Bluefin and Striped Bass

Man the. bluefin bite just keeps getting better and better!! It has been a cold and windy last week however the boats who have been able to get out have had some awesome fishing! We went out last Wednesday and hooked up to a giant bluefin! Fought it for a little over 2 hours on the Talica 50 and that thing kicked our ass!! We got it next to the boat 3 different times, but we knew it was too big to kill, our estimate is about 80-85” and easily over 300lbs possibly over 350lbs! They’re tough to judge sometimes in the water, but regardless we went ahead and broke the leader when it was next to the boat and let him swim off to see another day! Then we were back out yesterday, in some cold windy conditions, we were hoping the wind would lay down but it never really did, not to mention the Navy has been testing helicopters right over top of Jackspot and has ran us off twice now, first the day we hooked the giant, then again yesterday, so we were frustrated and decided to pick up and run inshore a bit and look for life and possibly some striper. Sure enough we saw a huge cluster of birds on the Garmin radar, so we ran to check it out, and sure enough pulled up on a huge school of bass blitzing, and then for 90 minutes, it was every drop with paddle tails and straight tails on spinning gear, whether you jigged the bottom, or fished the top of the water column, they were so thick! Not one fish under 35” and the biggest at 50”! One of the best bass bites we’ve had in a while, and the first we’ve seen of the big migratory striper this year! The cold front may have helped with that and also may have messed with the bluefin a little as the inshore temps are now below 48 degrees as cold as 45-47 degrees! The bass like that cold water but in our experience the bluefin seem to like 48 and above, not saying you can’t catch one in 46-47 degree water we just feel its normally the 48-55 degree water the bluefin seem to like. This week the weather is looking awesome! Tuesday is looking the best as of right now, we plan on getting out and going after some bluefin on spinning gear, with a back up plan of targeting the big striper again! So awesome to have this bonus season to keep us fishing through the winter! Get out and get bent! Good luck and tight lines!