Most anglers will zig-zag along one wall or the other, covering waters from 70 fathoms or so to or fathoms. Trolling the walls is a classic technique, and it works. Zone E - Take particular note of the bulge in the north wall, marked by hotspot E.
Yes, it can be quite productive during the day, but night fishermen planning to overnight at the Baltimore in search of tuna fish really need to remember this spot. For whatever reason, it produces well when a light north-east breeze pushes you slowly from 70 to fathoms.
Yellowfin are the norm, but bigeye will pop up here, too. A few days of cloud cover that blocks satellite imagery can also affect forecasts. Bait, whales, sea turtles, shearwaters and petrels — they are all good reasons to believe there are fish around. Other boats are also a factor, even this far offshore. Offshore hurricanes from August though October can dramatically alter fishing, and while tuna are on the entire range of canyons into December, autumn weather cancels trips often.
Fishing techniques vary greatly within just 24 hours of canyon fishing. The morning might start with a traditional northeast trolling spread with Green Machine spreader bars, squid daisy chains, and ballyhoo behind skirts or Islander lures, totaling anywhere from eight to 14 trolling rods.
Wilson, Visentin and Galvin often troll traditional spreads at night. During the day, he increases to eight lines with a mixed spread of ballyhoo, marlin lures, an Islander daisy chain, a Green Machine spreader bar and two squid-chain teasers. Large tuna call for bigger baits. For white marlin he trolls four naked, chin-weighted ballyhoo with pitch rods ready for the two squid-chain teasers.
Wahoo bites add wire leaders behind trolling leads. Anglers have to adapt as well, knowing, for example, when to drop back a ballyhoo to a white marlin, let a blue eat hard plastic, or pitch a ballyhoo or Moldcraft lure to a fish on the teaser.
Most boats drift overnight with four to six rods — one far out and on top for mako, another rod or two deep off the transom for swordfish, and the rest weighted and held at varying depths with balloons for tuna. A handful of butterfish chunks are thrown leeward every few minutes, and live squid — caught in the lights off the transom — are the preferred bait. With any kind of sea, he puts a jig out feet and hooks the line to an outrigger clip with half a dozen rubber bands chained together.
Anchoring can be more comfortable than drifting. Above: When a big blue shows, it pays to have big teasers and big lures in the spread. Have at least one 80W ready to go. Audubon's Shearwater. Atlantic Puffin. Count 3. Michael O'Brien. Black-legged Kittiwake. American Golden-Plover. Count Hudsonian Godwit. Count 8. Red Phalarope. Parasitic Jaeger. Ring-billed Gull. Herring Gull. Common Tern. They saw great numbers of them this week, and plenty of large fish too.
The Center also had reports of multiple species of shark caught and released this week. Surf fishing has gone from excellent to… well, excellent! Kingfish roundhead have been reported in solid numbers by anglers casting bloodworms and Fishbites bloodworms up and down the beach, from Delaware clear down to the North Carolina border — and some have been exceptionally large for the species.
Spot are mixed in and surf casters chunking up the spot and sending them right back out into the breakers are catching snapper blues as well. Coastal contributor John Unkart checked in from Assateague as we put the reports together, with a full bucket of kingfish. Dave from Shark Whisperers reported action much the same plus bull, sandbar, and sand tiger sharks, noting that he had three tagged sharks up to the surf line this week.
In Virginia Beach at the fishing pier, similar catches of kingfish are being made with the addition of good numbers of Spanish mackerel sometimes marauding through.
Doormats are not common, but plenty of dinner-plate-sized fish are heading out of the water. They reported that drifting squid chunks is the hottest way to go after them right now, followed by bouncing pink or white soft plastics along the bottom. A few flounder reports have also trickled in from Indian River, where Old Inlet suggests fishing close in to the rocks.
There have also been some croaker reported there, plus some stripers for those eeling at night. Coastal correspondent John Unkart has been caching a nice mix of panfish while surf fishing , consisting mostly of spot, kingfish, and ocean perch, on Fishbites bloodworms.
Putting the spot right back out there past the second bar has resulted in sharks. Speaking of sharks: Dave Moore of Shark Whisperers had more sand tigers to report this week along with some bigger sandbar shark in the five-foot range. Kingfish have been biting as well, and he said he had good friend Bill Greenwood of Pottsville, PA out last week and he also caught and released a striper that measured in at 47 inches.
The Ocean City Fishing Center checked in with some exciting news — the bluefin bite is on at the canyons. Plenty of boats hit the docks with their legal limit, and reported catching enough bluefins that they could be choosy about what was kept. They also reported that the size of fish was a totally mixed bag, ranging from measly to Facebook-worthy. Most of the reader reports that came in backing this intel up were of generally small to medium fish in the to pound range, and at least a half-dozen readers reported finding them just inside the canyons in the fathom zone.
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