Searching for Bluefin

The Tag team has been sitting out the weather after a warm day fishing on Monday, January 15, 2007. MLK day started well with smooth seas with some high winter air temperatures > 70F in Beaufort, North Carolina. Sensation went west with a reduced commercial fleet, and the Leslie Anne fished directly off Cape Lookout Shoals. Both teams looked at an ocean that had signs of life- with bottle nosed dolphin, gannets and some bait. Despite a strong effort, neither team saw a fish but we did see black tip sharks leaping and spinning in almost every direction we looked. Several large bluefin were landed by the commercial green stick boats and DNA samples were taken by the tag team to discern what stock (Gulf of Mexico or Mediterranean) of bluefin were visiting during the holiday. Warm water is moving in very close to shore potentially squeezing the available habitat for the 400-500 lb class of fish swimming nearby. A strong cold front with a northerly wind potentially might help conditions. The SST image shows the warm water pushing in close to shore.