The surf zone is a wild arena. Completely different environments span the Northeast to the Carolinas all the way to Florida. Texas and California are distinct too. But anglers who prowl the beaches know some surf rigs can be ubiquitously applied. Still, the many different options available might confuse those who don’t understand their applications. And surf spots in different states sometimes have different names for the same rigs. As a diehard New Jersey surf caster, I want to help you pick the best rigs for your favorite species. The hi-lo rig, pill float rig, fishfinder rig, chunk rig, and mullet rig are some my favorites for stripers, redfish and pompano, even sharks.

The Hi-Lo Surf Rig

Quick Summary: Why have one hook when you can have two? Joking aside, there’s more to the logic of a hi-lo rig (dropper loop rig) than just having another hook. The hi-lo rig, sometimes spelled high-low rig, is meant to cover the waters just off the sea floor, anywhere bottom fish are feeding. Even one foot can make a difference to get bites when targeting true bottom feeders or to convince wary fish to swim up and eat a bait. Bait with worms, clams, shrimp, crabs or small chunk baits. (You can also use the rig when fishing bridges or piers — just space out the hooks accordingly.)

Design: Use a 75-pound barrel swivel and 30-inch section of leader. Tie the two dropper loops 16 inches apart in the leader. Pick appropriate size hooks scaled to the fish species you’re targeting, then thread the hooks on to the dropper loops. Tie a loop knot to the opposite end of the leader that you tied the swivel. A loop knot allows you to easily attach and remove a weight for different conditions. In the surf, pyramid sinkers work the best to hold bottom.

Species: Surf stripers, snapper, grouper, black sea bass, rockfish, tautog

The Fishfinder Slide Rig

Quick Summary: The fishfinder rig is meant to allow feeding fish to pick up a natural bait without feeling any unnatural resistance. The lack of tension helps prevent a gamefish from spitting out the offering. Try this setup when using live baits such as bunker (menhaden), mullet, eels, pilchards, sandworms or bloodworms. You can also use chunk baits or fresh clams as well. Besides the surf, good spots to use fishfinder rigs include inlets or creeks when the tide is running. Anglers should free-spool the line and allow a fish to take it unhindered in the current for a natural presentation.

Design: Utilize a fishfinder slide with sinker clip to attach a pyramid or bank-style sinker, or you can substitute an egg sinker for the slide clip. I prefer to use a 75-pound barrel swivel to prevent the sliding weight from reaching the hook. To the swivel, tie on 20 to 30 inches of leader and a snelled hook.

Species: Fluke, southern flounder, striped Bass, red drum, cobia, sheepshead

The Pill Float Rig

Quick Summary: Use this rig to keep the baits floating off the bottom to prevent crabs from stealing your baits. Sandfleas, worm bits and clam bits are great natural baits. Artificial offerings such as Fishbites, Fishgum and Gulp Saltwater Surf Bytes work too. Targets are generally smaller fish species up to 4 pounds. Or use the rig to procure live baits such as grunts and pinfish for the livewell. One other spot this rig excels: fun fishing along bridges and piers.

Design: A hi-lo rig design, except with small Styrofoam pill shaped floats in front of the size number 4 to 8 bait-holder hooks.

Species: Pompano, whiting (northern kingfish), white perch, grunts, pinfish

The Chunk Rig

Quick Summary: Tie on the chunk rig when targeting larger gamefish and you want to throw big baits. Use chunk baits such as menhaden, bluefish, cut mullet, pinfish, grunts or herring. A long leader allows bigger fish to pick up the bait and swim off. Then, an angler can and should reel tight for an effective hook-set. This is a great all-around rig when casting from the shoreline targeting different species. Just about everything eats chunk baits, except maybe those few crab-crunchers.

Design: Tie on a three-way swivel, with a sinker clip attached to one eye to handle a pyramid weight. The other eye receives a 30-inch piece of 40- to 80-pound mono leader. A snelled circle hook, scaled accordingly from 5/0 to 12/0, ensures solid hook sets.

Species: Sharks, striped bass, bluefish, drum, snook

The Mullet Rig

Quick Summary: Specifically designed to throw fresh or frozen mullet, this rig allows the whole bait to be fished in a natural manner. The mullet floats just above the sandy seafloor in an enticing display to attract feeding gamefish. Also, the float keeps your bait off bottom where crabs can pick it apart.

Design: For this rig, I use an oval Styrofoam float built-in with a 4-inch length of wire, ending with a dual-barb hook. To bait this rig, remove the hook first. Thread the mullet on the wire from the mouth down through the body out the anal vent. Then, reattach the hook back to the metal leader. Make sure one barb is pierced into the side of the tail. Tie your floating mullet to a length of leader that connects to a three-way swivel. Connect your swivel to the main line. The third leg gets a sinker clip and weight.

Species: Striped Bass, bluefish, red drum, sharks

The post Top Bait Rigs for Surf Fishing appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

There are dozens of species of crabs in North American coastal waters, from the eraser-size Florida mole crab to giant Alaskan king crabs that won’t fit in a washtub. All of them have in common that at some stage of their lives, they are high on the list of edibles for local game fish.

How to Fish with Crabs for Tarpon

In Florida, there’s no better spring and summer tarpon bait than the “pass crabs” that drift through the west coast passes by the thousands from April through July. They max out around 4 inches across the carapace, and have well-developed swimming legs on the back of their shell.

Catching pass crabs is straightforward; get out on the early part of an outgoing tide near one of the passes, find a rip stacked up with grass, foam and debris, and dip-net the drifting crabs. You can also sometimes find them along the beaches at dawn when an onshore wind has stacked grass along the shore.

Fishing with crabs as bait allows you to target a plethora of species. These crabs, candy for both tarpon and permit, also are tasty tidbits for redfish and snook — as well as cobia, which are known as “crab eaters” in some areas for good reason.

Fishing with Blue Crabs

From Virginia to Texas, the blue is abundant and easy to catch with a trap you can hang off any dock — a piece of mullet or chicken neck draws them in. Small blues, to 4 inches across, make the best live baits. Cobia love them, and so do big redfish and drum. You can also do well cutting larger crabs in half, particularly for redfish and big black drum.

How to Fish with Fiddler Crabs

These little crabs found on muddy shorelines, and around oyster bars and backcountry creeks, are wonderful bait for pompano, permit, sheepshead and redfish.

To catch them, take a tip from the pros and conduct a “crab roundup.” Make a sort of funnel from strips of plywood about six inches tall and eight feet long, stood on edge with a couple of stakes to hold them in place. Sink a 5-gallon bucket into the sand at the small end of the funnel, then herd the crabs into the funnel.

Other Types of Crab Baits Crabs

Sand fleas — actually mole crabs — rate as a favorite of many fish, particularly pompano on the beach. Snook eat them too. Sand-flea rakes are available at tackle shops in most beach communities. Sieve the sand at the surf line where you spot the diminutive crabs.

Throughout the tropics, hermit crabs are a favorite permit bait. The crabs are slow and easy to catch along any beach or coral edge. When you need fresh bait, pull them out of their shell and bait up — it’s a rare permit that can pass one up.

Black mangrove crabs swarm the roots of mangrove trees all over peninsular Florida. About the size of a 50-cent piece, they are the right size for reds, sheepshead and pompano. Put a piece of cut bait on the mud next to mangrove roots or seawalls at low tide, and set a cardboard box soaked in salt water atop it. The crabs will soon find the bait. They’ll stay put under the box long enough for you to scoop them up — without the box, they’ll run off before you can get close enough to capture them.

How to Keep Your Crabs Alive

Most species of swimming crabs do fine in a flow-through livewell; remove the pincers so they don’t kill each other or get your fingers when you scoop them up. Keep semi-aquatic crabs like fiddlers and hermits for several days by simply placing them in wet seaweed in a 5-gallon bucket.

How to Fish with Crabs

Fish live crabs on a short-shank 3x-strong hook matched to the quarry. For tarpon and cobia, a 5/0 or 6/0; for permit and slot reds, a 2/0 to 3/0. For small crabs, such as fiddlers when you’re after pompano and sheepshead, use a size 1 or 1/0. For the tiny mole crab, a light wire hook in size 1 or 2 is the ticket for pompano. Hook all these crabs through one of the points in the shell, coming up from below. Twist the hook so the point drills through the carapace without cracking it. Check the hook point after the bait is in place; on large baits like blues, the shell can sometimes slightly turn the point.

Crab Lure Imitations

Among artificial lures, find a bait that looks so much like the real thing that you expect it to attack with waving claws — is a great alternative to live crabs in moving water. In soft plastics, Z-Man, D.O.A., Berkley Gulp! and Savage Gear are good, among others.

The big thing in fishing an artificial is to resist the temptation to fish crab lures like a jig; that’s about five times too fast. Use scented baits for sight-fishing. Toss them slightly ahead of tailing reds or drum, twitch a few times to get the fish’s attention, and then let the built-in scent do the rest. Ditto for tarpon: Land the bait well in front of them, let it drift down on their nose, and hang on tight.

The post Fishing With Crabs as Bait appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Leave the micro-skiff at home and keep the light-tackle outfits in the garage. If you want to catch bull redfish, think deep water and make sure to bring out the big guns.

The differences between adult and puppy red drum are so vast, you might as well treat the two like different animals. You’ll need to if you want to catch bull reds. Adult redfish lose their endearing adolescent spots, replaced with armor for scales and a caricature mouth only a carp could love. Their demeanor is bullish, using current and mass to fight down-and-dirty. And their meat turns from refined to tough, mirroring their aggressive mentality.

Bull redfish are the “big uglies” TV football commentators always talk about. Want to know how to catch these red drum? Conquering them requires sound technique, strength, specialized tactics and a keen eye. Learn how some of the best bull-beaters in the biz stay on top of their game.

Where to Catch Bull Redfish

Bull redfish inhabit waters from Chesapeake Bay through the Gulf of Mexico, making this illustrious species readily available to huge numbers of anglers. Their pervasiveness is outstanding but requires anglers to understand local population habits.

In the Chesapeake, May through September is the optimal time to target big reds in nearshore waters. Giant reds school up in spring outside Hatteras and Ocracoke inlets before moving into Pamlico Sound for the summer spawning season. In fall, those same reds leave en masse and stay along the beaches until water temperatures plummet, pushing them offshore for winter. The Cape Lookout fall run lasts into December and sometimes all through a mild winter.

In Florida, northeast bull redfish start spawning in deeper sections of the St. Johns River during the first big moon in August. In the Gulf, Tampa anglers head to deeper waters near Fort Desoto, off St. Pete, next to the Skyway Bridge and near Egmont Key in fall and early spring. Florida Panhandle action starts right around Halloween and lasts all the way to February, with the most productive time in November and December near the beaches. These large schools of redfish can even be found off the coast of Louisiana and Texas, and range from 500 to 5,000 fish.

Your fishing location will dictate the season to fish, but once you’ve figured out when, and a general where, the task turns to locating the red drum schools.

Find the Hot Spot for Bull Redfish

Locating bull redfish can be difficult, so consider every tool in your arsenal.

“Sometimes I’ll look for indicator species such as cownose rays to lead me to schools of redfish,” says Capt. Tyler Nonn, of Chesapeake Bay, Virginia. “After the fish move out of their early-season patterns, anglers can bottomfish outside the inlets, shoals and ledges in up to 50 feet of water.”

Concentrations of menhaden near drop-offs and ledges of a shoal are a good sign to look for on your bottom machine, especially at the mouth of the Chesapeake. Later in the year, fish can be marked on bottom machines under and around schools of small bluefish or spinner sharks.

“Red drum have a very unique ­signature, much like amberjack,” says Capt. Brian Horsley, of Oregon Inlet, North Carolina. “They will show on your bottom machine as layers, and sometimes they’ll mark diagonally. Deep reds are difficult to target; most anglers actually find them while fishing for something else.”

I had my first run-in with Panama City Beach bull reds a couple of years ago during a Hobie kayaks media event. Only a few of us had ever fished off the beaches in kayaks, and we were content to target red snapper and groupers with metal flutter jigs. After gathering over good marks on the bottom machine, we dropped down quickly to see what was there. To our surprise, all three of us soon landed 20-plus-pound red drum. That’s when I learned that if you can find the reds bunched up, they’ll eat just about anything.

Redfish in the Panhandle and Tampa areas start to show in strong numbers only when the water temperatures hit the mid-60s, says Capt. John Rivers, who’s fished both areas extensively but now guides in Tampa.

“One easy way to find bull reds is to look for birds diving on the large schools of baitfish that the redfish have pushed to the surface,” says Rivers. “Another way is to have a reliable bottom machine with side imaging that can mark fish when there’s no surface activity.”

In Jacksonville, Capt. Kirk Waltz searches the mouth of the St. Johns River as far upriver as EverBank Field (home of the Jaguars) downtown.

“I begin my search by watching the bottom recorder for distinct breaks on the edges of deep water adjacent to the shipping channel,” says Waltz. “These bottom-contour changes look almost like offshore ledges but can also be sloping drops from deep to shallow water.”

Waltz believes the reds use ledges to block current to conserve energy but also to provide ambush spots as bait washes overhead. Most of these spots are from 29 to 46 feet deep.

Best Lures and Baits for Bull Redfish

Your redfish tackle can make all the difference. The closest thing to a guaranteed bite, especially after locating fish, is to bait with fresh bunker or blue crab on the bottom. Terminal tackle is a simple three-way swivel system — the same rig many anglers use to bottomfish offshore — using 60- to 80-pound ­fluorocarbon, a 5/0 to 7/0 circle hook and a loop to interchange bank sinkers from 6 to 10 ounces.

“I like fresh blue crabs, mullet, pogies or ladyfish chunks,” says Waltz. “Chumming can be very effective. I like to find a spot and deploy four rods using two different baits to see what their preference is. A good soak of 15 to 30 minutes is preferred to allow the scent track to feed back in a light current.”

For the best redfish lures, captains Horsley and Rivers both prefer bucktails ranging from 1 to 8 ounces. “When they are schooled up, they are not too smart and will eat just about anything in their face,” jokes Horsley. Rivers dresses his bucktails with plastics. “I’ll use a 1½-ounce Spro bucktail jig in white, pink or chartreuse with a 4-inch soft-plastic tail,” he says. “Some guys use a plain 1-ounce jig rigged with a 7-inch curly tail.”

What’s the best bull redfish rod and reel? A 7-foot heavy-action rod paired with a 6,000-plus-class spinning reel, spooled with 50-plus-pound braid, is a great setup for any situation in which an angler will encounter bull redfish. Nonn prefers Shimano reels with PowerPro braid, while Waltz uses Penn reels with Berkley braid.

“If the fish are finicky and won’t touch jigs or dead bait, cast out a live bait rigged on a 3/0 circle hook and 40-pound fluoro,” says Rivers. “The [minimalistic] rig catches fish when nothing else will around Tampa Bay.”

Topwater Lures for Bull Redfish

When conditions are right, large schools of reds will hang at the surface in deep water. Each captain I spoke with encountered this behavior, so it’s not location specific.

“When an angler finds an aggregation on top, it’s best to pick off fish from outskirts of the school and try to keep the boat away to avoid putting them down,” says Capt. Tyler Nonn. “Doubles and triples are real possibilities.”

Nonn will cast large soft plastics, such as Hogy Lures, while Horsley and Rivers prefer to work loud surface poppers. “As long as the birds aren’t diving around the large schools, it’s a blast to watch reds fight over and try to smash your plug,” says Rivers.

One sign that bull redfish are around but not necessarily at the surface is the presence of mud balls.

“Reds are famous for attacking schools of bait on the bottom during the spring, and are easily detected by the huge muds under the bait pods,” says Capt. Kirk Waltz. “Catch a few baits from the edges of these schools, and flip them back into the mud balls for quick hookups.”

The post Fishing for Bull Redfish appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

If inlets and passes are the main thoroughfares for game fish to and from the ocean, jetties represent that one exit with all the restaurants. Rocky breakwaters are a veritable buffet table for species like striped bass, flounder and redfish. Even with pesky boat traffic, ocean swells and nearby shoals, these pervasive fishing structures remain popular for boat and shore fishermen. I went to five experts to learn how they avoid common jetty blunders and out-fish their close-quarter compatriots. In return, they supplied jetty fishing tips detailing how to fish jetties successfully.

Don’t Let Your Presentation Stray from the Rocks When Inlet Fishing

Capt. Alan Pereyra, of Topp Dogg Guide Service in Galveston, Texas, targets the jetties of the Galveston Ship Channel all year long for a variety of species. The Ship Channel is one of three cuts into the Galveston system, the other two being Rollover and San Luis passes.

“In the summer we’ll catch redfish, speckled trout, sheepshead, black drum, Spanish mackerel and sharks when jetty fishing,” he says. “My most important advice is to fish as close to the rocks as possible. The top trout and upper-slot redfish that win local tournaments all hang close to the rocks.”

Depending on the tide strength, Pereyra might use a kayak anchor in light current to hold the boat in place. “For heavy current,” he says, “I’ll drop a Danforth boat anchor 20 to 30 feet from rocks, then let [rode] out to position the back of the boat close to the rocks for my customers.”

Once at the rocks, he’ll use light setups with live shrimp for a natural presentation for his jetty fishing rigs. “I want the bait to flutter down toward the bottom as it flows with the current,” says Pereyra. “Crankbaits designed for bass and cast close to rocks work too, as long as they have a lip to dive down.”

Don’t Handcuff Yourself to a Single Bait Species When Jetty Fishing

Having a variety of baitfish in the livewell can be paramount to enticing the bite, says Capt. Jared Simonetti of Clearwater, Florida. He regularly fishes the passes from Anclote Key to the Skyway Bridge for snook in the summer months.

“Snook stage at jetty locations closer to land, all the way to the tip of the jetty, depending on the tide,” he says. “The incoming tide brings in the clear Gulf water, while the outgoing tide often carries dirty water. The best tide for jetty fishing is a tide that’s moving— slack tide turns off the bite”

When fishing clean water, Simonetti prefers large, lively threadfin herring and scaled sardines as his best baits for jetty fishing.

“During the incoming tide, I’ll use leader as light as 30-pound-test and free-line the baits along the jetty,” he says. “I cast up-current, let the bait pass through the strike zone on top, and then recast. I don’t want to drag the baits behind the boat, and I’ll even replace threadfins with new ones after a couple of casts.”

On the outgoing tide, he switches to grunts and pinfish in the dirty water.

“These baits I send to the bottom using weighted rigs with heavier 50- to 60-pound leader,” he says. Simonetti wants the resilient baits to get down to the staging snook when the water visibility drops.

Some of the Best Lures for Jetty Fishing are Jigs

“I call it the best rock pile on the coast,” says Capt. Trevor Smith of ProFishNC Charters, referencing Masonboro Inlet’s pair of jetties. The Wrightsville, North Carolina, captain has a unique technique for inlet fishing when he doesn’t want to mess with live bait or anchoring.

“On the last two hours of the outgoing, when the bait dumps out with the backwater tide, I’ll use 3- to 4-ounce 5-inch-long metal jigs,” says Smith. “Twenty feet off the rocks, in waters from 28 to 35 feet, I’ll work that jig near the bottom, and the redfish and cobia pick it up.”

Red drum and cobia are available in the springtime, with May to June hot for cobia, says Smith. August to October brings an influx of bull reds.

“I use 4-ounce jigs with UV glow and single hooks or 4X trebles,” he says, “paired with 60-pound braid and 40- to 60-pound fluorocarbon leader.” Metal jigs aren’t just for offshore; utilize them at favorite inlets.

Don’t Fish the Same Spot Along the Inlet

Capt. Dave Kostyo, based in North Miami, works the tides around South Florida’s Government Cut and Haulover Inlet for tarpon most months of the year.

“The outgoing is my best tide for jetty fishing,” says Kostyo. “Cast toward the jetties while drifting parallel. Raise the rod tip slowly and then lower it down to impart action on the bait. Make sure to keep the bait near the bottom.”

Kostyo doesn’t like to anchor, because doing so can drown his baits, and heavy wind and cargo-ship wakes can push boats toward the rocks. He fishes both sides of the jetty rocks but moves outside the cut onto the beach side when the tide really picks up.

“There’s much less current on the outside,” he says. “It’s much safer, and you can fish from the tip of the jetty down toward the beach.”

Top baits include blue runners, mullet and horse-size threadfin herring. When the bite stops at the inlets, he heads to the bridges of Biscayne Bay for the night bite.

Don’t Stop Fishing the Jetties When the Sun Goes Down

Delaware’s Inner Wall and Outer Wall skirt Cape Henlopen at the southern cape of Delaware Bay. The Harbor of Refuge Light sits atop the outer breakwater, while the East End Light marks the inner breakwater. Along with a set of rock outcroppings near the Outer Wall, called the Ice Breakers, the breakwaters provide abundant habitat for monster striped bass.

Capt. Chuck Cook, of First Light Charters in nearby Lewes, Delaware, heads to these hot spots when the moon shines bright at night. “Bluefish take over in the evening and morning hours, but it’s a 100 percent striped bass bite at night,” he says. “Before heading out, fish the area during the day to be familiar with your rocky surroundings.” Cook recognizes that stripers feed heavily at night, and odd hours are sometimes necessary to target them. He fishes parallel to the walls along a drop that’s 37 feet deep, but keeps his engine running to steer away from the rocks.

“Lures such as MirrOlures, Bombers or Berkley eels in dark colors show up best at night,” he explains. “A dark green pine tree shows better against a twilight skyline than a white birch. It’s the same effect with the water’s surface and moonlight at night.”

That’s right, some of the best lures for jetty fishing at night are painted in dark colors. It seems counterproductive, but the results speak for themselves.

Fish the Jetties First Before Fishing Other Nearshore Rocks

The San Diego Bay jetty is home to big calico bass, sand bass and halibut. Yet anglers run past the familiar rocks to nearby islands and beaches to target the same species.

“The best boat to fish the jetty is one with a trolling motor,” says Capt. Alan Clowers of San Diego. “Boat handling is vital to position oneself to get your lure in the right spot, tight to the rocks.”

Jetties are fish attractors, pure and simple, and Clowers casts red skirted jigs for the calicos.

“The sand bass will be outside the rocks,” he says. “Swimbaits or a sardine rigged to a Carolina rig works well. The halibut hanging with the sand bass prefer a live anchovy.”

If the jetty bite is slow, Clowers heads inside to the channels and back bays for bass, bonefish and shortfin corvina. You don’t have to run outside Mission and San Diego bays to find fish.

The post How to Fish Jetties appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

“That is some pretty, pretty water, boys!”

Oscar Garcia backed off his panga’s 200-hp Suzuki as the mouth of Brazos Santiago opened between the jetties of South Padre Island and Brazos Island. The 22-foot raised-prow boat eased off plane to bob along at a putter on a vector parallel to the north jetties, portside. On Garcia’s command, Anibal Gorena and I scooped 8-inch mullet out of the baitwell, nose-hooked them on single-hook wire rigs, and set them over the side. As Garcia held a steady and slow speed, we let out line until the baits were staggered behind us at about 100 feet. Garcia eased along and started a portside turn around the jetty point.

“Don’t get too comfortable,” Garcia warned. “It can happen — now! Your bait, Gonzales!”

Before I could get completely settled in my seat, a slate missile launched out of the water with my mullet squarely in its teeth. It happened in a second flat, but I saw the big king mackerel bite the hapless prey in half, and my line went slack. With a curse, I began to reel the butchered bait back to the boat.

“Drop back!” Garcia said. “He’ll come back around for the rest.”

Just as those last words escaped Garcia’s mouth, my line began screaming off the Shimano Tranx 500HG. After several blistering runs, including one that threatened to dump the whole spool of 40-pound braid, Garcia stuck a gaff in a thick 51-inch king.

As we did a Texas two-step around a thrashing, snapping king mackerel, Garcia looked at me and asked, “Why do folks want to run way the hell out when you’ve got this kind of action 10 minutes from the house?”

Just A Short Boat Trip to the Action

The south Texas coast, most notably from Aransas Pass at the top, to the coastal bend, to Brazos Santiago at the mouth of the Lower Laguna Madre, has long been a haven for the “mosquito fleet,” a colloquialism for the swarms of fishermen operating small (under 22-foot) bay and flats boats in the area. They take advantage of the unique bluewater fishery the region offers beginning in spring and ending with the first major cold front in November. Steady southeasterly breezes and a prevailing current push blue Gulf of Mexico waters very close to shore, often right up to the passes and into adjoining bays. With the clean, nutrient-rich waters comes a plethora of pelagic game fish, including false albacore (little tunny), Spanish and cero ­mackerel, and prized kingfish.

“There are some nice kings out there starting in spring,” says Joe Montemayor, owner of Joe’s Tackle in Pharr, Texas. “You don’t have the big tankers that you find way offshore — those 40- to 45-pounders — but you have plenty of solid 36- to 44-inch-class kings. You will land plenty over 48 inches when the water temperature hits the 80s in the summer. In a 22-foot bay boat, with three fishermen and a bunch of rods and tackle, a 42-inch king can be plenty big enough.”

“When the water is nice and flat (two feet or less), it isn’t tough to run out of Mansfield Pass and look around for a few kings,” says Capt. Chad Kinney, of Bamm Bamm Charters in Port Mansfield. “We can get out there in the 25-foot Shallow Sport X3 multihull I use for inshore. If fish are out there, the action is fast. We even get them with the same tackle we use for trout and redfish.”

Kayak devotees also get involved in the fun, often putting in right off the jetties or a nearby beach and paddling out the short distance to where Texas kings lurk. At times, kingfish will actually roam farther inside the passes ­themselves. On the Lower Laguna Madre near Brazos Santiago, it’s not an uncommon situation for an angler casting to trout and redfish to suddenly lose control of his reel to a scorching kingfish before the leader parts.

Fishing During the Morning Hours

Although there can be days of flat-calm ­conditions from dawn to dusk, most anglers expect southeast winds to accompany warm spring and summer days along the south Texas coast. By late morning to midafternoon, the seas around jetties and passes can stack up and get sloppy, making for tougher fishing conditions. The wind’s upward velocity curve necessitates that “mosquiteers” plan for an early trip, usually from gray light to whatever time the wind and waves become too uncomfortable to handle.

If Kinney is going to chase kingfish for his clients, he’ll get to Mansfield Pass early and troll a few baits initially. Often he’ll work farther from the jetties and closer to the 1-mile buoy, where the water deepens.

“I’ll usually bump-troll with plugs or ­ribbonfish,” says Kinney, “but I’m always scanning for some kind of activity on the water, whether it’s a bird working or fleeing fish. I want clues to where there may be active fish and what they may be doing. I’ll investigate anything that looks out of the ordinary.”

Another favorite strategy that Kinney uses for mosquito-fleet kingfish is topwater fishing. Remarkably, he uses many of the same topwater plugs that he casts to inshore species, such as speckled trout and redfish. With great success, Kinney has thrown Bomber Badonk-A-Donks, Heddon Super Spooks, and a variety of other walk-the-dog plugs to kings.

“It’s pretty exciting when you see a big king shoot straight out of the water 10 feet high with your plug in its mouth,” says Kinney. A short wire trace, usually about 12 inches long, prevents bite-offs from the snapping jaws of an agitated king mackerel.

If you intend to try your hand throwing topwaters at a mosquito king, make sure you’re properly equipped. Popping rods should be in the upper range of what you would use for redfish, preferably in medium to medium-heavy, and a high-capacity reel is a must for the long runs of belligerent mackerel. My typical nearshore topwater rod is a 7-foot Temple Fork Outfitters medium-heavy casting rod with fast action, paired with Shimano’s Calcutta 200 loaded with 30-pound PowerPro braid. The outfit can handle a 1-ounce River2Sea WideGlide (my favorite topwater plug) and still have the backbone to snub most kingfish.

Targeting Larger King Mackerel

If Kinney knows that there are larger kingfish roaming around just beyond the jetty rocks, he’ll switch to the live baits that bigger fish seem to prefer over lures. When he starts fishing live stuff, he’ll break out the hardtails (blue runners) and live mullet. Again, the order of the day is bump-trolling. If there is a bit of a current or breeze, he might try controlled drifts.

Farther south, around Brazos Santiago, Garcia also uses live bait a great deal. He prefers to net 6- to 8-inch mullet, which he believes are the primary forage for jetty kings. He slow-trolls them around the points of the jetties and along the adjoining beachfront. Rather than using the typical multihook kingfish rig, Garcia prefers a single 10/0 Eagle Claw 190 offset circle hook. He may miss more fish than other anglers who use the multiple-hook rigs, but he believes that the benefits far outweigh the costs.

“First, I don’t miss that many fish,” says Garcia. “I may have an occasional fish bite a mullet in half, but I can drop back and give the kingfish a second chance. The single hook doesn’t tear up a fish. Finally, the last thing you need in a small boat is three or four treble hooks hanging from a fish, even one you’ve whacked a couple of times and gaffed. It’s a safety issue.”

Garcia adds that live mullet swim better with a single hook through the nose. Bridle (floss) rigs might work too, but the jury is still out on how to mitigate the fragile nature of the connection in the presence of sharp teeth.

Trolling tackle for nearshore kings is a tad lighter than the bigger stuff that is popular for huge smokers. Garcia uses Penn Squall 20LW conventional reels loaded with 25-pound Ande, matched to 7-foot medium-heavy Ugly Stik conventional rods. Kinney prefers spinning reels, usually a 6500 Penn Spinfisher spooled with 60-pound braid or 25-pound Ande mono. He likes the latter for the shock-absorbing ­qualities on an initial fish surge, which mitigate the risk of pulling a hook. “Besides, you don’t want to get your finger against braid when a big king is making a hot run,” he says.

Kayak Kingfishing

Joe Montemayor, whose tackle shop is a major outlet for Hobie kayaks in the Rio Grande Valley, says that the jetty kingfish blitz time is a favorite season among his kayaking clientele. In the past few years, his inventory and sales of specialized kayaking equipment have risen sharply as the yak population slowly joins the mosquito fleet.

“It’s still an effort to work your way out to the pass and find a big king,” says Montemayor. “Hook it, fight it to the boat with no motor, then gaff it or release it — all the while dodging sharks, other troll fishermen, and big boats heading to the rigs and canyons. But some of my customers love the challenge!”

The kayak is ideal for the slow, almost casual trolling style that Montemayor calls the “yak patrol.” Kayak fishermen troll parallel to the jetties, past the point, and along the surf edge to the third bar and back again. A big, fresh ribbonfish is ideal bait for this application, he says. However, the multihook kingfish rig can be particularly problematic and even dangerous in such intimate quarters.

“I tell a lot of my kayakers they’ll have equally effective results without the extra hooks swinging around by pulling a 1-ounce Rat-L-Trap,” he says. “The steady pace is just perfect to get that lure to vibrate and rattle at the perfect rhythm. Then the only hooks you have to worry about are right in front of the fish, not swinging around your nose and ear.” Montemayor also recommends that his yak customers fish the venerable Russelure spoon and new LiveTarget 1-ounce Pinfish.

If you find yourself on the lower Texas coast sometime between April and November and see sport-fishers gunning for far-off locales, don’t turn green with envy. Turn your skiff or kayak toward the nearest pass and, like a pesky mosquito, provoke a king.

Topwater Action

Wire Knot A Problem

Catching Big Tarpon from Kayaks

It never hurts to have your favorite popping rod rigged with a topwater or jerkbait on a fluorocarbon leader ready for action. Mackerel aren’t the only kings that hold court during Texas’ mild months. Schools of tarpon of varying size, from acrobatic 20- and 30-pounders to mauling brutes topping 160 pounds, are often spotted rolling in the passes. They can be coaxed into striking a properly presented lure or bait. A large white jerkbait such as a Slug-O or Saltwater Assassin is tough to beat.

On a prior trip, a member of our fishing party, “Gator Dave” Rutledge, was pulling up a mullet to inspect its liveliness. Before he could pull the baitfish out of the water boat-side, the bucket mouth of a 7-foot tarpon closed around it and cherry-picked it off the hook in one loud gulp. No one on the boat said a word for several minutes.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Calixto Gonzales is a lifelong angler of the south Texas Gulf Coast. He is the proud owner of a BayQuest 200 center-console named The Teacher’s Pet. You can find him trolling for kingfish all summer long.

The post How to Catch Kingfish off Texas appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

For a Good Cause

The Digital Tounament

Live Scoring

Catching Bait

Full Profile

Why Wait?

On-the-Water Measurement

Tight Quarters

Dirty Waters

You Wanna Iguana?

Fly High

Laguna San Jose

Snook Action

Best Bait

A Sample of Snook

Kayak Fishing Takes off

Daytime Siesta

Tourney Finale

Music Surprise

Historic San Juan

The post Puerto Rico Inshore Fishing appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Louisiana’s Famous Redfish

Mullet Hidey-Hole

First Fish of the Day

Murky Waters

Too Long for the Net

No Break from the Wind

Off to a Good Start

A Red for the Smilin’

Chatterbait Strikes Again

Reds are Softies for Soft Plastics

Slimy Surprise

Venice – The Panorama View

Commercial Netters

Can You Spot It?

Tail of the Tuna

Flip It into Low Gear

Take Your Turn

Reach Out and Touch

Prize and Glory

Boiled Shrimp: Pop ‘Em ‘Till You Drop

The post Louisiana Gold: Yellowfin Tuna and Redfish appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Scripps’ David Checkley, a marine biologist, was at a loss for words when trying to describe why there were millions of anchovies — each only 3 to 4 inches long — at this particular place and so close to shore.

The school of fish measured about 50 feet wide and 325 feet long, and could have contained as many as 100 million fish, Checkley said.

The fish typically prefer cool water, and San Diego’s surf hit 74 degrees Fahrenheit this week. Anchovy eat small zooplankton, and Checkley said it’s unlikely they were searching for food. The sheer size of the group also means the fish would have quickly gobbled through any food, he added in the report.

“Schools like this exist throughout the region, but I don’t know why they butted up right against the surf,” he said. “A school this size and this immensity, it’s rather difficult to know why.”

The dense schooling also caught the attention of curious surfers, along with seals and sharks, who feasted on the silvery fish, the report stated.

California’s anchovy population, which has been low for the past 20 years, is finally on the rise, thanks to cooling ocean temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. A natural climate phenomenon known as Pacific Decadal Oscillation is swinging much of the Pacific toward colder temperatures, which the anchovies prefer. “They like a cool regime,” Checkley said. “The population is on the way up right now.”

In May, a school of anchovies turned up in Southern California’s Marina del Rey. But the stopover did not turn out well for the fish. The anchovies all suffocated and died after becoming trapped in the harbor.

The post Millions of Baitfish Turn Waters Black Off a California Beach appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Capt. Zak Conde called from the bridge to his young mate, Andrew Kennedy, to quickly bridle-rig a couple of mackerel and get them into the bait tubes bubbling with seawater.

Each rig consisted of a circle hook attached to a 25-foot, 500-pound monofilament trace, carefully coiled and rubber-banded neatly to a stand-up 50-pound or 80-pound chair rod. A short length of plastic tube secured each end of the band, and needed only a quick pull for release and deployment of the bait. The size of the marlin raised would dictate the appropriate tackle selected.

That ability to instantly match tackle to fish is one of the beautiful things about switch-baiting, especially in these Atlantic waters, where the first fish could be a modest 300-pounder, and the next a true monster. Thoughts of the many granders hooked here crossed my mind as we set the spread of artificial lures in motion. Off the outriggers, we ran long two large, hard-body lures rigged with single Bristow hooks and two 12-inch, hookless softheads deployed via electric teaser reels at the bridge.

The lines off the teaser reels ran through fixed rings in the middle of the outrigger poles; we positioned teasers in close on the second and third waves. A mixed pattern like this targets multiple species and, as a rule, smaller blue marlin as well as whites tend to attack the longer (more distant) lures, whereas the larger marlin don’t mind the short (closer) ones. It’s the wash from the hull that sucks in the big mothers; it’s surprising how close they’ll come in to have a crack at a teaser.

Marlin at the Transom

In the calm conditions that morning, the 8½-knot trolling speed worked perfectly for that spread. The wake from the 31-foot Black Watch Boca Raton was surprisingly clean. Suddenly, a quick strike from a white marlin popped the clip on the right long rigger, making the reel rattle momentarily. That woke us up, but the anticipation for something larger had us on edge when a solid blue around 700 pounds flashed into the spread and wacked the long teaser. Conde was quick to react with excited instructions as he slowly pulled the teaser to bring the beast toward the boat. At the same time, he slowed the vessel’s speed. The marlin kept coming.

Then the big girl nailed the softhead lure again, stretching the line on the teaser reel to the point of stopping its retrieve. Our angler, Thomas Peterson, decided to bait the fish on 80 and, like clockwork, the live bait was in the water by the time both teasers were almost to the boat. The angry marlin, now a mere 20 feet off the transom, wolfed down the bait down as if it were her last meal. Then she stayed there momentarily, seeming to gaze at the teaser, which was now dangling out of the water off the outrigger. It was an amazing sight to watch her turn away and start feeling the drag; that’s when all hell broke loose.

The crew reacted like a well-oiled machine. Kennedy quickly cleared the deck as Conde put on a show of boat-handling skills honed over decades of chasing blue marlin. (That ability is part of the reason Conde won the prestigious Billfish Foundation’s award for Top Release Captain in the Atlantic last year for releasing more than 320 blue marlin in one season.) The twin screws on the nimble Black Watch spun us around, and the chase was on. The big blue ran out 700 yards of line on her first blistering run before she started jumping and tail-walking.

Some time later, as the gap had shortened on the line, Conde spun the boat again and backed down hard, trying for a quick tag shot. The big blue, however, had other ideas. The reel screamed again as she headed for the depths, truly testing the 80-pound tackle. Peterson increased the drag pressure dramatically when the marlin slowed and started plugging (sulking deep) stubbornly.

What appeared to be an iffy -situation quickly changed as Conde maneuvered the boat to change the angle and direction on the line. The confused marlin started coming up, and left the water like a scud missile only 50 yards away, making two magnificent jumps. Conde saw his chance and backed down quickly for the tag shot on the fish of a lifetime.

Teaser Trickery

Many of the crews I’ve fished with around the world tend to use similar techniques. These include commonly relying on the teasers set close to the boat to raise the billfish. Marlin have a habit of coming in and checking out the boat’s wash; setting the teasers on the second, third or fourth wave (depending on the size of the vessel) is the answer. From what I’ve witnessed, softhead teasers definitely have the edge, as most times a marlin will keep coming back, either whacking or trying to eat them. At that point, pulling the teaser away from the fish usually further excites a fired-up marlin, which makes the switch easier.

I remember an incident while fishing the prolific marlin grounds off Port Stephens in Australia when we had a 300-pound striped marlin (huge for that species) at the back of the boat ready to switch. In all the excitement, the teasers were pulled out of the water before we could get a bait in. The marlin went crazy looking for something to eat. Even though it became a tease gone wrong, the marlin was so wound up from whacking the softheads, she stayed around, hesitating long enough for us to finally get a bait to her. Strategies for setting up a teaser spread vary from boat to boat, since every skipper and crew have their own preference for the type of lures they run, the colors, and where to place them. The most consistent pattern on many vessels I have fished with is to run two rigged (armed) lures as the longest in the spread for a bit of added action, then placing two or three teasers in a staggered formation closer to the transom.

Since switch-baiting is all about raising and enticing a marlin within range of a boat, getting the teasers working correctly is the first step to raising anything; experimenting with different lures in various areas of the wake is the key to success. The shape and cut of a lure’s head dictate its performance in various sea conditions. A sharply angled face, such as the famous Hawaiian Tube models, work better in calm seas; in sloppy conditions, they tend to jump and bounce about. Even the Mold Craft Bobby Brown Special with its head cut on a hard angle has its limits when it gets rough. The scooped-out (concave) heads, as on the Super Chuggers, or the 90-degree cut of a lure like Mold Craft’s Wide Range, tend to handle most sea conditions far better.

Setting up the pattern of teasers will also vary from vessel to vessel because the hull length and shape make every wake different. The same can be said about the wake from outboard-driven boats compared with inboard shaft-driven boats. Outboard motors emitting exhaust through the propeller create far more bubbles and disturbance than shaft-driven inboards with the exhaust above water. Not only that, there is less sound from inboards penetrating the water, so the general consensus with outboards is to set the teaser spread much farther back.

Placing the teasers on the front of the swell pushed up from a vessel’s hull also helps them track better. The edge of the wash next to clean water seems to be widely preferred as well. Outriggers are important to be able to optimize a teaser spread. Finally, adjusting the speed of the boat to get the combination of teasers all working correctly and not bouncing is the name of the game.

Making the Pitch

Ensuring the success of switch-bait fishing begins with the bait. A boat needs the best possible live baits ready to go. Small fishes in the tuna/-mackerel family such as frigate and chub mackerel and skipjack tuna would rate as ultimate baits no matter where in the world you are billfishing.

Most brands of sabiki rigs come in strings with five or six hooks. When jigging in deep water for large live baits (like chub mackerel), it pays to modify the rig by cutting it down to only three or four hooks at most. Hooking up six large baits at once can end up a disaster, with the rig either so twisted up that it can’t be used again, or the whole string of fish ends up busted off.

Given that you have top baits ready to go, it’s essential that you present them alive and lively. To do that, use standard tuna tubes or smaller custom bait tubes designed for chub mackerel. As Kiwi Capt. Marty Bates once pointed out to me: “It’s a no-brainer using live baits; they’ll get smashed every time, provided the tease is done correctly. The difference between dead and live baits is really chalk and cheese.”

When keeping baits in the tubes for extended periods, a useful trick calls for securing the bridle with a short length of fine copper wire tied to the hook. When the end of the bridle has been inserted through the bait and put back over the point of the hook, the wire is wrapped around both ends of the bridle to keep it intact. It’s embarrassing to pull a live bait out of its tube to present to a marlin only to have it drop onto the deck — or worse, over the side!

Gear Choices

As noted above, switch-baiting allows the angler to choose his tackle to suit the size of the fish raised. Most anglers prefer overhead lever-drag reels for their line capacity, which is essential when chasing blue marlin. Over the past few years, I’ve seen more anglers trying their skills with spinning reels, but the reduced line capacity can be a problem; in that situation, using strong braided line can compensate -somewhat. As a rule though, braid’s lack of stretch creates too many problems with billfish; hooks pull more easily, and line cuts can be a real danger.

Circle hooks are increasingly popular with switch-bait specialists, although some anglers still like to use J hooks when chasing line-class records. With either hook type, it’s important to match the hook to the size of the bait you’re using, particularly considering that baits might range from a half-pound mackerel to a 3-pound tuna.

The length of the bridle is also important. Circles need a bridle much longer than one used with J hooks. That’s because a circle needs to be at least a couple of inches away from (above) the bait so it has enough flexibility to turn once swallowed for a proper hookup. J-hook bridles, on the other hand, need to be kept short so the point of the hook doesn’t turn back into the bait. Circle hooks have an advantage in this department because their shape rarely allows the point to turn back into the bait.

Switch-bait specialists differ on which is the best leader material. A never-ending argument centers on which trace material is best for billfish. Is the good old nylon monofilament trace the best? Or the newer, high-tech fluorocarbon leader? From my experience, monofilament is certainly more popular, and many say it’s still the best. When you get down to the nitty-gritty, two main reasons favor mono. One, fluorocarbon is a lot more expensive. Two, fluoro doesn’t come in the kind of heavy-breaking strains needed for billfish when using medium to heavy tackle. The heaviest fluoro you can buy will test around 350 pounds; on a long fight on the tackle mentioned, it could wear out. For most big-marlin switch-baiters, heavier mono — like 500- to 700-pound Momoi Marlin Ultra-Hard or the tough Ande Premium trace material — is the way to go.

A critical part of switch-baiting is ensuring angler and crew are alert and on deck, watching and waiting. Lying around sleeping or just not paying attention won’t work with this technique. Baits should be rigged and ready; all rigs should be organized and within easy reach. When a marlin is raised, it’s important to slow the boat a little and draw in the teasers. Slowing the boat also gives everyone a better look at the fish because there’s less wash; that also allows the fish to get a better look at the bait when presented.

When the marlin grabs the bait, it’s best to slow the boat to idle or take it out of gear; then, depending on the size of the bait and the style of hook, it’s up to angler or crew to call the shots. Circles need far more time at the strike than do J hooks before the angler increases drag. Striking with J hooks can even be assisted with the boat moving forward again, whereas circles only need the angler to ease up the drag pressure to allow the hook to work its magic and find the corner of the jaw.

About the Author: John Ashley, based in Sydney, Australia, has been running sport-fishing boats along the New South Wales coast for 35 years. He specializes in billfish and yellowfin tuna, traveling the world during the off-season to photograph and write about billfishing.

The post How to Catch Giant Marlin by Teasing Them to the Boat appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Throughout most of its range, the blackfin tuna (Thunnus atlanticus) is a piscatorial afterthought. Lacking the mystique of its more-glamorous cousins — such as the hulking bluefin or cosmopolitan yellowfin — the blackfin tuna is often relegated to passenger status alongside dorado, wahoo and kingfish in offshore iceboxes. To most, the blackfin tuna is the undersize third-string halfback that gets to suit up on game day but can’t crack the two-deep.

Texas anglers know the value of the Rudy-esque battler. The scrappy fish becomes a mainstay along the Texas coast beginning in July. Offshore boats from Beaumont to Brazos Santiago begin to search for anchored shrimp boats and deepwater oil and gas rigs to prospect for blackfin tuna.

Red for Black

Red was the primary color of late summer and fall on the Texas coast for years, with most offshore focus directed at the red snapper fishery. When the National Marine Fisheries Service began to tighten groundfish regulations and impose shorter seasons for the federal species, many anglers up and down the coast took notice of the black-and-blue attack that swarmed warm Gulf waters with their spread-style attacks.

“When July rolls around, big blackfin become really thick offshore, starting around depths of 150 to 180 feet,” says Port Mansfield’s Capt. Chad Kinney. “You can pull up on a shrimper on the way, troll and catch 15 to 20 very quickly.”

Kinney says these are larger fish, averaging a brawny 17 to 20 pounds, with a few brutes pushing 25 to 30 pounds. Blackfin numbers become so thick that offshore party-boat captains switch their attention from red snapper after the federal season closes, and begin long-range and overnight trips for blackfin and yellowfin.

“Party boats run out to the floater rigs on overnighters, and just have a blast with the blackfin,” says Capt. Dan Green of Galveston. “They also target amberjack and yellowfin, but those blackfin are the stars of the show.”

Texas’ blackfin tuna fishery is a year-around proposition, but the peak season is from July through fall, when “footballs” aggregate to spawn. The western Gulf Coast’s relative proximity to the Alaminos Canyon — where a variety of tuna and billfish species spawn — and the opening of the Gulf shrimping season mean that fishermen have plenty of areas to fish. Flotillas of shrimp boats dumping bycatch and providing cover concentrate tuna schools within ­accessible range for anglers.

“They come in pretty close in July,” says Kinney. “If you find a shrimp boat in deep water (150 feet or more), you should find some blackfin around it. Even if the [shrimper’s] crew isn’t culling, blackfin will usually stay around the boat.”

Early and Late Cuts

Kinney usually makes a quick stop first thing in the morning at any shrimp boat he spots anchored at the correct depth, especially if the boat is culling bycatch after a night’s trawl. It doesn’t take very long to see if there is ­predatory activity around the boat.

“If there are any bonito working through the cull, we’ll start throwing out some chum to draw the fish closer,” says Kinney. “You’ll see the blackfin dart in and out among the other fish, and that’s when we really get to work on bringing them up.”

If there are no blackfin tuna turning up in short order, or the sharks and schools of bonito are too thick to negotiate, Kinney will move on and look for another shrimp boat. Also, he’ll turn farther offshore to troll. If Kinney finds good numbers of blackfin, his crew will begin cutting and chunking in earnest.

Kinney says that it is important to stock up on a good quantity of chum similar to the shrimper cull (a variety of croaker, Spanish sardines, sand trout and other small finfish). Kinney often uses 150 to 200 pounds of chum.

“You have to strike a balance in how much chum you use,” says Kinney. “You want to use enough to get interest up, but you don’t want to feed them so much that they will deny your bait.”

The playbook is straightforward and familiar to tuna anglers: Draw the fish by chunking diced baitfish into the current and, once they are feeding, send out a chunk with a hook such as a 3/0 Mustad 39950. Green usually tempts in the fish with Spanish sardines, and then uses chunks of menhaden for bait because bonito and other less-desirable species seem to hit the menhaden less readily.

Kinney suggests letting the bait drift back as far out as possible until a fish grabs it, then put the reel in gear and start winding. The fish will hook itself in almost every instance.

Both Kinney and Green agree that if they aren’t able to score blackfin around the shrimp boats early, they often return to the boats later in the day when the action from other species settles down. The blackfin will hang around in the shade of the boat and respond to chunking.

“The great thing about blackfin tuna is that they’ll follow your boat as it drifts, as long as you keep chunking,” says Kinney. “I can drift a half-mile off the shrimp boats and have the tuna follow my chum line.” Bonito and other species will usually stay near the shrimp boat.

Fishing around the shrimp boats allows anglers to use light tackle for blackfin tuna. Green prefers the Avet LX reel spooled with 60-pound monofilament and an 80- to 100-pound fluorocarbon leader. Kinney uses Penn Torques and Internationals of similar size. Kinney will also go lighter if the blackfin get picky, ­dropping down to 30-pound line and 40- to 60-pound fluorocarbon leader. Downsizing also includes using a smaller, 2/0 ­short-shank hook.

Kinney adds that fly aficionados have a blast participating in the Texas football action. When chunking gets the fish into a frenzy, an angler with an 8- to 10-weight fly rod, a collection of white feathers, and a stout heart has a chance to hear the reel sing.

Backup Play

If the easy score is not available around the anchored shrimp boats, anglers can go long and spread the field for blackfins. Floating oil and natural-gas rigs — such as Boomvang and Perdido Spar — trace the continental shelf and offshore canyons, and are reasonably accessible to Texas offshore anglers. Southern passes such as Aransas, Mansfield and Brazos Santiago are close enough to the rigs for anglers to plan day trips. Fishermen ­headquartered farther on the upper Gulf Coast — where the curve of the coast makes a north-northwestern turn away from the shelf and canyon rigs — usually make overnight runs.

“You can really get into the blackfin on those overnight trips,” says Green. “The rigs are thick with them, with a lot of the bigger ones hanging off them. It isn’t uncommon to score more than 100 per night around the floaters.”

Green says that the most effective technique for night games with Texas footballs is fishing with knife and Butterfly metal jigs. Blackfin as well as yellowfin (see “Tailgate Crashers”) blitz the frenetically worked pieces of metal as they dart through the black water. Green says effective colors are blue, green and yellow. (The captain prefers a yellow color that fluoresces after exposure to light.) Diamond jigs are also effective, ­especially if tuna are down deep.

Texans loves their football, whether it is an early start before the day’s action begins, or a night game when the anglers can really light up the scoreboard. The price of admission is a big bag of chum, a collection of jigs, and willingness for some hard contact.

Tailgate Crashers

Capt. Chad Kinney warns that prudent anglers should keep a 50- to 80-pound outfit rigged with a pitch bait while chunking for blackfin tuna. You never know what might be lurking in the blackfin huddle.

“You’ll be tossing chum and drawing them closer to your boat, and suddenly you’ll see a big yellowfin tuna blast everything,” says Kinney.

The yellowfin start turning up in September and October, and are more than willing to blitz the blackfin lines. These fish range between 75 and 120 pounds, and hang out in the secondary to pick off any chunks that smaller fish miss. The same free-lining techniques used for blackfin work for the bigger yellowfin.

Capt. Dan Green adds that the yellowfin share the same quarters as blackfin around the floater rigs on the continental shelf and canyons. They also like metal jigs, as do blackfin. When a triple-digit yellowfin snags an offering meant for its smaller cousins, the situation can become very intense quickly.

Other species anglers encounter while chasing Texas blackfin include ling (cobia), kingfish and a variety of bottomfish, including amberjack. Check local and federal regulations for bag limits and closed seasons on respective species.

For the Record

Blackfin might not measure up to their yellowfin and bluefin cousins in weight, but this modest-size tuna is still capable of reaching 50 pounds if they live past five years. The current world record weighed 49 pounds, 6 ounces, caught off Marathon, Florida, in 2006. And the Texas state record isn’t far behind: John Alvarez Jr. landed a 38.89-pounder in 1988. With larger blackfin more available today and limited in range to just the western Atlantic, will a Texas angler be the one to break that 50-pound barrier?

About the Author

Calixto Gonzales, a regular contributor to Sport Fishing, has fished up and down the Western Gulf Coast all his life, and believes strongly that Tom Osborne should have gone for the tie versus the win against Miami in the ‘83 Orange Bowl.

Texas Football Fever

Texas Football Fever

Texas Football Fever

Texas Football Fever

Texas Football Fever

Texas Football Fever

The post Texas Blackfin Tuna Fishing appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.