I had just cracked open a drink when the fish came up. I set the brew on the bait tank, buckled in as a tuna slurped the bait, lifted the 80-wide Tiagra out of the holder and went to work. My beer was still ice cold when we gaffed the 192-pound yellowfin.

That short, effective fight depended on the 200-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon leader, 40 pounds of drag and a true winch of a reel. But the gear doesn’t matter if you don’t use it right, and that means using its power to hurt tuna instead of yourself. I’m a big guy and I’ve caught hundreds of tuna over 100 pounds, but size doesn’t matter. I’ve seen little old ladies use the right techniques and catch fish much bigger than I ever have. My friend caught a 300-pound yellowfin on stand-up gear when he was 78.

Use a Harness and Pad to Fight Big Tuna

The key is a good harness and pad, and the ability to use it. One of my favorites is from AFTCO, designed by Greg Stotesbury. Stotesbury’s stand-up experience, like mine, is grounded in the San Diego long-range fleet. No offense, East Coasters, but most of you don’t know how to use a harness. Here’s how it works.

If you learn anything here it should be this: When fighting a fish, you should feel all the force transferred by the harness from the point of your hips down. You want the belt around your butt, not the small of your back.

In preparation, wear the harness before the bite. Wait until the fish is solidly hooked and pulling drag before you put the rod in the belt and clip in. Many fish are lost early when folks fumble with their gear instead of fighting the fish. Once you are fastened to the fish, attitude is everything. Stay calm and relaxed. Don’t let adrenaline and bad form hurt you.

How to Fight Tuna in a Fishing Harness

Proper form means good posture: Put your left hand on the reel to guide the line, with your right hand on the handle. Keep your back straight, and bend your knees enough to distribute the pressure across the tops of your quads and your backside.

Modern composite rods do all the work when kept at right angles to the rail. When the tip comes up, wind it back down. If you can’t turn the handle, switch the reel to low speed. Can’t keep up? Go to high speed. Don’t impart wild pumping motions. Instead, focus on the rod tip. Call out deep color when you see it, and wind the fish up to the gaff.

Safety Tips for Fighting Big Tunas

A couple of safety notes should be added. Every tuna is an individual, and where the hook ends up influences how the fish acts. Yellowfin tuna hooked in the upper jaw by the snout are notoriously squirrelly. You have to be prepared to react to the predictable and unpredictable, and that often means getting out of the harness.

Use S-hooks instead of clips to attach the harness to the reel lugs so you can get out quickly if necessary. And remember to back off the drag ­(gradually, don’t dump it into free-spool) when you need to get the rod out of the gimbal pad for maneuvers such as keeping the line out of the props.

How to Gain Line When Fighting Big Tuna

When you sit back and put on a lot of pressure, a fish will often run out high in the water column. Enjoy the fact that now the fish is on the losing end of the energy equation. This is the only time you can take a breather. When the fish stops, bear down on it. Try to get a turn on the handle, going to low gear if necessary.

Tuna will often respond to the ­pressure by diving in the direction of the boat, which provides you the opportunity to win back a bunch of line with no more effort than turning the handle. Be ready to go into high gear when the fish sounds, and take that easy line.

Once the fish goes into the final stage of the fight — straight up and down — it’s time to really put on the heat. Stay in one spot and keep the rod straight out from the rail. The tuna’s tail beats are reflected in the pumps of the rod tip as the fish circles — the more pressure, the tighter the circle. The tip of the rod will come up as the fish leaves the inside (closest to the boat) of the circle. That’s when you get those precious feet of line with several quick turns of the handle to bring the tip back down and keep the fish moving up. Don’t waste energy by stubbornly trying to turn the handle when you stop gaining line.

Most important, stay relaxed so you reserve the burst of energy and sharpness of mind that is usually called for at the end of the fight. Sometimes, a truly mean fish will say to hell with this and bust a big move. The telltale is an irritated shake of the head. You have to be ready to respond and follow. It’s usually over soon after that — one way or another.

The post Tuna Fishing with Stand Up Gear appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Do you have a photograph of a fish you can’t identify? If so, we’re up for the challenge, and would welcome the opportunity to share your photo and its ID with an international audience of enthusiasts. (Whether published or not, we will personally respond to every inquiry.) Email your jpgs, as large/hi-res as possible, to: fishfacts@sportfishingmag.com.

Some Fish Facts fans have been wondering about the difference between a “standard” yellowfin tuna and an Allison tuna. References to both names are commonplace. For example, Tom Pytel writes, “I often notice in photos some yellowfin tuna with very long anal fins. I’ve caught yellowfin to 100-plus pounds, but none has had those long fins. Is this strictly associated with size or perhaps sex, or some other factor?”

So Fish Facts thought it should, once and for all, clarify this tuna teaser. To cut to the chase, there is no difference: We’re talking about one species, Thunnus albacares.

But indeed, some yellowfin have clearly elongate second dorsal and anal fins. It’s the only species of tuna that exhibits this variation in fin length, says John Graves. Graves, for years chair of fisheries science at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, is one of the world’s leading tuna and billfish experts. He notes that the longer fins occur in only larger yellowfin. “In the extreme, the length of these fins can be greater than 40 percent of the total length of the fish. Some refer to these Allison tuna.”

Graves says this occurs independent of the fishes’ sex, but not of the location. “There’s a lot of geographic variation in the length of these fish.” For example, he says, across the Pacific, the relative lengths of yellowfin second dorsal and anal fins tends to increase from east to west.

In scientific terms, this variation in fin size for years “created havoc with the taxonomy of yellowfin tuna,” he says. As many as seven species of yellowfin tuna have been recognized, based on fin size. “It was only in the mid 1960s that the various geographic populations were combined into a single, circumglobal species.”

So while some anglers will remain convinced they’ve caught an Allison tuna, Fish Facts fans will know the truth: It’s a yellowfin tuna, no matter the length of its fins.

The post Fish Facts: What is an Allison Tuna? appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

“HOLD ON!” yells Capt. Shane Jarvis, and you’d better listen because he’s spotted diving birds and spinner dolphins on his Simrad radar. That means just one thing: surface-busting yellowfin tuna. He points the boat in their direction and guns the twin outboards in search of sashimi.

Jarvis has established an island retreat in Panama’s Gulf of Chiriquí, 30 miles from the Costa Rican border. No purse seiners are allowed in Panamanian waters, so the fishery remains fertile. Anglers can chase billfish, mahi and inshore species, often in the same day, but the marauding tuna are typically the biggest draw. Massive schools thunder around and anglers who can intercept them reap the benefits. His base on Isla Parida, 10 miles offshore, puts him closest to the action.

“The tuna are here year-round, but the bait really moves in with huge pods of dolphin from April to August,” he said. He’ll locate the action with his radar, and attempt to cut it off. “You want to figure out the direction they’re moving. When they’re in super-tight groups, you can do that, but some bait — like flying fish and squid — can’t be herded. They’re more erratic.”

Upon arrival to the action, anglers try to launch a Yo-Zuri Bull Pop or Mag Popper into the midst of the frenzy. At first, some are too awed by the airborne tuna to act. If the fish go down, it’s time to start all over again, searching the radar for action that could have moved miles away in the blink of an eye. All too often, though, one or more anglers hook up.

“The key is to loudly pop the lure one or two times so the fish can hear and see it,” Jarvis explained. “Then move it faster … pop-pop-pop-pop. When you hook up, apply as much pressure as you can from the get-go. It pays to be in good shape.” That’s because while the tuna tend to school up by size, a 200-pounder can suddenly appear in a group of 20- to 60-pounders.

Jarvis, as part of Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge, has outfitted his three World Cats and one Freeman with custom front casting platforms and protective rails. The latter prevent anglers from going in the drink when casting or battling a giant yellowfin. He uses specialized popping rods from Blackfin and Shimano Twin Power 14000 spinning reels spooled with 65-pound test Yo-Zuri Superbraid and a shock leader of 80-pound test Super Fluoro.

At night, anglers return exhausted to the lodge’s compound on Isla Parida, and the biggest decision for the following day is whether to go on another hunt for tuna, or to focus on billfish and inshore species. Fortunately, it’s not a single decision that must be made. In fact, while this may be tuna popping paradise, and there’s nothing wrong with chasing them exclusively, variety is the region’s true calling card. Just don’t fall into the trap of thinking that the other species will give you a rest. Befitting the Jurassic Park-style scenery, everything here is prehistoric, mean, and willing to fight to exhaustion.

Planning a Trip

When to Go

The yellowfin are in the Gulf of Chiriquí year-round, and can be caught on surface lures any month, but prime popping takes place from early April through the beginning of August, when the bait is bunched up the best and the seas are calm. The rainy season starts in late summer and runs through the end of October, plus Jarvis closes down the lodge in September and October. The fishing is still good, but it may be uncomfortable to be out there. Opportunities to catch billfish and mahi increase on the edges of the rainy periods. Inshore fishing for species including roosterfish and cubera snapper is good all the time.

Where to Go and How to Get There

Getting to Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge. Anglers fly into Panama City’s Tocumen Airport, the largest in Central America, which is served by numerous major airlines and has direct flights from over a dozen North American cities. From there, the package includes expedited immigration, all transfers, and a night at the Hilton. The next morning, anglers fly to the city of David on a Copa jet, take a five minute ride to the airport, and an hour boat ride through the estuary to Isla Parida.

Panama City is exceptionally cosmopolitan and safe. During the stopover, tours can be arranged of the Panama Canal or Casco Viejo portion of the city. Isla Parida is in a national park, which includes World Heritage Site Isla Coiba, known for its incredible diving and whale watching.

The post Panama’s Topwater Yellowfins appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Best Time for California Yellowfin Tuna

Captain Andy Cates, of the Red Rooster III, says the season kicks off in September with 8- to 10-day trips to the lower banks including Potato Bank, Finger Bank and Morgan Bank. This is the land of giants, with the majority of yellowfin tuna weighing 200 to 300 pounds. “If you get a bite, it’s a big one,” Cates says.

The captain compares early-season fishing to big game hunting. He says anglers prepare for weeks for a shot at a true trophy. By January, the water on the lower banks cools down and the big tuna disappear. “We have no idea where they go,” Cates marvels.

That’s when he turns his attention to longer 15- to 18-day trips to the Hurricane Bank. Cates describes Hurricane Bank’s fishing as “action packed.” The bulk of the action is on 90- to 150-pound yellowfin. “Lucky anglers can get eight to 10 bites a day,” he says. 

The main goal of long-range anglers is landing a 200- to 300-pound cow yellowfins. Cates says February through April is the best shot at a trophy. In addition to tuna, Hurricane Bank offers top-notch wahoo fishing.

Cooler Water Temperatures Scared off Sharks

With the season wrapping up, Cates reflects on the trends he observed. “The water stayed cooler, so the fishing was better,” he says. Cates explains the cooler water discouraged sharks and presented a better opportunity to catch a tuna. 

In the beginning of January, Cates explained that the water temperature was in the mid-70s. As the season progressed, the temperature dropped to 72.5 degrees and the sharks disappeared. “It was absolutely brilliant fishing,” Cates remembers.

Hooks and Plugs for Tuna

Going toe to toe with a 300-pound yellowfin tuna requires the most advanced tackle. Cates says, “Lightweight and powerful rods and reels we use make it possible for anyone to land a cow.” The key connection is the hook, and Cates prefers the Trokar 619 series for strength and performance.

The hot lure for trolling for wahoo is the Nomad DTX. Cates laughs, “Everyone on the back of the boat has a DTX.” For the optimal action, anglers tie the swimming plug directly to the mainline. “Using wire makes the lure come out of the water,” he says.

Bluefin Tuna Fishing Heats up in June

As we interviewed Cates, he was preparing Red Rooster III for the last 15-day trip to the banks. When he returns, he expects San Diego bluefin tuna fishing to heat up. “Bluefin fishing is spotty right now but it should get better in June,” he says. 

Cates says the best bluefin action is at night, so he plans to bottom fish during the day and tuna fish at night. “We’ll catch 50- to 200-pound bluefin only 50 miles from San Diego,” he says. 

As for next season on the Mexican banks, Cates is hopeful. “If everything sustains and we don’t get a lot of warm water, I expect next season to rival this year.”

The post California Tuna Fishing Heats Up appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

The Gulf Coast offshore of Venice, Louisiana, is a hot spot for yellowfin tuna, blue and white marlin. Captain Kevin Beach, of Mexican Gulf Fishing Company, says the key to scoring big tuna in clear water is downsizing his tackle and offering a buffet of bait choices. 

Fishing the offshore oil rigs and open water 30 to 50 miles offshore, Beach catches yellowfin tuna weighing more than 150 pounds regularly, with blue and white marlin releases in the mix too. 

Try Different Baitfish

Beach and his 42-foot Freeman Pale Horse start the day catching bait. “When the bait shows up, everything else follows.” Using No. 6 to No. 8 Sabiki rigs, he loads the livewell with hardtails (blue runners), scad and threadfin herring. “The tuna are temperamental and finicky, so I take a variety of bait,” Beach says.

After he makes bait, Beach runs offshore looking for clear green or blue water. “Clear green water has been the best,” he points out. Some days, Beach finds the tuna within 20 miles of the beach, but the most reliable bite is usually on the rigs out to 50 miles. 

Light Tackle Gets More Bites

When Beach sets out the baits, he starts with 50-pound-class rods, 100-pound leader and a 6/0 to 10/0 hook. If the fish are skittish, he downsizes. “I’ll go to a 4/0 hook and 15-pound leader,” he says. But Beach avoids battling big tuna on light tackle. “I’d rather get fewer shots at fish with heavier gear,” he says.

To improve his hookup ratio with lighter tackle, Beach has gone to a thin-wire Eagle Claw L2004. “With the light leader, I’m not using enough drag to straighten the hook,” he explains. The light-wire hook improves the presentation of a small bait. 

Use Spinning Gear for Open Water Tuna

Everyone knows fishing is hot around the oil rigs, but Beach likes to find fish in open water. He gets really excited when he finds a whale shark swimming on the surface. “Tuna in the open water haven’t seen 100 hooks, and they’re not afraid of the boat,” he says. This is a perfect opportunity to catch big tuna on a spinning rod and topwater lure.

Beach warns anglers to use heavy spinning tackle. He laughs, “A light rod and reel results in a long battle and usually ends in heartbreak.” He says bruiser tuna require a seven-foot rod and Daiwa 18000 and 20000 Saltiga MQ reels. The reel is spooled with 80-pound braided line and a 4-foot leader of 80- to 100-pound test. He connects the leader to the mainline with an Alberto knot. “Topwater lures change through the season, but the Halco Slidog is consistent,” Beach says.

The post Outsmart Louisiana Yellowfin Tuna in Clear Water appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Simply put: I find no greater enjoyment on the water than fishing with other women. When I can combine that with prime accommodations, bragworthy meals, rainforest nature and a pampering massage, sign me up — again and again.

In June, I traveled to Crocodile Bay in southern Costa Rica to test new tackle from Penn Fishing. Also new to me was the recently opened Botanika resort. During the three prior visits I’ve made to this location over the last 12 years, I stayed at Crocodile Bay’s original property — which I would call a nice fishing lodge. It had just enough comfort and amenities to suit groups of guys and even families, as well as some extra perks and options like eco-tours to see sloths, toucans and monkeys, and ziplining through the tree canopy.

But Botanika attains a level of class that’s rare for any location, particularly one that offers the kind of offshore and nearshore fishing available here. Over three days, we encountered acres of spinner dolphin and yellowfin tuna feeding and breaching like aquatic missiles. During prior trips, I’ve caught Pacific sailfish, snappers and groupers and punched a bucket-list ticket by boating a 30-pound roosterfish on a topwater plug.

On this recent adventure, and once about seven years ago here, I was fortunate enough to fish with a group of women. This time, I spent the final half-day aboard one of the resort’s Striker Yachts with two women anglers from Penn — Kimberly Hoffman and Jen Ripple. We asked to fish nearshore to target roosters, so we spent our first hour catching sardines with gold-hook rigs — sublimely simple fun.

As the captain started slow-trolling the livies inside the Golfo Dulce, our mate rigged a popper on one of the new Penn Carnage III rods that was paired with a new Penn Authority spinning reel. Jen and I took turns at the bow with the popper rod and a fly rod. Bait was everywhere. We saw one follower, but found no takers.

The rest of the morning, we slow-trolled just outside the breakers along the ocean beaches, where the bow heaved too dramatically for casting. While the bite proved slow, we spent hours talking about experiences and eating perfectly spiced and blended fresh-tuna salad. No tension. No competition. No comparisons. No bragging.

Toward the end of the morning, our captain — who had been casting the popper from the fly bridge — hooked a rooster and handed down the rod. Kim fought the fish to the transom where the mate brought it aboard for multiple photos before release. You might have thought we’d won the Super Bowl.

Target fish notched, we headed back to the dock for our rendezvous with Gloriana, the massage therapist. One muscle-melting hour later, and I met the others for drinks and fresh tuna sushi for supper.

At dinner, I asked a Crocodile Bay representative if the resort had any package offers for female anglers, so others can experience a getaway that’s unique and special to women. They do. For a limited time, visit this link to see the Girlfriend Getaway Fishing Special. Sign me up.

The post Costa Rica Girlfriend Fishing Getaway appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

mp day 9

Today marked a couple firsts for me, as I caught new fish species and some of my favorite species in different ways. So far, I’ve kept these blog posts less about me, and more about the trip and anglers and what I’ve learned from them. Well, this blog post is all about me.

Capt. Tim Ekstrom called it when he said, “The Ridge is going to provide a ton of action, though mostly from smaller fish than the first couple days.” Fishing The Ridge as we start to head back north toward San Diego allows all anglers to make sure they have a couple fish for their coolers. Some anglers definitely have more fish than others at this point. On the way to The Ridge, our team of four was on the troll and my rod was hammered. Out of the four lines in the water, mine was the lucky one. Finally, after losing fish earlier in the trip, plus a sharked wahoo, I landed my first-ever ‘hoo (nicknamed skinnys) from the Pacific Ocean.

As an added bonus, less than an hour later, I landed my first wahoo while casting a lure. This technique is completely alien to what I’m used to on the East Coast. After a fish is hooked on the troll, all the other anglers on the boat have an opportunity to make some casts to any other wahoo hanging around. From what I’ve learned from this trip, wahoo definitely travel in packs! I honestly believe this technique would work for wahoo anglers from the Gulf of Mexico up to the Carolinas. (I’ll have to ask some captains about that.)

I cast Mark Rhodes’ wahoo bomb off the port and reeled the lead head skirt toward the boat as fast as I could. About 20 feet out, a blue and silver torpedo came out of nowhere and chomped the offering in plain view. I was almost too astonished to even reel. Since the wahoo hit so close to the boat, I hauled in the estimated 30-pounder before he had much time to run. Mate Blake Wasano made the gaff shot.

Earlier in the day, I caught my first-ever yellowtail (NOT snapper). Then, I caught another and another. The fish hit butterfly jigs off the bottom, but were released because of their sizes. Other anglers fly lined baitfish or used a dropper loop to land their yellows. The yellowtail catches were at just one of a couple stops along The Ridge.

At another spot, a mass of school-size yellowfin tuna bombarded the boat, eating just about everything thrown in their direction. All anglers joined in on the action, choosing different methods of taking the tuna. I cast a Shimano Waxwing out to the 10- to 20-pounders and watched the tuna attack my bait at the surface before setting the hook. A limit of yellowfin tuna is 15 fish, though most fishermen didn’t keep nearly that many. With all the other yellowfin tuna caught throughout the trip, we just didn’t need to add more tuna to the boxes.

Angler Randall Nimura also landed his first wahoo of the trip, following a similar pattern to mine. He landed his first fish on the troll, and “hung” a second fish on a wahoo bomb. I actually caught my ‘hoo on the wahoo bomb while he reeled in his first wahoo on the troll. Two Alaskan commercial salmon fishermen, part of a party of about five on the boat, landed their first two wahoo ever in the evening. The pair of fish hit Ben Van Dyck’s and Tony Rodrigues’ trolled lines just before dark, with both anglers successfully landing their fish.

I want to send out a well-deserved and gracious thank you to Shimano’s Marc Mills for making this trip happen, and to Capt. Tim Ekstrom and his crew aboard the Royal Star for making it so memorable. I always thought offshore was king in places like the Florida Keys, but after this last week fishing off the Baja Peninsula, I’ve got a whole new perspective on West Coast offshore fishing.

The post A Long-Range Journal: Day 9 appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

day 7

One 211-pound yellowfin tuna saved the day to an otherwise slow afternoon at the banks. If you check out a topography map of the Baja Mexico Coast, along the Pacific Ocean, it’s hard to miss the banks, ridges and drop-offs that start about 25 miles offshore. That’s big yellowfin tuna country all the way into February.

Average depths that we fished ranged from 55 to 65 fathoms. Hopscotching north along the Baja Peninsula, we trolled and anchored whenever the conditions were favorable.

At the first bank we started, there really wasn’t much happening. Capt. Ekstrom explains it this way: The yellowfin tuna come up onto the shallower banks during certain times of the day. It’s hard to predict when the trophy tuna will show themselves on the sonar — that’s why it’s vitally important to always “soak” mackerel baits.

Angler Gunner Kruse “hung” his tuna just minutes after Ekstrom called out over the speaker that some “cows were underneath the boat deep.” The fish swam erratically around the boat, twisting the main line into the anchor a number of times. You can bet Kruse thanked mates Blake and Jimmy for the tangles they prevented.

The tuna fought far from the boat, straight up and down, and even circled the boat a number of times. Finally, the tuna battled fervently just below the top thermocline, trying to stay in that cooler mid level water. But Kruse won the battle, and Eckstrom was there to photograph the fish along with the three gaff men.

The photo included with this blog post is a picture of Capt. Ekstrom hanging off the side of the boat to take a picture of the 200-plus-pound tuna.

Moving between banks, we were always on the lookout for schools of dolphin or kelp paddies. We jumped between banks often because there was no current and little signs of life, about the worst conditions you can ask for, says Ekstrom.

The first school of porpoise that we ran into had under-10-pound yellwofin tuna mixed in, so we didn’t spend much time with them. At another point, Ekstrom spotted a school of porpoise about 8 miles ahead of the boat with his binocs. When we reached the birds and dolphins, it was disappointing to see no tuna with them.

Our constant companion, the sea lion, was always there to chomp pieces of fish in our chum line. We named him Bobo. That sea dog seemed to follow our boat and was ready for fish-freebies whenever we anchored. We also met a local Mexican fishing crew, setting lines for sharks from their panga. We passed them some of our chunk baits, along with some muffins and potato pancakes for lunch. They left happy!

One event that happened after last night’s blog post was a flurry of dorado fishing action. At about 9 p.m., with half the boat sleeping, three anglers started catching dorado as they schooled underneath the boat. There was a call out over the radio to grab a rod and get fishing, but the school left just as soon as it came. I awoke to fish flopping at the deck, but was about 2 minutes late to the action. By the time I had my bait out in the water, the fish had moved on.

The post A Long-Range Journal: Day 7 appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

mp long range

Usually when California anglers talk about “scratch fishing” it means the fishing is slow, and therefore anglers have to pick and scratch away to get fish to the boat. Things change when you purposely scratch fish because your targets are yellowfin tuna that top 200 pounds.

We fished a ridge along the Lower Banks today, about 50 miles from Cabo San Lucas. Just 25 miles from shore most of the time, we were able to see the outlines of mountains like sketch drawings along the horizon. There was never a morning or evening bite, but many hours of soak time where we urged our mackerel baits away from the boat. The theory was, the farther the baits were from the boat, the more likely to get bit. Casting a mackerel was tough with the 100-pound tackle we used.

There was lots of maneuvering along the rails as we followed our mackerel whichever way they swam. The only way to prevent tangles with other lines is to keep the line tight, and to keep following your bait along the rail.

About 5 anglers hooked the fish of a lifetime today.

What can truly be considered “trophy hunting,” the yellowfin tuna all weighed from 170 to 270 pounds. Anything over 200 pounds is considered a cow. Tonight, at dinner, I sat with three anglers that were celebrating their catches. They were some of the lucky ones — Tom Walker landed a 262-pounder, Phile Wade a 195-pounder, and John Finneran a 172-pounder. All fish were caught on 100-plus-pound tackle using stand-up techniques. That means there was no fighting chair and the boat was anchored. They deserved the praise they received over delicious pork and beets dinner. In fact, all the food on this trip is unbelievable, and it’s something all the anglers look forward to before breakfast, lunch and dinner.

While scratching around throughout the day, 4 or 5 striped marlin were hooked but only one made it to the boat. They are mostly considered a nuisance. Even though tourists out of Cabo target the marlin, they only get in the way on long-range boats. They’re not kept and they mess up the expensive and time-consuming leaders used for tuna. Other incidental catches included blue sharks, plus a couple of sea bass that resembled the snowy grouper I’m familiar with on the East Coast.

Today was also the first time I got to see the kite rig deployed for tuna. Similar to the kites used for sailfish off Miami, this rig employed a balloon and kite from a kite rod. The actual fishing rod used to catch tuna was attached to the rig via an outrigger clip. What was different was the long range boat Royal Star employs a double trouble rig below the kite. That’s a pair of sardines hanging off different leaders attached to a single swivel. The swivel attaches to the main line of the fishing outfit. It gives the angler two chances to hook a tuna without having to re-bait, and surprisingly it doesn’t often tangle.

Tonight, we’re anchoring on the same bank that we fished this morning. We’re hoping an early morning bite could lead to some more trophy tunas. If there’s no action by morning’s end, Capt. Ekstrom said he’ll have us head north to the ridges and other banks that follow the Baja Peninsula. Tomorrow morning, at about 4:30 a.m., we’re hoping the bite is wide open!

The post A Long-Range Journal: Day 6 appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

mp day 5

Dawn broke with us headed toward Magdalena “Mag” Bay, off the coast of Mexico. Capt. Ekstrom has no problem traveling through the night, with different deckhands taking turns at the wheel during the sleeping hours. Each of the operators has a captain’s license.

Today was a travel day, but we stopped in offshore waters if we saw signs of fish activity. Ekstrom slows whenever he sees floating kelp paddies, diving birds, schools of porpoises, dead seals, turtle or whales, or other flotsam in the water. Between spots, we trolled Marauder plugs in case wahoo were around.

Floating debris was pretty much non-existent today, but we did make a stop at some floating tuna pens holding massive bluefin tuna. We didn’t fish inside the pens, but instead marked tuna schools outside the structures. Inside the pens, the massive bluefin tuna are fattened up with sardines to get ready for market. “They’re basically giant kelp paddies that hold fish on the outside,” said angler Mark Rhodes.

Motoring around a couple different pens, plus the boats pulling the pens, Ekstrom marked tuna down deep. We didn’t have luck bringing them to the surface, or getting them to feed, but we did hook a couple of dorado (sometimes called dodos), skipjacks and small yellowfin tunas. Most of the tuna were shorties and were released.

We spent most of the day telling stories, trolling and rigging tackle. Team 3 was trolling for so long today without a bite that they finally gave up and forfeited their position. It became a running joke on the boat.

Mate Blake Wasano gave us a quick seminar of what to expect if we hooked into large yellowfin tuna. “The captain will call out what pound tackle to use, and that could be 50-, 80- or 100-pound tackle,” he says. “Make sure your knots and drags are ready to go. We have two rods ready to go if you’re about to get spooled.”

These backup rods feature 200-pound tackle and a buoy that connects to the harness mounts on your own reel. If an angler is about to get spooled, he has two choices: 1) Lose all your expensive braided line (which anglers here generically call “Spectra,” whether it is or not) and the fish or 2) Hook your setup to the backup rod and throw your own rod and reel overboard. Next, the angler fights the fish from the second rod until he gets enough line back to fight from their own rod once again.

The bite was slow today, so there are no giant tuna reports to mention. We ended the night catching tons of mackerel to refill the baitwells in Magdalena Bay. In the morning, we’re hoping to find some giant tuna to tangle with. I don’t want to have to throw my rod overboard, but I will.

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