The maritime law of salvage has its origins in Roman law, which dictated that one who preserved or improved upon the misplaced property of another was owed compensation, even if the service was not requested. Let’s get out the ole inter-webs seiner and get to work…
Fishing Reports: OnTheWater / Fisherman Mag / SaltyCape / Redtop
Podcast of the Week: State of Sportfishing Podcast - Catamaran Sport Fishing ft. Hugo Maclean - The New Zealander chats about his experiences crossing islands in the pacific with his catamaran sailboat, and fishing for a variety of game-fish while under wind-power.
Local Knowledge: Tuna fishing is a lot like a boxing match: days and weeks of nervous preparation, a test of stamina and mental adjustment in real-time, only to get socked in the face repeatedly. In that guise, the past weekend was a taste of Tyson for yours truly, Cape Cod Bay delivering a long-overdue uppercut to the gut as I limped back into Barnstable harbor fish-less in the dark. Those are the moments we love to hate, when we pay the price of zigging when the fish are still set on the zag. As far as the ‘zag’ goes…the Bluefin bite does remain fairly ‘wide-open’ by historical standards, with our expectations of a shallower and wider dispersion of fishing locales seeming to be playing out. As we show below, half-beaks have entered the Fall fray just on time, some of the Cape finest tuna tanglers already dialing in on the ‘beek spray’ that make Bluefin especially susceptible to topwater presentations.
Know Your Forage - “Beeks” (Atlantic Silverstripe Halfbeak)
Also known colloquially by charter captains as “Bluefin crack”, ‘beeks’ have long, stream-lined, darkish-green backs with a silvery belly. They are named for their uniquely long lower jaw, which often has a fleshy red tip and is much longer than its upper jaw.
The common halfbeak is native to the sub-tropical western Atlantic Ocean. Its range includes the Atlantic coast of North and South America, the Caribbean coast and the Gulf of Mexico, and its range extends to the Gulf of Maine.
They grow up to 11 inches in length, and spend the majority of their adult lives jetting just below the ocean’s surface. When schools are chased by the few pelagics that can match their top-end speed (~22mph), they are known to “spray” out the water in dramatic fashion.
The omnivorous migratory species feeds mainly on small fish, plankton, algae, and fragments of vegetation such as sargassum (sea grasses).
Halfbeaks are an important link in the food chain between plankton and large, commercially-targeted predatory tuna fish and sharks, and are also important baitfish for game species including dolphin and billfish.
Halfbeaks are closely related to Saury, Ballyhoo, as well as small-wing flyingfish.
The Bait-Monkey is Back!: Halfbeak Edition
Record Catches: Pending Rhode Island Record Albie (FishWire) Giant Octopus Breaks 22-Year Old Hawaiian Record (SportFish) / Father and Son Crush North Carolina State Swordfish Record (Field&Stream) / World-Record Paddlefish Speared in Arkansas (OutdoorLife)
Fall Fishing In the Canyons (OnTheWater) - “By the end of October, I’m invariably alone on the edge. There is nothing like a clear, dark night 100 miles offshore without another boat in sight. It can be a bit unnerving to be that alone, but it’s also a wonderful experience to have 25 square miles of ocean to yourself for a 12-hour night…Fish-wise, it’s on in September—yellowfin and bigeye tuna are in the warm blue water off the edge. Marlin, both whites and blues, will be with those tuna schools, mahi and smaller yellowfin will be hanging around the pot lines in 600 feet, and swordfish should be starting their migration south, making for great night or daytime targets. Bait is thick if you find it. A fall night can bring thousands of squid and baitfish under the boat – the perfect attractant for the pelagics that hunt by night.”
Homemade Canned Tuna (Saveur) - Home-canned, oil-packed tuna is sumptuous, flaky, and full of flavor—a world apart from most commercial versions. Tuna is a low-acid food, so it must be canned with a pressure canner, preferably of the weighted-gauge variety. The pressure creates a higher-than-boiling temperature that kills any bacteria that may cause spoilage. Ingredients: 3lbs of Boneless Yellow/Bluefin Tuna, 3-table-spoons kosher salt, olive oil…
Thanks for reading The Weekly Salvage, until next week!
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