...................Flyfishing bonito and little tunny or false albacore . . .
. . . is some of the most challenging and rewarding fly fishing the Cape has to offer. These small tunas are less numerous (though huge feeding frenzies do occur) and sometimes far fussier than stripers and blues. Successful fishing generally requires . . . a boat, small flashy flies worked into feeding schools and patience. Bonito and then false albacore begin arriving on the Cape and the Islands in July. They remain foraging in this area until October when they are headed south for the winter.
These very fast fish that use their speed and exceptional eyesight to chase down sand eels, silversides, squid and mackerel. They tend to feed near the top of the water column but are so fast in their blitzing of pods of forage fish that chasing feeding tuna is often futile since they are gone before you arrive. A better method is to set up in a good current in an area where they are repetitively feeding. Then fish blindly, presenting your fly at the speed and depth you would expect little tunny to be. Often, you will connect with a fish before you know they have returned to your area by any evidence of surface activity.
Most are caught from boats near the Islands and the tip of Monomoy; though some good fishing can be had along the canal and occasionally from jetties in the Sound around to Monomoy and even inside Cape Cod Bay to Barnstable Harbor and further east. Fly tackle for bonito and little tunny is the same for stripers and blues; an 8/9 wgt. Rod and intermediate sinking lines. Due to the speed with which these fish can run, a smooth drag is very important to surviving the first strong run on a light tippet. Most fish weigh in at three to six pounds though a ten pounder is possible and an exceptionally fine fish.
Bonito Candy seen 100% natural size Success for both bones and albies on a fly is often the result of trolling the fly through rips and shoreline rills. Casting to these same rips also works but the period of fly presentation is much shorter. This may not seem sporting, and isn't acceptable if a record fish is sought, but on some days it is the only high probability method. I can't tell you the number of times my clients have cast for half an hour with fish present without a take only to get an immediate hookup when I kicked the motor into reverse to move us away from the beach while their line was still in the water. Speed is a definite ingredient in getting hookups. I don't believe it is possible to retrieve too fast by hand. False Albacore in particular have exceptional eyesight and this may also require the use of very realistically tied sand eel (lance), alewife fry, little squid or baby bunker patterns. Long light leaders and flouro help as well. Preferable colors are: white, pink and yellow with silver flash. Working the fly just below the surface is usually the most successful technique. One handed retrieves appear to move the fly at a natural pace but usually aren't sufficient; this is one case where stripping faster, two handed and even an occasional rod sweep, provokes strikes. Bonito are the easier fish to catch and around here, an albacore an hour, even when you can see them feeding, is a good catch.
When you do hookup, you can expect a wonderfully strong run of thirty to sixty yards for starters. Little tunny aren't like bonefish, they don't run when they feel you and yield when the pressure is light. They run, rest and run some more. If you don't have the tippet to take line when they rest or are in a strong current, then you better have plenty of backing or plan to chase them a bit with the boat. Nevertheless, strong and fast as they are, bones and albies are usually at hand in five minutes or less.
Try not to remove them from the water while unhooking and do it quickly. These fish don't cycle water past their gills when motionless, so one of the best releases is to lift and plunge the fish headfirst back into the sea on release in order to force water through them and get them oxygenated again. It may look unnecessarily dramatic but it helps the fish survive.
But if you are coming to optimise this catch, you would do well to plan your trip or charter for mid-August to mid-September. This is the safest time to find these fish consistently in good numbers and without a disappearing act for days. It may also help to schedule around a moon tide for stronger currents and (here's the real trick) on days when the wind is down to ease the boat handling and improve visibility to find feeding fish. There are methods to predict these best times (wind prediction is limited to a week or two) but a safer bet would be to plan to fish for two or three days, at least. Then you could expect to have one very good day on the tuna and two days when a mixed catch or switching to other species would be a better plan.
The only real impediment to fishing this peak period is hurricanes and other significant depressions. Even after the storm has passed, the following days might show very large seas (up to ten feet), roiled water conditions and scattered bait. Last year, hurricane Floyd loused up the fishing for a week after passing. The usual disruption is closer to three days. At these times, turning to fishing more protected bays and coves for stripers and blues is prudent.
A bit more on flies. I've seen a lot of tunas caught on just about everything from deceiver's to clousers to poppers. The order of importance for a tuna fly appears to be the following. Speed, it must move quickly throught the water. No doubt this is a just a genetically driven trigger response by the tuna that has evolved that things that aren't fleeing outright within their vision just aren't food. Next is color, high visibility turns fish toward your fly. White, pink and yellow are the high vis colors on the ocean; adding flash, of course. And just like in all visual arts, some contrast (black or green) helps to accentuate the fly. Their usual diet is probably heavily toward silverside/spearing and squid. Two very differently shaped and colored forage species. Nonetheless, they are generally white/pink and fast. Add depth to the equation. Unless forced to the surface, tuna forage swims at the lower limit of light penetration where, in turn, their forage is likely to be. My clients have hooked up with albies, using light spinning gear, on the bottom in fifty feet of water using white striper jigs. They will be where the food is. That day was a rough sea (three foot chop) and another condition (a guide has to have his secrets) that forced the bait down. Usually, tunas are running five to twenty feet down, in up to a hundred feet of water, and chasing prey up when they find it. Using a fly that is narrow enough in profile to sink well on the end of a long leader and an intermediate line helps to find the zone of the fish. Size? I've caught them on mega-deceivers, six inch and 5/0 hook, and #6 silversides too. Generally, though, #1 and a three inch fly is popular ( sand eel patterns are generally, four or five inches long).
There are a lot of patterns that fit the tuna profile. Simply put, finding the fish and presenting the fly is more important than which fly it is.
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