Night Fishing for BFT

[squirtis]

That was great info BOX, thanks so much for that!! I love SFC


Curtis

[hotrodmarlin]

I trolled at night 3 times for bluefins some years back when we were catching plenty of them during the day. I ran naked and skirted ballyhoo and I even tried putting some glowsticks inside some glow in the dark squid and small ones inside the skirts in front of the ballyhoo on some islanders with no luck. The bites always came at dawn and dusk.
If I ever try it again I will anchor, chunk and live bait pogeys and bluefish.

I didn't pay attention to the moon phase but I have a feeling it could play a big part in the night bite. If anyone has opinions on this, I would love to hear them.

bigblueone - I'm glad you found Sportfishermen.com Welcome to the site!
For those of you who don't know Capt. Jay Blount- my advice is to pay attention to what he says

[iguana1]

In the Northeast, occasionally small and medium BFT come at night on the chunk in the canyons. I have never heard of a ginat at night on the chunk in the colder water. I have left baits in all night and never had a (tuna) bite. I have marked what look like feeding tuna (lightning bolts) on the sounder in clouds of bait at night giant fishing. I wonder if they are feeding, but with the bait up off the bottom, not interested in hook baits. Would be interested to hear if any of the hard core giant guys ever got one at night.

[WAHOONBOX]

In the Northeast, occasionally small and medium BFT come at night on the chunk in the canyons. I have never heard of a ginat at night on the chunk in the colder water. I have left baits in all night and never had a (tuna) bite. I have marked what look like feeding tuna (lightning bolts) on the sounder in clouds of bait at night giant fishing. I wonder if they are feeding, but with the bait up off the bottom, not interested in hook baits. Would be interested to hear if any of the hard core giant guys ever got one at night.

SEVERAL BOATS ABOUT SIX YRS BACK INCLUDING SELF GOT THEM ON THE CHUNK AT SUNDOWN AND IT CONTINUED RIGHT ON FOR 2 HRS.....


THE FISH WERE FROM 250 375 AVERAGE.....THE BITE WAS WITHIN 30 FT OF THE STERN.....I WAS FORTUANTE TO HAVE CAUGHT 6 IN THIS PERIOD ....AND THE OTHER 5 BOATS DID THE SAME


ALL WERE RELEASED

ON ANOTHER NOTE.I WAS TOLD THAT BARBARA BLOCK IS PAYING 250 PER FISH TO BE PASSED TO HER THIS SEASON FOR THE TAG-A-GIANT THING


COUOLD BE SOMETHING GOOD HERE FOR THE REC'S

[Glenn W]

ON ANOTHER NOTE.I WAS TOLD THAT BARBARA BLOCK IS PAYING 250 PER FISH TO BE PASSED TO HER THIS SEASON FOR THE TAG-A-GIANT THING

Do you by chance have a video or care to explain the tennis ball hand-off to everyone ?

[iguana1]

box

that is interesting info. I wonder if once you had 'em at the boat they kept feeding. in turn, had you not brought them in at dusk, could you have done this?

did it seem like the same school during the bite?

[Anthony of the ARK]

Box,
that video is wild, i get excited when i get 18 inch stripers are busting like that behind the boat. I can't wait to get down there and get a shot at one of those giants.

[Captain Fred Archer]

I have done a lot of trolling for tuna at night. That was our #1 way of catching bigeye in the canyons off NJ for the market. Back then I was a pure pin hooker. The Asian market was just emerging and the buyers snookered us on the 'eyes for a while, offering to "take the fish off our hands" for pretty cheap...until I found out from a longliner that they were #2 to the giants in Japan and we got some payback on prices. The fish averaged about 250 in the round back then and almost always came in quads on 80's. Two of us used to fish 'em - alternating between driving/gaffing and cranking with the rods in the holders. One stop was a good night, but we had some where the fish gobbled the short jets we trolled with the great big J hooks in them and got gill or throat hooked and we did 'em quick and got back into the fish again before the went down. Very heavy, dark jets cut down to about 8" with a 13/0 and sometimes 14's in them - the gulpers really got hurt bad!

We found that the traditional dawn/dusk bite happened, but mainly when there was a tide change around those times and of course, only if we were on the fish. We found the night fishing to be even better, but again, only on the tide changes. We used to get on the bait, then nap until two hours before the tide, troll it, and then sleep again, or head back in, depending on what we had in the hold and chill box.

Bluefin may feed early, then run off to warm water, but bigeye are universally a deep, deep tuna that basically only comes up on the tide changes and when they do, like all fishing, first and foremost, you better be in the right place or you can forget about it.

Night trolling was "crew fishing time" down in Cabo. We had a very active daytime charter business, so getting together with other captains and mates for some "busman's holiday" stuff was pretty much only possible at night. Besides, none of us were interested in sweating our asses off fighting big 'fins in the tropical daytime heat. So, we fished at night in the cool and exclusively on the tide changes because that's when it happens and we usually had people the next day, so we couldn't fish all night, even if we wanted to. We caught the hell out of the tunas and everything else most nights trolling bars with no lights or any of that stuff in them - night feeding fish don't need light to see and catch prey. Light attracts bait, which is more important when you are drifting or anchored. Trolling is trolling - you go to the bait, it doesn't come to you.

I never did the night troll thing for bluefin, but based on what I saw with the 'eyes and 'fins, I wouldn't hesitate, but I'd do it around a tide change and on a break or structure with tons of bait on it. Funny, do those two things, day or night, early or late, and you almost always catch fish...hmmm. Pass them sat/chloro charts and does anyone know when high tide is tonight?

[Sea Draggin]

Possibly your best post every there skippy.

[Nauti Natured]

OMG BOX that video is CRAZY!!!! I would not be able to contain myself. Were you tossin dead bunker out there?