Boat-Shy Bluefin Off Southern California by Greg Stotesbury The past few years in Southern California, we have been plagued with the “La Nina” condition, which keeps our offshore waters cooler than normal in the summer months. Our typical warm-water run of striped marlin, dorado and yellowfin tuna never makes it far enough north for us to reach them during “La Nina” years from ports in So Cal. Fortunately for us large, schools of bluefin tuna do sometimes make it above the US-Mexico border on cold water years, as they have a better tolerance for the cool and nutrient rich California current. The bluefin take advantage of the tremendous amounts of bait which congregate along well-defined current lines during cold water years. Our local bluefin are tough to catch, but worth the effort and are the best eating of any of our local offshore species. When the bluefin show in the Gulf of Catalina they can usually be located over the offshore banks and ridges, such as the 43, 182, 289 and San Clemente Island ridge in purple-blue 62 to 68 degree water. One of the keys to locating bluefin is to look for fast moving spots of terns or petrels fluttering over the surface and crashing on bait. Bluefin spend a great amount of time at the surface feeding and “breezing”. Their surface roaming, tight schooling behavior makes them particularly vulnerable to the fleets of purse seine boats from Mexico and San Pedro. By the time these fish reach local waters they have usually been harassed several times by the relentless seiners. This makes them even more boat shy and sensitive to engine noise, generators and sonar pings. Bluefin tuna are one of the most highly prized and best eating in the world Bluefin are notoriously boat shy and difficult to hook from small private boats with smaller live bait capacities than the bigger party boats. Party boats can chum tremendous amounts of live baits and attract the bluefin to the boat, but smaller private boats have to take the baits to the bluefin and use stealth tactics to get their share. This requires some modified techniques to get them to bite consistently. After locating an area with schools of bluefin showing on top and bird schools working around them, we immediately start glassing with gyro-stabilized binoculars to find the larger spots of fish and birds. This past season you could even watch for “jumpers” (free jumping tuna) in the working bluefin schools and then target the spots with the bigger fish. Our secret to getting the Bluefin to bite was to turn off all the sonar units, both up-and-down and side scanning, and then position the boat above the direction the fish were working. We would then shut down the motor and wait for the bluefin to get into casting range of our fly-lined sardines and small mackerel. Many times the bluefin would shy away or go down for no apparent reason, but every once in a while the whole school would be crashing bait all around the boat in a virtual frenzy! Even when actively feeding, the super-shy bluefin would only hit a perfectly presented bait that swam as soon as it hit the surface. Bluefin tuna can be the most frustrating fish in the world, but there is nothing like the thrill of the first run of a fat bluefin hooked on light tackle on your own boat after a stealthy approach! Our favored bluefin tackle is a light 7 ½’ to 9’ live bait rod with the best casting reel available, spooled with 300 yards of 30-50lb spectra backing, with a long 20-30lb fluorocarbon top shot. Many of the schools of tuna run 15-25lbs, but then there are the occasional schools of 40-80lb fish. You won’t land many of the 70-80lb bruiser-bluefin on the light gear, but then you’ll never get the bite if you don’t use tackle that can fly-line a small live sardine or mackerel bait. We had several tragedies on big tuna this past season, but we also landed a fair amount on the light gear. We tried using 30-40lb fluorocarbon leaders, but found we got bit the best using 25lb pink-tinted 100% fluorocarbon with a 1-2/0 light wire, ringed circle hook to suit the bait. The circle hooks reduce the bite-offs from the larger sharp-toothed Bluefin, but we still lost some of the bigger models to chewed leader after long fights on the light gear. Due to their superior quality on the table, we handle the bluefin we catch in a special way. Ideally, we head gaff the fish to avoid any gaff holes in the precious loins or bellies. We then immediately cut a couple of the gill arches with a pair of poultry shears, then make a small cut at the base of each side of the caudle peduncle (tail) just down to the backbone. Once the gills and tails are cut, we place the tuna head down in a bleed tank of circulating sea water and let the tuna bleed out completely before slipping them into an insulated fish bag full of ice and saltwater slush. This process insures all your efforts to catch the elusive and boat-shy bluefin tuna are rewarded with prime sushi loins and bellies at the end of the day! — Greg Stotesbury For a complete list of our other featured blog posts and to see the full line of Guy Harvey Sportswear, please visit: guyharveysportswear
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 00:55:00 +0000
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