Best Tuna Fishing in the World?

[coug45]

If money isn't and issue when and where would someone have the best chance to get on to a big tuna?

[chummer]

Not sure if this qualifies as the best, but it seems like the San Diego long-range charters seem to get on some pretty big YFT's. On the east coast, a 200 lb YFT is a monster. Over there, it seems like their fish are much heavier with some trips boating 200 lb'rs on a regular basis.

[Warrior]

Chummer, Yellowfins maybe, but if you want giant bluefins, you gotta go to the northeast. The late summer from Maine to Jersey, and winter in the outer banks will find GIANTS. If you want 50 YFTs in one day, The best #s I've seen is in Mayaguana in the southern bahamas. They also show up in great #ers off of Cape Canaveral at the weather bouys.

I personally want to fish the pacific on one of those long range boats. BAD!

[Boboe]

You've got to go to San Diego or to Baja to get into large Yellowfins on a regular basis. 200# and up are called "cows." They get into big fish regularly on those long trips. I'm impressed.

[B767]

Originally Posted by Warrior

Chummer, Yellowfins maybe, but if you want giant bluefins, you gotta go to the northeast. The late summer from Maine to Jersey, and winter in the outer banks will find GIANTS. If you want 50 YFTs in one day, The best #s I've seen is in Mayaguana in the southern bahamas. They also show up in great #ers off of Cape Canaveral at the weather bouys.

I personally want to fish the pacific on one of those long range boats. BAD!

Warr What time of the year u r talking bout for YFT off Mayaguana???

[Warrior]

We fished out of Provo about 4 years ago, and the bite there was off. We got there in April. We fished all the way from the bridge north of Cat island to Mayaguana. Crooked and Acklins were awesome too. The tunas off mayaguana weren't that big...50#s at the most, but we couldn't keep our lines in the water. Fishing off Mayaguana was so good, we "hooked" a blue and cought several wahoo on ceder plugs. We fished there from the end of April thru June. There is the most majestic ship wreck on a pinnacle about 3 miles off the island. Frigates everywhere. It was like an Alfred Hitchcock movie.

[Certifiable]

If you are looking for "large" YFT, the Pacific coast of Panama is hard to beat.
I was there in early March this year, we were catching 30-60lb YFT casting with popper plugs. Switched over to live Bonita (5-8lb bait) and picked a fight with some big boys. Pulled the hook on my fish (250+ lb) after 40 minutes. Another boat in our group nailed a 275 lb YFT after a 3 hour battle on a 50 wide. Common to catch YFT 200-250lb that time of season, occasional monsters top 300lb.
Looks like the concensus for large YFT is the Pacific coast, from Panama to Baja Mexico. Do some research on the migration season to figure out what area is best for the time of season you want to go.
Good luck !

[Disco Lady]

Again Cat Cay Bahamas, May/June Giants there.
Someone edit my post here?Fighting Lady 43 meritt.

[chummer]

Cat is a lot closer for me than Mayaguana. I'll put that on my May/June radar.

[Certifiable]

Disco Lady,
When you say "giants" off Cat Cay, could you give more details please. I am not sure if you mean "Giant" Blue Fins, or just "Big" Yellow Fins ?
I know that giant BFT (600+ lb) have been sporadicly caught off Walkers Cay and throughout the islands over the years, but never any concentration of fish to be a primary target. Mostly hear of the BFT as a rogue type catch in the islands, unless you have some juicy info to drop.
I have been chasing the YFT in the bahamas (Grand Bahama / northern Abaco's) for the past 5 years, and know some of the best of the YFT fishermen in my area, biggest YFT we know of in this area is 125lbs. By no means a "Giant" when compared to the Pacific YFT of 300lbs. If you are telling me (and I hope you are) that we have YFT of the 150-200lb class, or a predictable migration of BFT running around Cat Cay in May and June, please pass some of that info on to a die hard tuna man.

[Disco Lady]

Blue fins, Bro............. Brake out the 130s sit in the tower,and wait.

[LHPfish]

and wait and wait and wait. There was a good article back in December in a magazine that came w/ my baitmasters. What I took from it is there is a predictable migration in May June, you need to fish everyday possible, the right conditions are a must to spot the tuna. The first come right up on the bank
actually i just found the link so enjoy

WorldWideAnglerMag - Welcome!

Historically, bluefin tuna season starts in the Bahamas about the middle of May and goes through the first two weeks of June. If the wind blows before or after this period, fishing can be good but the fish will be difficult to bait because there will be lots of singles and doubles which are hard to see on a cloudy day. During the last four years there has been little southeasterly or southern wind in May and each year June has had low pressure systems come through bringing wind, clouds and rain.

I remember when 12 or more boats would arrive in Bimini for the three or four weeks of tuna fishing every May. Docking in Bimini, we envied the 15 or more boats that fished out of Cat Cay because they arrived earlier and stayed longer during the season. They also had a short run to tuna alley where most of the fishing is done. Tuna alley is a white strip of sand that starts just west of Gun Cay and runs for 15 miles to the south separating the deep blue Bahamian waters from the shallow bank. Much of the shallow bank has miles of white sand making it easy to see the tuna. The schools of bluefin migrate north along this edge and frequently go shallow when the water is clear. Every tuna fisherman wakes early with the hopes of wind out of the southeast to southwest. The harder the wind blows the better! The ideal fishing day is one where there are southeasterly winds, north current and good sun light. A hard wind out of the southwest causes lots of fish to march up the edge but baiting these schools in 60 or 80 feet of water is hard with the waves breaking, and sometimes flooding the cockpit.

Bluefin tuna fishing is a team sport. A good tuna boat has a captain, a spotter, a man running the cockpit and, most importantly, an angler who is willing to use heavy tackle. Really heavy tackle! The spotter’s job is to ride in the tower with the captain. He will direct the mate in the cockpit when a school of tuna is seen and baited, leaving the captain to concentrate on controlling the school of tuna. As the boat travels south down tuna alley, the group in the cockpit gets to eat, drink, talk and have fun while the captain and spotter concentrate on finding a school of bluefins. Once a school of tuna is spotted, the boat comes around and prepares to bait the group of fish. The crew in the cockpit then takes on a more serious mode since the chance of the “big bite” is always there. Each group or school averages 10 to 30 fish and every one is big. I have not caught bluefin less than 500 pounds in the last 40 years. Since those in the cockpit are looking aft, straight down the line as the boat baits the school, they usually see the spectacular strike. The spotter is passing the instructions from the captain to the cockpit as he watches the perimeters of the school. If you get outside of the last tuna, the school will frequently accelerate and pass by, making it hard to start the process of baiting again. Every boat now uses 200-pound test or heavier. The days of fishing a tuna tournament with 130-pound test are over. With fewer tunas and no wind, the opportunity to bait tunas and have strikes are rare; no one wants to take a chance of not catching a tuna.
Angling for tuna involves fishing on sight and the sun makes it easy to see the schools of bluefin. The problem with the few windy days this year was the rain and clouds. Only two tuna boats participated in this year’s migration. They were both 43-foot Merritts, the perfect boat for catching tuna. The first is the Celia P owned by Nik and Coco Paleologos. The next is the Fighting Lady owned by Bart Sherwood. Both boats have a great history of catching bluefin tuna and blue marlin in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. I feel lucky to have run both boats, catching bluefin tuna, blue marlin and swordfish.

The last few years, Nik has taken the Ceila P over to Cat Cay in early May and stayed until July. Bart arrives later at Cat Cay with the Fighting Lady and is joined with veteran angler Don Barnes. His team has had the best track record for the last four years. Reports from the Ceila P were that the fishing was slow for most of May. Although they fished day after day, the wind rarely blew more than six or eight knots out of a southerly direction. The Ceila P did see several big schools of bluefin tuna during May; they were not able to bait them. Coco, Nik’s brother, kept a detailed daily log of the exact number of schools and, to their best ability, the number of tuna in each school. During May and June of 2006 those onboard the Ceila P logged 1,102 bluefin sightings. Sometimes there would be only one or two tuna, but there were schools with 50 or more. The largest school contained 75. Coco and Nik feel the average school during this year’s migration contained 20 tunas. The slow fishing all changed around June 9. A low pressure system came through the lower Bahamas and that afternoon, the southern wind started to blow at Cat Cay and Bimini. Every boat saw several schools of tuna including some private boats that were on the edge.

The next day was like a different world. Nik, on the Ceila P, was the first boat out and saw a school before he hit the edge. He baited six schools and gave up at dark. Bart, on the Fighting Lady, saw four schools, but stopped fishing at dark. The next day, June 11, started with heavy clouds and some rain. The tunas were marching up the edge. Nik baited schools of tuna all day. Nik had veteran captain John Sabonis from the 43-foot Merritt Cats Meow riding the tower. This year the Ceila P had one of the best bluefin mates still fishing, “Tuna Tony” Carrizosa. He is known for making great tuna baits and being one of the best wire men around the tuna fleet. For 12 years, John and Tony teamed up on the Cats Meow, and were one of the most successful tuna boats on Bimini, always producing strikes and catching tuna.

The next day was overcast and very windy; this is a tuna fisherman’s dream. Nik was first on the edge and had already baited two schools of tuna when the Fighting Lady with Bart and Captain Alex Adler, of the 43-foot Merritt Tracker, turned south on tuna alley. Immediately seeing a school of tuna, Bart put Barnes in the fighting chair. And, to his credit, Barnes has been the most successful tuna angler during the last four years. As they made their first pass at baiting this school, a wall of water as high as the tower erupted as the tuna struck the bait. His tail flailed high in the air throwing spray everywhere before the battle started. After an hour of racing around, Bart had the leader and the rest was history. The tuna tipped the scales at 800 pounds exactly. Everyone living on Cat Cay celebrated since Don and Bart gave packages of filleted tuna to all. Barnes has now teamed with Bart on the Fighting Lady to catch two bluefins weighing 800 pounds or more.

The wind started to drop and the tuna soon disappeared. Nik and the Celia P stayed for several weeks more. With no wind, however, there would be only a couple of small schools seen during the rest of June

[Boboe]

There have been a few true grander bluefin caught straight out of Destin in the past 4 years. They're usually caught early in the season when almost nobody is out there. We're talking about March through May. In May 2005, my good friend caught one that length and girthed out to between 900 and 1000, 2 days before the season on them opened. There were about a half dozen others hooked that day. Everybody else got spooled or broke off. They caught theirs in 45 minutes on a 130. According to my friend, who was decking, it was some of the most impressive angling he'd ever seen.

[Disco Lady]

LHPFISH, Very well said Capt.Your story is right on

CHEERS, DL

[bajakian]

In the Bahamas, the most reliable tuna fishing is the humps off of Harbour Island in Eleuthra and the San Salvador area. But those tuna rarely exceed 100 lbs. If you want to target the biggest yellowfin tuna, go to Mexico and fish Puerto Vallarta. There is an area called El Banco 50 miles offshore where they catch "cows" from August to December. I fished with Danny Osuna in early Nov and we caught 4 yellowfins (2) 260 and (2 ) 300 lbs fishing three days. Also caught a 180 lber, and several 100 lbers. Caught many monster cubera snappers and popped off two blue marlin. I highly recommend him if you want to catch these monsters. PM me for more information.

[chummer]

One good captain out of Cape Canaveral talks about the occasional bluefin showing up on the otherside of the stream. He said it looks like Volkswagens falling out of the sky. On the one occasion they found it raining Volkswagens, they put out a 130 but couldn't hang onto the fish. Wow.

[Warrior]

Bluefin always seem to show up in the BBC. The boys out of Canaveral do speak of "volkswagens". The market here is $hit compared to the northern colder water fish, not that I care, but it sends me looking for marlin instead - more majestic. We've been waxed on the bridge south of Eleuthra a few times...believe they were bluefins. Dumped 80 wides.

Great fishery off Morehead in the winter, but all the idiots up there fishing for them take the fun out of it!

[Boboe]

I know a couple of fellahs who have been spooled by volkswagons falling from the sky during the BBC. One spooled an 80wide in 45 seconds, straight down. Owners didn't want to toss the rod, so when it hit the knot with full drag it took 3 guys to hold the rod. When the line broke it sounded like a gunshot and the rod came flying back and knocked a big chunk of teak out of the fighting chair. The chair on the Wynsong still bears that scar.

[Warrior]

Three years ago at Cat Island, we had a fish rip an 80w and a rod holder from our flying bridge. Wasn't pretty.

[njoimia]

ive been fishing the past 2 yrs in harbor island, and there are plenty of tuna to catch. my biggest was 86lbs. go to the outer islands plenty fish everywhere. im in cat island right now, caught a 20lber, plenty of dolfins and wahoos.