Tuna Fishing Report for August 1st-5th

2009-08-05

First report after 4-5 straight days of fishing and finally have a day off today as one of our charter rescheduled for next Wednesday before doing another 4 days in a row weather permitting. It has been very busy for us lately and I feel blessed with the present economy to have been able to run so many trips but the fishing inshore for BFT as been so good as almost everyone knows by now. What really excites me is we caught a small Yellowfin yesterday trolling within a couple of miles of that secret BFT location that so many of us are now fishing. Good things are starting to happen and it should be very interesting and potentially rewarding for many of us on our upcoming trips.
I am going to skip the details on how many fish we have caught, released or lost the last couple days but it is very decent number. Most of us all know where this bite is happening and have been enjoying some great BFT fishing lately as the recent posts have indicated by fellow Barners. We have had our share of busted off big fish with a few well over 200 lbs and this especially was true when these BFT first appeared locally as we just were not quite set up with the right tackle to do battle with these brutes. It did not take us long to change things up and put out appropriate tackle that can handle these size tunas. It was kind of heartbreaking losing some of these fish big tunas after fighting them for long periods on lighter leaders and we feel some may have actually been very close to 73 inches or more and you are just not going to boat tuna that big using light tackle 95% of the time. I know that many of you will not believe me but over half our fish and bites are now coming on regular mono leaders from 130 lbs up to 150 lbs when fishing Sardines on the bottom and now the minimum size leader on all our jigs is 130 lbs or more and I heard from one of my pro jigging customers yesterday that uses all heavy leader on his jigs up to 200 lbs when the bigger tuna are around and he told me it makes little difference on how many bites he gets. I totally believe this also. Put away your light tackle and light leaders and nothing every goes out on our boat under 130 lbs these days. I have listened to endless reports on the VHF, gotten personal e-mails and phone calls describing lost fish and busted up tackle from some mighty disappointed anglers mostly because of tackle failure. Go heavy guys if you plan to boat one of this brutes and that holds true if you are doing catch and release also. I know that some have been boated some real slobs using lighter tackle and it certainly can be done but my suggestion if nothing else beef up that leader and it will help out so much when fighting tuna over 160 lbs plus.

This is a quote from Dan Harley from Cape May Tackle Company that he posted on the Barn yesterday that came from Dan’s recent trip when the boat he was on jigged up quite a few big BFT’s but tackle failure really hindered them boating one of the many fish they fought. This also has happened to so many others and hopefully this post might help out some anglers when the go to war with tuna over 65 inches.

Bottom line if there is anything that can break in your terminal tackle these fish are going to find it - but only after they make you sweat for an hour - so please learn from our day today and upgrade rings and hooks, leaders etc. Harpoon not a bad idea either, as we had leader many many times but it was very hard to get the fish to gaff range for us - must be gaff man

The bite has slowed down for us lately when using sardines on the bottom after the fleet arrives and we have seen this so many times over the years when tuna fishing. What we have found quite interesting is the bite has continued and at times even being red hot on jigs even when we cannot get a bite on a sardine with so many boats moving all us. I would love to see some local seminars this coming winter detailing all the current information now available about jigging if there would be enough interest in holding a few of these in our general area. These would not have to be about making money but more about sharing good sound information plus a great way to break up the winter blues that most of us face during the colder months. On a side bar about jigging tackle we have asked quite a few of our charter customer what reels they prefer recently when jigging and 90 % favor the Shimano Stella 20000 SWS or Sargosa 18000 F models over the new Accurate BX 600 conventional reels. I know we have personally seen the new Accurate in action on 150-200 lb BFT over the last week or so and they are nothing short of one of the best reels money can buy but our customer still prefer the spinners more.

One very important last item I thought I would mention is there are now other species to be had with a few miles of where almost everyone is currently targeting the bigger BFT. We showed that on yesterday’s trip and we caught our fish trolling just inside the BFT fleet.
I cannot stress enough that you do not have to fish anywhere around large fleets as these fish and bait are spread out for miles on so many different lumps and hills. We personally saw that lots of big BFT yesterday while trolling for smaller species and there was not a boat within 3-4 miles of us most of the time. They are there to be had and this just might be the ticket when boat traffic becomes a night mare on the popular locations such as on weekends with good weather. I know we will be out scouting if our bite dies off when the fleet arrives.

I just hope this post helps out some anglers that have been frustrated to date trying to land one of these slobs. Go search for small areas away from everyone and I think you just might be rewarded but use stout tackle if you plan to bring some fresh Sushi home.

Let’s hope these inshore BFT stay around for a while and we see some nice Yellowfins showing up as that can make for some great inshore tuna fishing for all of us. Good fishing to everyone and best of luck.