Apologies for the brief hiatus we had the entire crew up to Prince Edward Island for a week of Tuna fishing. Working on a blog post with pics and action shots of the trip if your interested. Its taken us a few days to get up to speed with the the network but here is the latest as of 10/2.
Intel
NOAA Fisheries has transferred 60 metric tons of Atlantic bluefin tuna quota from the Reserve category to the General category September subquota period, and closed the General category fishery on 11:30 p.m., September 23, 2018 until it reopens on October 1, 2018. As of 9/27 there was 237mt caught in September and 625mt year to date. The October subquota opened on 10/1 with a baseline quota of 60.7 metric tons available for the October through November time period which will not last long.
With commercial tuna shut down the last week of September as well as the Northeast blow reports have been on the slow side over the past week. Boats that got out this weekend reported that the body of rec sized fish lighting up east of the bank have moved to the south, off the golfball, down to the BC buoy east of chatham. Fish are still in the area but more fish are being caught off chatham in and around the sword.
Damon Saco and the Castafari crew are running the "Battle of the Bay" tuna tournament this weekend out of Plymouth. For more details visit their site here:
Inshore Intel
Stripers are still fishing well into October on the south shore. The bite has been productive from Boston harbor and the outer harbors south to the scituate and marshfield ledges producing school to 40" fish using live macks. High Pines off Duxbury has been particularly productive boats are caught trolling artificials and on live bait macks. Macks can be found on the offshore ledges and there are load of juvenille bonito mixed in. Alot of these fish are loaded with squid that have moved into cape cod bay so there is an opportunity to catchup bait and target what the fish are feeding on.
The canal is still outfishing the bay with fish up to 40lbs being weighed in this past week. Swimming shads, stickbaits, and swimmers are doing the trick.
The Albies are still in heavy on the south side just a tick slower then the past two weeks. Falmouth and Nobska produced over the past few days and word of a good morning bite off Waquoit.
The tog bite is picking up in buzzards bay and the west end on green crabs.
Offshore Intel
Haddock fishing is official done for the season effective 9/15
Good numbers of sharks still around on on Stellwagen including a handfull of threshers caught the past two weeks. Most boats are targeting tuna and bypassing this fun fishery.
Weather Forecast
Synopsis: ANZ200-030815- 310 PM EDT Tue Oct 2 2018 .Synopsis for Massachusetts and Rhode Island coastal waters... Scattered showers and thunderstorms will continue into this evening. High pres and N winds Wed, turning S into Thu with a sweeping cold front late. Return of N winds and high pres into this weekend.
Tonight
S winds 10 to 15 kt, becoming SW 15 to 20 kt after midnight. Gusts up to 30 kt. Seas 4 to 6 ft. Patchy fog. A chance of tstms. A chance of showers this evening, then showers likely after midnight. Some tstms may produce heavy rainfall. Vsby 1 to 3 nm, decreasing to 1 nm or less after midnight.
Wed
N winds 5 to 10 kt. Gusts up to 20 kt in the morning. Seas 4 to 6 ft. Patchy fog. A chance of showers. Vsby 1 nm or less.
Wed Night
NE winds 5 to 10 kt, becoming SE after midnight. Seas 3 to 5 ft. Patchy fog.
Thu
S winds 10 to 15 kt with gusts up to 25 kt. Seas 3 to 5 ft. Patchy fog.
Thu Night
SW winds 10 to 15 kt with gusts up to 20 kt, becoming NW 15 to 20 kt with gusts up to 30 kt after midnight. Seas 4 to 7 ft.
Fri
NE winds 15 to 20 kt with gusts up to 30 kt. Seas 5 to 8 ft.
Fri Night
NE winds 10 to 15 kt with gusts up to 20 kt. Seas 5 to 8 ft.
Sat
E winds 5 to 10 kt. Seas 5 to 8 ft.
Sat Night
S winds 10 to 15 kt with gusts up to 20 kt. Seas 4 to 7 ft.
Sun
SW winds 5 to 10 kt with gusts up to 20 kt. Seas 4 to 6 ft.
Sun Night
E winds 5 to 10 kt with gusts up to 20 kt. Seas 3 to 5 ft. winds and seas higher in and near tstms. seas are reported as significant wave height, which is the average of the highest third of the waves. Individual wave heights may be more than twice the significant wave height.