offshore illiterate

[no dollars, no sense]

ok so i am new to offshore fishing and tidalfish and know some things and techniques but unlike most fishing i have done i am purplexed with the where to and good spot hunting while planning an offshore trip. i do alot of striper fishing and usually do better when making my own decisions and hunting my own sweet spots out instead of the get in line follow the leader routine out off va beach right now. i would like to keep this trait offshore but the lack of experience and friends to network and learn from is killing it. i know different species like different things but lets say i want to target yft should i shoot for the hard line or not so hard? is bottom contour and structure always important? ie.--warm water pushing up at the point vs just a temp line away from contour lines. then the question arrises of where is the best place to get my temps? i know the bft off va beach dont care because they were just hanging out in a dessert with nothing around but bait(very important at times) for almost two months. my last trip out of oi i was the only boat in sight north of the point in perfect conditions with no fish or signs of life so we pulled lines to run south to get eat up with bonita and miss the shark that ate one. we then moved off those marks to run a color line, picked up a 20# bull and some babies, decided to start a long troll home and found myself looking in the eye of a massive blue marlin right next to the boat in a wave just looking at me. we marked are spot circled back and he simply cleared six of our seven lines with short bites now with no bait it was surely time to go home. hey i know it is called fishing and not catching for a reason but with high gas prices and a small budget i have to make the most of it, plus who wants to go fishing with the guy who doesnt catch anything. any help would be most appreciated, Steven

[Earesponsible]

It is definitely more fun and more rewarding to go on your own and find the fish but keep this in mind:

No matter what the SST shot looks like, bottom structure, ocean surface altimetry, chlorophyll concentration, etc, etc... the much more important information is where the fish were caught yesterday.

The charters are able to consistently catch fish offshore because they do it everyday and are good at it true, but also very importantly because they work together to find the bite. It is often a needle in a haystack. If you see the fleet circling an area you can believe it is usually for a good reason.

Best of luck to you. I hope you get on them on your own but I would highly recommend that if you don't want to follow the fleet that you at least network with Tidal Fishers to help find the fish. You will learn all that other stuff bit by bit.

[mikehalseyjr]

I agree with "Earesponsible", this will be my 7th season offshore fishing on my own. Years 1-4 were pretty dull, a lone mahi would make my trip. I started networking with people at the marina. That IS the key, getting to know the people who know where the fish are. Also a good paid SST service like OSS or Roffs. I am a OSS member, I call the owner every day before I go and get good intel.

In my opinion: 80% Location - 10% Bait - 10% Luck.

Good Luck,

Mike

[no dollars, no sense]

this is kinda the point that i had but didnt explain well. i cant see myself just tagging along with the charters to find my fishing for the day but fishing the same areas will almost allways happen if targeting the same things being it is like a needle in a haystack out there (big ass ocean). but i guess the main problem is that i dont have a network of friends to talk with that are already in the game, and i dont have alot to offer back being i only go 1 or 2 times a month on good months. this is why i joined tidalfish to gain knowledge and find some friends that like fising as much as me and my wife do, heck even bring some people to the fish as soon as i catch some. it is too expensive to go it alone especially when not being experienced. i guess it will be one question at a time and reading reports till i find some experienced partners in crime to share the salt spray

[mikehalseyjr]

NDNS,

You're correct, it is a large ocean. You have to pay your dues thou. We all have done it.

When I started offshore I knew ZERO people. I took a charter in 2004 and made friends with the mate. That same mate comes with me whenever I invite him and is one of my good friends now.

My first four years of fishing I caught ZERO. . .I mean ZERO. . .just burnt a lot of fuel and made my wife "unhappy" I was gone so long bringing nothing home.

networking, networking, networking, networking is the KEY.

When I first started I couldnt even FIND THE FLEET of charter boats. If I could I would of been right behind them. TRUST ME!!!

I would go to spots like the Jackspot in September just dragging poorly rigged baits all day long catching a beer buzz and that is it.

Good Luck out there, this is not easy but when you're successful (and it takes time) it is a lot of fun.

Mike

P.S.: Where are you from and what kind of boat?

[TUNAMELT]

I will tell you that it just takes time..... this will be my 17th year running out there and i am only 35. I have been through the good years and the bad years but now it has taken the turn back to the good again, The past 4 to 5 years was pretty bad for me and most of the people i talk with agree with me that the fishing was way off from many years past. This year past was one of my best and i credit it to the crew that i have and just targeting one type of fish at a time. Yea i know that any fish will eat any bait at any time but i would like to keep the odds in my favor. I have lure setups for yellowfin, bluefin, mahi, whites and blues, some are the same but they get ran in different spots for different fish. I also feel that bait presentation has alot and i mean alot to do with your strikes so learn proper rigging. Trust me, last season we boated 87 tunas( 44 were kill-able yellowfin) 1 bluefin was killed on a day were we went 18 for 19 on them. the rest were undersized and released, multiple white releases,lost 3 blue marlin and had countless big mahi on the boat.

As mike asked were are you from? I would gladly give up intel to anyone all you have to do is ask.

[no dollars, no sense]

i live in portsmouth va. me and the wife are in a 93' 28 wellcraft coastal, named "No dollars, no $ense" by my father in'law. i say me and the wife because she won't let me go without her and she picked the darn boat out. nice setup that a friend help me lay out. it has twin full inboards, tuna door, 19' single spreader lee's outriggers that are triple strung, 12' lee's center rigger double strung, three gunnel rod holders in each side and a center rod holder in the transom, had eight rod holders welded onto the hardtop, and just got done blowing all our money on a new garmin 4212 gps, a gsd 24 black box, and a 600 watt thru-hull transducer. i set her up to be capable of serious fishing now just have to do the learning part and make some friends along the way because gas prices are killing me. hope to get out to get a bluefin soon, got skunked out of va beach on a day they had lock jaw. had em so close to the boat you could of pet one, not one hit though, as the wife said we should of brought the bonita! i probably will be askin around for advice for sure and appreciate it very much. i have someone i could go with but the wife is insistant that we bought a boat to use it not to go on other peoples, and i agree with her but when you don't have a full cockpit you miss out on good days of fishing, cant catch them from the dock!

[Kevin-Dan's Legacy]

My father and I had gotten into offshore fishing ourselves for 5 years. We have not yet boated a good keeper tuna yet. Tuna wise we have just boated a big skipjack and a 24" bluefin. We have also boated 19 dolphin, 16 of which came from a trip this past year. I learn something everytime I go out there. I do not feel that I have hit the steep learning curve yet because the only time I've been able to get out there was when fishing has sucked. I believe that you have to study the charts and take your friends' advice into consideration. I have fished areas because something tells me something, there is no fleet there, and we get bit like crazy and see active bait. When you are on the water if something looks bad and you don't think there are fish, move. And a word of advice: if you see any longliner bouys, lobster bouys, or debree of any sort; troll by it a few times and then pick the spread up, get chunks of ballyhoo (or whatever bait you have) and pitch them the debree and keep your eyes open. Sight fishing for mahi with light spinning tackle is a blast and can really save the day. Guys may say that the big mahi will hit the trolled baits as they come by, but I have watched guys troll past bouys multiple times without getting any results. Once I pulled up to a lobster bouy that people were trolling a lot, and hooked up with an about 40lb dolphin on my 15lb spinning tackle. Fought it for forty five minutes and broke the line inbetween the knot and hook; my knot was still good. There were several other dolphin under that bouy up to 15lbs. The same thing happened this past season when we cleaned off 3 bouys that were trolled by a sportfisher and we got 12 nice ones off that, plus 4 more off debree we saw on the way in. Pull up to the debree/bouys and chunk them. Its a day saver. Keep in mind I am by no means an expert and am still working towards a good tuna on my boat. If anyone has any good advice or critisism feel free to contact or criticise me...
Kevin

[chocomilo]

Kevin, the key is to get onboard Full Service..could use a good hand LOL

[eroller]

It is definitely more fun and more rewarding to go on your own and find the fish but keep this in mind:

No matter what the SST shot looks like, bottom structure, ocean surface altimetry, chlorophyll concentration, etc, etc... the much more important information is where the fish were caught yesterday.

The charters are able to consistently catch fish offshore because they do it everyday and are good at it true, but also very importantly because they work together to find the bite. It is often a needle in a haystack. If you see the fleet circling an area you can believe it is usually for a good reason.

Best of luck to you. I hope you get on them on your own but I would highly recommend that if you don't want to follow the fleet that you at least network with Tidal Fishers to help find the fish. You will learn all that other stuff bit by bit.

I couldn't agree more. The charter Captains are fishing out there everyday, why not follow them and improve your chances? It would take days if not weeks of solid fishing by yourself to duplicate the intelligence they've gathered. From what I can tell as long as you work with them and not on top of them- they're tolerant and even helpful to the weekenders.