I was wondering when you guys start chunking for tuna at the fingers?

I wish I could tell you. Have the same question myself.



Come on guys!! Loosen up the reigns!

I have no real specifics. I have a buddy that's a charter capt, and I know he did some chunking around the end of August, but I he's back to trolling again. He was around the Fingers. I've only been chunking a few times and that was several years ago and if I'm not mistaken it was around the end of August early September(Mike, Rockin Robin, help me out with this one). Never mind.. the beauty of keeping a journal...it was August 7th, 2001.
I know the guys up north out of Ocean City and Chinco chunk a lot and early in the season, like July.
Hope this helps some.

--Don

Nobody is really doing it from what I've heard but, I think chunking would be the way to go right about now, with the cooler water, should help the bite. You never know, might be worth a shot.

Now if the wind would just stop blowing for awhile, last weekend was nice but would have been great to see it coming.

We need a Wachepreague Indian Wind Dance to appease the wind gods

We have been chunking all season, we start out trolling but have had better luck chunking. We have had allot of luck, the most we have caught is 10 in one day. Mostly 5-6 in the 30-70 lbs class. We went out sunday early out of little creek and found allot of grass holding dolphin at the 30 mile mark. Trolled around the fingers and caught all the false albacore you could stand, they are thick. Started chunking and caught Dolphin and yellow fin. Came home with 6 dolphin and three tuna 30, 40, 65 lbs, lost one at the boat. Allot of boats running through the chum slick and circling the boat to get in on some of the action, very annoying. Bring allot of live bait that is the key to keeping them at the boat. Hope the info helps

The Oregon Inlet fleet used to do a lot of chunking in the fall. They went back to the same area every day, a few of miles north of the Point, and the chunks helped keep the fish and bait in the same area for quite a while. I've never seen the ocean that alive for that long. Weeks on end it seemed like. Clouds of bait from top to bottom, pilot whales and dolphins everywhere, tunas slashing through your slick and huge sharks. Had a 10 duskey and a 12 foot hammerhead on at the same time three years ago, the last time I fished that area in the fall. The hammerhead was 450 lbs, caught on standup gear and the head of a 40 lb tuna with a 14/0 hook and a cable leader. You folks that want to go sharking, find out if the fleet is chunking. Just remember, the fastest way to go from the top of the food chain to the bottom is to step off the back of your boat. Tight lines and good luck.

The best thing about Chunking is that you feel the fish and not the boat.

Personally, I have only tried it a couple times this year. We prefer to troll to cover ground. To me, the best way to tell when it is chunking time is when we start getting lots of drifter bites... means the fish are hanging around for scraps. You can get them on the chunk most anytime if you are in the right place. The troll bite has been so good this year, there hasn't been a reason to chunk.

I was fishing OI back 3-5 years ago when the chunkin' was great. The charters were forced into doing it b/c the rec guys were puttin' a hurtin' on the tunas and the troll bite had died. It all started when the draggers showed up. When the draggers come down again, it will get goin' again.

Nolan