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Swordfish saved canyon trip for Crisdel

Canyon trolling was very poor Monday when Frank Criscola’s Crisdel from Brielle Yacht Club only boated one 50-pound yellowfin and lost another. However, that boat has been specializing in deep drop daytime swordfishing — and soon shifted gears.

Capt. Chris Di Stefano, who was part of the fishing crew, noted that they had lost a sword of at least 300 pounds at boatside during the last trip, and this time they had a surprise hook-up on the very deep line that turned out to be a bigeye tuna in the over 200-pound class. That was followed by the swordfish they were seeking which was estimated at 170-200 pounds.

Word Press cut off the end of last night’s blog at the mention of the Queen Mary from Point Pleasant. I mentioned that they were on a tuna trip — and that turned out to be very successful as they limited on “under” bluefins up to 40 pounds and released a few. Today they had limits of bluefish and sea bass plus some fluke.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar reported hot bluefishing yesterday morning as limits were filled on them plus sea bass. They also added some fluke up to a 7-pounder which would win almost any pool on a fluke boat this season — and added a winter flounder. Today was just decent with steady blues up to 3 pounds as the five blues and two sea bass limits were filled plus some ling.

The Bay Head surf was dead with low water at daylight, and Frank Huza found the same thing later in the morning when he came down from Aberdeen.

The morning forecast is for southeast winds at 5-10 knots.

The following report was received from Capt. Chris De Gennaro of Hi Flier at Barnegat:

It’s been a busy couple of weeks fishing on the Hi Flier. Inshore we connected with bluefish, weakfish (only one), fluke, and spinner sharks. The weakie hit a jig tipped with shedder crab, it was only a 20 minute try so I am optimistic about going on the hunt for them again. There are 3 to 5 pound blues all around the inlet. The spinner sharks are terrorizing the bunker pods just a few miles outside our inlet, we caught them on the snag and drop. They were 40 lb class, maybe 4 footers.

Offshore we ran to the mid range grounds (50-70 miles) for bluefin and connected on the troll, 5 for 9 on 20 to 50 pound fish. We ran two trips to the southern canyons, 4 for 4 on the first with 30 to 50 lb yellowfins and then yesterday we went 2 for 2, a 50 and 80 lb yellowfin, all trolling Chatter Side Tracker bars. We also jumped off a white marlin. We are also trolling albacore with a few bonita mixed in at Barnegat Ridge.
Thurs and Fri, July 9 and 10 are available for charter to fish inshore or the bay for any number of species. Sat, Sun, and Monday, July 11, 12, 13 are also available for charter or we will run Open Boat for Barnegat Ridge or Mid Range Tuna. Things are really heating up with both of these fisheries.
PICS:
Vinny Imbimbo of Millington, NJ with AlbacoreJeff Frazier of Toms River, NJ with 40 lb Bluefin Tuna (plaid shorts, black sleeveless shirt)Frank Posci of Barnegat, NJ with 35 lb Bluefin Tuna (black t-shirt)Howard Culang of North Beach, NJ with a 16″ weakfishGreg Borras of Keyport, NJ with 80 lb Yellowfin Tuna (navy shirt with green lettering on sleeve)

Dave DeGennaroBack Bay Adventures732.330.5674 cellphillyfishingshow.com
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Summer stripers cooperate in N.Y. Harbor

The spring run of stripers in the N.Y. Harbor area has long been over, but some bass can be caught all summer if you have patience and knowledge — which is what Chuck Many has plenty of. I had missed all the early fishing due to the pandemic, but made up for some of that when I joined Chuck on his Ty Man from Gateway Marina in Highlands at 4:30 a.m. That timing turned out t be critical as the first stop provided a few marks before the anchor was dropped. Chunking only attracted smooth dogfish at first, but bass were there also. We had to release 15 dogfish in order to release four hefty summer bass from 16 to 28 pounds — and later added a 34-incher on a live bunker on the surface,

All of those bass were bright stripers without a mark on them, and none needed any help to shoot away when released. Surprisingly, the usually abundant small stripers in the Hudson and East rivers showed no respect for Chuck’s $90 a flat sandworms and we caught only two small fluke and a 14 3/4-inch porgy with them.

Bob Correll reported a successful school tuna trip on Mike Heaney’s new Cabo 42 from Clarks Landing in Point Pleasant as the crew trolled 15 “unders” near the Texas Tower. Two much larger bluefins were lost as one broke 80-pound line after a long battle, while another was eaten by a big shark near the boat.

Also at Clarks, the Canyon Runner reported continued great canyon trolling with catches such as seven bigeyes, 13 yellowfins and a big blue marlin for the Mike Davie party. The Peter Wilcox party had an 400-pound class giant tuna. One open boat seat has opened up for July 8-9. Call 732 272-4445.

Frank Criscola is back from Florida with his Crisdel out of Brielle Yacht Club. Capt. Chris De Stefano was part of the crew this week when they trolled the Carteret for six yellowfins and a blue marlin before releasing a 50-70-pound daytime swordfish — the first reported to this blog so far.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar picked away at small blues with some limit catches over the weekend, and had a few fat bonito mixed in. Today they started inshore for bigger blues , but had a hard time hooking them. There were shots of the smaller blues offshore though they didn’t last long.

Phil Fischer looked for a big fluke on the weekend out of Highlands, but was instead surprised by a 25-pound black drum on a strip of squid. A move out to Scotland resulted in good ling fishing — and he just made it back as the rain hit.

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The big one that got away — again!

While I’m not fishing at this time, I can still enjoy the adventures of others. — and my nephew, Todd Correll of Ft. Lauderdale, had a great story to tell this week.

Todd was trolling with his boat 14 miles offshore of his second home in the Keys at Islamorada, and got into small blackfin and yellowfin tuna feeding under working birds when a 50-pound class rod was bent over by something much bigger that hit a cedar plug trolled far astern behind a teaser.

After four hours battling with tackle that was inadequate for the situation, he seemed to be making some progress before  the heavy leader suddenly broke. Worst of all,  the fish could never be identified — though it was likely a giant bluefin or a very large yellowfin.

If it was any consolation, I told Todd that he got off easy. Decades ago I was trolling off Salinas, Ecuador for striped marlin and sailfish with 30-pound tackle  when I saw a swordfish engulf my bonito — a blind strike that’s almost unheard of by that species. After three hours of stand-up battle, I sat down in a fighting chair. The swordfish only jumped once, and I really had no realistic idea of how big it was since I’d never seen one before.  However, I did know that the IGFA world record on 30-pound was vacant — and it would surely be a world record if the line tested out at 30-pounds or less.

The crew wanted that fish as much as I did — and the fight went on. When it started getting dark, the captain had a hard time following the line until it got pitch dark and “fire” in the water on a moonless night made it easy to track. Before daylight, another boat was coming out with more fuel so we could continue the fight when, suddenly, my heavy leader broke or was cut by something to end a 12 1/2-hour battle.

At least I got to see my “big one that got away” and at that point only prayed that it survived  the fight it deserved to win.

There was lots of wind today, and there will be more tomorrow which starts at 15-20 knots plus gusts to 30 before dropping to east at just 5-10 knots in the afternoon.