2025 Tuna and Exotics

Nick Clayton said:
Growing up I typically had 3 rods. A trout rod, a steelhead rod, and a salmon rod. The concept of having specialty gear was quite foreign in my poor household. Anyway, my salmon rod for the bulk of my youth was a yellow Eagle Claw rod with a Penn....I dunno, 209 maybe. Caught an awful lot of fish on that setup.


I've caught, or seen albacore caught, with just about everything imaginable, but I'm not sure I can recall seeing one caught on an Eagle Claw.

Craziest thing I've seen someone try to catch albacore with is spears. Maybe 5 years ago one of the other six pack boats that used to work out of Westport took a group of guys out who wanted to try to spearfish for albacore. They never actually succeeded that day, but hearing the play by play over the radio from the captain was quite entertaining.
They trolled hook less gear, and when it went off they'd stop, throw bait, and jump in the water with their spear guns. The captain that day was Kerry Allen. Anyone who knows Kerry knows he's one those hilarious, larger than life type of dudes. His accounts of their day on the radio were incredible lol

It always cracks me up that in the regs it specifies that it is legal to shoot albacore with a bow and arrow. The fact that it specifically mentions that makes me think someone has to have tried it. That would be a pretty damned impressive shot! Years ago I was sitting at the crew house when Merry got a call from a group of 4 guys wanting to book a boat to go out and try to shoot ocean sunfish with a bow. She politely told him to get fucked. Gee, what a challenge...shooting a floating Volkswagen
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Good on Merry for setting those yahoos straight. ZERO challenge, just plain wrong, and very bad martime juju if you believe such things. Bow and arrow albacore is another matter entirely.

I did some bow fishing in my youth when we lived on the Sandy River. I'd target suckers in shallow rapids during the spring spawning run. I recall it was pretty challenging with the surface distortions in moving water. It was fun, but unfortunately wasteful. Unlike the tasty post ice-out smoked suckers we had in the Midwest, these tasted like algae scraped from old river pilings. :sick:

So thanks for dredging up old memories and planting the unhealthy vision of leading a surface feeding albacore at 20 mph, trying for a clean headshot. I promise I won't show up with a compound bow this year, but I cant deny the idea is intriguing as hell.
 
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On one of my albacore trips last September, we had albacore crashing anchovies at the surface (but ignoring flies...). The tuna were hitting bait just off the boat. So, Nick's deckhand attempted to gaff one by dropping crippled anchovies just off the side of the boat. He actually had at least two swings at tuna. Unfortunately, human reaction times are far too slow to swing a gaff and connect with a fast-moving albacore. It was kind of like a t-baller trying to hit a major league fastball...
Spearing albacore would be a real challenge because of their speed and because they don't typically hang out. If you google tuna and spearfishing, you can see reports of a few folks who have accomplished this feat like here.

I would love to slip into the water just to watch them underwater...
Steve
 
Cabezon said:
On one of my albacore trips last September, we had albacore crashing anchovies at the surface (but ignoring flies...). The tuna were hitting bait just off the boat. So, Nick's deckhand attempted to gaff one by dropping crippled anchovies just off the side of the boat. He actually had at least two swings at tuna. Unfortunately, human reaction times are far too slow to swing a gaff and connect with a fast-moving albacore. It was kind of like a t-baller trying to hit a major league fastball...
Spearing albacore would be a real challenge because of their speed and because they don't typically hang out. If you google tuna and spearfishing, you can see reports of a few folks who have accomplished this feat like here.

I would love to slip into the water just to watch them underwater...
Steve
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I have speared both school ahi and aku at the FAD bouys off Hawaii… spear shafts are connected to a large inflatable bouy that detaches from the speargun…they can definitely give you a tug when you hit one
 
Cabezon said:
On one of my albacore trips last September, we had albacore crashing anchovies at the surface (but ignoring flies...). The tuna were hitting bait just off the boat. So, Nick's deckhand attempted to gaff one by dropping crippled anchovies just off the side of the boat. He actually had at least two swings at tuna. Unfortunately, human reaction times are far too slow to swing a gaff and connect with a fast-moving albacore. It was kind of like a t-baller trying to hit a major league fastball...
Spearing albacore would be a real challenge because of their speed and because they don't typically hang out. If you google tuna and spearfishing, you can see reports of a few folks who have accomplished this feat like here.

I would love to slip into the water just to watch them underwater...
Steve
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Not a great idea having a large Riffe speargun fully cocked on the boat while underway…especially an inflatable
 
That's great video Nick. Yeah, I've seen a hooked (and lost) Thresher jump when trolling for albacore so there must be a decent number of them out there. Makes me wonder how many are taken by the commercial guys. Pretty sure I've hooked more than one of the "short" fin tunas too. Sadly, in the 3 years that I've lived in FL, the most exotic I've run into is a snakehead (I think) that was devoured by an alligator. That was something.
 
SilverFly said:
Only counts using a yellow Eagle Claw spin outfit, fished with the reel above the rod. Preferably loaded with hi-viz blue mono. That is something for which I will stop fishing to take video.
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I still have the little EC spinning rod....maybe throw on a big spinning reel with 300yds of braid....I'd be game... :LOL:
 
Tuna jigging folk, what's a decent brand of spinning rod for such activities? I don't knowhow to cast a bait-caster, hence the spinning question.
 
clarkman said:
Tuna jigging folk, what's a decent brand of spinning rod for such activities? I don't knowhow to cast a bait-caster, hence the spinning question.
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Stick with spinning anyways.

Shimano Trevala is the only choice.
 
Evan B said:
Stick with spinning anyways.

Shimano Trevala is the only choice.
Click to expand...
what length you like? last gear question, I swear
 
a'ight....back to our fly talk...
 
clarkman said:
a'ight....back to our fly talk...
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clarkman said:
Tuna jigging folk, what's a decent brand of spinning rod for such activities? I don't knowhow to cast a bait-caster, hence the spinning question.
Click to expand...
Penn Carnage III Boat Spinning
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What do the rules say about bow fishing for blue sharks? I would probably forget to tie the line to the arrow in all the excitement. 🤔
 
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