Still sipping Starbucks, we ease out of the New York Skyport Marina, the primary seaplane base for Manhattan, tucked in next to FDR Drive at East 23rd Street. It’s a gorgeous summer morning, just one day before the July Fourth holiday — the sort of morning when one wouldn’t mind a long run, but that’s just not necessary. In fact, in little more than five minutes, Capt. Tony DiLernia is anchoring up his boat in the East River.

Although we’re there to fish, we out-of-towners can’t stop gaping at the magnificent skyline view of the Big Apple against the clear blue sky. Meanwhile, DiLernia has idled down in the gentle current in one of his favorite go-to spots, just off the United Nations building. As he ties off the anchor and the boat swings tight, he points to the top of one of the skyscrapers. “That’s where the big fight scene in Spider‑Man was filmed,” he says.

But immediately, he turns his attention to the task at hand, chunking up fresh bunker (menhaden) and threading them onto circle hooks. The fact that DiLernia’s been doing this for not years but decades is evident: Within an hour or so, we have missed a strike and had two good fish on, one coming off midway through the fight and the other right at the boat. Fortunately, our fourth time was the charm, giving us the chance to admire in the net a striped bass just south of 30 pounds.

Pogy Pointers

DiLernia’s Rocket Charters offers anglers a unique experience both by virtue of its prime location (the dock is accessible to anglers via a short taxi ride from most of Manhattan; then, the fishing grounds are but a very short ride away) and by its skipper. No one knows the busy, current-swept waters around New York — after so many years of navigating and fishing them by day and night — better than DiLernia.

DiLernia is not only a consummate skipper, but a savvy master of striped bass fishing as well. On that basis, I thought I’d see if I could pick up a few pointers on how DiLernia connects with some very hefty bass (he’s caught them better than 50 pounds).

Bait accounts for roughly 80 percent of the stripers taken on Rocket Charters. When we fished with DiLernia in early July, the options were menhaden, menhaden or menhaden. The oily baitfish remains his offering of choice until eel fishing starts in the fall. And it was very fresh. That, says DiLernia, is key.

“Frozen bunker’s okay for blues, but not so great for bass,” he says. You can, however, use your fresh bait a second or even third day by putting them in a brine with kosher salt.

Breakaway Baits

The skipper prefers chunks to whole fish and, at that, always likes the head best. His hook of choice: an Eagle Claw 10/0 circle sea hook. What DiLernia especially appreciates about circles is that they allow him to fish with reels in gear. Often currents get strong enough that the coefficient of friction of a reel in free spool with clicker on isn’t enough to keep lines from running out. With circle hooks, that’s not a problem, nor is hooking fish, as a rule. DiLernia runs the circle hook through the top of the head where it was sliced from the body.

“Lots of guys will put the hook through the lips,” DiLernia says. But when a fish grabs the bait, he explains, it’s likely to stay on the hook. DiLernia hooks it to come off and get out of the way. “It ought to tear out easily so the hook comes out of the bait’s head when the striper is swimming away with it. Then the hook should slide into the fish’s jaw hinge,” he explains. “And that’s just what usually happens.”

When no head is available, he’ll go to a body chunk — but his pièce de résistance is adding the pogy’s heart onto the hook. “I’m convinced the blood in the heart attracts stripers,” he says simply.

Timing the Tides

According to DiLernia, spring through midsummer is prime time for bunker fishing. Tides are always a prime factor for him, and in this case, he wants to be anchored up and fishing about a half-hour after the high slack tide: The next couple of hours, with boat and baits sitting still in the moderate current, will produce the hottest bite.

Then, well into the ebb, the current will be running too fast to hold bottom without ungodly amounts of weight. “That’s when we drift and bounce lead-heads on the bottom until late in the ebb when the current slows. Then we’ll go back to fishing bait at anchor.”

Once the tide nears slack, and the boat starts swinging on the anchor “so the baits slide all over the bottom,” it’s time to troll deep divers. DiLernia’s choice of lures: big Mann’s Stretch or Stretch Plus and Yo-Zuri Hydro Magnum Deep Divers. Usually, he’ll do this just until shortly after the tide turns: Then the cycle begins again with a couple of hours fishing bait.

DiLernia notes that tides vary tremendously around New York. For example, depending on the tidal pattern, he might fish the East River for the first hour and a half of the ebb, and then run quickly down to the Hudson River to fish off the Statue of Liberty, catching the early ebb there. By the time the current’s starting to get too strong there, the East River is just ­beginning to slow down again.

DiLernia proudly holds up the big, complex-looking watch on his wrist. “It’s a Reactor Graviton,” and he says it’s been a huge factor in maximizing his efficiency fishing the area per tidal flow. It’s programmed to tell him just what the tide is doing at any day, any moment, in the East River, the Hudson, Sandy Hook and West Sound.

Fall for Eels

Though early July is a great time to fish the Big Apple for bass, DiLernia’s season continues through early November (after which it’s too cold and “time to go hunting,” he says). As summer wanes, DiLernia drifts mostly eels. “They’re migrating then, so it’s a good time to match the hatch.” This is a drifting show and somewhat less tide-critical. And not anchoring allows DiLernia to fish productive areas that include shipping channels.

DiLernia offers eel fishermen a tip regarding the inevitable struggle to get a hook through a writhing eel: “Snap its tail on the rail. For whatever reason, this disables it momentarily but doesn’t kill it.” Some anglers give that love tap to the eel’s head; that will disable it, but sometimes for good.

“This area around New York is highly productive because it’s at the nexus of some stripers’ ­migration routes, and it’s ecologically productive in its own right,” says John Waldman, professor of biology at Queens College (and author of Heartbeats in the Muck: The History, Sea Life and Environment of New York Harbor). “Also, adult spawners of the Hudson stock, which winter in the open ocean, come into the Hudson to spawn, and so are available in New York Harbor.” Bass from Chesapeake and Delaware Bay stocks migrate north in spring and also enter the mix, Waldman says.

The post NYC Striper Hunt appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

“Patient anglers are prevailing,” reported Capt. Kane Bounds. Bounds fishes out of Ocean City, Maryland, for trophy tautog throughout the winter. Recently, angler Jen Zuppe caught a 23.4-pound tog aboard his boat, the Fish Bound IV. Zuppe’s catch has a great shot to be the next IGFA Women’s World Record in the 30- or 50-pound line class. 

Bounds says Zuppe played the game perfectly and was rewarded with a trophy tog. “She had just moved closer to the bow,” Bounds remembered. “While the rest of the crew fished from the stern, Zuppe took her bait rig away from the crowd.” 

The record-breaking tautog gave up a good fight, but Zuppe is an accomplished angler who knows how to beat a big fish. “Last year, she caught a 13-pounder with me,” Bounds said.

Have Patience When Tautog Fishing

Bounds says if fishing is slow, he moves the boat several times during a typical trip. Anglers who fish hard and pay attention will be rewarded with trophy blackfish. “Find a little structure, keep the bait on the bottom, don’t move it, and wait,” Bounds recommends.

Fish Bound IV has been fishing 10 to 30 miles offshore, between 60 and 120 feet of water. “If the wind has been blowing — and the wind always seems to blow in the winter — go farther offshore in search of clear water when the wind is more manageable,” Bounds says.

Really windy days keep the boat closer to shore or at the dock.

Even when a tog bites, Bounds warns against acting too quickly. “Quit trying to set the hook prematurely; let the fish eat,” he says. Cold water blackfish move slowly and suspiciously. “I was just fussing at people today about setting the hook too soon,” Bounds laughs.

Tog fishing should remain steady off Mid-Atlantic states, as long as the water temperature is above 42 degrees.

Tautog Fishing Tackle

For tautog tackle, Bounds recommends a medium-heavy rod with a soft tip and considerable backbone. “Most of the anglers are using a Jigging World Night Ranger rod,” Bounds says. 

The rod is matched to a conventional reel spooled with 50-pound braided line. “A slower reel, 3:1 to 5:1 retrieve ratio, brings the tog to the surface slowly, improving chances of survival after being released,” Bounds explains. 

To the end of the braided line, Bounds adds six feet of 50 pound monofilament for abrasion resistance and stretch. He ties a three-way rig with a 5/0 octopus hook and 6- to 12-ounce bank sinker. “Switch sinkers to match the current,” Bounds suggests. Adding weight as the current increases ensures the bait stays in the structure directly under the boat.

When the current drops, anglers switch to lighter spinning gear and a 2-ounce jig with a short-shank hook. The jig makes it possible to place the bait directly on the bottom, even in heavy structure. 

Top Baits for Blackfish

The top bait for Mid-Atlantic anglers is green crabs. “Sometimes the fish want a big crab, sometimes a small one,” Bounds adds. He says blackfish are picky and will prefer a whole crab or half, legs or no legs. “I keep experimenting until I find what works that day,” he says.  

The post Best Bets for Winter Blackfish appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Little 55-acre, 40-feet deep Woods Canyon Lake is a bit over 100 miles northeast of Phoenix, and that’s where angler Bryan Morgan was fishing Dec. 10 with friends and family when he caught a whopper of a 5-pound, 11.8-ounce tiger trout to set a new Arizona record for the hybrid species.

Morgan’s oversize brown-brook trout hybrid beat the previous state record by about two pounds. He was trolling a small Yakima roostertail-style inline spinner on 6-pound-test line in 15 feet of water with ice peppering the lakeshore.

“Everybody was chilly, it was time to go, and I stated, ‘Hey, guys let’s take the boat out for another spin,'” Morgan told Wild Grass Games. “My youngsters wished to remain by the fireplace on shore, so I simply trolled alongside the shoreline.”

Morgan kept his trolled lure in sun-warmed waters while working the shallows. Then the fish hit, and he believed he initially fouled his spinner.

“I believed I’d hooked right into a sunken log,” he said.

Morgan battled the trout on light tackle for 20 minutes, eventually working it boat-side and netting it.

“Since I was on my own, and I didn’t have help, I knew I wanted to [tire] the fish before netting it,” he stated. “A few instances with the light rod I thought it was going to break. The treble hook was bending, but it never broke.”

Read Next: Head to the Arizona Desert for Smallmouth Bass

Morgan boated the fish and brought the tiger trout home. He weighed and measured it (24.6 inches), and then he learned by checking state records that his fish was much larger than the Arizona record caught in May 2020 at 3.16 pounds and 18.75 inches in length.

“I was pretty shocked, realizing it was more than two pounds bigger and longer than the current record,” Morgan said.

Andy Clark, with Arizona’s Game and Fish Department, certified Morgan’s tiger trout as the new state record for the species two days later. Clark said he’s fished Woods Canyon Lake for over three decades and catching a tiger trout larger than Morgan’s new record will be hard to beat.

The post New Record Tiger Trout Caught in Arizona appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

What does a lingcod eat? Anything it wants. These deep-water reef predators rule the bad neighborhoods where they live, feeding on octopus, sand dabs, rockfish and anything else they can fit in their cavernous, toothy maws. They readily attack prey seemingly too large to swallow, a reason they are often caught by anglers as “hitchhikers” literally lock-jawed onto hooked rockfish as they’re reeled toward the surface.

Savvy Southern California anglers know this and appeal to the lingcod’s ravenous appetite and aggressive nature by tossing super-size swimbaits. The technique has developed somewhat of a cult following: Small groups of swimbait aficionados gather in the bow of partyboats to “chuck the rubber,” while the majority of the passengers deploy dropper-loop rigs with 1-pound weights meant to carry live or cut baits into depths that can reach 300 feet or more.

The fall season—leading right up to the end-of-year Southern California groundfish closure in January and February—is probably the best time of the year to target big lingcod in this way. As temperatures cool, lings move into shallower waters and feed aggressively. Smart anglers venture out on skiffs and party boats to meet them, swim bait outfits in hand.

Make no mistake, plenty of anglers catch lingcod on live mackerel, live sardines or even whole or stripped squid fished on “shrimp fly” rigs. Large lings are sometimes taken this way in between reeling up vermillion, chucklehead or any of a wide variety of rockfish species.

But if you want to catch lingcod almost exclusively—and the largest ones on the boat—switch to big swimbaits. I say “almost exclusively,” because truly large rockfish of 5 pounds and up sometimes jump on these soft-plastic lures, as well, adding variety and quality to the equation.

Feed ‘Em a Mouthful

What do I mean by a big swim bait? Lure companies like Kustom Kraft, Candy Bar and Savage Gear have developed specialized lures for this technique, with beefy, sturdy plastic bodies boasting large paddle tails for maximum action and vibration. Up to 10 inches long, these tails pair with heavy, wedge-shaped leadheads sporting 7/0 to 10/0 hooks. Depending on the depth of the structure being fished, leadheads can range from 4 to 16 ounces. Some lures, like those from Savage Gear, feature molded leadheads designed for use with specific integrated tails.

Chucking the Rubber

Working a lure that must be retrieved can be a challenge when fishing craggy, rocky structure in waters up to 300 feet deep. Swim the lure as close to the bottom as possible for as long as possible. Partyboat anglers should stay clear of other anglers fishing bait rigs straight up and down.

The technique involves casting your lure from the bow or downwind corner of the stern. Toss it as far as possible and let it sink quickly to the bottom, then work the swimbait with a steady, medium-speed retrieve for about 15 to 20 turns of the reel handle. If you don’t get bit, freespool back to the bottom and repeat. As the boat drifts over and eventually away from your line, you will have to recast and begin the process again.

If the boat drifts too quickly, you might have to use a more vertical presentation. In those situations, I just wind quickly for about seven to 10 cranks, drop back and repeat. It takes some dedication to do this, but the reward is worth the effort.

At times, however, conditions just won’t allow for working a swimbait. When this happens, I switch to my second-favorite lingcod lure, which is a heavy metal jig. Fish these lures vertically and bounce them just off the bottom.

To create a large target worthy of attracting the attention of big lingcod, I replace the usual treble hooks with a large single siwash hook, onto which I thread a 6-inch plastic or Berkeley Gulp! grub.

Just Keep Grinding

New anglers trying to master the swimbait method must resist the natural impulse to set the hook. Lingcod often grab the lure by the tail and hold on, and if you swing the rod, you pull the lure out of its mouth (often ripping the tail off in the process). Instead, just keep turning the reel handle at the same speed until the rod loads up and the fish is solidly hooked.

If the fish lets go or comes off after a few head shakes, immediately drop the lure down a few seconds and start reeling. Lingcod hate to let any meal—even a fake one—get away. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sealed the deal after two or three re-bites.

Lings are also very competitive, and it’s not uncommon to have one or more free-swimming lingcod accompany a hooked fish on its way to the surface, ready to pounce on the lure should it become dislodged.

Trap Hook

To increase the number of solid hookups, I often rig my swimbaits with a simple trap-hook system. I loop an Owner 5/0 Assist Hook over the tip of the main hook and cinch it tight at the hook’s bend. Depending on the length of the swimbait, this provides a large trailing hook near the tail of the lure. I’ve caught plenty of big lingcod on the trap hook alone.

Maintain a slow and steady retrieve when fighting a big ling. They usually make a strong run toward structure once hooked, and after that, it’s usually heavy weight with just enough head shaking to rattle your nerves. If you keep steady pressure, lings usually stay fairly calm until they get near the boat.

Read Next: SoCal Lingcod Primer

Swimbait tails come in a wide variety of colors, and I’ve seen them all work. Shades of red and brown certainly match the natural coloration of juvenile rockfish.

Capt. Mike Nickerson of the popular Channel Islands-based sport boat Pacific Dawn likes a custom-poured tail he calls Blue Bass, the common name for the ubiquitous blue rockfish that populate these reefs. At the same time, I’ve caught plenty on gaudy colors like glow in the dark, chartreuse, pink-and-white striped and pearl white. I don’t think color is all that important as long as you work the lure effectively in the strike zone and maximize bites when they happen.

Tackling the Technique

It takes a specific style of rod and reel to effectively fish these heavy lures. Relatively stiff, fast-action graphite-composite jig rods of 8 to 8 1/2 feet work best for lobbing lures that might weigh up to a pound. Conventional reels can be either star or lever drag, as long as they hold 300 to 400 yards of 65-pound braided line.

Using straight braid with only a few feet of 40-pound test monofilament or fluorocarbon leader allows lures to sink quickly and keep you in direct touch with the lure and your fish. The short length of leader (joined with a back-to-back uni-knot) provides some added shock absorption and makes it easier to break off if you snag the bottom.

The post Using Swim Baits to Catch Big California Lingcod appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Ask any Southern California inshore angler where to catch calico bass, and the vast majority would point you toward one of the many kelp beds that line the coast and wrap the offshore islands, habitat that has earned this species its official name—kelp bass. Yet, the sheer expanse of the average kelp bed stacks the odds against success, especially when targeting bigger bass weighing 5 pounds or more.

Unlike isolated spots like a reef or a rocky point, kelp beds don’t offer a consistent “right” place to cast your lure in hopes of getting a bite. When calicos feed in the kelp, they’re likely only doing so in 10 to 15 percent of the bed, meaning that if you fish the other 85 to 90 percent, you’re probably not going to catch a whole lot.

However, regardless of location or depth of water, feeding calico bass relate to all kelp beds in the same manner. Calicos use their checkerboard coloration pattern to blend in with the amber kelp fronds as they wait to ambush baitfish. Since baitfish tend to swim in open water on the edge of the kelp, a feeding bass tends to set up just inside the bed, adjacent to open water.

To remain stationary while attempting to ambush an unwitting baitfish, a calico always points its nose into the current. This means that feeding bass post up on the outside up-current edge of the bed. That’s where you’re most likely to find a big, hungry calico bass on any given bed.

Bed Types

Different kelp bed types also affect bass positioning. In heavy kelp beds, even those with the surface frond pulled completely below the surface by current, bites usually come within the first 20 yards of the bed’s leading edge. If the outside edge of the bed is straight and featureless, you might find a few random bites along its length. If the outside edge is irregular, any patch of kelp that pokes out from the main bed can act as a secondary leading edge and can hold multiple fish.

Kelp beds with sparse fronds and open water in between tend to spread the bass bites out farther along the length of the bed, and you might experience scattered bites along the entire area. These beds often extend from shallow to deep water, and feeding bass will be isolated to specific depth ranges that hold bait. Approach these beds from deep to shallow along the leading edge when looking for biting bass.

Stay on Fish

A common mistake that even experienced anglers make involves losing track of biting bass and continuing to fish in dead water. It’s easy enough to do. You pull up to the leading edge of a bed and immediately start getting bites, but once you drift past the bite zone, the action slows way down, even though the kelp looks really fishy. While this might not seem like a big deal, it’s a real time vampire, and can waste a good percentage of your fishing day. Once you encounter dead water, keep moving and looking for new areas and likely ambush points to fish.

Weedless Wonders

Kelp fronds easily snag hooks. To minimize fouled lures, wasted time and lost tackle, many calico anglers employ lures such as weedless swimbaits. Popular lures include the 7-inch MC Weedless Swimbait rigged on a 3/4-ounce 8/0 Owner Weighted Beast hook or a 5-inch MC Viejos Series Swimbait rigged on a 3/4-ounce WAR Baits weedless leadhead.

Whenever approaching a kelp bed, position your boat so that it points in the same direction as the current, with the bow approaching the leading edge of the bed. I normally slide up and stop a long cast from the edge, allowing the angler in the bow to fan cast along the leading stringers. If feeding bass are in the bed, they’re likely to race out from among the stalks and bite the bait.

If those first few casts show promise, I aim the boat toward the outside edge of the bed and bump the trolling motor along, allowing for casts to the entire leading edge. Once I reach the outside, I’ll point my bow down-current again to drift and make casts along the kelp. While doing so, I look ahead for any outcroppings in the edge of the kelp and steer the boat’s drift to put the bow angler in position to cast. By moving the boat in this manner, you can cover all of the high-percentage edges of the bed without wasting time having to drift through dead water

Presentation Pointers

To present a weedless swimbait, simply cast the lure past whatever stringer you want to target and use a fast retrieve to burn the bait past the zone. Keep your casts fairly short if they’re perpendicular to the current, as you’re going to have to fight your bass past all of those kelp stringers, and that can be tough if you hook a big one.

Read Next: Tighter California Limits Aim to Protect Populations of Saltwater Bass

You can use just about any heavy bass rod and saltwater low-profile baitcasting reel to cast a weedless swimbait, but I prefer using a light-action, 7-foot graphite-composite rod. These rods feature a graphite butt section with a soft fiberglass tip and are normally considered live-bait rods. The soft tips on these rods act as shock absorbers and increase the hookup ratio due to the way bass strike this bait. This rod should be paired with a mid-size low-profile baitcasting reel like the Penn Fathom 300 filled with 65-pound braid and a 2- to 3-foot, 60-pound fluorocarbon leader.

Calicos normally attack a weedless swimbait from behind and inhale it tail first. If you set the hook the moment the fish hits, the bait’s weedlessness often causes it to slide right out of the fish’s mouth without hooking up. So, when you see or feel a bass take the lure, pause for a moment and allow the fish to turn with the bait before setting the hook.

Be it a special hookset or finding the edge that’s holding, these little things make a big difference when fishing calicos in the kelp.

The post California’s Kelp Bed Calico Bass appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

The traditional staggered start of California’s 2021 rockfish season begins on March 1 for ocean waters off the southern part of the state, followed by April 1 for central California, and May 1 for the northern region. This season, however, ranks as more poignant than most, as it heralds the re-opening of areas that have been closed to bottom fishing for nearly 20 years.

On the Rebound

In Southern California, for example, anglers can now legally fish in bottom depths as great as 600 feet in many areas along the coast. The previous limit, set two years ago, was 450 feet, and before that, an even shallower limit of 360 feet existed in this region. It was not always this way.

Fishery regulators first established depth limits for rockfish, lingcod, ocean whitefish, California sheephead and other bottom species in 2002. The federal Pacific Fishery Management Council and the California Fish and Game Commission faced declining rockfish populations, and so instituted the 360-foot depth limit to reduce fishing pressure and allow stocks to recover. Almost two decades later, studies indicate that this management tool worked. Scientists say that California’s rockfish populations have rebounded; this has led the agencies to re-open a number of areas for 2021. (For a full list of the regulations, seasons, depth limits, protected species and closures, visit the California Department of Fish and Wildlife website.)

Jig Time

No matter the depth, anglers always look forward to catching rockfish. These deep-dwelling, great-eating species are considered the bread-and-butter of California’s sport fishery. They inhabit waters around rocky structure and readily eat a live or fresh-dead bait, such as a sardine or strip of squid, that’s fished near the bottom. But many veteran anglers prefer to target larger individual fish to fill their daily rockfish bag limit, rather than settling for smaller specimens. The key to catching bigger 4- to 9-pound rockfish and lingcod up to 35 pounds lies in fishing with jigs as opposed to bait, says veteran Southern California saltwater angler Joey Engel.

Natural bait tends to attract smaller fish. “Rockfish that eat the jigs tend to be the big ones,” he explains, noting that he has caught vermilion (aka red) rockfish up to 9 pounds while fishing with metal jigs such as the Shimano Butterfly Flat Fall with double assist hooks.

Engel prefers to target rockfish over rocky structure in 300- to 350-foot depths, using a 300-gram (about 10.5-ounce) Flat Fall. He casts ahead of the boat’s drift so that the line is nearly vertical by the time the jig reaches the bottom. Yet, Engel often hooks up on the drop. “Red rockfish often school 50 to 60 feet above the bottom, and they will jump on the jig as it flutters downward,” he says.

Big Target

Ron Ballanti, an avid Southern California rockfish angler, also fishes with metal jigs such as Cribb’s Jigs in colors such as Glow Pink Tiger or Orange Glow Black Tiger. He also fishes with Promar Ahi Assault jigs in colors such as Baby Red or Blue Bass. He likes to fish the lightest jig possible (determined by drift speed), but generally uses an 8-ounce model for bottom depths of up to 250 feet, and the 10- and 12-ounce versions for anything deeper. Ballanti uses a single 9/0 Siwash hook and threads on a soft-plastic tail like a 6-inch Berkley Gulp! saltwater grub in a color such as White Glow.

“The single hook is less likely to snag on the bottom, and it allows me to thread on curly tail grubs, which creates about a 12-inch profile to attract bigger fish,” Ballanti explains. “I’m not interested in catching any fish less than 4 pounds.” A single hook also holds better on big fish like lings that fight to the surface.

Like Engel, he casts down-drift and sometimes gets bit on the sink. If the jig does reach the bottom, he works it with sharp upward sweeps of the rod, then follows the lure as it sinks to sense any strikes. “I let the lure fall until it ticks the bottom, then jig it upward again,” Ballanti says. “It is a lot of work, and you have to pay close attention and constantly adjust the amount of line to keep the lure in the strike zone and keep it from snagging the bottom, but it pays off.” His average rockfish weighs 5 pounds and up, and he has landed a number of canary, copper and red rockfish in the 9-pound range. He also consistently catches more lingcod when fishing with other anglers that are using bait.

Paddletail Baits

Large soft-plastic paddletail baits such as the Optimum Baits 9-inch Giant Shad, paired with leadheads weighing 8 to 10 ounces, have recently emerged as some of the most effective jigs for big rockfish and lingcod. Ballanti frequently uses paddletails (aka swimbaits), particularly when fishing expansive rocky bottom areas where lingcod lurk.

The best technique involves fishing this jig as vertically as possible—dropping it to the bottom, then winding it upward at a moderate speed with 10 to 12 turns of the reel handle, then dropping it back down again. “The difficulty and labor factors are even greater with these jigs, if you want to stay in the strike zone,” Ballanti says. “A fast drift really shortens your fishing time, as you need to reel in and re-drop if the line scopes out more than 45 degrees.”

However, lingcod in particular can’t seem to resist chasing the big swim baits off the bottom. “They typically inhale the jig and swim upward with it,” Ballanti explains. “If you feel weight on the line, just reel down tight to set the hook. Don’t swing, as that usually just pulls the lure out of the ling’s mouth. If you get short-bit, drop down about 10 feet and start retrieving again.”

Aggressive lingcod often come back, he says. To help eliminate short bites, Ballanti rigs the larger swimbaits with a stinger in the form of an Owner 5/0 assist hook, looped around the bend of the main hook.

Fantastic Plastic

Another trend centers on the use of large tube baits and soft-plastic octopus imitations for rockfish, lingcod and other bottom species. These include the Hook Up Baits XXL 10-ounce jig, the Mag-12 Swimbait 8-ounce jig, and Optimum’s 9-inch Magnum Octopus with an 8- to 10-ounce leadhead. “I like to jig the Mag-12 Pearl White Glow lure right along the bottom to imitate an octopus,” Engel says. “Big lings and whitefish can’t seem to resist them.”

Read Next: New Fishing Opportunities for Rockfish

Engel also fishes two of the 4-ounce Mag-12 lures at once. He ties one on a 2-foot dropper loop and another 3 feet below it at the end of the main line. “Presenting rockfish with a pair of tube baits seems to drive them crazy,” he says. “They immediately go on the attack, and many times you’ll hook two big fish at the same time. That’s a handful.”

Lighter Gear

While anglers in the past had to use relatively heavy gear for deep-dwelling rockfish, advances in super-thin braided line, low-profile saltwater-grade level-wind reels and graphite fishing rods have enabled the use of lighter outfits that are easier to fish and less fatiguing on anglers. For example, Okuma’s Komodo 400 series low-profile reels can hold more than 300 yards of 40-pound braid, which is sufficient for fishing jigs in depths of up to 400 feet.

How anglers take advantage of the new depth limits remains to be seen. Many old-timers contend that the biggest bottomfish always live at the greatest depths. So, it is certain that a fair number of California anglers will find a way to fish out to the new legal limits in pursuit of larger rockfish, lingcod, ocean whitefish and sheephead.

The post How to Catch Bigger Rockfish appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

The total catch of yellowfin tuna in the western Atlantic is a daunting figure, with more than 101,305 tons reported in 2014. Fifty countries participating in a member treaty group called the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) contribute to the total catch each year. Spain and France are some of the largest contributors, whereas the U.S. landed just 2.63 percent of the Atlantic-wide estimated total catch in 2014.

So, for a single state agency to try to affect international management might seem like folly. However, regionally in the northern Gulf of Mexico, with respect to yellowfin tuna catch, Louisiana is huge. More yellowfin tuna are landed both recreationally and commercially from ports in Louisiana than from any other Gulf Coast state. When fisheries managers in Louisiana looked at how the Atlantic-wide yellowfin tuna fishery was managed and what data was being collected from the local fishery, they realized they could make a difference.

Starting at the Single-Stock Hypothesis

ICCAT — and thereby NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, since the U.S. is a contracting party — manages yellowfin tuna in the Atlantic Ocean as a single stock. Furthermore, the management plan rests on the premise that production of yellowfin tuna is centered in waters off the Gulf of Guinea, a known tuna nursery in the eastern Atlantic adjacent to west-central Africa. The region supports a large purse-seine fishery that targets small tunas associated with fish-attracting devices (FADs).

The retention of undersize tuna by these purse seiners has long been a matter of contention among ICCAT nations, and the U.S. has lobbied for decades to force compliance with ICCAT minimum-size limits of 27 inches, fork length. Trans-Atlantic movements of yellowfin tuna have been documented by previous conventional-tag-recapture studies. Similarly, one-year-old bluefin tuna were documented crossing the Pacific Ocean in just a matter of months.

Still, is the health and future of the fishery in the Gulf of Mexico really dependent on what comes across the Atlantic? The answer might be in the tuna-rich Gulf waters off Louisiana.

The Unique Louisiana Fishery

What is unique about Louisiana’s yellowfin fishery? I’d say almost everything, from environment to tuna behavior.

North America’s largest river flows out against Gulf Stream eddies (the Loop Current), and these currents meet above deep nearshore canyons along a shelf margin that is littered with FADs (oil rigs). Yellowfin tuna recreational catches out of Louisiana on a day trip can, at times, resemble what you’d see on a Pacific long-range tuna trip off Mexico.

But one thing that really stands out is the lengthy season: You can catch yellowfin tuna off southeast Louisiana all year. Whether anglers are live-bait fishing near rigs, chumming by shrimp boats or natural bottom features, or throwing topwater lures near surface-feeding whale sharks, there’s always action available.

Clues about the yellowfin tuna’s life history are present as well: adults in spawning ­condition, day-old larvae caught during surveys, juvenile tunas just months old, and ­multiyear tag returns from adults recaptured in almost the exact same area they were released. The data suggests that some yellowfin tuna might spend a whole lifetime in the Gulf of Mexico. Perhaps not the picture you’d expect for a highly migratory species?

In response to the disparity between the importance of Gulf of Mexico yellowfin tuna to Louisiana-based user groups and the lack of biological information, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) began a comprehensive yellowfin-research program.

The success of the program ultimately hinged on access. LDWF dock samplers were able to provide biological samples from more than 1,600 yellowfin in less than three years. In excess of 200 yellowfin tuna were fitted with electronic tags. And about 400 young-of-the-year tuna were collected throughout the Atlantic.

Electronic Tagging

Conventional dart or spaghetti tags have been used for decades and are great tools for studying the movement patterns of fish. Fish have to be both recaptured and then reported for these projects to work. But pelagic fish such as tuna typically have very low recapture rates. In fact, according to the NMFS Cooperative Tagging Center, the all-time recapture rate for yellowfin tagged in the northern Gulf of Mexico is a tick above 2 percent.

Pop-off ARGOS satellite tags (PSATs) provide a way to track fish without relying on their recapture. But attaching PSATs to yellowfin tuna has been problematic for many researchers, possibly because of both their behavior and ­somewhat delicate bodies. Tuna must keep moving.

As anyone who has fished for or caught a yellowfin tuna can tell you, they’re extremely active in the water column, cumulatively traveling literally tens of thousands of vertical feet a day (as documented with depth records from PSATs). Average retention of satellite tags on yellowfin tuna in previous studies has been about a month.

Since the goal of the LDWF project was to look at long-term movements, it made sense to do two things differently from the start. The first was to figure out a better way to attach PSATs to yellowfin tuna. The second was to take a chance on a different electronic-tag type that had never been used on yellowfin tuna in the Atlantic.

Improving tag attachment involved abandoning the use of darts to hold the buoyant satellite tags in the fast-swimming tunas. Instead, a hollow needle was used to target one of the heaviest areas of bone mass in a tuna’s body, which is the base of the second dorsal, known as the allison fin. Researchers passed heavy monofilament through the bony base of the second dorsal fin twice in a figure-eight ­configuration and crimped directly to the PSAT.

Like PSATs, internal archival (IA) tags are electronic tags that measure light level, depth and temperature. Both electronic-tag types can be employed for high-resolution studies of habitat use, as well as to re-create daily positions based on light-level measurements. Light-based geo-location works because sunrise and sunset times vary east to west, and day length varies north to south.

But unlike PSATs, IA tags use all their battery power to log data. Since they don’t use any of it for the pop-off mechanism or to upload the data through an antenna to a satellite system, they have a much longer lifetime. Some IA tags can log data for more than 10 years. Also, the internal tags have to be surgically implanted. Yellowfin tuna that are to be tagged are caught quickly so they’re in good condition, netted and placed upside down in a padded cradle. A small incision is made in the belly, and the internal tag is inserted into the body cavity. Two quick sutures hold the incision closed.

The light stalk of the tag protruding from the tuna’s abdomen and a green-and-white conventional tag near the dorsal fin are the only indications that the tuna is swimming around the Gulf with a computer in its belly. But the catch, literally, is that these fish have to be re-caught and reported for the data to be recovered from the tag. And while a 2 percent recapture rate might not justify a large investment in an internal-tagging project, LDWF biologists knew that the local recapture rate was closer to 10 percent based on conventional tags deployed on yellowfin as part of the Louisiana Cooperative Fish Tagging Program. So based on the hope of a slightly higher recapture rate in the region and that a $200 gift-card reward would incentivize participation, LDWF began tagging yellowfin in 2013 with internal and pop-off ­satellite tags in the north-central Gulf.

To date, 162 of these internal tags have been surgically implanted and 26 satellite tags attached to yellowfin tuna ranging in size from 27 inches to more than 160 pounds off southeast Louisiana by LDWF. Recapture rates have exceeded expectations, with 30 internally tagged fish recaptured to date. Some tuna were at large for up to 1,017 days, with the average returned IA tag having been in a fish for 238 days. And satellite-tag retention has more than doubled, with some satellite tags attached for more than 300 days.

The Results

What’s the preliminary result? Almost 9,000 days of data across all tracked yellowfin tuna show that none have left the Gulf of Mexico.

We’re also seeing a high level of connectivity between fishing methods and locations, which hasn’t been previously documented. We’re looking to determine whether a fish’s tagging location has anything to do with its recapture location. It’s known that yellowfin tuna have a high level of association with structure, especially when they’re small, so it’s reasonable to wonder if that association might affect what other parts of the fishery you’ll see these same fish.

But so far a clear pattern has not emerged, with yellowfin tuna tagged at rigs being recaptured at the same rigs (where they were tagged) and other rigs, as well as shrimp boats and open-water schools and vice versa. And while we haven’t had any yellowfin tuna travel out of the Gulf, we have seen them recaptured by anglers off all Gulf states. Most recaptures have come from the Venice, Louisiana, charter fleet, but some have also come from Texas charter boats, Alabama private and charter boats, Florida private boats, and Gulf ­commercial pelagic longline vessels.

Another point to make here is that while tuna being captured at the same rig where they were tagged might not seem that interesting, remember that many of the offshore oil-field structures in the Gulf are mobile, like the drillship Ocean Black Rhino. So when some of the tuna tagged at one drillship were re-caught on the same drillship after it had moved more than 50 nautical miles, we were left to wonder if it’s really the fish doing all the moving or if their association with mobile structures might explain some of the dispersal patterns we’ve seen.

After three years of intensive study, a much more complete picture of the biology and life history of yellowfin tuna in the Gulf of Mexico has been uncovered. Not only do yellowfin tuna spawn off the Louisiana coast (see “Biological Research” sidebar), but that spawning activity helps to fuel the local fishery, which is composed of adults from both local and distant nurseries (see “Natural Tags” sidebar). And these tagging results suggest that no matter where the fish are spawned, once they end up in the Gulf, they’ll most likely stay around for a while.

When the previous Atlantic yellowfin tuna stock assessment was conducted in 2011, the Atlantic stock was found to be marginally overfished and possibly undergoing overfishing. The most recent stock assessment, which was just conducted in summer 2016, concluded that the fishery was overfished but that overfishing was not occurring. Data from several of the LDWF-coordinated projects were considered. And while the ICCAT continues to recommend a reduction in the mortality of small yellowfin, particularly in the FAD-associated fisheries in the eastern Atlantic, it is good to know that the regional fishery in the Gulf is not entirely dependent on foreign tuna-nursery grounds and their associated regulatory-compliance issues.

LDWF does not manage tuna, but the agency has certainly done its part to make sure the best science is made available to the federal and international managers of this fishery, which is in the best interest of all recreational and commercial fishermen.

Biological Research in the Gulf

Yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) caught in the northern Gulf of Mexico recreational fishery were sampled as part of a life-history study funded by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. Fisheries scientists Jim Franks, Nancy Brown-Peterson and Dyan Gibson, with the University of Southern Mississippi-Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, examined the feeding habits and reproductive biology of yellowfin tuna.

Examination of stomach contents from 1,286 yellowfin tuna (11 to 77 inches curved fork length, 12 to 221 pounds total weight) revealed a diverse diet comprised of 86 prey species, most of which were fishes and to a lesser extent invertebrates such as squid and offshore swimming crabs. More than 16,000 prey items were found in the stomachs. Some of the most common fish prey were menhaden, jacks, flying fish, mackerel, small tuna (including blackfins) and mullet, along with other prey including filefish, triggerfish, dolphin, snake mackerels, pufferfish, butterfish and spadefish.

Seasonal shifts in yellowfin diet roughly correlated with the availability of certain prey species. For example, the fall and winter diet consisted of prey commonly associated with bottom habitats, including flatfish, sea robins, croaker and shrimp, which supports local knowledge that yellowfins feed on bycatch from shrimp trawlers working in the northern Gulf at that time.

An exhaustive examination of the reproductive biology of yellowfin tuna from the Gulf revealed that females spawn from mid-April through August. Individual females produce multiple batches of eggs and spawn as frequently as every 1.3 to 3 days, with younger fish spawning less frequently than older, larger females. Individual females can produce as many as 1,180,978 eggs per fish, and an average-size female of about 70 pounds can produce 25,586,823 eggs during a single reproductive season. The size at 50 percent sexual maturity, which is a term commonly used by fisheries managers to describe the size at which half the females in a population are mature, is 38 inches CFL, well above the current 27-inch minimum-size limit.

Natural Tags Help Resolve Yellowfin Origins

Doctorate student Larissa Kitchens from Dr. Jay Rooker’s Fisheries Ecology Lab at Texas A&M University is currently using chemical tags in ear bones (otoliths) to look at the stock structure and migration of yellowfin tuna in the Atlantic Ocean. The main goal of this project is to determine whether yellowfin tuna in the Gulf of Mexico are part of a resident population that spawns locally or if yellowfin migrate into the Gulf of Mexico from distant spawning areas.

Chemical concentrations in otoliths reflect the chemistry of the seawater the fish inhabit, so otoliths act as a natural tag that can be used as a chronological record of habitat use and movement. In this project, chemicals in the otoliths of juvenile yellowfin from all of the major nursery areas in the Atlantic Ocean will be used to create chemical signatures for each nursery. Then, otoliths from adult yellowfin caught in the Gulf of Mexico will be analyzed, and the chemistry of the otolith core — which corresponds to nursery period — will be matched back to the nursery signatures to determine where these fish were spawned.

Results of this research will help to develop a better understanding of how valuable each of these nursery areas are to the Gulf of Mexico population. Preliminary results indicate that yellowfin tuna sampled from the Louisiana recreational fishery come from both distant and local nurseries. Ultimately, this information will improve the ability to effectively manage this important U.S. fishery and ensure that yellowfin tuna populations are sustainable.

About the Author: Brett Falterman is currently a program manager with the LDWF and oversees the state’s offshore fisheries independent monitoring surveys and research projects. With a graduate degree in marine science and more than 10 years of charter-fishing experience in the northern Gulf of Mexico, Falterman brings a unique perspective to addressing some of today’s challenges in fisheries management.

The Life and Times of the Dolphin

“Nature’s gift to offshore fishermen is the circumtropical mahimahi. For anglers, Coryphaena hippurus is both a worthy adversary on the troll — with its high-flying and unpredictable jumps — and a welcome sight around drifting flotsam.”

The post Gulf of Mexico Yellowfin Tuna Research appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Every angler who plans to target sailfish in the coming year — whether from a private boat or charter — can learn from the pros. This prized sport fish forces anglers in temperate and tropical waters to be on point when sails show in the swells. Too many ­sailfish tales are filled with cockpit chaos, tackle snafus, damaged egos and missed opportunities.

Those experiences are all part of the addiction, but to help anglers better prepare for future battles, I tapped the knowledge base of 10 sailfish pros in different hot spots across three oceans. Each captain employs different techniques, and each sailfishery is unique, but many of the tips and secrets they offer translate to any region.

In this compilation, I’ve organized the pros geographically from Mexico east to Australia.

Mexico

Capt. Francisco Muñoz Tenorio, Baja Big Fish Company

Loreto, Baja California Sur

1. Water Temps Matter

Study satellite sea-surface ­temperatures, focusing on early-morning charts covering the 2 a.m.-to-4 a.m. window. Sails want waters at least 75 degree F. While searching for temperature breaks and currents on the water, Muñoz prefers to troll. He trolls weighted 10- to 12-ounce chrome heads that bubble; popular lure color combos for Pacific sailfish include purple-red, and pink-red-white.

2. Drift and Sight-Fish

At the same time he’s trolling, Muñoz always has at least one rod rigged and ready with a frisky live bait. Then, if he’s trolling and sees sailfish at the surface (especially more than one), he’ll stop the boat and drift for them. While drifting, he uses the live-bait rod to cast ahead of lit-up sailfish.

3. For the Birds

Besides temperature breaks, Muñoz also looks for birds exhibiting specific behavior. The oceanic waterfowl that most often reveal pelagic fish below is the tijereta (frigate bird). Muñoz looks to see if the frigates are cruising, or actually diving and working the water. When he spots diving birds, Muñoz knows they’re likely above fish, possibly sailfish.

Guatemala

Capt. Brad Philipps, Guatemalan Billfishing Adventures

Marina Pez Vela, Guatemala

4. Don’t Leave Fish to Find Fish

Sailfish often swim with other sails. Philipps sets his lines back in the water as quickly as possible after a hookup. Once a specific area heats up, with anglers getting bit often, he works the area thoroughly. Never leave fish to find fish unless absolutely certain the odds really are better elsewhere, Philipps warns.

5. The Local Network

Philipps is friendly with other captains and fishermen in his area. He’s learned how they entice bites from sailfish and their particular styles of fishing. Most important, he’s routinely in contact with his network of friends and tips them off to hot bites he discovers. Those same captains return the favor with vital ­on-the-water reports when sailfishing is tough.

6. Reading the Waters

Philipps learns from the fish regularly. Sailfish change their feeding habits from day to day, so he watches for trends. He looks for what they’re biting each trip, and adjusts the spread, speed and drop-back accordingly. Understanding this lets him know if the fish are merely not hungry or whether his mates should adjust their presentation.

Guatemala

Capt. Chris Sheeder, Casa Vieja Lodge

Puerto San Jose, Guatemala

7. Going-Away Bite

Sheeder lets aggressive sailfish pass a fly and swim inside its position. With a hot fish, the angler casts to a spot behind the ­sailfish. Sheeder then directs the mate to flip the teaser inside the boat. Now the angler strips and pops the fly to create surface commotion, causing the hungry sailfish to circle back and strike aggressively.

8. Keep Your Rod Low

There is no reason to high-stick with a fly rod, says Sheeder. Anglers’ hook-sets should be low, so after a possible miss, the fly is still in position for another bite. During the fight, also, anglers should keep the rod low to utilize the backbone in the lower end. Sheeder points out that lifting higher than horizontal is a waste of energy and can cause lower-back pain for fly anglers.

9. How to Handle Slack Line

At some point, a hooked sailfish is likely to jump toward Sheeder’s boat, Rum Line. He doesn’t want the slack fly line to wrap around the rod tip, so he directs the angler to stick the rod directly into the ocean. The movement and drag of the water prevents tip wraps and break-offs.

Costa Rica

Capt. David Mesen, Sea Fly Sportfishing

Herradura, Puntarenas, Costa Rica

10. Forget the Skirt

The most common bait Mesen uses is a small ballyhoo, rigged naked to a circle hook. That means no skirt or lure in front of the bait. He rigs his ballyhoo with a chin weight to swim rather than skip at the water’s surface. Mesen warns that anglers get only one chance with a delicate ballyhoo; if they miss a strike, all that’s left is the head.

11. Basic Trolling

Mesen targets sailfish with a simple trolling spread. He uses light trolling gear such as Shimano Tyrnos 30s with Tallus 20- to 30-pound rods. He pulls only four baits — one from each outrigger and two flat lines close to the boat. He prefers the swimming ballyhoo on the flat lines and skipping baits off the riggers.

12. Such a Tease

Mesen believes pulling a dredge — sometimes two if tournament fishing — is a vital component to the spread. The teasers attract increased numbers of sails while he trolls. Mesen’s dredges, whether artificial or natural, mimic local bait schools that draw sailfish in numbers. Two electric reels on board handle the dredge duties.

Panama

Albert Battoo, Tropic Star Lodge

Piñas Bay, Panama

13. The Panama Strip

Panama’s Battoo swears by a bonito’s belly as a billfish bait. Better known as a “Panama Strip,” the advantages include its durability when rigged correctly and ability to skip along the surface or swim just below. Battoo’s bonito belly is best rigged with an 8/0 or 9/0 in-line circle hook to 10 to 15 feet of 80- to 130-pound monofilament leader.

14. Don’t Rush the Hookup

Hungry sailfish often take multiple whacks at a bait. Don’t drop the line back too early to feed the fish.

Hungry sailfish often take a couple of bill whacks at Battoo’s baits to stun the prey. He never drops the line back too early to feed the fish before it inhales the bait. Instead, Battoo makes sure the fish turns away from the boat with the bait before engaging, especially with a circle hook.

15 A Patient Release

Sailfish become tired after a prolonged fight, so Battoo spends time at boat-side reviving his fish with the boat in forward motion. Some anglers will attempt to lift a sailfish into the boat, but Battoo halts that action. Dragging a sail over the gunwale removes its protective slime coat and might damage it in other ways, and Battoo takes extra care to release Panama sailfish healthy.

Florida

Capt. Dean Panos, Double D Charters

North Miami, Florida

16. A Numbers Game

Panos keeps as many baits in the water as possible when kite-fishing, especially after hooking and fighting a fish. When Panos kite-fishes, he typically includes three baits on two kites. Once there’s a hookup, other team members concentrate on keeping their baits in the water while the angler is fighting his fish.

17. When to Reposition

After a double or triple hookup, Panos suggests moving the boat down the line and in front the pack of sailfish again. In South Florida, the fish are moving south, so Panos motors south a half-mile and sets back up in the same depths. Panos says this technique has worked numerous times in a single trip to stay with the same pack of fish.

18. Light Leaders

Panos uses light, quality fluorocarbon leader. He chooses Sufix 40-pound on most days, dropping to 30-pound on lighter-wind and clear-water days. He prefers fluorocarbon not strictly for its stealth in the water, he says; 40-pound fluoro is also much stronger than comparable 40-pound monofilament leader.

Florida

Capt. Tim Maddock, Vitamin Sea Too Sailfish Team

Pompano Beach, Florida

19. Prep Makes Perfect

Maddock experiences too much fishing competition in South Florida not to do everything in his team’s power to be ready for sailfish opportunities that present themselves on the water. More often than not, it’s the sailfish team that makes the most of the bites it gets that wins, he says. If Maddock’s team is not averaging 90 to 95 percent hookup rates, his team is not winning the tournament.

20. Meticulous Bait Keeping

Maddock’s boat must have enough bait — and good, quality bait too. When his team handles bait in and out of cages, it’s one at a time. There is nothing worse than a winning fish coming up to a goggle-eye and not giving it a second look, he says. Maddock frequently changes baits; he likes his team to keep things moving, bringing them in and letting them out on the kites.

21. Before the Bite

Most tournaments Maddock fishes have a maximum amount of lines allowed, usually six or seven. His perfect scenario is that every team angler fishes his own rod. If everyone is paying attention to one line, there should never be any surprises, he says. Team anglers should see the fish coming up, or a bait getting nervous, and have ample time to prepare for the strike. Maddock expects to catch every sailfish the team sees.

Tobago

Capt. Gerard “Frothy” de Silva, Hard Play Fishing Charters

Tobago, West Indies

22. Pulling Daisy Chains

In the early season, when the sails are most abundant, de Silva fishes seven lines and two teasers. Paramount to success, his teasers are daisy chains made up of five Iland lures. A hooked ballyhoo is rigged at the rear. The teasers pull 40 to 50 feet behind the boat; de Silva uses a downrigger ball to keep the chains just under the water’s surface.

23. Incorporate Flat Lines

De Silva’s seven-line spread: Place two flat lines just behind the teasers with chin-rigged ballyhoo on circle hooks. Run two 30-pound-class outfits fitted with ballyhoo on small skirts, skipping at the short corners. Finally, place three ballyhoo baits with J-hooks in the two long outrigger and stinger positions.

24. Braid Benefits

De Silva uses braided line on his three longest lines. When free-spooling a sailfish, his braid has less drag in the water. He’s noticed that sailfish tend to drop his baits less frequently with braid compared with thicker, more-water-resistant mono. Hollow-core braid spliced to 60 feet of mono gives him better stretch and hookup percentages than straight braid.

Kenya

Capt. Jackson Safari, Hemingways Watamu

Watamu, Kenya

25. Fin Action

Safari doesn’t believe live bait is his best option when sight-fishing for sailfish. He trolls lures when sails are finning or free-jumping near the boat. In Watamu, he sees heavy concentrations of fish, with lots of opportunities for anglers. Instead of sight-casting, he prefers to troll strip baits or even plastic lures at 7 to 7.5 knots.

26. A Bait Bonanza

When the sails don’t show at the surface, but there are loads of bait around, Safari switches to live-baiting. Normally he catches small frigate mackerel on squid jigs for bait. He rigs the baits to circle hooks and trolls at speeds between 2 and 3 knots. This tactic raises fish successfully when they’re not easy to spot, he says.

27. Bait-and-Switch

Watamu’s skippers will troll hookless teasers up to 70 feet behind the boat to attract sailfish to the boat. When a sail starts chasing the teasers, Safari pulls like mad and lures the fish close. He points out that an angler doesn’t have to be a fly-fisherman for a successful bait-and-switch; he can cast a rigged dead bait in front of the fish as the teaser is pulled away.

Australia

Capt. Chris Nisbet, Broome Billfish Charters

Broome, Western Australia

28. Listen to the Skipper

On Billistic, Nisbet adopted a short teaser pattern so close to the boat that anglers often don’t see the sailfish at their feet. As a rule, the guy up top at the helm sees all, he says. Anglers who listen to his directions in preparation for a hookup have higher catch ratios than fishermen who don’t pay attention.

29. Position Baits Close

Nisbet has an annoying toothy (shark) problem in Broome. After lots of different approaches, he found that winding the lines up to the start of a double section of a standard 20-pound IGFA leader solved his problem and brought sails closer to the boat. Sailfish are not scared away from baits by the proximity of the boat.

30. Use a Spinning Reel

Nisbet’s use of spinning reels has decided advantages and disadvantages. First, it allows anglers to cast to fish or drop back with accuracy. Anglers can place their index finger on the spool with the bail arm open, and extend the outfit to reach most teasers, he says. One disadvantage of spinning gear is the line twist, and Nisbet makes sure to have two outfits ready per angler so a deckhand can straighten lines behind the boat after a hot bite.

The post Sailfish Secrets Revealed appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

snap

Frustration over federal red snapper management has led to an unprecedented collaboration of five states asking to take management responsibility out of federal hands and give to Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas the management of this species. The agreement among the states was announced today.

The recreational-fishing community hopes this will bring enough pressure to bear on Capitol Hill to encourage Congress to change the law which requires the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council to manage red snapper. The Center for Coastal Conservation — in collaboration with the American Sportfishing Association, International Game Fish Association, National Marine Manufacturers Association, Coastal Conservation Association, Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation and The Billfish Foundation — offered this release on the agreement:

Washington, D.C. – March 13, 2015 – In a move long-awaited by the recreational fishing and boating community, the directors of the state fish and wildlife agencies from Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas announced an agreement for state-based management of Gulf of Mexico red snapper, which in recent years has experienced increasing privatization of this public resource and decreasing recreational fishing opportunities. The announcement was greeted with strong enthusiasm from the recreational fishing and boating community, which has supported greater state control of Gulf red snapper.

“Throughout the country, states have proven to be highly successful at fish and wildlife management in a way that conserves natural resources while allowing for reasonable public access,” said Jeff Angers, president of the Center for Coastal Conservation. “The Gulf states are among the nation’s leaders in marine fisheries management, which is why we have continued to look to them as the vehicle for managing Gulf red snapper going forward to get us out of the current mess created by federal mismanagement.”

Gulf of Mexico red snapper is presently managed by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, under the National Marine Fisheries Service. The states’ agreement, which is predicated on transferring management authority away from the Council, describes the key elements of a plan in which the Gulf states would coordinate management of red snapper throughout the Gulf of Mexico through the proposed Gulf States Red Snapper Management Authority.

“Coordinated management among the states is the only solution to an unaccountable federal system of fisheries management,” said Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation President Jeff Crane. “Faced with an untenable situation, the states have risen to the challenge and collectively identified a clear path to a more balanced fishery.”

Under this management structure, each state would have authority to manage red snapper out to 200 miles off its coastline. Each state would be responsible for developing and implementing a red snapper management plan for its waters, which would be approved by the rest of the states.

“We have long pushed for the states to take over Gulf red snapper, but until now, we haven’t had a detailed plan for what state-based management would look like,” said Patrick Murray, president of Coastal Conservation Association. “Under this approach, we are confident that management outcomes will begin to align with the health of the resource and anglers’ access to it.”

“Gulf red snapper is incredibly important to the economy of coastal communities throughout the Gulf of Mexico region, and attracts anglers from all across the country,” said Mike Nussman, president and CEO of the American Sportfishing Association. “It’s abundantly clear that the states are best equipped to manage this valuable fishery. It’s time we give them that opportunity.”

The post Gulf States Present Plan to Assume Control of Red Snapper from Feds appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Tripletail Times Three

GEORGIA: When, Where and How

GEORGIA: When, Where and How

GEORGIA: When, Where and How

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA: When, Where and How

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA: When, Where and How

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA: When, Where and How

MISSISSIPPI: When, Where and How

MISSISSIPPI: When, Where and How

MISSISSIPPI: When, Where and How

The post Tripletail x3 — How Experts in Three States Score with These Light-Tackle Targets appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.