Get your HMS Permit in order for a December sleigh ride!
“The end of the 2023 season was the best inshore bluefin bites in recent years, hands down. It was the most insane bite maybe of all time.” These are the words of Jim Kuhl, aka Tuna Junkie, well known in the Northeast as one of the top and best bluefin tuna hunters. His sentiment is echoed by everyone that I know, including myself, as to what we saw last season when bluefin moved down along the Jersey Shore on their way to their more southerly wintering grounds.
Typically, we see a large population of smaller bluefin in the 40- to 55-inch range, with the occasional group of giants. Last fall, however, we witnessed a mass of 55- to 100-inch bluefin, the likes of which many have never seen. Starting in early November, tuna hunters started catching them around the three mile line, with many boaters fishing for striped bass reporting big bluefin blowing up around their boats; some even hooked a few only to get spooled in very short order. An abundance of adult bunker was the bait that was bringing them in close for a meal.
With the amount of late season bluefin we have been seeing in recent years targeting them has now become more the norm than limited to only a group of select anglers like it was years ago. The learning curve has shortened and for the most part boaters looking to target these magnificent fish are well prepared with the right tackle and gear.
The big difference however is that some boaters have caught and landed a lot, others a few, and still some trying to catch their first one.
Match The Hatch
As winter approaches, our target range for these bluefin is anywhere from along the beach out to about 20 miles, so long as bait is present, and we have seen no shortage of that thus far this season. Our key baits that can be present are squid, mackerel, Atlantic sauries, bunker, sand eels, and juvenile silver hake (aka whiting), that may only be an inch long. Which bait or baits we see varies from year-to-year.
Most of my clients want to catch one of these bluefin while casting to them with spinning gear but such might not be the best option each day. On some days the bluefin just don’t show on top presenting the necessary opportunities. Before we leave the dock I will let them know my game plan. If the bluefin are up and showing then casting to them will take preference. If, however, they are not and all we are doing is driving around looking and hoping they are going to show then I would opt to troll for them instead. If I am seeing good marks on my fishfinder then drifting and jigging while deadsticking soft baits can also be an option. While drifting, clients can still blind cast if casting is what they want to do.
When trolling, I will rig ballyhoo on 2-ounce TN-Tackle or Joe Shute heads. The spreader bars and side trackers stay home at this time of year. My favorite head colors are blue and white combo and the red head crystal skirt. The best way to rig a ballyhoo is by the split bill method as this will give the bait the appearance that it is swimming down as it is being pulled along. If you are not good at rigging by this method then a pin rig and cap can be used. For my trolling speed I start at 5.5 knots and adjust slightly slower or faster from here. I will troll a four-rod spread way back off my outriggers at roughly 400, 350, 300, and 250 feet behind the boat. Sometimes I may drop in two additional rods with deep diver plugs, like the Nomad DTX 220 or 200 off my midship as I have found that these plugs run straight and true right out of the box. Be sure to leash all your rods to your gunnel.
When running and gunning while casting to surface feeding bluefin a variety of artificial lures and soft plastic baits come into play. The hard baits are tuna grade poppers like the Madd Mantis or UVT and stickbaits while the soft plastics are NLBN’s, RonZ’s, and Hogy’s. Poppers are cast out and retrieved with a pop followed by a pause. The pause it what draws most strikes. The retrieve is not a continuous pop, pop, pop, like when fishing for striped bass. Stickbaits are fished with a sweep of the rod to impart motion to the artificial also followed by a pause. Again the retrieve is not your typical striped bass retrieve where you would reel continuously to bring back the lure.
Soft baits like NLBN’s, RonZ’s and Hogy’s can be fished in a variety of ways as I have caught bluefin using many different types of retrieves. A slow twitch seems to be the most effective, but an erratic jig, or ripping it through the water have also worked at times.
One of the keys to whether you will get a bite when casting to surface bluefin is how long the bluefin will stay up in a feed. If the tuna are up for a good period of time then you have a good opportunity to pull up, get the boat in a good casting position, and then begin casting right in front of their face. If the tuna are up and down very quickly then this will greatly reduce your odds of connecting. Running and gunning is a skill that can quickly get you to a feed; some do it safely and much better than others. Anticipating where the tuna may come up again will also work in your favor but is not as easy as it sounds.
Catch My Drift
If you don’t want to run and gun but continually see bluefin in a particular area then you can set up on a drift and blind cast around your boat while deadsticking soft baits. All three soft baits mentioned previously can be fished in this fashion. Start by casting out as far as you can on the upwind side of your boat, let them sink to the bottom, scope out another 25 to 50 feet of line, and then just stick the rod in a rod holder and allow the up and down rocking motion of the boat provide the action. RonZ lures, which have been around since 1990 take center stage for this application and are a favorite of the top charter boat captains in the Northeast.
Stephen Weitzen, head of sales for RonZ said founder Ron Z Poirer was a pinhooker who got tired of buying eels. “He designed his tin head bait to impart a motion the tuna can’t resist as it lays in the current on the bottom imitating a sand eel,” said Weitzen, explaining how Poirer often fished alone and this technique allowed him to fish multiple rods at a time. “The enticing action of the tail as the jig slowly twitches up and down will produce strikes,” Weitzen added. It is always exciting to see one of these dead stick rods double over without you having to do anything.
| MUST HAVES |
| Think safety first when heading out at this time of year, and pick your days carefully. “If it’s blowing and we’re going” is not a good mentality to have even if it gets the bluefin fired up, which it does. Always leave a float plan with someone back at home, and before you leave make sure all your safety gear and communications are in order. A Garmin InReach, or better yet STARLINK if you can afford it, are good pieces of safety equipment that allow you to text or call anyone via satellite when out of cell range. Of course, don’t forget your Highly Migratory Species permit at hmspermits.noaa.gov. |
The rod and reel to use when casting or deadsticking for bluefin will be determined by the size of the tuna. So far this season we have seen an incredible number of big overs in the 60- to 70-inch range, along with many true giants. These have seemed to be more the norm than the exception. If these tuna make up the bulk of our December run then you will want to make an investment into a custom rod that is built for these bigger fish. A Monster Ledge 200ST or a Zack’s heavy casting rod paired with a 14K Shimano Stella spooled with PE 6 braid and 100- to 150-pound fluorocarbon leader will be a correct setup. If the bluefin are smaller in the 30- to 60-inch range then a 7-foot, 8-inch to 8-foot, 2-inch spinning rod is the ticket, something along the lines of 7-foot, 8-inch Nomad PE 8-10 popping rod or the 7-foot,9-inch Centaur Chiron Inshore Game will be fine. A 14K Shimano Twin Power spooled with 80-pound braid and 80- to 100-pound fluorocarbon leaders is a good set-up.
When casting, I like to use a BHP Tackle pre-made casting leader with a loop in the end. This is looped-looped to my braid. This connection should not sit around the reel when you are ready to cast or it will cut down on your distance; keep it just off the reel below the first guide. For this reason, I will cut down the pre-made BHP 12-foot leaders to about 8 feet, so then I have approximately 4 feet of leader running through the guides and 4 feet beyond the tip.
