Article by Capt. Lance Smith
Well, the "bread and butter" of the Ocean City charter fleet has officially arrived on the offshore scene. Pound for pound, no other pelagic species of gamefish are brought back to Ocean City marinas more than yellowfin tuna. These incredible masses of muscle and stamina are the most targeted fish in our local waters, and for good reason. From late May through October, massive schools of these culinary delights roam the offshore lumps, canyon edges and temperature breaks where the more esteemed white marlin also roam.
Whether caught as bycatch while targeting marlin, bigeye tuna, wahoo or mahi, or targeted specifically, it is unlikely a captain would leave an area where yellowfins are feeding. So where can you find yellowfins offshore? In the early season, these fish are mainly associated with temperature breaks and the bait which they often hold. Once the first eddie of the year spins off of the Gulf Stream and brings 64 to 70-degree water to the 100 fathom curve, the yellowfins arrive and they are hungry.
When searching for yellowfin tuna this early in the year, offshore temperature charts, whether purchased or obtained for free, are invaluable. There are quite a few companies today offering detailed water temperature charts of our offshore canyon areas for a fee and still others that are available for free if you do some searching. The best free site I have come across is through Rutgers University. The difference between the free charts and the ones you must pay for are vast. They all use the same base information from the same satellites, however, pay charts are gone over with a fine tooth comb to compensate for anomalies such as cloud cover, altimetry, GPS offsets, and other "blurbs" which may exist and throw you off course. Many of these pay sites are also accompanied by fishing reports from both commercial and recreational fisherman. Whichever service is used, captains will often watch the charts for days in advance of a scheduled trip. This gives them an idea of where the temperature breaks are moving and how they are overlaid on different depth contours as well as providing a picture of what is out there in case cloud cover prevents charts from being available
Even with the greatest available technology, the best place to start fishing is where the fish were the day before. Local charter captains are a very tight knit group and will relay information about the bite between one another. If you are a weekend warrior, or a fellow like me who just fishes every chance he can, a group of fellow recreational anglers and the internet can become paramount to success. Internet forums can not only provide the location of the most current bite, but also help to determine which baits to troll, which direction to troll them in and what time of day the bite is strongest.
Early season yellowfins are a completely different animal than their mid-summer counterparts which can become finicky and often require special tactics. The first tunas of the season are eager to eat just about any trolled offering. Captains will usually pull anywhere from 8 to 14 rods rigged with various artificial lures and dead baits at 6 to 7 knots to entice strikes. When trolling for yellowfins, or any other offshore species for that matter, the approach is to mimic a large school of baitfish or squid behind the boat. The boat's shadow, and the turbulence caused by the props while trolling will often draw tuna from the deep towards the surface to inspect the offerings laid out behind. If however, the tuna come to investigate and do not like what they see, you may wonder across the canyons all day while unknowingly passing over hundreds of fish.
At this time of year, the tried and true artifical lures such as the cedar plug ( a dull, ridiculous piece of wood that can be deadly at times) and the venerable Green Machine should always be included in a trolling spread. Remember, you are trying to imitate a school of baitfish. If you are lucky enough to have witnessed schools of alewives, shiners, or even bull minnows in our coastal bays you will know that they do not mix. You will never see a flashing school of bunker/alewives swimming with shiners, or bull minnows schooling with spot. For this reason, it is best to keep all of your trolling lures the same size, silhouette and color. When tuna arrive behind the back of the boat and see mackerel swimming with squid that are mixed in with anchovies, they know that something is wrong.
Frozen ballyhoo, thawed and rigged to perfection, whether "naked" or dressed up with an artificial "skirt”, should also be included amongst the offerings of artificials. If you are onboard a charter boat, watch carefully the detail and time that the mate puts into rigging a ballyhoo. They make it look easy. If you are fishing on your own vessel, learning to rig a properly swimming ballyhoo can make or break your entire fishing career. If you are not sure of how to rig a ballyhoo, first search the internet for how-to diagrams and videos. There are as many ways to rig a ballyhoo as there are mates that rig them. For the purpose of yellowfin fishing, the "pin rig" is the fastest and easiest method for beginners to master. I recommend that all beginners buy a few packs of ballyhoo to practice on. If you set your ballyhoo out behind the boat and it is spinning or jumping out of the water, it will scare away more fish than it will attract. When you have properly rigged a ballyhoo, you will know it. It will slither like a snake inches below the surface and look as though it were the most free fish in the ocean.
Captains will often change the colors of their lures depending on what the local VHF chatter is revealing. Early in the season, I like to start out with green skirts on my ballyhoo because they match my Green Machines. I will also throw out a blue/white or pink/white skirted ballyhoo to see if they prefer one color over the other and I will adjust accordingly.
Over the years, my most consistent early season yellowfin producers are spreader bars rigged with green machines. Imagine a 36-inch coat hanger streaming along the surface, parallel to the boat's transom with 12 green machines dangling behind in a diamond formation.
Spreader bars imitate a small school of similar baitfish, with one lure in the middle straggling behind the rest of the school.
Currently, my personal go to spread consists of a green machine spreader bar on each short rigger placed 20-feet or so behind the transom, cedar plugs (single or in daisy chains of three) running a mere 10-feet behind the boat on the flatlines, another spreader bar straight down the middle with the rod placed on the flybridge, ballyhoo on the short and long outriggers that are placed at intervals which spread them out and keep them swimming properly and my secret weapon down the middle. Certainly not a secret, your furthest bait out, run from as high of a position as you can, and as far back as you feel comfortable, should be a "bird" with a lure trailing about 10 to 15-feet behind it. I always use a Green Machine. The bird is simply a wooden, floating teaser with wings that create a great deal of splashing and attracts fish to the weaker, slower, trailing bait. This bird and green machine combination is probably responsible for more grilled tuna steaks than any other lure on the East Coast and should never be left out of the spread.
When trolling for early season yellowfins, dredges (teasers run deep off the transom representing a school of baitfish) are not useless, but I have found them to not be necessary.
Captains/mates are also able to get away with heavier leaders (150 lbs or more) at this time of year and while fluorocarbon is always a plus, it may not be a must. Remember, yellowfins do not swim around the canyons by themselves. They are always found in schools, from 12 fish or so to a hundred or more. Therefore, it is wise to take advantage of every bite you may get. By keeping your trolled baits close to the boat and in a tight formation, you are more likely to draw the entire school to the surface creating the multiple hook-ups that we all strive for.
When an entire school of 50 lb. yellowfins explode on every bait behind the boat, the day will go from quiet and peaceful, to a fury of screaming and emotions (especially on my boat!). One tactic often employed by quality mates is to jig the lure or bait that a tuna has missed, or to start jigging multiple baits when a strike comes up empty. One mistake I see often is when a fish strikes and the crew or captain does not react. Having observed schools of baitfish being attacked by predators throughout my life, one constant remains: the school panics. Often times a school of tuna may follow the boat for hundreds of yards and if your baits do not react like a frightened mass, they will know that something is amiss.
While early season schools of yellowfin tuna arrive thick and ravenous, they are by no means stupid. One lure in your spread with a weed on it, or one ballyhoo spinning in circles can prevent you from getting a bite the entire day. This is where a quality mate and your own vision comes in to play. Much like white marlin fishing, someone onboard needs to be constantly watching the spread for fouled lures and missed strikes. Likewise, captains must pay attention to the VHF and more importantly their sonar. Tuna can often be marked many fathoms below the boat and a missed school is a missed opportunity. If the tuna do not rise to lures on the first pass, subsequent passes and circles over the school will often convince them to come to the top. Surface life such as whales, porpoises and birds should never be ignored.
All of these creatures, whether mammalian or otherwise, rely on the same food source. Often times I can actually smell a school of tuna before I ever see them. The fish oil which comes to the surface as they ravage bait below has a very distinct odor. On calm days, a watchful eye up high on the flybridge or in the tower may pick up on a V-shaped wake moving in a direction different than the current. This can make for some for exciting fishing as a pass in front of such a school (picture a flock of geese in the sky) will often result in multiple hook-ups.
So, regardless of whether you charter one of our city's fine for-hire boats, or choose to tackle these brutes on your own, remember to keep things simple this time of year. If you have been watching the television show, Wicked Tuna all winter, please leave the chunks of butterfish at home. There is no reason to get your boat filthy and drift aimlessly when a proper trolling spread will produce more tuna than you will ever need. Check out the Coastal Fisherman daily online fishing report at www.coastalfisherman.net and deep in touch with your fellow anglers. There is no better information than that which you can trust.
One last recommendation, check the stomach contents of your first few yellowfins. This will give you an indication as to what species and size bait they are feeding on. We have checked numerous yellowfins that have a single, 12-inch bullet mackerel or small tuna in their stomachs. Diving plugs can be killers when they are keyed into prey like this. Good luck you offshore heros and please keep in mind that while the limit for yellowfins may allow you to keep a lot of fish, your freezer may not. Too many pounds of freezer burned tuna are thrown away every year so think of your friends and neighbors when you divide up the day's catch.
Lance Smith is an outdoor writer and Captain of his family’s boat, the “Longfin”.
