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Tuna fishing

Tuna fishing is a popular offshore saltwater fishing that many fishing enthusiasts love. Yellowfin tuna and bluefin tuna and Albacore are the well-liked species.

Among the various type of tuna fishing, yellow fin tuna is the popular game fish. Catching yellow fin is thrilling because of their high speed, huge size and most importantly the fighting tenacity. Yellowfins have bright yellow fins with a yellow stripe from the eye all the way to the tail. Its body is silvery and the back is in blackish color. Yellow fin tuna prefers warm waters, and they are most found about a hundred feet under the deep sea water.

Bluefin tuna is another popular sport game fish. A giant bluefin tuna can weight up to 1000 pounds! Fishing for bluefin will need some planning, research and patience. The peak season for bluefin tuna on the Northeast U.S coast is from the month June to November. Bluefins are normally caught in the deep part of the waters. It is not common to see then at coastal ocean shores.

Tuna fishing gears are typically large seine fishing nets and fishing lines that is a mile long, big hooks, steel reel and tough fishing rod. Most people have their fishing trips with fishing charters. The charter boat service normally provides the necessary fishing gears for the tuna fishing trips. It is a good idea to look for tuna fishing charter as the captain will give you lots of locality tips. You should only use fishing charter with reputable and knowledgeable skipper. They should also be using well maintained fishing equipment. To verify that they are indeed expert in catching tuna, they normally will show you fishing reports, fishing photos and even some videos on their profile. Most of the tuna charters come with a fish fighting chair that is anchored to the boat deck. The chair can make your reeling for your trophy tuna in a better and memorable way.

For locating tuna, you must also understand the seasonal change. During summer, most tunas are surface feeding and during or near winter season, they tend to feed in the deeper water. Also, tuna tends to strike on low lighting condition, thus tuna fishing in the early morning or late afternoon is one of the popular timings to fish.

Tunas are normally found at far away sea. Locating tuna is not a difficult task. The tunas normally feed together and thus create many water ripples and disturbances at the surface of the sea. Watch out for sea birds and dolphins. This means that there are a group of bait fishes, which always attract the tunas. Once tunas are spotted, drifting or trolling is used for catching the tuna. Trolling is dragging one or several baited fishing line at the rear of the fishing boat. You can use live baits or fish meat such as skipjack, mackerel, squid, balao, or other bait fish. Artificial tuna fishing lures are also a popular choice in attracting the tuna to strike. It should be done is slow speed about 4 to 10 miles per hour. Drifting or chumming is throwing live baits around the boat to attract the tunas. Chumming is attaching a chum at the stern of the fishing boat and let it spread to attract bait fishes and the tuna. Do not overfeed but just enough to entice them to strike.

For the trolling, the tuna fishing tackles recommended to use are 2 speed reels with a 100 pound monofilament line. Use the drag scale, set the drag to about 25 pounds. A trolling rod of about 7 feet is adequate and place it at the fighting chair gimbals. The leader should be around 18 foot using a 120 pound fluorocarbon leader line or leader with IGFA line class. Use a 10/0 One Jobu hook as they are tough, unbreakable and rust proof.

When the tuna strike, do expect that they will fight real hard as a strong fish. You need to have the fishing techniques, stamina and strength to control them and eventually bring them up. The tuna can pull the fish line rapidly off the reel. Take note of your fishing line, when the line is slacking, it means that the tuna is swimming toward the boat. Reel in the slack line fast and ensure that the hook are set. Keep the fishing line tight at all time. A giant tuna can let you fight as long as a few hours before you can bring it up. For a small tuna, you lift it up by yourself, while a big tuna you will need a curved hook on pole and gaff. The gaff is hooked into the side of the fish and then hauled it up the fishing boat. It is not uncommon to see that at times you will need a few people to bring up the trophy tuna.