Targeting Bluefin Tuna in the Spring

I was sitting in my office daydreaming about a bluefin run I made a while back. Catching these amazing gamefish creates vivid memories. It was on a day in early May, well before first light, when I left Manasquan Inlet aboard my friend Roger’s 32 Regulator. The weather was mild, the seas obliging, and our destination 55 miles away was the Triple Wrecks area. The first lump had no signs of life, and nothing showed on the depth finder, so off to the next we went. 

Along the way we spotted hundreds of tuna chicks dancing along the edges of a temperature break and slick. We immediately started deploying the four lines we had ready. Each of the 50-pound-class outfits loaded with 60-pound mono was armed with a large ballyhoo under a black and purple Joe Shute skirt. As I was letting out number three, number two went off hard, and line started peeling off the reel at warp speed. These fish are strong, fast and don’t know when to quit.

After a long, tough fight using an AFTCO belt and harness to level the playing field, Roger put the steel to a 68-inch bluefin, and I began the chore of bleeding, collaring, and putting the fish in an ice-brine slurry. Sushi was on the menu. Back on the troll, the chicks were having a field day, and we hooked up three more times, fighting and releasing each fish because the bag limit was one over and one under 47 inches. We never found the unders, but we didn’t complain. We headed for the inlet tired and a little sore but with big smiles. 

Mighty Bluefin

In the Atlantic, the bluefin tuna reigns as a symbol of strength and resilience. Many anglers consider it the ultimate gamefish with unmatched power and stamina. After decades of mismanagement and international intrigue where nations fought for more quota, some even going so far as to lie and steal to avoid restrictive management, bluefin stocks in the western Atlantic are on a strong upward trajectory. Many of the myths surrounding their spawning grounds and migratory travels are being dispelled. Fisheries managers are finally taking their heads out of the sand as science rewrites the story of this great fish. 

Among the beneficiaries are you and me, anglers who have worked for commonsense management and have been willing to live under draconian regulations to see it come about. Ray Bogan, long-serving recreational commissioner to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, calls bluefin the “poor man’s big gamefish” because they can often be caught close to shore within reach of even small-boat fishermen. Today, anglers with boats of all sizes target bluefin from nearshore to the middle grounds and in the canyons, depending on the time of year and forage availability. Let’s look at what to expect early in the season with the help of one of the top tuna captains in the mid-Atlantic, Deane Lambros of the Canyon Runner fleet.

Expert Analysis

Lambros is a tuna savant who earned his captain’s license in 2010 at age 20. In 2013, after three seasons as second captain and first mate, he took over as full-time captain of Canyon Runner, a 48-foot Viking. He charters for most of the season and fishes commercially for bluefin from North Carolina to New England during the rest. He has an enviable list of tournament wins and is a popular seminar instructor who shares what he has learned through research and his time on the water. 

“Recreational bluefin tuna fishing typically starts in early to mid-April,” Lambros says, “but longliners encounter large bluefin in the mid-Atlantic canyons all winter long. That makes me think some never really leave the area or are passing through searching for bait. At various times of the year, you can find them in 40-degree green water, 80-degree blue water and anywhere in between. They are remarkable animals capable of going wherever forage can be found.” 

Lambros told us that giants are usually the first bluefins to be caught recreationally. A dedicated group of skippers still fish the traditional areas of the Mudhole each spring, but giants and sub-73-inch fish are caught even earlier in the 40- to 100-fathom depths of the canyons. The most productive techniques are chunking and trolling. 

“The season seems to start earlier and end later every year,” Lambros says, “thanks to the expanding stocks and the increasing number of anglers targeting them.” He credits the latest technology, like pinpoint temperature charts, satellite communicators and next-generation marine electronics, along with information-sharing groups, such as the Canyon Runner Coaching and Intel Service. The service allows anglers to pool their knowledge, trip data and on-the-water findings in real time to improve everyone’s chances of finding and catching pelagic gamefish. And the key target each spring is bluefin. 

Lambros cautions that safety is a prime concern when fishing offshore this time of year, when water temperatures are cold, fog is encountered frequently, and fewer boats ply distant areas. He encourages boat owners to have all the necessary safety gear on board and make sure it is in excellent condition. Boats should have the best electronics for navigation and fish finding, all in good working order to get you out, put you on the fish, and get you back safely. 

What to Look For

“When fishing the canyons in April, we look for water-temperature breaks, even small breaks of a degree or two, that attract and concentrate bait,” Lambros says. “That means paying close attention to surface-temperature charts so you can target areas with the best chance of holding tuna. If we see slicks and honeycombing birds in an area, that is a surefire indicator that bluefin have intercepted bait on the break. Structure is of little concern this time of year because it is the temperature breaks that amass the bait, and that’s all the tuna are looking for as they pass through an area. Most of the bait is small, but we also find squid along the canyon walls. Find squid and you should find tuna.

“As the season progresses and greater numbers of large, small and medium-size bluefins push onto the middle grounds, our search parameters change, and the order of consideration reverses. Structure becomes more important because the most prevalent baitfish are sand eels, and they are a structure-oriented species that is most often found around sandy high spots.”

There are miles of great bottom capable of holding vast schools of sand eels between 30 and 50 fathoms in the mid-Atlantic, and the most active feeding is usually accompanied by signs of life, like whales, shearwaters and tuna chicks. The prolific lumps around the Triple Wrecks and Atlantic Princess are prime targets in late April and May. From my experience, the most productive early-season technique is trolling a spread of ballyhoo under weighted heads. My favorites are the Joe Shutes or similar rigs in a variety of colors because the tuna are feeding close to the surface. As the waters warm, bluefin will chase sand eels from the bottom to the surface, and jigs are the best method to cover the entire water column. You should always have a large spinning outfit within reach if tuna chase the bait to the surface. Poppers and sliders are the lures of choice. 

Read Next: Popping for Tuna

Tuna Sightseeing

Over my years of fishing for bluefin, I have witnessed amazing sights. Several years ago, an influx of deep blue water moved inshore, where it settled in an unexpected location in the New York Bight. It remained there for several days. A confidant let me in on what was guarded information, and we made the 30-mile run from Manasquan Inlet in a 23-foot Mako center-console. 

We witnessed dozens of finback whales, hundreds of porpoises, wheeling birds and tuna crashing on the surface. The sand eels were so thick, they blotted out the bottom on the depth finder. The spectacle was spread over miles, and the fishing was lights-out. We jigged bluefins from 35 to over 100 pounds. On our third trip to the spot, the bait was depleted, and a mass exodus was underway. I noticed that the porpoises were all moving off to the southeast, and intuition told me to get ahead of the pods and watch as they approached the boat. Sure enough, school-size bluefins were traveling with the marine mammals, and we caught them by dropping our jigs below the porpoises. 

On another trip, this time to the Atlantic Princess area, we witnessed a pod of huge finback whales hunting sand eels in concert. Several individuals would dive to the bottom and encircle the bait by releasing air to create a circular bubble curtain. Then one would swim up through the curtain and breach, its huge mouth filled with the hapless baitfish. To top it off, the fishing was spectacular. 

Lambros had this final advice: “This is the time to get all your tuna gear tuned up, and your boat in its slip ready to head offshore at a moment’s notice while paying close attention to the sea-surface-temperature charts and reports. You don’t want to be stuck at the dock doing prep when the bite starts.” 

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