The art of catching blackfin tuna in South Florida
Though not the biggest members of the tuna tribe, blackfin tuna are a big deal for South Florida anglers in the spring, as blackfins flood offshore waters from the Florida Keys up along the Atlantic coast to Palm Beach.
The hard-fighting, good-tasting fish can be caught on live bait, dead bait and lures while drifting, trolling, kite-fishing, or anchored up over a wreck or reef.
The biggest key to success is to chum, preferably with live bait like pilchards, although chunks of dead bait work just fine. Blackfin fanatics think nothing of heading offshore with 500 to 1,000 live pilchards for chumming and for bait.
In the Keys, anglers head for the humps, where the bottom rises to within 300 feet of the surface, creating upwellings that attract bait and fish. Boating anglers fling out bait nets full of pilchards until the fish start to bust the surface as they feed on the live chum behind the boat
Captain Scott Stanczyk, who fishes on Catch 22 out of Islamorada, doesn’t head offshore unless he has 1,000 pilchards in the livewell. His mate chums with the liveys after equipping anglers with spinning rods spooled with straight 30-pound monofilament line tied to tiny No. 1 hooks, which are pinned through the noses of the pilchards. The small hooks allow the baits to swim naturally when cast and free-lined back toward the action.
On a day when the tuna bite explodes, some of Stanczyk’s anglers turn to 10-weight fly rods and flies tied to resemble pilchards. Anglers cast the flies and let them drift back to the tuna, then strip them back to the boat
From Miami to Palm Beach, most anglers seeking tuna either anchor or drift in clean blue water near wrecks or reefs in 100- to 200-foot depths and toss out several live pilchards every five minutes. If the tuna show up, anglers throw even more pilchards to whip the blackfins into a feeding frenzy.
“Sometimes it takes 50 to 100 chummers to get all the fish up,” said captain Trey Claus of the Coral Gables charter boat Qualifier.
Claus likes to put out six live baits on the surface, flying two fishing kites with three lines each, along with some flat-line baits. That way, when the tuna show up the hooked baits blend in with the free-swimming chum. This methodology often results in multiple hook-ups.
Heavy live chumming is preferable, but sometimes live pilchards are scarce. In that case, try stretching your bait supply by tossing out just a couple of live pilchards every 15 or 20 minutes instead of every five minutes.
Anglers can also chum with a variety of frozen baits. When catching pilchards is difficult, captain Dennis Forgione thaws a box of glass minnows in a bucket of water and throws a handful of the little fish in the water every 20 minutes. He also puts a box of ground menhaden in a chum bag.
Capt. Mario Cote of Hollywood, who fishes out of Port Everglades Inlet on No Vacansea, reveals that using a box or two of frozen sardines for chum works almost as well as live chumming. He cuts the sardines in pieces and periodically throws a few chunks into the water. Other captains chum with chunks of frozen herring and even chunks of squid.
Cote starts a tuna trip by having his anglers catch pilchards on sabiki rigs. A few dozen baits are all he needs.
“I love pilchards,” Cote says. “I think they’re the best bait around. Everything loves a pilchard.”
He drifts with the pilchards on two flat lines and on two weighted lines, one down about 50 feet and the other close to the bottom. If there is little to no current, he slow-trolls the baits at 1 to 2 knots.
For tackle, Cote uses 20-pound conventional outfits with 15-foot leaders of 40-pound-test fluorocarbon. Low-visibility fluorocarbon is essential because the tuna can see exceptionally well, he believes.
But even when chunking attracts tuna, they won’t always eat a bait drifted back on a hook. When that happens, anglers need to turn to lighter tackle. If you usually fish with 30-pound-test leaders and size 5/0 circle hooks, try downsizing to 20-pound-test fluorocarbon leaders with 2/0 or 1/0 hooks
To find the tuna, Cote slow-trolls offshore until he locates them, then he drifts in that depth. Wherever you find the blackfins, odds are good that you will also find bonito, which fight just as hard as their cousins, but don’t taste anywhere near as good. Some days, you might have to catch a bunch of bonito before you catch a blackfin, which can be physically and emotionally exhausting.
Cote’s favorite recipe is to cut the tuna into chunks, removing the blood lines, then marinating the fish overnight in a container with sesame oil and sesame seeds. The following day, he sears the tuna in a very hot pan and serves it rare or medium rare.
