Limit Charters</b> from Tuckerton, for yellowfin tuna fishing. The outrigger, one that shoots straight up from the center of the boat, trolled a bunch of 40- to 60-pounders on a trip to Lindenkohl Canyon on Monday. Some at the canyon caught the tuna, and a lot didn’t. A bunch of mahi mahi were trolled on ballyhoos, not on the green stick, on the trip. Waters were warm, 77 to 79 degrees, and other boaters who searched for yellowfins closer to shore, in 30 to 40 fathoms, complained about bluefin tuna hitting instead. So the bluefins seemed out there. On a shorter trip Saturday a bluefin tuna, a yellowfin tuna and a handful of 12- to 15-pound mahi mahi were trolled. The fishing began 35 or 40 miles from shore, and most of the fish were angled there, but eventually reached 65 miles from port, probably 10 miles short of Lindenkohl Canyon. The yellowfin was picked up in that area closer to the canyon, and if time had remained on the trip, more yellowfins probably could’ve been caught.

<b>Great Egg Harbor Inlet</b>

A bunch of small bluefish and a few mahi mahi, Spanish mackerel and chub mackerel were trolled 11 miles from shore, lots of fish, during the past days on the <b>Stray Cat</b> from Longport, Capt. Mike said.. Trips had planned to troll at Sea Isle Ridge but never made it that far, before all the fish bit. Another charter Saturday trolled at the Cigar in a big heave. Unfavorable conditions, but a couple of mahi mahi were picked up. Two monster bites attacked lines but got off, and no bluefin tuna were landed. Yellowfin tuna charters are also sailing to the canyons. An open-boat tuna trip for six anglers will sail to the canyons during the last week of August, and will mix in tilefishing and sea bassing.

Yellowfin tuna fishing was going off at the canyons, said Curt from <b>Offshore Enterprises Bait & Tackle</b> in Atlantic City. The 40- to 60-pounders became pressured, and that somewhat tapered off the catches compared with earlier, but they still offered good fishing, all on the troll, and chunking for them at night was yet to start. Trolling with ballyhoos dressed with Ilanders or Sea Witches or such worked, but so did trolling with spreader bars, daisy chains and so on. Lindenkohl Canyon was the hot spot, and the fish swam the shallow waters there in 40 to 50 fathoms. A few bigeye tuna loitered at the Lindy, but Hudson Canyon was really the place for bigeyes. White marlin were abundant at the canyons, and blue marlin were taken from the waters. Curt saw photos of a big blue that an angler released  that the angler said was 800 pounds. Bluefin tuna remained closer to shore at the same places they’d been, like the Lobster Claw, Cigar and 28-Mile Wreck. But everybody was passing the bluefins to reach the yellowfins a little farther from shore. The <b>Carly A</b>, the shop’s offshore charter boat, will be returned to New Jersey from Oregon Inlet next week. Then trips will fish from Jersey, after they had run from North Carolina.

<b>Townsend’s Inlet</b>

Lindsay Clarkson’s party aboard Saturday sailed to Wilmington Canyon, releasing a white marlin, bagging two yellowfin tuna over 50 pounds apiece and two mahi mahi 18 and 15 pounds, said Capt. Joe Hughes from <b>Jersey Cape Guide Service</b> and <b>Gibson’s Tackle</b> in Sea Isle City. Awesome yellowfin tuna fishing was under way, and white marlin catches, early this year, were phenomenal. Joe heard about and saw more blue marlin than in years, and plenty of mahi were around.

Yellowfin tuna fishing at the canyons was the best in a long time for <b>Over Under Adventures</b> from Avalon, but the fishing was far from shore, and most trips targeted waters 75 to 85 miles from the coast, a report on Over Under’s Web site said. Anglers needed to fish on at least the 14-hour trips for sufficient time to reach the waters. Trips 22 hours long were most productive, allowing the crew more flexibility to load the boat with fish. Many white marlin were also around, like they were the past couple of years. Over Under currently runs 12-, 14-, 16- and 22-hour trips. The 12-hour trips are the company’s usual for bluefin tuna closer to shore. More on the bluefins in a moment. On the yellowfin trips, Lindenkohl Canyon, 80 miles from port, served up the best fishing for Over Under lately. Wilmington Canyon, 70 miles from port, is the closest for Over Under. Trips fished at the Wilmington this week, and results were good on one trip, and were not on another. “We are hopeful that the yellowfins will work their way inshore to the 30 to 40 fathom depths, which will put them 45 to 55 miles offshore, and reachable on our 12-hour tuna trips,” the report said. For the most part, yellowfins were yet to swim those depths. The 22-hour trips are normally overnighters, but currently the trips ran in one day, leaving at 1 a.m. to reach the waters, and fish all day, when the yellowfins are currently biting. The bluefin tuna fishing closer to shore was sporadic and relatively slow, mostly. Warm waters probably caused most bluefins to migrate farther north to cooler waters. But a new batch could show up and day, “(and) you never know,” the report said.

<b>Cape May Inlet</b>

Anglers fishing for yellowfin tuna clobbered the catches Sunday, and a friend tried for them Monday and caught none, but some landed the fish when the friend was there, said Capt. George from the <b>Heavy Hitter</b> from Cape May. The friend picked up a couple of mahi mahi. Yellowfins, fish that swam from 30 fathoms to the canyons, gave up hit or miss fishing. If anglers found a bite, they usually belted a decent catch. Lots of white marlin and some good-sized mahi mahi held in the waters. George is supposed to fish for the tuna on Sunday, and trips are also running for bluefin tuna, a shorter sail, more economical. Ask about a special on bluefin trips George is running, too.

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