Finally we see the arrival of Yellowfin Tuna. It has been some time coming. Schools of feeding tuna have been showing up over the last month from time to time. The 12 Mile Banks, Northwest Point and South Sound have been the locations of choice. Fleeing flying fish and active frigate birds have been the give away to feeding game fish below. Try to troll ahead of the birds, sometimes going directly under the bird can spook the bait fish and cause the fish to scatter, this way it will be your lures that are intercepting the fish not the boat. Cedar plugs have been particularly successful as well as very small jet heads and octopus skirts.
 
We seem to have an enormous amount of small baitfish and squid so these smaller lures will do a good job of imitating the baitfish that are being consumed. If trolling is not producing results, drift fishing with chunks of cut bait and chumming would very well be worth a shot. For tuna an, 80 pound flourocarbon leader and a chunk of bonito is like candy. Cut pieces of barracuda or baitfish known locally as sprat will be one of the better chum lines you can offer. Throw the chum ahead of the boat, into the direction you will be drifting. This way the chum will spread and cover a good area behind the boat as you drift through it. Every minute or so, keep letting the line out to keep the chunk of bait with the chum as long as you can. At times you may have quite a bit of line out, but to increase your chances of a bite it needs to be with the chum, to intercept a fish as it comes up the chum line eating all the scraps you have thrown out.
 
Determine whether you will be drifting onto or away from the shallows, if you are drifting onto the shallows then start your drift much deeper – 1,200 feet or so is a good starting point as a lot of the fish lately have come in about 800 feet of water. If you are being pushed away from the shallows then start close to the drop, establish a good chum line and drift to 1,200 to 1,500 feet of water, which will still be good for tuna. Dropping a high speed vertical jig might produce as well. At the very least it will give you your cardio workout for the day.   WH

Tight lines,
Capt. Derrin Ebanks
Captain Asley's watersports
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