Whether on the drift or anchored on it, September is synonymous with chunking.
I have successfully chunked tuna at literally every time of the day and night; it just depends on locating them and getting your chunks in the zone. If they are hungry, they will eat, especially if you can match the menu. Depending on whether I’m doing a daytrip to near offshore 20- to 35-fathom waters or a long canyon overnighter at the edge, I usually take along a can of spearing, peanut bunker or mackerel chum for either inshore or offshore duty and will really milk it for many hours by tying it halfway out of the water and letting the oil slowly drip into the slick. I avoid using bunker chum to keep the sharks away, since they can really shut down the tuna party very quickly.
For inshore day chunking, you should be doling out about one flat of cut bait for every 2 hours of operation. For 8 hours of actual fishing time, that equates to four flats of frozen bait and a can of spearing or mackerel chum. For canyon overnighters, you will usually need to double that amount and some crews who believe in “overload chunking” will take even more bait along, including plastic shovels and big plastic barrels to really get the slick going strong. The challenge with this “quantity” approach is that you need a really large boat with a huge cockpit and high capacity fishboxes to store the bait until ready for deployment.
I usually bring along at least three different types of bait and will try to match the hatch of what the tuna are feeding on at any given time. On a typical near offshore day trip, my “usual load” includes three flats of medium-sized butterfish, one flat of sardines and a 1-pound box of baby (4- to 5-inch) squid. If I can net a 4-gallon pail of local dockside peanut bunker a day or two before the trip, I will use these to sweeten up the slick and might even use them for an occasional hook bait. To keep things organized aboard my 23-foot center console, I will prep for each trip by cutting up the bait the day before and stow it neatly in 4-gallon plastic chum containers in my boat’s onboard coolers. As a general rule, one 30- to 35-pound flat of bait will typically fit into a 4-gallon square plastic food/chum container, which are frequently available at local tackle shops for purchase. This is a huge time and trouble-saver when getting to the fishing grounds.
Once the strategy to either drift or anchor up has been determined, I usually start out with a ladle and a bucket of freshly cut chunks and get the party started. I always keep my echo sounder on during the chunking process and will employ split-screen mode, with one screen showing the complete surface-to-bottom view and the other zooming in to the upper half of the water table from just below the thermocline to the surface to determine if any tuna are swimming through the slick (red and orange arches on the screen). Remember, once your chunk slick is established and you have the fish coming in, do not stop the chunking procedure, as you can lose the school quickly and they might never come back.
I like using a steady stream of chunks with the occasional “heavy flurry” to tease fish into coming closer to the boat. The process is simple – throw a handful of chunks in a modest arc down current from your boat, wait for them to disappear from sight and repeat. Remember, the game is to get them to take a hooked bait, not sit 100 yards back in your slick to get a free meal. I will usually cull out the cleanest and freshest looking baits for the hooks.
Rig ‘Em Up
At the risk of oversimplifying what could be its own feature article, tuna-chunking hooks are basically grouped into three types – beak style live bait, short-shanked O’Shaughnessy and circle hooks. They are all manufactured by top respected brands like Mustad, Gamakatsu, Owner, Eagle Claw and others and come in a multitude of sizes, finishes and hook strengths. For my brand of fishing, I prefer the J-hook styles like the forged, extra-strong beak live bait hooks and the short shank O’Shaughnessy types. I will typically keep an assortment of both these types of hooks in sizes that range from 1/0 to 9/0 in a dedicated box like the Plano 18-compartment 3600 series tackle tray and will match the hook to the size of the bait we are using and the size and species of the tuna du jour.
I am a dinosaur of sorts for continuing to embrace J-hooks, since I like to set the hooks after pick-up by hand and have lost too many fish for my taste with the various circle styles. My favorite hooks to employ when chunking or live-baiting for tuna are the Mustad Hoodlum 4X Ultra Point 10827-BLN (black nickel plated), Mustad 9174NP-BN short shank O’Shaughnessy 1X (black nickel plated) and the Gamakatsu live bait 1841 series extra strong, black nickel plated. The way that I fish and store hooks in between trips, the plain vanilla bronze style hooks rust out too quickly and many get thrown out after minimal use, so the low-vis black nickel plated hooks are a plus.
When attaching a hook, my “go to” knot is a classic 9- to 10-turn snell. However, I’ll use a Palomar if I need to get right back into the water during a hot bite, especially if I am cutting down and retying an existing leader. I’ll use a 6- to 8-foot length of fluorocarbon or camo leader in the 40- to 80-pound range with either a SPRO mini or ball bearing swivel on the opposite end tied on to the main line via an improved clinch or Palomar knot. Styrofoam floats, party balloons, breakaway sinkers and sliding egg sinkers are all critical tools that will come into play when suspending or working your hook baits at various positions in the chunk slick.
Leader wise, I like to start on the lighter end – think 40-pound test – in an effort to encourage strikes and will only go to heavier 50-, 60- or 80-pound fluoro if the tuna are too large and breaking us off too often. I prefer the pink color in my fluorocarbon selection to eliminate the sparkle and/or light-piping effect that bright sunny days might impart to clear fluoro and warn wary fish that your hooked bait might have an unpleasant surprise inside.
In terms of my preferred 6- to 8-foot leader length, the trace should be just long enough to allow the gaffer to get a good shot at the circling fish when the swivel approaches the rod tip as the tuna comes up from under the boat. It is important to avoid grabbing the lightweight leader during the end game maneuvers if at all possible to avoid unintentional break-offs, since it is may be frayed and weakened from the fight.
Big Game Tackle
Jigs and popping plugs are useful to keep on standby when tuna chunking as you may see fish swarming at a particular depth under your boat. I always keep two spinning outfits like a Shimano Stella 14000 and a Penn 6500/7500 Slammer IV DX spooled with either 50- or 65-pound braid ready to go on a second’s notice when opportunities present themselves. These spinners are also useful if you spot swarming tuna zipping through your chunks 25 yards behind your boat near the surface, as flipping a whole butterfish or small squid into the pack is an easy task with this gear and can result in immediate hookups when tuna are boat shy.
I prefer to run my near offshore chunking trips with lighter and more manageable gear, which adds a lot of enjoyment and challenge to the adventure. My arsenal includes Penn VISX 12 and VSX 16 open top and Shimano Talica 16II and 20II conventional two-speed lever drag reels. The smaller reels (VISX 12 and Talica 16II) are spooled with high-vis yellow 65-pound braid (PowerPro or Western Filament Tuf-Line), while the larger units are bumped up to 80 pound. Each outfit is equipped with a 40- to 50-yard topshot of 80-pound Berkley ProSpec Chrome mono tied with a Bristol knot with a lock. In 20 years of guiding light tackle offshore charters and boating fish up to and surpassing 400 pounds, this knot has never failed me and has no problems passing through the roller guides of my rods.
Given the usual 50- to 100-pound average size of near offshore chunk slick tuna – medium bluefin behind draggers being the exception – these outfits can adequately handle 95% of the likely hooked up during the course of your day trips. The secret to the capability of these lightweight reels is their two-speed gearbox, which is a real game-changer.
If I am heading offshore for larger fish, I will bring along outfits like the Penn 20 VSX and 30 VSX reels spooled with 100-pound braid and 100-yard mono topshots for larger fish. These heavy metal reels can dial in over 40 pounds of drag when we are tuna fishing on canyon overnighters, or when pursuing 200-pound plus bluefin while running and gunning behind the draggers. These beefier two-speed reels offer a more robust cranking tool to bring larger thunnus boatside in a more timely fashion with fewer break-offs. Many of my contemporaries will use 30Ws, 50Ws and 70Ws to support their tuna chunking endeavors, but this is not my style for the usual suspects that we target.
My rods will include a mix of Shimano and Penn gear, ranging from legacy models like Penn Tuna Sticks and International Vs, including current production Shimano Trevala, Tallus and Grapplers. When hooked up with larger tuna, it’s tough to beat the benefits of a roller tip/stripper guide or an all-roller layout to minimize friction over the long haul of a give and take battle using heavy drag.
Presenting Your Baits
When sending baits into the chunk slick, the rule of thumb is to match the speed and depth of the freebie chunks while trying to hide the hook somewhere inside the bait with the point exposed. The concept is simple and disguises your hook bait within the cloud of chunks, so when a wolf pack of bluefin, yellowfin or bigeye crashes the party, nothing looks out of place to these sharp-eyed predators. The anticipated result is that your bait is sucked up with the others in the competitive melee.
The key is to consistently meter out line in a “zero gravity” state, to insure that your offering is sinking at the same depth and speed as the bait cloud. Too much tension or resistance will set your bait on its own solo course away from the freebies, which might spook an otherwise cooperative tuna.
Another technique to put your hook bait into the feeding zone is to ascertain the speed, depth, descent rate and distance away from the boat of the freebie chunks and deftly put baits suspended in this cloud via either foam floats or party balloons. These rods are placed into gunwale-mount rodholders and when using this approach, I will typically employ the downwind side outrigger to suspend these lines above the fray, especially when we are working one or two rods actively back and forth in the slick with the cut chunks. Tangles are a big no-no and should be avoided at all costs. Many fish are lost during a cluster bomb when the hooked fish tangles all of the deployed lines and causes one big mess.
Other bait deployment nuances include using a whole bait that sticks out from the smaller chunks and appears to be a more inviting target; using a similar sized bait that matches whatever you are sending out into the slick (like a clone chunk when chunking butterfish or sardines); using a different bait like a whole squid or a sardine when chunking with butterfish or vice versa; using live baits like an inshore or canyon squid, spot, porgy, snapper or peanut bunker in the chunk slick or on a balloon/float near the thermocline.
For a few pro tips, I reached out to a couple of buddies, Capt. Bobby Tyree who runs his 35 Sea Hawk Jay-Mar out of Fire Island inlet on Long Island, as well as Capt. Howard Bogan who runs the Big Jamaica out of Manasquan Inlet at Brielle along the Jersey Shore. Whether by charter boat or larger inspected vessel, the for-hire captains that run throughout The Fisherman region have a lot of time invested in this fishery, and can provide outstanding first-hand experience for tuna fishermen of all skill levels.
“When I am doing a near offshore day trip to 30/35 fathom areas south of Long Island, I will bring at least three types of frozen baits. This load out will include five flats of medium/large butterfish, one flat of squid, one flat of sardines, plus a 5-gallon pail of spearing,” advised Capt. Tyree, saying he also carries along a 5-pound box of select medium sized butterfish for hook baits.
“We use an old-school approach of cutting up the baits into chunks on the way out, employing serrated knives like the Dexter Sani-Safe or the next-gen Tiger Edge, or a battery-powered electric Sawsall,” Capt. Tyree said, explaining how chunks are then dumped into a large 10-gallon pail and/or smaller 5-gallon pails. “Anything that we don’t use that day is put into smaller pails, covered tight with a lid and either refrigerated or frozen for the next trip,” he added.
“When we start chunking, one rotating member of the crew is assigned to chunking duties and that is their only job, to keep the chucks flowing in a steady stream. Once we find the fish, we try to keep them coming with no interruptions,” Capt. Tyree advised. The Long Island captain said he’ll try to figure out the drift rate and chunk depth, placing two baits back into the slick on balloons typically at 150- and 75-foot depths, setting an appropriate distance away from the boat and positioned in the descending stream of chunks.
“We will use sliding bank sinkers attached via paper clips to keep these baits at the preferred depths, with sinker size dependent on sea state and drift speed,” Capt. Tyree said, noting that these outfits are put in static rodholders in the gunwales. “We will also work one or two rods positioned in the rodholders that allow us to send out hooked baits with the chunks,” he said, adding “When these offerings reach approximately 200 feet away from the boat, the baits are reeled slowly back and the process starts over again.”
For Capt. Bogan, a hefty 125-foot long multiple diesel-powered head boat like the Big Jamaica creates its own form of special challenges. “For starters, we’ll typically bring along three flats each of medium butterfish, sardines and squid (total of nine flats). In addition, we’ll also take along three 100-pound plastic totes of pre-cut butterfish (equivalent to at least another nine flats).” Capt. Bogan said he prefer using mostly butterfish on our trips, since they don’t attract as many sharks, which can really shut down the bite. “One of the mates is assigned to chunking duties and we using a doggie ‘ball chucker’ plastic throw handle to sling the chunks in a wide arc along the down-tide side of the boat to keep as many of our anglers’ baits in the stream as possible,” Capt. Bogan added.
Hook-wise, Capt. Bogan said he and his crew prefer the 7/0 Mustad model 94151 short shank O’Shaughnessy 1X beak style live bait hook. “These feature a reversed hook point that increases our anglers’ chance of success after they get a pickup,” he said, explaining how they typically employ medium size whole butters for bait for starters, with the hook first inserted into the butter’s mouth and out the gills, then turned to go back into the gill plate and reinserted into the belly with only the hook point exposed.
| TOP NORTHEAST CHUNK BAITS |
| Frozen and/or Fresh Chilled – butterfish; sardines; spearing; peanut bunker; herring; tinker mackerel; baby and medium squid; sand eels; mackerel chunks.
Live Baits – snappers; spots; larger peanut bunker; medium bunker; canyon squid; small Almaco jacks; tinker mackerel; porgies; killies. |
“Depending on the current, we will suggest that our anglers use a sliding egg sinker from 1 to 16 ounces positioned above the swivel that attaches a 6- to 7-foot fluoro leader to the bait,” said Capt. Bogan, explaining how when he’s able to see the fish on the screen and they are not hitting whole butterfish hook baits, he’ll suggest that anglers change up and go with either smaller chunks or an alternate bait.
“We’re constantly calling out the depth location of any fish cruising under the boat and some of the sharpies will take this info and send baits into the slick on balloons at these predetermined depths,” he said, adding “We try to avoid using larger butterfish as hook bait, since it’s been our experience that the hook can turn back into the bait more easily, resulting in increased pulled hooks and lost fish.”
