2025 Tuna and Exotics

Ok back to tunerfish: I'm going to attempt a double header on Saturday/Sunday. Launch Saturday afternoon and do an evening troll, then back at it the next morning. I don't love the tides coming back in, but with zero swell to speak of, should be fine to cross at like 9pm.
 
Getting ready for the Saturday / Sunday double header. Stoked to fish the evening bite tomorrow.

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For those wondering about the electric reels: plan is to send a Madmacs back at least a hundred yards or more. My electric reels have like 3000' of line on them. So if they hook a large target species (bluefin) I at least stand some chance. Also nice to retrieve easily on stops while I jig.
 
Evan B said:
Getting ready for the Saturday / Sunday double header. Stoked to fish the evening bite tomorrow.


For those wondering about the electric reels: plan is to send a Madmacs back at least a hundred yards or more. My electric reels have like 3000' of line on them. So if they hook a large target species (bluefin) I at least stand some chance. Also nice to retrieve easily on stops while I jig.
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Are you sure you have enough rods? 🤣

Did they say in that video that people are fishing madmacs 250 yards back for bluefin in California? Wasn’t sure if I had misheard that or not. I think that would get old really fast without an electric reel.
 
Chucker said:
Are you sure you have enough rods? 🤣

Did they say in that video that people are fishing madmacs 250 yards back for bluefin in California? Wasn’t sure if I had misheard that or not. I think that would get old really fast without an electric reel.
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Not sure what video you're referencing. But that's a pretty common tactic. The bluefin i got last weekend took a cedar plug pretty close to the boat, but that was just a little guy.
 
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Evan B said:
Not sure what video you're referencing. But that's a pretty common tactic. The bluefin u got last weekend took a cedar plug pretty close to the boat, but that was just a little guy.
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I thin @Chucker is referencing the one i posted about the madmac being so popular.

That's a nice collection of Penns. One of my favorite reels, though most of mine are collecting dust these past few years.

Was gonna give you crap about cheating with the electrics, but your explanation makes sense.
Good luck.
 
wanderingrichard said:
I thin @Chucker is referencing the one i posted about the madmac being so popular.

That's a nice collection of Penns. One of my favorite reels, though most of mine are collecting dust these past few years.

Was gonna give you crap about cheating with the electrics, but your explanation makes sense.
Good luck.
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I will never apologize for the times I use electric reels 😂
 
Evan B said:
I will never apologize for the times I use electric reels 😂
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Nor should you. The few times I fished them on Capt Randy's boat, it would've been pure suffering winching that much lead, and dead weight fish, up 100s of feet.
 
Back home early from the double header. I somehow managed to come down with some kind of cold or flu on the drive out yesterday but powered through it. Too dead tired and sick to type a report. I will give @clarkman the honors of posting about today.
 
Evan B said:
Back home early from the double header. I somehow managed to come down with some kind of cold or flu on the drive out yesterday but powered through it. Too dead tired and sick to type a report. I will give @clarkman the honors of posting about today.
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Bummer. Hopefully it was worth the suffering. Come on Randy, inquiring minds want a report!
 
I'll craft something better later....

Here's the abstract: blood was let, things died, a fly worked, donkeys were found.

But yes, I'll write up something up later. I'm pretty exhausted....
 
All right, here it goes....

started at ass-dark-o-thirty...stumbled our way to the dock, got the boat in (not me, but Evan). Made it onto the boat. what follows is a series of events that took place. Evan, feel free to fill in any gaps as you see necessary.

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Out to the tuna grounds and this was a regular occurrence....
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We quit after 16....all before 10am, with a decent number of donkey size fish. I managed a couple on flies. Highlight was probably having a quad going at one point with one on my fly rod, one on a jig, and two on troll rods (and only three guys to deal with it). Damn, what a fun day!
 
Chris Bellows said:
Are those mackerel you’re raving about the big green ones?
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These guys

Evan B

Thread 'Jack Mackerel: An underappreciated, lesser-known fish in our region'

Made this post on another forum. Wanted to get it moved over here to inspire others to find some. Everything below was written in August 2021



I've since caught another while targeting sea bass inshore - hit right at the side of the boat while getting ready to re-cast. So I'm learning they're much more eager biters, and much more common than most think. We just never target them.


One thing of note- Jack Mackerel are NOT mackerel. They are jacks. Same family as yellowtail, amberjacks, roosterfish, jack crevalle, etc.


----- (original post) --------


So I've heard talk of...
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clarkman said:
All right, here it goes....

started at ass-dark-o-thirty...stumbled our way to the dock, got the boat in (not me, but Evan). Made it onto the boat. what follows is a series of events that took place. Evan, feel free to fill in any gaps as you see necessary.

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Out to the tuna grounds and this was a regular occurrence....
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We quit after 16....all before 10am, with a decent number of donkey size fish. I managed a couple on flies. Highlight was probably having a quad going at one point with one on my fly rod, one on a jig, and two on troll rods (and only three guys to deal with it). Damn, what a fun day!
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Definitely one of those easy days. Good thing, too. Operating with the flu like I had been for two days in a row, I did not have it in me to put in a full day. So I was happy the tuna cooperated and came in quick.
 
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I did end up doing the double header thing, too. Went out Saturday for an evening session. @clarkman avoided that one, lucky him :D

Got out to the tuna grounds around 3pm - the same exact area we fished the following morning. Trolled the area until 7pm for one solitary albacore. No other action for us whatsoever. Then back to the same spot not 12hrs later and we're done fishing with a full box in very short order. Crazy how they're so hot or cold like that. Tuna definitely have meal times.
 
I will say, one of the highlights of the day was the first fly eat. We had just hit like 2-3 troll rod hookups and stopped the boat. @clarkman 's fly was well behind the boat in the spread. He was stripping in to get clear and got whacked but it didn't stick. He proceeded to strip in while the tuna zigged and zagged slashing at the fly until fully committing about 5' behind the motor and sounding straight down with his fly buried in its face.

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Despite that, he's been asking me about jig equipment so he can be set up with his own jig stuff :ROFLMAO:
 
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