By Capt. Kirk Fay
(Originally published Jan/Feb 2021)
Live baiting for tuna may be one of the most exciting ways to catch tuna. It is hands-on and can be very visual. From July through October last season those of us running out of New York and New Jersey experienced a yellowfin tuna bite that most of us have never witnessed before. It started out as a troll bite but as these fish settled in, it quickly turned into a live-bait fisherman’s paradise. Having 50- to 80-pound yellowfin rip a line out of your hands using light tackle is extremely addicting!
Here’s how I go about targeting tuna with live bait.
LET’S TALK BAIT
It’s my belief that live bait will always outfish anything else you might put on the end of your line. I run a 31-foot Cape Horn center console that has two livewells, which gives me the ability to head offshore with a variety of baits, or just black out both wells with one type.
In my neck of the woods we have access to a few different species of bait. The most abundant is peanut bunker (small pogy/menhaden). The term “peanut” may not be the appropriate term for the size that I like to use. As the summer drags on, the perfect size of bunker appear. I like to find ones that are almost the size of my hand. Of course we all have different size hands, so look for bunker
