Three Terrific Tuna Tactics
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By Capt. John Raguso While Atlantic City sometimes holds good fortune for shoreside gamblers, offshore anglers can expect even better odds by rolling the dice with seven species of the tuna clan that frequent the Northeast coast.
Laptop Battery Indeed, the waters from Lewes, Delaware, on the southern boundary northeast past Montauk Point, Long Island (including Block Island, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Island, Massachusetts) - a distance of about 175 nautical miles - can boil with hot tuna action. In offshore waters 120 feet and deeper, tuna opportunities can stretch up to six months out of the year, with good shots at running into schools of bluefin, yellowfin, albacore and bigeye tuna.
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Thinkpad Closer to shore, football-size tunas similar in appearance such as little tunny, skipjack and Atlantic bonito zip around. Adding to the variety, there is a tendency for tuna to swim in mixed schools, such as bluefin with yellowfin and bonito with little tunny, and for schools to turn up at depths you wouldn't expect to find them, such as yellowfin and bluefin in water only 60 to 90 feet deep. Even surf casters occasionally land a few.
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Microsoft On the right day, a lucky crew can roll a "tuna 7": seven species of tuna on one trip.
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Laptop Computer It's Tuna Time
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Desktop Computer The Northeast tuna season starts in mid-June and extends through the end of November, when concentrations of bait and water temperatures cooperate. However, a slightly different tuna profile takes shape each season, which means that history is helpful, but you must remain flexible in timing and technique.
Notebooks For example, several seasons ago the action started the first week of June when mixed schools of yellowfin and bluefin invaded 65-degree, 90-foot waters to feed on huge concentrations of tiny butterfish. The tunas hung around until late June, when the bait disappeared. At the end of July, warm core eddies from the Gulf Stream, driven by southerly winds, started to work inshore, bringing surface water temps up to the mid-70s. Swarms of school-size bluefin tuna established a firm foothold in 120- to 150-foot waters near some of the more prominent midrange wrecks south of Long Island and east of the Jersey shore. This nearshore action remained predictable for the entire month of August in this area.
Lenovo Yellowfin usually prefer 72-degree, 150- to 180-foot waters in the proximity of shipwrecks 30 to 40 miles offshore. With El Niqo playing games with weather patterns last year and the Northeast experiencing one of the mildest winters on record, anglers are hoping that yellowfin schools will return to the 90- to 120-foot haunts of old, less than an hour from most New Jersey and Long Island inlets. With school-size bluefins arriving on schedule around Memorial Day this year, yellowfin are expected to follow suit.
Hard Drive Fortunately, cooperative swarms of Atlantic bonito, skipjack and little tunny can make up for any absences of yellowfin, keeping rods bent in 90- to 120-foot waters throughout the entire New York Bight stretching from Block Island to Cape May. Current restrictions on school-size bluefins remain in effect (only one fish from 27 to 73 inches allowed per boat per day), and most anglers avoid smaller "footballs" due to their bloody and oily flesh. So those intent on seeking tuna for table fare are hoping for yellowfin and albacore schools to return inshore at some point this fall.
Travelstar In contrast to the long-range canyon action available for bigeye, albacore and yellowfin tuna, the Mud Hole West between New Jersey and Long Island, and the Butterfish Hole about 15 miles south-southwest of Montauk Point, are renowned giant bluefin tuna hot spots, especially during the fall months. Although these giant tuna stocks have dwindled significantly from past years of plenty, the fall run, which typically spans mid-September through the end of November (or until the season is closed by the NMFS), still produces a few granders every year.
Gateway With numerous boats of all descriptions attracted to this close-in fishery, things can resemble a three-ring circus reminiscent at times of the unruly shark-hunt scene of the movie Jaws. Since each fish can fetch between $15,000 and $20,000, tempers can flare and courtesy quickly evaporates as anglers compete and crowd one another on prime spots driven by the greed of a big payday.
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Software Troll 'Em Up
Hard Drives Three time-proven methods take most of the tunas that frequent Northeast waters: trolling, chunking and sight fishing. Over the past few seasons, trolling has replaced chunking as the most popular of these, since you can simply drop four to six lures in your wake, dial in the proper trolling speed and catch fish with a minimum of skill and experience.
Electronics Trolling also lets you cover more ground, and once a school's located you can concentrate on it to get multiple hookups. My favorite lures: Sevenstrand's Tuna Clones in the #200 size for nearshore and the #300 Big Eye Clone for offshore, with zucchini, black-and-green and blue "pro-dolphin" being the most popular colors. Also, the classic Green Machine or the second-generation soft Green Machine with a skirt rigged behind a large Japanese bird teaser represents an absolutely deadly lure. I've landed all seven species of tunas on both the zucchini Clones and the Green Machines, so they always get the first call for every trolling trip. Area Rule's mini D-4 doorknob "Nobbies" and standard Japanese feathers in red and white, green and yellow, and black and white are also popular standards with area tuna anglers.
Canon Since my weekend charters are based on light-tackle, my preferred inshore trolling outfits are a Penn 2455 Standup Slammer matched to a GLS-25 graphite lever-drag reel spooled with 20- to 30-pound mono, or a 2555 Standup Slammer mated to a Penn GLS-45 lever-drag reel spooled with 30- to 40-pound line for inshore fish. Similar rigs by a number of manufacturers will also get the job done. For offshore trolling, I employ small two-speed conventional reels spooled with 40-pound mono and larger 30 two-speeds loaded with 50-pound. We've caught a few 200-plus-pound bigeyes on the 30s, and it's a blast, with the average fight lasting 30 to 45 minutes if the angler's stand-up techniques are up to snuff.
Desktop Pc I'll try to run six or seven rods when trolling. I put two rods on flat-line clips in the second wave, two going directly from angled rod holders on the third wave, a pair streaming out from outriggers attached to birds on the fifth and sixth waves, and a long bait with a bird down the middle on a center rigger, usually about 100 yards. This trolling system works well, and my anglers always express amazement that we don't tangle our lines, even when making tight turns.
Desktop Computers Having the birds on the three longest baits enables me to see precisely where they're lying in the wake, which helps prevent tangling. With my twin V-6 outboards, the best trolling speeds are 6 to 8 knots, depending on seas and wave action.
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Repair Chunk It Up
Data Recovery Chunking represents the technique still preferred by canyon anglers, where 20 to 30 hookups per night are not uncommon. This method requires specialized gear such as ground tackle, an anchor ball system and cutting tools that chop bait and dispense it overboard, plus detailed knowledge on how to put it all together to make it work.
Cisco In the past five or so years, sport boats got the idea to wait for commercial vessels to pull in their nets and discard their bycatch. Tuna, conditioned to the rattling of chains and other gear signaling a dragger hauling in its catch, congregate behind the vessel to await bycatch meals. Once the waters start to boil around the dragger, the sport boats move in with large nets, scoop up the fresh baits, hook them up and throw them right back overboard.
Keyboard The classic tuna-chunking approach requires beefy stand-up tackle and at least 80 to 100 pounds of chunked bait such as herring, butterfish, mackerel, bunker and spearing (silversides), dispersed at a steady rate over prime fish-aggregating structure. Baits such as butterfish are defrosted, then cut in four to six pieces with a serrated knife. A handful is thrown in a wide arc down-current and allowed to drift, then repeated in a steady cadence. If a hot bite ensues, someone should continue chunking or you'll lose the school.
Monitor Two popular chunking techniques involve 1) using the same size chunks for bait and letting it drift back with the chum so your offering doesn't draw extra attention; and 2) doing just the opposite, i.e., using whole baits so your offering stands out from the crowd and draws more attention. Both techniques work well at times.
Desktop Many tuna chunkers now bring 1,200 to 1,800 feet of anchor line or rode aboard, complete with heavy-duty anchors, extended lengths of chain and large anchor balls to retrieve the gear at the end of the trip. A windlass just won't cut it in this type of environment.
Infosys Anglers looking to experiment have tried chunking while drifting; this can be very successful on windless days/nights with minimal wave action and current flow. If the wind and waves kick up a bit, a large sea anchor can slow the drift and allow the chunks and hooked baits to have a more natural descent behind the boat.
Refurbished Laptops When chunking at night, halogen or fluorescent lights shone into the water attract pods of squid and baitfish, in turn tempting predators to invade the circle of light for an easy meal. Once they get a scent of your chunks, there's a good chance that a school of tuna will set up shop behind your boat and provide a steady stream of hookups until they lose interest or get chased off by a group of larger fish.
Wipro Whenever I take anglers out for a day or night of chunking, I still employ the same 16S and 30SW outfits used when trolling until the fish tell me that I'm overmatched. When encountering yellowfin in the 150- to 200-pound class or large bigeyes, I keep a couple of 50SW outfits on board spooled with 60- or 80-pound-test mono. When working a large, feisty tuna from an anchored boat, two-speed reels are a blessing.
Lap Top For targeting nearshore football tunas, the anchoring-over-structure drill is basically the same, but I would switch baits to the forage most natural for that time and place. Spearing, sand eels, pilchards, anchovies and butterfish all work at times. Throw a handful of chunks or small whole baits into the water, watch them disappear, and then do it all over again until something happens. Drift your hooked baits back with the chunks for up to 200 feet, and then reel them back slowly and start all over again. For this fishery, we use Penn 965s and Abu 6500s with 16-pound-test line almost exclusively.
Refurbished When you're chunk fishing either nearshore or offshore, using live bait can sometimes turn a slow day into a slug fest. If you can, catch some mummichogs (killifish) or snapper bluefish in the back bays before the trip, and keep them in a recirculating live well until ready for the main course.
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Intel Sight Casting for Tunas
As400 Sight casting to schools of surface fish is becoming more popular with Northeastern anglers, especially when the other methods come up empty. I always keep a pair of Penn 965 baitcasting outfits ready, spooled with 16-pound test on 6.5-foot rods, in my hardtop rocket launcher. My personal best is a 40-pound bluefin using this tackle - a 45-minute fight that covered almost 2 nautical miles. We've also caught yellowfin, skippies, bonito and false albacore (little tunny) with this same outfit and others such as Shimano Calcuttas. I've had quite a few of these tunas spool my smaller Penn 930s and Abu 6500s on the first run, so I'd recommend going with the larger 965s and Calcuttas due to their larger line capacity.
Averatec A 3-foot section of 40-pound leader joined to the main line via either a surgeon's knot or loop-to-loop connection is a critical link in sight casting; tunas' short teeth and sharp fins can quickly wear through light line. Attach the leader to a 1-ounce white bucktail jig, a shiny Hopkins Kastmaster or a tuna feather jig, and you're in business. Be sure to allow enough of a casting lead and time to let the jig sink to the tuna's level in the water column. As soon as you feel a soft bump, set the hook with a sharp upward jab and hold on.
Hardware Even though it takes more skill to handle a baitcasting reel than a spinning reel, I believe that a baitcaster offers more control over the hookup and fight since the rotating spool on the baitcaster eliminates any potential for line twist - the bane of every spinning outfit. A skilled caster can also thumb the revolving spool to "feather" the landing of the lure on the water's surface.
Dual Xeon Trying to figure out the myriad rules and regulations on tuna hereabouts can be dicey, mainly because they change so often. Tuna anglers must also procure a yearly federal fishing permit, which will set you back a registration fee of $18.50. The best bet to be sure you have up-to-the-minute information is to call 888-USA-TUNA (toll-free) and go through the phone prompts until you get the data you need.
Storage Tuna fishing off the Northeast coast is a blast. You can go after them nearshore or offshore trolling, chunking or sight fishing, and if you're really on a roll, it's possible to catch all seven species on the same trip, a tuna slam that's been accomplished many times.
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Computer Sales Capt. John Raguso, the boating and marine products editor for the Fisherman Group of Magazines, holds a 50-ton Master Near Coastal license. He operates the MarCeeJay out of Bay Shore, Long Island, specializing in light-tackle fishing for tuna and sharks. He can be reached at 516-499-8140 or by e-mail at capt.john@worldnet.att.net.
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