By: Capt. Bruce Andersen
We’ve got so many different types of fishing available to us this time of year in the Florida Keys, that sometimes choosing what to fish for can be the most challenging part of the day. One fish that makes up a big part of our offshore fishing is the black fin tuna. Fishing for black fin tuna can be good any time of year, and the most consistent fishing probably takes place in late summer and early fall, but often the month of April can produce some of the biggest blackfin caught all year long. Blackfin tuna may not get as big as the yellowfin and bluefin tuna that they catch in other places but catching them on light tackle here in the keys is probably as fun as any type of tuna fishing there is and one of the most fun activities to do on the water anywhere.
There are so many different ways to catch blackfin tuna. Trolling, small feathers, and squid skirts on light tackle is a fun and effective way to catch football tuna especially for less experienced anglers and families with kids. Vertical jigging can be very effective and is especially good for more experienced anglers and jigging enthusiasts. Fishing with live baits, such as pilchards, cigar minnows, or ballyhoo can often be the most effective way to catch larger, blackfin tuna in the Florida Keys.
On the Captain Easy, we use several different techniques to catch the tuna, but my favorite by far is live bait fishing for them. Live bait chumming while drifting baits back into the current on 20-pound spinning tackle has got to be one of the most fun ways to catch a fish that there is. Watching a 25-pound blackfin tuna explode on the baits sometimes just 20 or 30 feet behind the boat is a sight to see. When it all comes together, there’s nothing that could be more exciting.
In order to have a great day tuna fishing, you will need a couple of things to come together. Clear, blue water, and a strong current are two conditions that will usually really help turn on the tuna bite. The tuna in the spring will often come and go and you can have periods with a very hot bite that can go on for weeks with lulls of slower fishing between them, so you also need to get lucky and time it right to get in on a hot bite. The availability of bait also plays a big part. Most days in order to get the tuna fired up you’ll want to have plenty of live baits to chum with in addition to your hook baits. So, catching a livewell full of fresh cigar minnows, ballyhoo, or pilchards (my favorite tuna bait) is a very important part of the day.
— www.captaineasycharters.com
You can reach Captain Bruce Andersen at Capt. Easy Charters,
MM 85, call 305.360.2120 or email at: captbrucekey@comcast.net