Tuna - fish "good" water or hunt for them?

[seadna]

I've been thinking about how I've been fishing tuna. To date, my usual mode of operation has been to drive to "good water" (e.g. warm enough and hopefully blue) and then to deploy gear and troll. I deploy gear regardless of whether I see birds, tuna jumping or stuff on the finder and I hope that I will find fish on the troll. Of course, if I do see birds or jumpers, I go there but in the absence of obvious signs of fish, I just start trolling.

This is similar to how I used to fish for rockfish - e.g. I'd go to the appropriate habitat (rocky water) and start fishing. Over time, I learned that I could do far better if I drove around a bit looking for schools and then position myself up drift of the school and fish. E.g., I converted my plan from fishing the habitat to "hunting" for fish and then fishing them. So I'm wondering if the same idea applies to tuna. E.g. would I be better off if I just spent more time searching for fish or flocks of birds prior to deploying gear or is it more efficient to just start trolling? The potential advantage of "hunting" is that I can hunt at higher speed (20-30kts) than I can troll (6-8kts). The down side is that I'm not fishing while I'm hunting. What do you think is more efficient?

 

[Birdsnest]

Tough call. I am less inclined to troll around searching these days. I never put gear down in if there are no birds. If i hear a boat is getting them 4 miles away and I want to go there I just pull the gear and run over now instead of the 40 min troll over. TO much fishing "in between" has cost alot of time in a day. On the other hand with these larger fish we have been seeing in lesser numbers with supposedly smaller schools I am more inclined to just stay on my spot where I have caught some fish already even tho a boat over there just got a triple.
Popcorn. I'm a bit shy about this but I am honestly going to give this a go. For a laugh if nothing else and for a reason. The reason is while on my last trip there was a bird working the far back zuker. It was trying to pick it up and following it for a few minutes already while we were talking. We were talking about attractors and it was mentioned that that bird was doing a great job. IT wasn;t a few moments later that the zuker was hit by a tuna. Was the bird an attractant?

 

[tykkyt e blue]

There are a few guys posting on the 'Ifish' forums that swear by 'gun and run' methods.
They cruise around at max speed for the given water conditions looking for signs - birds, bait, jumpers, fins - they ONLY put out their gear with signs to work from. 15-20 min try, no hook ups, move on! They never troll around prospecting.
Also, one member is a firm believer in throwing rice or puffed wheat cereals as a way of attractor for times when there are signs but no concentration. Once he gets some collection of birds and/or baitfish, he switches to chumming w chunk bait - THEN his crew all work metal jigs if they get sonar marks.
Worth a try?

 

[Birdsnest]

There are a few guys posting on the 'Ifish' forums that swear by 'gun and run' methods.
They cruise around at max speed for the given water conditions looking for signs - birds, bait, jumpers, fins - they ONLY put out their gear with signs to work from. 15-20 min try, no hook ups, move on! They never troll around prospecting.
Also, one member is a firm believer in throwing rice or puffed wheat cereals as a way of attractor for times when there are signs but no concentration. Once he gets some collection of birds and/or baitfish, he switches to chumming w chunk bait - THEN his crew all work metal jigs if they get sonar marks.
Worth a try?

This is along the lines of what I am thinking. But maybe with the puff wheat use maggots to "match the hatch".lol just kidding. Good post teb.

 

[bigdogeh]

has anyone here ever jigged up a tuna with a zinger, buzzbomb, etc? just curious...

 

[Tidal Chaos]

Tough call. I am less inclined to troll around searching these days. I never put gear down in if there are no birds. If i hear a boat is getting them 4 miles away and I want to go there I just pull the gear and run over now instead of the 40 min troll over. TO much fishing "in between" has cost alot of time in a day. On the other hand with these larger fish we have been seeing in lesser numbers with supposedly smaller schools I am more inclined to just stay on my spot where I have caught some fish already even tho a boat over there just got a triple.
Popcorn. I'm a bit shy about this but I am honestly going to give this a go. For a laugh if nothing else and for a reason. The reason is while on my last trip there was a bird working the far back zuker. It was trying to pick it up and following it for a few minutes already while we were talking. We were talking about attractors and it was mentioned that that bird was doing a great job. IT wasn;t a few moments later that the zuker was hit by a tuna. Was the bird an attractant?

Funny you mention the bird Jay; we had a bird doing this exact same thing for around 5 min; kept coming in and trying to pick up a zuker off of one of boats; and he wouldn't give up until he grabbed the hook and did a couple summersaults through the water; we started laughing and then started to think crap; now we have to get a friggin bird off of the double hook; he managed to get free but just wouldn't give up and kept hitting the zuker; 2 min later he wheeled off; not more than a couple minutes after that we picked up a double; and then another couple doubles after that. I think those birds know more than we think; everytime we have birds start following us once we have been in the warmer water and we have deployed our gear; if the birds stick around and don't leave; we have picked up fish; but once the birds fly away; everything slows or stops. I have only done 2 trips and this is just what i have observed; but that first trip; the reason we stopped and started fishing was because a bird was chasing something on the surface trying to grab it and we figured it was a tuna as we could only see a small fin swimming along that would stand on end just before it would jet off before the bird would swoop in and try to get it. Interestingbut we have neverr seen birds feeding just flying around us in circles as we are running; but they always turn around when we get a mile or so from where we picked them up; are they trying to tell us something or are they looking for us to find them some food; who knows!

 

[eriks]

Do any of you successfully track or hunt birds using your open array radar?

 

[harper44]

Do any of you successfully track or hunt birds using your open array radar?

This is a great point. My Furuno dome doesn't have the capacity (or I don't know how to use it) to pick up birds at any distance but I know a few guys have open array radars and I wonder if they are using them for this purpose. would save a lot of time and fuel me thinks.

 

[tykkyt e blue]

The tuna seminar w 'Tower Todd' at the Seattle boat show had a section about birds and their behavior.
Todd had several pics of birds that he called "tuna pointers" ( a la bird dog breeds ) He recommended watching for:
1 - best - hovering bird w head obviously down, scanning the water below ( sees something for sure but, waiting for 'something' come to the surface/ diving depth - bait being chased up by tuna below? )
2 - good - circling bird, or one that doubles back over same area ( maybe saw something or maybe deep 'something' )
3 - poor - traveling bird low along water ( looking for feed )
The only use he made of travelling birds was a general guide on which direction to try next - IF the birds were NOT heading back inshore at speed ( already fed )

 

[Finished Business]

I've heard, but can't confirm, that diving birds are a good indicator of the depth of the bait they are feeding on. Their height in the air is relative to the depth of the bait. Birds 50' in the air = bait 50' below the surface.

 

[tykkyt e blue]

Tried an experiment today.
Absorbal pellets tossed in saltwater. All sorts of sparkle reflected from particles, whitish/grey color, sinks slowly, bio degradeable, light, cheap...hmm, work as a poor man attractant?
Mix in a little prawn oil and some real chum chunks of bait?
I will try it, IF I ever get flat water to match the days I'm actually on the Island

 

[eriks]

A question for you guys with Terrafin Accounts. Earlier in the season, what are you looking for WRT temps (obviously warmer waters) and chlorophyll (obviously clear waters). So do you derive coordinates from a combination of favorable data from both of them, i.e. slap bang in the middle of both warm and clear waters, or do you look for the bigger temperature and clarity breaks, where there would be more of a "wall" of cold water that would congregate tuna along it?
I was told that at this stage of the season, you can pretty well head to most canyons and hopefully do OK, but earlier in the season, what is the best way to put yourself on them?