In my previous blog post we talked about "monsters" that venture in close to shore during October. One such species of fish that can appear surprisingly close to shore during the 10th month is the giant bluefin tuna. I received numerous reports earlier in the week of tuna in the 150-400 pound class being seen amazingly close to the beach.
Sometimes I have a hard time focusing on anything but tuna when I get a report like this. Usually tuna addicts find themselves traveling many miles to find these super fast, highly migratory fish. So, when the fish come to us and show in spots that are pretty close to the dock, I try to drop everything and get out on the water as soon as possible.
Cape Cod Tuna Fishing Report for October 11
Half beaks made an appearance in close to shore recently on the Cape. These bait fish are a favorite prey item of bluefin tuna. I usually find half beaks in the upper portion of the water column, often traveling right along the surface, porpoising in a dolphin-like fashion. When half beaks are in town we will often try trolling ballyhoo, which seem to be a fairly good imitation.
Half beaks make tuna go nuts. Tuna will literally launch themselves straight clear of the water when chasing these fish. Even small giants will go completely airborne, sometimes "hanging" in midair 5 or 6 feet above the surface of the water.
A couple of Octobers ago my Dad, Mazzola and I encountered a massive school of tuna feeding on half beaks, roughly 10 miles from the beach. For as far as we could see, tuna of all shapes and sizes were propelling themselves straight up out of the water and into the sky. There were hundreds of fish, some that could not of been more than 50 pounds and others that were much, much larger.
We doubled up with 150-200 pound class tuna on that special day, snapped a throttle cable, lost the tuna and ended up getting towed in by my friend Jeff, after he landed the first bluefin of his life. There was a lot going on that afternoon and things were hectic! Jeff if you are reading this I can't thank you guys enough for that tow home.
Rough Conditions, Even Close to Shore
This is the sort of tuna behavior I was hearing about earlier this week. With Mazzola's boat back in business (after a short hiatus to Eagle Marine for repairs) we decided to give it a shot yesterday morning, despite some very brisk and somewhat "sloppy" sea conditions.
I'd never dream about heading east of Chatham or to Stellwagen Bank in yesterday's sea conditions. It was way too rough for that sort of trip, at least for us in our boat.
However as mentioned above there are some concentrations of tuna close to shore right now off the Cape. We headed yesterday to one such area, which we'll talk about in the full fishing report which you can access by clicking below.
