by Patrick Lemire
Rod & Reelin’
TUNA FISHING
Simplified
inter... when tuna are the primary target species
for many fishing our offshore Gulf waters. Casting
topwater poppers, hard and soft bodied swimbaits
along with speed and butterfly type jigs, are a route
taken by most. There is another way (there always is); using
“Carolina rigging”, and for more simplification, a nose hooked
sardine. “Tuna Fishing Simplified”, it’s what this piece is all
about.
A Carolina rig, with its slip weight above the swivel and
leader, is the easy way to go as opposed to casting the options
previously mentioned. It’s as simple as it gets and has worked
for many years, but is under used when targeting yellowfin and
blackfin tuna. The slipweights generally used are in the one
half to two ounce size range, depending upon the strength of the
current and depth of the tuna. Since most of this type of fishing
will be done while on overnight partyboat trips, listen to the captain
on the P.A. for what depth the tuna are
being marked. Adjusting the slipweight
size gets your bait presentation into the
strike zone.
Old, or “seasoned”, slipweights
and their dulled surface are preferred
so as not to give off a distracting
flash...stealth is best. If your
slipweights are shiny, do as I do and
spray paint them flat gray. The
slipweights I’ve used for years are
Quick Change slip leads. They give
you the ability to attach and remove
them from your line without cutting
and re-tying at each weight change.
Americanbandit.com has them on
their website.
Beyond the swivel of your choice, is the leader of 80 to
130 lb. mono with my “Poor Man’s Fluorocarbon” treatment,
or one of fluorocarbon. Sufix Superior is the mono I have used
as leader material for years. The one reason is simple; their
leader spooled mono is 10% to 25% thinner than other brands
I’ve taken the time to measure. For instance, their 60 lb. is about
10% thinner than others; 130 lb. is about 25% thinner. If it’s
thinner, it’s that much harder for a tuna to see... stealth again.
Five to seven feet swivel-to-hook gets the job done.
Hook sizes for circle or “J” hooks are roughly about the
size of a quarter across the bend area. A non-slip mono loop
knot at the hook works for all the reasons outlined in my piece
in the last issue, especially with a circle hook, or use your knot
of choice. All that hook needs now is a Spanish sardine of about
5 to 6 inches nose-hooked on it. Circles also should be inline
and not offset. An option of fishing this rig is to eliminate the
slipweight if the tuna have appeared in the near-surface area.
When fishing any of the rigs described, drift your sardine
out to the “edge of the light” at a minimum, especially when
W
fishing shallow, and 175 to 200 ft., at a maximum. Give the
sardine a “rod tip twitch” every thirty seconds or so as it drifts
out. This gives an ‘alive’ look to your sardine. The sardine’s
flash, plus vibration at the twitch are also strike attractors. When
using a sardine, in particular, the wind back after a long drift
should be done with rhythmic half turns of the reel handle
combined with occasional rod tip twitches.
These rigging and fishing methods will give the chance of
a high success rate when fishing for yellowfin or blackfin tuna
to just about anyone out there. It’s not magic, just logically
simple rigging that works and has shown up on recent overnight
trips again. There are partyboats across the Gulf coast that offer
these trips. Check local websites for availability and timing.
The partyboat I fish on, the Capt. John out of Pier 19 in
Galveston, has had some of that recent success. A pair of
fishermen, one from the Texas panhandle, the other from
Oklahoma, had never been tuna
fishing, much less offshore. Using
boat supplied tackle and Carolina
rigged Spanish sardines, one had a
65 pounder and the other brought
three yellowfin to gaff from 55 to 70
pounds.
The next trip produced
yellowfin for a couple of guys who
make very few tuna trips, with 60
and 65 pound yellowfins taken again
on Carolina rigged Spanish sardines.
The following trip had one of them
with a 70 pounder, again Carolina
rigged Spanish sardines did the trick.
While these yellowfins aren’t
monsters, they are representativ