Multiple Rods when Tuna Fishing

[ratherbefishin]

When fishing for tuna, are you still limited with one rod per person?

Thanks,
-Dale

[spaceship]

Originally Posted by ratherbefishin

When fishing for tuna, are you still limited with one rod per person?

Thanks,
-Dale

You can have as many as you can manage.

[goatram]

Noooo! Set up to run Seven

[Dolphina]

Originally Posted by ratherbefishin

When fishing for tuna, are you still limited with one rod per person?

Thanks,
-Dale

From my understanding, any State has territorial jurisdiction over water within 12 nautical miles of its coast. Hence, more than 12 miles out you can fish with as many rods or lines as you can handle. You must, however, comply with state regulations to land fish at a port. Since there is not catch or possession limit on tuna in Washington, you can just knock yourself out.

That is my understanding of the law, but I have been documented as not the "sharpest knife in the drawer" on more than one occasion.

After taking my brother on his first albacore trip last year he asked, "Why hasn't the State f*cked this up yet?" Well, my guess is because of the territorial limits.

[ratherbefishin]

Sweet, thanks! Looking forward to seeing some of you out in the big blue next summer.

[Cornfed]

Originally Posted by Tower Todd

Albacore are a Highly Migratory Species (HMS). The North Pacific stock is managed under both the Pacific Fishery Management Council's (PFMC), partially approved in February 2004, and the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council's (WPFMC), implemented in March 1987. The albacore are managed by the feds and not the state. It doesn't surprise me in the least that when you call the state they tell you they are in command but it is simply not the case.

http://www.bloodydecks.com/forums/wa...estions-3.html (PSA Sno-King Tuna DEBRIEF and QUESTIONS)

[Keta]

Originally Posted by Dolphina

From my understanding, any State has territorial jurisdiction over water within 12 nautical miles of its coast. Hence, more than 12 miles out you can fish with as many rods or lines as you can handle. You must, however, comply with state regulations to land fish at a port. Since there is not catch or possession limit on tuna in Washington, you can just knock yourself out.

If there is a rod limit in the state where you are offloading your catch the rod limit goes out to 200 miles. We fixed this in Oregon several years ago.

[Fred Archer]

One rod per person when tuna fishing? Man, I'd hate to have a rule like that applied. I am a huge believer that tuna are school fish, as are the baits they chase, so I have always made catching multiples a top priority and we managed to get very good at it. I believe that every time that you get tuna bit on the troll is a time when there is a school, or at least a bunch of fish up and within reach, and so I do my best to captalize on that and hook as many as I can with each such opportunity...and we usually do. Here's how...

We load the pattern with "artificial chum" (almost always small stuff when it comes to albies and often even for the big tunas). My standard tuna spread on my 36 footer was eight SuperBars with small teasers in the 3 to 4 inch range. Depending on the bar type, that puts anywhere from fifty-six, to as many as 160 baits in the water off of eight rods. That much bait, plus a Toad teaser did a great job of raising whole schools of albies and other tunas to the spread.

Once they got there and started competing for all of that bait, the result was multiple bedlam, with all of the bites surface ones. Awesome, addictive sights to see and of course, a great way of catching a bunch of fish, even and maybe especially on slow days when a few stops meant a good pile of fish, while a few stops on a small number of single lures meant just the opposite, a few fish. That's no bueno in my book(s) and it wasn't what folks paid us to make happen for them!

A couple of additional tricks...First, one of the important keys to consistently catching tuna multiples is to keep the boat going in the same direction and speed that you first got bit at until all lures are hooked up. That happens a lot more than one who hasn't done this might think. None of that turning and "going back to the fish" stuff, either. With all of that bait in the water and the school after it, the school is already with you, so in the final analysis, there isn't one "to go back to". And you don't have to do anything special to get covered. Tunas of all kinds are aggressive, very efficient feeders, especially when competing with other school members, so just keep doing what attracted them in the first place and you will get covered up nine times out of ten. Only slow down if you don't get covered after at least ten seconds at the original speed and direction...it may seem like an eternity at first, but it isn't.

If you don't have enough crew for each outfit, which was always the case on my boat, don't panic (easier said than done!) Take a look at the reels and how much line is left on each, then deal with the fish on the ones with the most line left on them first, leaving the other rods in the holder. Don't worry, those fish will be ready for you when you are ready for them, especially if the lures are armed with the circle hooks that we recommend and use on our bars.

The secret here is to slow down when you start fighting the fish, but do not stop...ever! Believe it or not, unless you are fishing reels that are too small, the biggest tunas will only run for so long and so far, then they will actually turn and "follow the path of least resistance", the slowly moving boat. Even if it's bigger species, like yellowfin or bluefin, they too will do this and during these longer fights with bigger fish, the rods that you have left in the holders will actually quit bending altogether in a while and it will look like you've lost the fish. You haven't, or at least that is very rare. The only bad thing that you can do is have someone running around, trying to reel slack and "keep the pressure on the fish". All that will accomplish is to get them excited and fighting again. You don't want that to happen until the time is right for it.

Finally (there's a lot more, but this will do it for now), if you want to catch your fish on lighter gear, start chunking some as soon as you first get bit. The school is there at that time, so if you start chunking right away, the odds are great that the fish will stay with you and the free handouts until you are done with the troll fish and ready to feed them chunks with hooks in them on the lighter gear.

Here's something that many miss out on. When the tunas are deep, drop a Spider down in the downrigger, right in among them and the bait. You will get bit fast! Use heavy gear for this and bully the fish up to the boat fast, which will keep other members of the school coming up with him. They will invariably attack the bars up top as they chase the hooked fish up, so once again, you can just deal with that first fish and the ones that come up with him and attack the surface stuff, or you can do the chunk thing and switch over to the lighter stuff. As always, you need to be aware that some big tuna might pop up and if they do and you are using little tackle, they are gonna smoke you!

Finally, I personally would way rather chum with chunks than with live. Tuna love chunks in the first place and they have a lot of other advantages, including vastly less cost and hassle than the live. No, it isn't West Coast S.O.P, but it sure as hell works!

Hope this helps and good luck out there getting some of these...

[Cornfed]

Originally Posted by Fred Archer

A couple of additional tricks...First, one of the important keys to consistently catching tuna multiples is to keep the boat going in the same direction and speed that you first got bit at until all lures are hooked up. That happens a lot more than one who hasn't done this might think. None of that turning and "going back to the fish" stuff, either. With all of that bait in the water and the school after it, the school is already with you, so in the final analysis, there isn't one "to go back to". And you don't have to do anything special to get covered. Tunas of all kinds are aggressive, very efficient feeders, especially when competing with other school members, so just keep doing what attracted them in the first place and you will get covered up nine times out of ten. Only slow down if you don't get covered after at least ten seconds at the original speed and direction...it may seem like an eternity at first, but it isn't.

Fred - Have you watched Tred's show that he did with Bud and Dick out of Garibaldi? What do you think of the technique that Tred was teaching Bud to use, in order to instigate multiple hookups?

For those that haven't seen this episode or don't remember Tred coming to Garibaldi: Tred taught Bud (SEELICIOUS) a technique (that is also in his book "The Best and Worst of Tred Barta") that produces multiple hookups. It involves using the boat and riggers to make the school of bait behind the boat (your lures) look like it is fleeing frantically from side to side. The idea being that when you hook up, you "spill the inboard wake", slow down, turn to the side that you hooked up, thus slowing down the baits on that side and speeding up the baits on the opposite side. Then, speeding the boat back up, turning to the opposite side, and slowing down. AND repeating this process until you are loaded up. When they deployed this technique, they started hooking up 5 and 6 fish, as opposed to 2 or 3. You maintain an overall direction, but you zig and zag in that direction.

GOD SPEED TRED!

[Fred Archer]

Far be it from me to argue with a man like Tred Barta's technique on multiples. After all, we used to walk the very same dock together back when we were both youngsters and commercial rod and reel fishing for bigeyes. We were competitors back then and so didn't like each other very much (he used to kick my ass on the bigeyes much of the time, and everybody else's too), but that changed not too long later. I have a great deal of respect and affection for Tred. He is a great fisherman and my old heart bleeds over what he is going through at the present time. For those reasons, I am hesitant to even get into a discussion on how we each do things.

I hasten to add, however, that the basic point that I was trying make, that is, maintaining course and speed until you load up and NOT turning and "heading back to the school" as some suggest, or stopping the boat to fight those first biters, as many do, remains the same for both of us, at least as I see it. That is, the two of us...and a lot of other veteran tuna trollers who I have been privileged to fish alongside agree on the aforementioned. That fact makes me willing to enter into this discussion.

So of course, believing what I'm sure that he and I and every pro that I know believes - that done right, you have usually raised a school of tuna to your spread by doing what you were doing (running multiple lures) and if you don't stop and kill the action of your bars and thus the bite, dodging back and forth will catch tunas from a school raised with bars...as does simply maintaining a straight course until that same raised school's members compete with one another long enough that they all get hooked up. The difference being, I suppose, that I don't happen to believe that tunas need much or anything other than feeding brethren and lots of fleeing bait to get them stoked up and striking.

And yes, there are other tricks and tactics involved in absolutely maximizing multiples, but I have neither the time nor the space to get into them all here. This is the Internet, not a three hundred page book with more than a couple of hundred pictures and illustrations in it and so only so much can be discussed in detail.

Most would never believe how many times I witnessed multiples from beginning to end from a tall tuna tower over the many years that I have fished that way. And I remind you, while I was no longer a commercial fisherman per se when I was running my charterboat down in Cabo for over three hundred days a year for years, what I caught or didn't catch for my clients had a huge effect on the success or failure of my business. So no matter the lure, who made it, the technique or who came up with it, or where we fished or how, I'd have been an utter fool not to use whatever it took to get the job done best. And I might not be the sharpest pencil in the box, but I sure as hell had the smarts to apply those things and not even what might have been in second place.

So, in the final analysis, Tred and I are saying the very same thing, based on the very same experience-based thinking of many years, with only a slight variation that works for him and a slightly different one that works for me.

If one reads The SuperBar Bible he will learn that I have been fishing with, modifying, using, and making spreaderbars and other multiple lures of many different kinds for over forty years now. And I developed what I feel are the ultimate ones, SuperBars, in California and (mostly) Cabo. I developed them not to sell, but for use on my boat and to provide an edge for us over the many others who we competed with there. As a result, I didn't just fall off the back of a turnip truck when it comes to knowledge about spreaderbars and other multiple lures. I pass that knowledge on in my books and present and upcoming videos, plus I spend a lot of time and effort providing the tips and pictures and illustration from those books, things that require a great deal of time and effort and that I rely on to make a humble living free to my fellow fishermen here.

No big deal to most, I suppose, but it is what I do and the proof is here for anybody to see. My main goal is to help other fishermen catch more fish. If some don't buy my books because they (wrongly) think I might have given everything in those books away here, that is a risk that I am willing to take. Likewise, if some choose not to buy my lures and bars and use someone else's, that is another risk that goes with the territory.

Just do me a favor. Take a look at what I do and the information that I provide and display and then tell me what other professional writer, author, lure, or video maker does the same, or even close.

Now, hopefully I have given my props to my old friend Tred, agreed with him on the basics that he and I and many other professional captains have learned after a great deal of time and intensive observations on the water because learning them was critical to us for us to succeed at our chosen paths.

Most important of all, I hope and pray that he comes back from the terrible trouble that has crossed his bow.

[elkruser]

Thanks Fred, I always appreciate your viewpoint.

Did you live on the Eastcoast?

I grew up on Long Island and learned saltwater fishing on Southhampton beach fishing Shinnecock inlet for Stripers and Blues. I still love the beach fishing with a 14ft surfcaster... Man I have some fond memories about that place.




Also...God speed Tred. You're the man.

[Fred Archer]

Eric,

Grew up in north Jersey. Fished up and down the coast and followed the giant bluefin uphill. Commercial rod and reeled them and bigeye for the sushi market, plus everything else that was worth money back then. That money and also the income from my fish business, "Fred's Fresh Fish", where I had a milkman type of run that supplied fresh fish to folks X number of times a week, plus football, paid my tuition at University of Pittsburgh. Naturally, I loved my "work", although there were times and weather that scared the hell out of me! Example, Sandy Hook Rip and others like it at night with the tide against the wind...oh, mercy! Fish for fun AND money and you better learn what you're doing, or starve.

Being able to fish both coasts and many other venues around the world and learning from some of the truly great ones and the best "teachers" of them all, the fish, was a privilege and blessing that I have always given thanks for.