Targeting Bluefish to use as Giant Tuna Bait
Apart from stormy weather conditions, procuring, toting and stocking invigorated live bait was the most difficult giant tuna problem for myself and my crew during 2010. I'm delighted to say that to date this fall, the news on the live bait front is more encouraging.
Last week I headed the Miss Loretta way down Cape to Lewis Bay, just outside the Hyannis Marina. My fishing buddy had done a tuna bait run in Lewis early on in the week, and encountered plenty of ideal size blues feasting on 2 inch young of the year menhaden. Our expectations were set high for a abundant giant tuna bait trip.
To my surprise, the public fishing boat ramp at Lewis Bay is fantastic. It is a paved launch, with a perfectly newly constructed boat dock in addition to a great deal of area to operate a pickup truck and trailer. Furthermore, there was no fee. I am speculating free of cost easy access was indeed a post-Labor Day miracle, and probably isn't an excpected standard at Lewis. In any case, it worked for me!
Subsequently, after some searching about we found the motherload of blues loaded up in 7-18 ft . of water. The piles of snapper and rat blues shifted up and down the channel edge, yet there appeared to be tons of bait size bluefish, to the point that when we lost track of them, it did not take long for my crew to move around and quickly zone back in again.
Best fishing transpired right after the tide begun running in. The productive fishing died surprisingly quickly as soon as the current started to come to a halt, around 11am.
We dealt with a whole lot of snapper bluefish which are just not big enough to employ as live bait for giant tuna. Nonetheless, for nearly every twelve snappers we caught, we boated one larger blue-fantastic for live bait.
It was evident that that any time we spotted a pod of juvenile menhaden, there were bigger blues in the 12-18 inch range underneath them.
Best producing lure for the small blues was a golden 1 " spoon. This lure casts far and long on very light line, and hooks the blues remarkably well. Hot lure for the 12-20 inch bluefish was the 3in. floating, blue Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow.
I am definitely hoping that this hot spot becomes infiltrated with 12-20 inch bluefish over the next few weeks.
It would be great to find a consistent source of bluefin tuna bait. Regardless of whether we have to trek a little to get there.
Last week I headed the Miss Loretta way down Cape to Lewis Bay, just outside the Hyannis Marina. My fishing buddy had done a tuna bait run in Lewis early on in the week, and encountered plenty of ideal size blues feasting on 2 inch young of the year menhaden. Our expectations were set high for a abundant giant tuna bait trip.
To my surprise, the public fishing boat ramp at Lewis Bay is fantastic. It is a paved launch, with a perfectly newly constructed boat dock in addition to a great deal of area to operate a pickup truck and trailer. Furthermore, there was no fee. I am speculating free of cost easy access was indeed a post-Labor Day miracle, and probably isn't an excpected standard at Lewis. In any case, it worked for me!
Subsequently, after some searching about we found the motherload of blues loaded up in 7-18 ft . of water. The piles of snapper and rat blues shifted up and down the channel edge, yet there appeared to be tons of bait size bluefish, to the point that when we lost track of them, it did not take long for my crew to move around and quickly zone back in again.
Best fishing transpired right after the tide begun running in. The productive fishing died surprisingly quickly as soon as the current started to come to a halt, around 11am.
We dealt with a whole lot of snapper bluefish which are just not big enough to employ as live bait for giant tuna. Nonetheless, for nearly every twelve snappers we caught, we boated one larger blue-fantastic for live bait.
It was evident that that any time we spotted a pod of juvenile menhaden, there were bigger blues in the 12-18 inch range underneath them.
Best producing lure for the small blues was a golden 1 " spoon. This lure casts far and long on very light line, and hooks the blues remarkably well. Hot lure for the 12-20 inch bluefish was the 3in. floating, blue Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow.
I am definitely hoping that this hot spot becomes infiltrated with 12-20 inch bluefish over the next few weeks.
It would be great to find a consistent source of bluefin tuna bait. Regardless of whether we have to trek a little to get there.
About the Author:
Captain Ryan Collins fishes for striped bass and Bluefin tuna off Cape Cod, MA. Visit his blog, myfishingcapecod.com for insider how to catch striped bass.
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