Ipswich Bay Bluefin (Mass)

[TomS]

Are there any other forum members that chase bluefin in Ipswich Bay?

If so, how did you do in 2006?

Looking back at my log - the first fish that I know of were caught on Jeffrey's Bank around Aug 7th. First fish that were trolled inside Ipswich Bay were on Aug 9th. Very few reports of fish up on the surface as we have seen in past years.

After that, all the reported action seems to have been south of Cape Ann, with most of it on Stellwagen, until the middle of Sept, when a friend caught a fish on Old Scantum.

I personally didn't see any tuna on the surface (in Ipswich Bay) until the end of September down off Halibut Point. Managed to get 4 to the boat on poppers. By the second week of October I started seeing surface fish off the PI beachfront and managed to get one more on the popper on my last trip before pulling the boat around the 15th.

It seems like the fish were very late showing up in the bay this year, at least in comparison to the last couple of years. Did everyone else have the same results?

-- Tom

[TomS]

Anyone else? Roccus?

-- Tom

[Roccus]

Tom,

we had a few good days inside old scantum and N/E of thatchers, mostly on squid rigs and daisy chain squids with birds....

The big problem was lack of bait, the pair trollers wiped out the inshore herring, the warm water kept the mackerel north until it was too late..

Last year was the first time in the last 5 years I didnt even hook up a giant....

The foot ball tuna dont always shore in our part of the bay, some years there are onlyy a few, other years there are lots of them... the combination of things made it difficult last year...

[TomS]

Thanks Joe.. seems like we had similar results.

In the past, you have written about your success on the footballs trolling bunker spoons off a drail. What weight drail and what size bunker spoon do you prefer?

Also curious if you have been able to pick up fish when they are actively showing on the surface in the area, or strictly by working the structure (contour lines, temp breaks and tide rips). Some of my friends have had great luck trolling when the fish are down, but can't buy a bite when they are up feeding.

I read an interesting article where they dropped a scuba diver off and trolled a typical spread overhead, and he reported what he could see at various depths. The interesting thing was that he claimed at 40' down, he couldn't even tell the boat had gone by. As he got closer to the surface, the leaders and terminal tackle they were using really stood out like a sore thumb. So based on that, I'm thinking I need to present more of the spread deeper into the water colum, hence the questions on bunker spoons and drails.

Thanks,

-- Tom

[Roccus]

Tom,

I rarly sight fish, yes I get a few on poppers, but mostly trolling edges of ledges, and breaks in the bottom, We usaly run a pair of sqid rigs, one of my home made plugs, and a 6 ounce drail with a 6" aceta pet....