PCP, I have caught them this time of year along the 100 fathom line and on the deeper drop offs. 6 knots and green is good. Watch for birds and bait. They generally go nuts when you get them near the boat. Good luck.
Author, writer, marine artist, charter captain, lure manufacturer, ind. consultant
Purple,
There's a three thousand mile land mass between them, but genetically and I believe in all other ways, a longfin is a longfin, no matter where he swims.
I have caught them on both coasts, with most of the east coast fish being in the canyons off New Jersey. And they are a virtual "Holy Grail" fish up and down the west coast. It's really strange, but in the old days back east we considered them inedible trash fish that we avoided whenever they got on our tuna lures. We'd leave the area when that happened so we didn't have to catch any more! And any caught universally wound up dumped on the way home or in marina dumpsters.
It wasn't until I went to California the first time and went "tuna fishing" with some buddies that I discovered that people actually ate them, how delicious they were, and that there was a cannery in operation that picked up the fish you weren't going to eat fresh and traded them for cans of pure albacore. (And trade we did...six of us caught 213 albacore and one, 133# bigeye on that trip.)
I've caught a lot of albacore and also studied their biology for my books. Here are some pointers. First, albacore are temperate water tuna, not tropical ones, like yellowfin. That boils down to you will usually find them in cooler water and on the cold water side of good temp breaks.
They regularly feed on very small fodder, often 3" or even less long. Basically "whale food". In fact, a marine biologist who has studied albacore stomach contents out here reports that 85% of the those contents consist of various prey species three or less inches long. And so it's no coincidence that you will often find them feeding in the vicinity of filter feeder whales, like humpbacks and blues.
Yes, albacore will hit bigger lures at times, but you'll do far better if you match the hatch and put a lot of "bait" in the water to help get the attention of and raise schools, instead of singles or doubles.
That's basically it from me. As always, finding the fish that you are after is Rule Number One for catching them and I hope that the above helps you do so, along with whatever good local G-2 you can get from those who are actually catching them - especially the "where" and the water temps.
Oh yeah...don't be a dumbass like me and a lot of others once were - slice 'em up for sashimi, cook 'em up nice and rare, and learn how to can (in jars), like many in the Pacific Northwest do, and do some of your own canning with your own goodies in it and eat them longfinned beauties!
Good luck!
Some little bar long fin victims. And don't worry about any yellowfin or bigeye that are around them because odds are that they too will be feeding on the little stuff and will nail the same little bars.
As you can see in the picts, we favor dark colored teasers...black and purple or (my favorite) all black. Chasebaits should be a contrasting color.
Last edited by Captain Fred Archer; 09-29-2009 at 07:38 PM.
Author, writer, marine artist, charter captain, lure manufacturer, ind. consultant
Good advice, Cappy Lindsay, especially if you're matching the hatch with little bars and small teasers. Most of the "whale food" size stuff that albies and other tunas often prey and get locked in on are slow swimmers, so 4-5 knots usually gets the job done well. At these slow speeds it is important that the bar itself be very lightweight so that it stays out of the water when trolled, either flat or off the 'riggers.
We have had the greatest success with more bars in the pattern than we have with bars with big numbers of teasers on a few bars. Our MeatBall Bars with sixteen squids in sizes running from 2 3/4", 4 1/4", and 6" are our top producers. This lets us load up the pattern with small "chum" and further allows us to put our baits in the very best "holes" in the spread.
Two out of three albacore tournaments held out west last year were won on exactly what I just wrote about.
As always, we run a Toad Teaser short and down the middle of the pattern.
I dunno for sure, but I suspect that as the water cools down back there, there will be more longfins in town. And if things haven't changed from the old days, you should run into some very big ones. Have fun!
I can assure you that Capt. Fred's bars are the ticket for the longfin.... the picture above (the guy without a shirt) was taken this year in the Toms Canyon back in Aug aboard my boat.... they were some nice size fish and we were the only boat that I heard of that got any LFT that day and there were some very high quality well known charter boats fishing the same area that didn't get a touch.
I tried to post up a couple of pictures from that day as well as a couple from last year that we got some LFT on the meatball bars from Fred, but I seem to be having some trouble posting pictures.
I remember catching LFT well into Nov up here in the canyons so I think things should just be getting good.... in my experience it seems that they like to bite best right around first light as well. (which wasn't the case back in Aug.)
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