Salt Water Sportsman – August 2019

skirted ballyhoo and fi sh-

es 10 rods to entice yellow-

fi ns with a larger spread.

He then looks for the fi sh

to travel south, riding the

eddies of warm water spin-

ning down the edge of the

continental shelf.

Farther North

Capt. Mark DeCabia out

of Shinnecock, New York,

spends 250 days a year

chasing yellowfi ns from

Hydrographers Canyon to

Wilmington. He has also no-

ticed a major shift in their

behavior. “Fifteen years ago,

we’d see yellowfi ns show up

in June, then thin out over

the summer and return

in the fall.” Like Maxwell in

North Carolina, DeCabia

theorizes the fi sh were

moving on a north-to-south

track in the spring, then east

to west in the fall, but that

seemed to change after 2015.

While insisting there still

are plenty of yellowfi n tuna

around, DeCabia claims the

migration today is less pre-

dictable, and the fi sh move

through more quickly. “Last

June, we saw great yellowfi n

fi shing, but the action was

short-lived. They were gone

in a couple of weeks, and the

fall fi shery never material-

ized,” he says.

DeCabia’s observations

still point to an east-to-

west migration pattern.

“I’ll hear of boats to the east

catching 90-pound tuna

in the Atlantic, then I start

catching them in the Hudson

a few days later.” But he

believes some anomaly of

water conditions is keeping

the big schools of tuna from

moving inshore.

“This year, the North

Carolina boats are having a

great spring,” he points out.

“And the squid fi shery closed

early as the boats fi lled their

quotas,” so bait isn’t a prob-

lem. “On June 1, I’ll be out

there looking for tuna,” as-

serts DeCabia, who relies on

a network of captains and

satellite water-temperature

charts to predict the

migration, and also studies

satellite chlorophyll images

in search of clear water. He

often notices recreational

anglers speeding past the

schools of tuna. “People

head for the 74-degree water

while the bait is schooled up

on the 66-degree edge.”

Seasonal Shift

When he sees large numbers

of bigeye tuna, DeCabia has

learned to expect low num-

bers of yellowfi ns. Last year,

warm water and sargassum

resulted in the best marlin

fi shing in recent years, but

tuna fi shing remained slow

in the fall.

DeCabia says early in

the season, he frequently

sees a combination of blue-

fi ns and yellowfi ns, and he

trolls skirted ballyhoo. He

expects the tuna action to

slow through the summer

months, but sometime in

August, he’ll switch over to

chunking at night.

“It’s the craziest thing,”

he says. “One day we’ll catch

fi sh on the troll, the next

day we won’t get a bite. Then

we’ll switch to night chunk-

ing, and suddenly the tuna

action is on again.”

WHAT

Yellow fi n tuna

RODS

6- to 6^1 ⁄ 2 -foot, 50-pound-

class stand-up

REELS

50-pound-class, two-speed

conventional

LINE

50-pound mono

LEADER

25 feet of 150-pound mono

attached to 10 feet of

100-pound fl uorocarbon

LURES

C&H Lures Sea Witch in

purple-and-black, blue-and-

white, and all white

HOOKS

7/0 Mustad 7691DT,

or equivalent

Mid-Atlantic

Yellow fi n Tuna Run

Tackle

Box

FAST FOOD: Yellowfi n tuna

display their amazing speed

as soon as they feel the hook.

C&H LURES

SEA WITCH

Sea Witches draw more

attention to trolled baits.

MOLD CRAFT

SQUIRT SQUID

Rubber-squid daisy chains

make ideal tuna teasers.

Simplicity is often the

ticket to success with yel-

lowfi ns. A couple of teaser

strings and Sea Witches

ahead of the baits will do.

58 SALTWATERSPORTSMAN.COM SEPTEMBER 2019

To p Tu n a

Ta m e r s

RI

CH

AR

D^

GI

BS

ON

FOLLOW THE YELLOWFIN ROAD