Hi everyone,
The 2023 season didn't disappoint! I did some traveling during the winter fishing in Columbia, Mexico, and Belize. The monster cow yellowfin fishery in Puerto Vallarta is world class! We caught a bunch of 150 to 200 pound class fish. The 300 pounders weren't around, but the topwater bite was a lot of fun. Columbia was a bit more challenging as the tuna were hard to find, but the inshore fishing was fantastic. Belize was strictly inshore Fly Fishing for bonefish and permit. I hooked a tarpon too but that lasted about 5 seconds!
We kicked the Castafari season off with the Castafari Big Game Fishing Seminar in February at the Boston Quincy South Shore Marriott. This year's event welcomed 360 attendees and 49 vendors. If you havn't been to this event, it's worth checking out. Whether you're a novice and new to the offshore game or an experienced professional, there is always more to learn and this is a great place to do it. The event offers over 30 different hands on instructional rigging workshops from baitrigging, knot tying, tackle set up, changing out hooks, throwing a cast net to operating marine electronics and more. 16 top captains and marine scientists present on a variety of big game fishing topics. Be sure and join us in 2024! For more info please visit the show website at www.castafari.com/fishing-seminar.
The fishing began in June. We kicked things off chasing cow striped bass on my 24 foot Everglades. These trips are great for small groups of 4 or less. The topwater game was on fire for several weeks along the east end of Buzzards Bay. We caught a lot of 45 to 50 inch fish on live bait. The trick is to get out there at dawn and/or dusk if you want shots at trophy sized fish. The mornings produced several topwater feeds with bluefish and bass of all sizes, including a few corkers.
The offshore season started in July right before the OBBC. We took our first canyon trip to the edge, and went east out toward Veatch Canyon. We worked along the 100 fathom line catching plenty of 60 to 100 pound yellowfin...bigger than we're used to seeing. We managed a nice swordfish at night, and topped off the trip with a triple of bigeye tuna.
The following week was the 2023 Oak Bluffs Bluewater Classic. This Castafari event welcomed 60 boats and over 500k was up for grabs. If youre interested in the event this year, be sure and check out the tournament phone APP available in all app stores as "Oak Bluffs Bluewater Classic" The bluewater fishing was epic during the event, just like it was in 2021 and 2022. Over 20 blue marlin were caught, including some monsters. The bigeye bite was wide open too, with several fish over the 200 mark coming to the scales. The OBBC was nationally televised on CBS Sports again as part of the SFC Atlantic Championship Series. Congrats to team Gypsea who won the bigeye division again! The 2024 event will be July 9 - 13. Two different weigh in locations will be offered, one in Oak Bluffs and one in Falmouth. For more info, please visit the event website at www.obbclassic.com.
Next came the Tri-State, a tournament the Castafari has been fishing in since 2005. We won it back in 2015, and have been chasing that victory ever since. We had some fun catching a couple marlin but you need a bigeye to win this one, and all we could find were pesky 50 lb yellowfin. We ended it with an 86 inch bluefin tuna caught just a few miles south of Block Island! The next few trips out yielded some solid action with blue marlin and some decent bigeyes to 150 pounds.
The giant bluefin season was on fire. The biggest fish to hit the deck was a whopping 117 inches weighing 905 pounds. The price of the fish was a different story, but we certainly don't do it for the money. The fish were caught on the troll and with live bait. We caught most of them only a mile or two off the beach. The bluefin season should be just as good in 2024, except the fish will be a little bigger!
Tight lines.
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The new Castafari entered Cape Cod waters in early June...
Fish ranging from 50 to 900 pounds have been showing up in June...
Three day offshore trips to the gulf stream...
