First party boat tuna trip a dud

The Queen Mary from Point Pleasant made their first tuna trip and had some fish around, but they were only hitting for trollers. A couple of hits on jigs didn’t hook up. It could be a completely different story on the next trip. That’s tuna fishing!

Capt. Ron Santee also had a setback today after having had good fluke action for a few days on his Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands. He went right back to where he had good current the day before, but the drift wasn’t there. When he later found the right conditions in another area, the current got too strong. Tuesday was a breakthrough for the “big girls” as Bill Venizia took over the monthly pool leadership with a 7 7/16-pound fluke, and the next biggest was 6 13/16 pounds. The Fishermen is chartered on Friday.

Capt. Frank Massaria of Vitamin Sea from Keyport reported “Excellent fluke bite this morning for the Wednesday boys. Once again we had to release too many 19-22” while trying to fill our slot limit. We had many quality fish today with biggest being 5.6 and 6.7 pounds. Plenty of short action to keep the rods bent all day.” He has some openings this week Call 917 439-6448.

Yellowfin tuna on Capt. John McMurray’s NYC charter,

The Golden Eagle from Belmar reported a very good day with chub mackerel on the southwest edge of the Mud Hole.Buckets were filled with chubs before they ended up drifting for sea bass so everyone could add the one presently allowed. A sea turtle swam by during the day, and a small hammerhead was fought to boatside,

Chub mackerel on the Golden Eagle.

The Jamaica from Brielle has also been loading up on chubs while seeking the on-and-off bluefish. They have half-night bluefish trips coming up at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Their first tuna trip is at 11 p.m. July 17 – followed by a tilefish trip at 10 p.m. July 18.

The forecast is for south winds at 10-15 knots plus gusts to 20 in the afternoon.