Gone Fishing...
This Friday I leave with 5 buddies to go Tuna Fishing off the hudson Canyon. We travel about 6 hours by boat and about 100 miles offshore and fish for about 26 hours. It's an exciting experience that we look forward to every year. There are whales, dolphins, sharks and all sorts of life when you are out that far. But just traveling to the middle of the gulfstream does not guarantee that you get fish! One of the most important things about Tuna Fishing is finding the temperature breaks. Offshore breaks in temperature are usually noted by divisions or walls between two distinct areas of water. They vary anywhere from 1 to a few degrees difference. We always rely on obvious signs, like birds, and schools of fish, however hundreds of miles of ocean is hard to cover in just 2 days! Temperature breaks are caused when cold water converges with warmer water. The areas where these two masses meet attract and hold baitfish, tuna, billfish and sharks. If you can find the temerpature breaks, there is a pretty good chance you’ll find the Tuna as well! One of the main reasons baitfish and tuna bunch up along temperature breaks is two-fold. Both the schools of bait and larger game fish like the comfort of warmer water – even if the difference seems minimal to us. Hanging out along a temperature break also allows baitfish the opportunity to cross the line into the body of colder water, which is typically richer in the plankton they feed on. They can go back and forth easily from the fertile colder zone to the warmer comfort zone within these areas. These types of charts show how to find temperature breaks. If you detect a line that varies a degree for a distance of a quarter mile or so, this may be a good place to fish. You don't just have to be a good captain to find tuna -- you have to really have to look at data. By looking at real time satellite reports you can actually guess where the fish are-- and be right, without being there. Thermal charts like the one above can help you find major temperature breaks and eddies; We leave for the Hudson canyon to fish the gulfsteam Friday and return Saturday. With Hurricane Florence Lingering around, we have been following this very carefully..