This is just a quick note regarding open boat tuna trips on the Hooked Up II.
In the last few days, the only decent tuna bite for Yellowfins and a few Big Eye have come from the more southern canyons.
The closer canyons to Cape May which is where most open boat charters are priced to fish have not produced much at all this week and it is these local canyons that we base our open boat charter price on.
One reason we have had such great success over the years and especially last season was because we ran to where the fish were , which last season was 90 miles from Cape May most of the summer!
Many charter boats chose not to make the longer run to save fuel costs and we feel their catches reflected this. Welcome to the world of offshore tuna fishing as the bite can change overnight. Hopefully the tuna bite will start up again a little closer to Cape May so we can offer reasonably priced open boat trips. It seems the South Poormans and Washington would be the canyons of choice and are an 80-90 mile run from Cape May which we have chosen not to do unless we have a regular 14-15 hour day charter paying full price or we are doing a 24-30 hour overnight trip.
The price of diesel fuel these days just plain prohibits us from running discounted open boat trips 80 plus miles. To run a 14 hour open boat day trip we would need to charge at least $600.00 per person plus tip for the mates.
When the tuna are closer such as the 30 fathom Bluefin bite that starts up around July 4 we can do these trips much cheaper due to less fuel burn.
Keep your eyes peeled for open boat charters in the future.
