Question/thoughts regarding Albacore feeding

[clarkman]

Hopefully @Nick Clayton and others who really get after them with flies will also weigh in. In your experience, does it seem that albacore will go after flies/bait that are injured? Or is it always a situation where the faster the better with regards to retrieve? I mean, when you see underwater footage of many pelagic predators, you often see them coming back and feasting on baitfish that have been injured or stunned.

Kind of thinking of this with regards to fly design for once the boat goes into the slide and you can get a bait stop going. Flies that have a more erratic action on the "pause" (more like a glide bait, so still moving) or just fast and straight?

I'm just kinda thinking out loud here with a little bit of "thought diarrhea"....mostly because I haven't really done any research on this and thought I'd just pose the question here for the time being.

 

[Evan B]

I absolutely hammer albacore on twitched coltsniper jigs. Those are very much a wounded presentation.

But they also go for the speed jigs. So really they're just opportunistic. Their metabolism is through the roof so they just keep eating whatever they can get it seems like.

 

[SSPey]

The 4 times that I have chased albacore, the captain was cool about the idea of fly fishing for them until it came time for the actual fishing (sigh). But on gear, as Evan notes, wounded metal jig presentations work great. On several other tuna species, on the fly, I have done well casting to the edge of bait and letting the fly sink with gentle twitches to imitate wounded bait. The more bait there is, the more it can help if your presentation stands out.

 

[Nick Clayton]

Albacore will eat just about anything, right up until they won't

I think it's definitely worth experimenting and having multiple methods/flies at your disposal.

The two things I can say just based on my own personal observations of countless albacore feeding:

1. They definitely don't feed like chinook will, using the method of charging through a bait ball and stunning a bunch then coming back to pick off the wounded. My guess is that this is likely based off their natural speed. They just don't really need to focus specifically on wounded prey, they can chase down anything they want to eat with little issue. Just my own theory of course, not saying that's factual.

2. When fishing live anchovies without question the livelier the anchovy, the more likely it will get bit. I couldn't begin to count the number of albacore I've watched reject anchovies that weren't swimming well, swimming fast, looking healthy etc. When we are baiting hooks we take great care to not use chovies that look sickly or wounded. I've definitely seen albacore eat those anchovies, but one hundred percent not a question that they prefer the lively baits. Now this is specifically for live bait fishing with chovies and I have no doubt that ultimately what they are feeding on at any given time, as well as feeding aggression and how keyed in they are on a particular food source is going to impact this. For example when they are gorging on small saurie they act differently than when you just encounter them without a huge biomass of a particular food source at their disposal.

All that said, I've caught albacore on dead anchovies. I've caught albacore on flat fall jigs. I've got albacore high speed jigging. I've caught albacore trolling clones at 10 knots. I've caught albacore slow trolling swim baits and popping the boat to neutral to let them sink. I've caught albacore stripping two handed as fast as I can. I've caught albacore while my fly is just sinking while I undo a running line tangle. I've caught albacore just about any way you can think of. So at one time or another anything will work, which goes back to being prepared to employ multiple techniques at any given time.

Still, for my money, if I could only pick one technique for casting flies it would be a steady retrieve that is not ultra fast, but definitely not slow. That technique has easily put more albacore to the boat for me than any other two methods when it comes to casting and reteieving flies.

 

[clarkman]

I absolutely hammer albacore on twitched coltsniper jigs. Those are very much a wounded presentation.

But they also go for the speed jigs. So really they're just opportunistic. Their metabolism is through the roof so they just keep eating whatever they can get it seems like.

What type of action do those jigs look like when retrieved (or jigged)? Just flat out erratic?

 

[Evan B]

What type of action do those jigs look like when retrieved (or jigged)? Just flat out erratic?

Quite erratic. They kind of dart up on the lift then flutter down.

 

[clarkman]

I think the trick for me with the flies, and I struggle sometimes with the musky stuff too, is getting something that will do that super erratic stuff, but will also get down (I've got the erratic part down). I'm going to play around more with my smallie stuff (same approximate size, but smallies aren't as picky) to get a more specific and repeatable action. I've got some ideas floating around in my head...

 

[SilverFly]

Now you went and did it ... opening a pandora's box thread I ain't got time for!

Nick's vastly greater experience is spot on with what I've seen. I do have a few theories though . Over the years I have come to the conclusion they are no different than any other fish when it comes to keying on specific prey and having different strike responses. Chase response to speed is one of those. Most troll lures would be completely useless being cast/retrieved, yet albacore will rocket from depths of 100' or more to destroy a wooden stick ripping at 6kts on the surface. Erratic movement is DEFINITELY another strike trigger. Flat fall jigs get smashed sinking while fluttering and darting randomly. As far as fly retrieves though, I agree with Nick the most effective for me has been a steady not-too-fast, not-too-slow, with maybe a brief pause between strips - fairly long strips at that.