The School Tuna Bite on Cape Cod

Cape Cod's school tuna bite has been phenomenal over the past few years. Fish of all sizes and shapes have infiltrated Cape Cod's waters each season. Worldwide landings of tuna may be down, however Cape Cod landings remain consistently strong. Many commercial and recreational fishermen all say that the amount of tuna currently present around Cape Cod rivals the 1980's "hey day" of tuna fishing.

Most of the action on school sized fish will be centered on Stellwagen Bank. Yet the trek to the Bank is not always necessary for a chance to tie into a decent fish.

The area just off the Plymouth coastline has supported impressive tuna action the past couple seasons, and there is reason to believe that it will happen again this year. Large schools of half beaks have attracted tuna surprisingly close to shore over the past few seasons. Keeping your eyes peeled for signs of tuna during the ride to and from the Bank can pay big dividends.

Some of the more popular methods for catching school tuna in our neck of the woods include jigging and popping using "beefed" up spinning gear. When the fish show on the surface, nothing beats the excitement generated from a slob tuna destroying a top water plug. On some trips the bluefins remain deep. Jigging metals will often prove to be the ticket to connecting when the fish are not showing on the surface. Beefing up your tackle is a necessity when spin fishing. Substandard hooks and split rings will quickly be exploited by a hard fighting bluefin.

The key is to successfully taking tuna on spinning gear lies in developing a game plan that works for your boat, crew and budget.

The Giant Tuna Bite at Cape Cod

For a lot of fishermen, their number one goal in life is successfully landing a giant bluefin tuna. Cape Cod's giant bluefin tuna can grow to substantial sizes. Some tuna even top the 1,000 pound mark. Many of these brutes are taken on live bait. Mackerel, pogies and bluefish are all prime baits for Cape Cod's giant bluefins.

Easily found outside many of the Cape's harbors are Atlantic mackerel. Macks can be easily found early in the tuna fishing season, however they will prove more difficult to locate once July rolls around. Live lining mackerel under balloons as well as fishing the colorful speedsters under a kite is always popular amongst the fleet. Mackerel are not the most hardy of live baits. Transporting mackerel is a round bait tank is necessity, as the fish like to continuously swim in circles while in the bait tank.

Live pogies are another viable option for live lining a tuna. Menhaden can be cast and gill netted in many of the Cape's back bays and estuaries. Expect to put some serious time in if you hope to procure a live well full of menhaden on your own. Another option is to befriend one of the region's talented live pogie suppliers. These guys will fill your live well with fresh pogies at a reasonable price. However there are those days when even the pogie expert fails to catch enough pogies for the fleet.

Another option is to fish with live bluefish. Bluefish may indeed be the most desirable of tuna baits, but they are also probably the most difficult to catch and transport to the tuna grounds.

My crew and I have had success catching bluefish before a trip at Race Point in Provincetown and in Buzzards Bay. The problem with catching live blues on the morning of a tuna trip is that one always runs the risk of not being able to find bluefish. Fishing for bait when you should be targeting tuna is never a fun predicament.

Spending time filling a bait cage with blues prior to a tuna trip is a smart decision. This way you have guaranteed bait the morning of a trip. Transporting snapper and juvenile bluefish from Buzzards Bay to Stellwagen is an entirely different matter; however it can be done and has paid off big for us in the past.

For additional helpful info about Fishing Cape Cod and targeting Cape Cod's bluefin tuna simply copy and past myfishingcapecod.com into your web internet browser.. Also published at Cape Cod's Bluefin Tuna Fishery.

Related Posts

Tagged with: • • • • • • • • • • •

Filed under: Fishing Boats

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!