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Fishing Reports Now Featured Article

The Other Tuna:
True Albacore
By Capt. Tom Daffin, Fishin' Fever Sportfishing, Brigantine

Capt. Tom Daffin,
Fishin' Fever
Sportfishing

Seven years old.

That was Capt. Tom Daffin's age when he started fishing the offshore canyons. His dad began taking him, and by now Tom has probably fished on more than 500 canyons trips.

Tom, who was raised in Mantua in South Jersey, grew up fishing on his dad’s boats, first on a 21-foot Mako and then on a 28-foot Topaz. The family used to vacation in Brigantine, and the boats were docked there for decades.

Tom fished the local surf, bay and ocean every second he could, he says. He even fished freshwater ponds when no saltwater was nearby. The type of fishing didn’t matter, so long as he was on the waters, he says.

He’s been running the cockpit on the offshore grounds most of his life, a unique amount of experience. Eventually he served as a mate on a few charter boats, and he was a captain for Sea Tow in Brigantine. He also became a union carpenter in Philly.

He and his dad, obviously a fishing nut himself if he took his son to the canyons so young, became owners and operators of Fishin’ Fever Sportfising in 2003.

The boat runs offshore charters for tuna, sharks and big game from Brigantine from late spring to early fall. Wreck fishing trips for flounder, sea bass and tog also take place, and so do trolling trips for blues, false albacore, bonito and such speedsters. The boat also sails from Cape May in spring for both striped bass and black drum and in fall for stripers. The Fishin’ Fever III is a beautiful, custom-built, 31-foot JC Provincetown.

Call:
609-868-6014

Visit Fishin’ Fever Sportfishing’s web site.

Nothing gets me more excited than
fishing in fall at our Northeast canyons.

Longfin tuna, or true albacore, show in
late summer through fall in the warm waters along the 100-fathom line.

Many offshore anglers dream about
500-pound blue marlin, 200-pound bigeyes and 150-pound Allisons.

But not me. It’s all about wolfpacks
of longfin tuna attacking the trolling spread.

My father and I own and operate the
31-foot charter boat Fishin' Fever III, sailing from Brigantine during these
tuna-infested months.

Day in and day out will find us working
the 100-fathom curve, searching for schools of longfins, yellowfins and bigeyes.

Being a charter boat captain, I have to
say that longfins are a great quarry. Oftentimes you’ll have multiple hookups on the fish, because they tend to travel
in schools.

I tell our clients to make sure to watch
the trolling spread with me to see these hits. The hits are usually explosions of water, and you would think a much
larger fish was attacking the bait.

Yellowfins have nothing on the power
of a longfin. Longfins average
40 pounds, with a 70-pounder being
a bruiser. On the 50-pound tackle,
they’ll give you a great initial run, and
then another, secondary run after
seeing the boat.

Don’t be frustrated with longfins. These fish tend to miss baits quite often, but there is something you can do.

We fish a lot of artificials in our spreads, such as Green Machines, Zukers and spreader bars.

Once on the fish, it’s a good idea to switch things around and run more ballyhoos in the spread, so as to slow your trolling speed. Ballyhoos can be deadly on longfins used in conjunction with spreader bars and teasers.

I find that after a missed strike, a short drop-back of about 5 feet and then engaging the reel will trigger another strike.

Also, jigging the baits when a pod of fish comes into the spread will get you more bent rods. But not just any rod should be jigged.

Say you get a hookup on a short rigger. The bait to jig would be the long rigger behind the bait that was just struck. Or you can jig a short, shotgun bait running alongside the short rigger.

A true albacore, also known
as a longfin tuna.

You have to imagine where the pod of fish is located in the spread before you can effectively entice them to eat.

Plenty of albacore will also hit on the chunk, or fishing in a chum slick made up of chunks of bait.

With Labor Day Weekend, our chunking season begins, and these are overnight trips that usually troll before sundown, chunk from dusk through dawn and then maybe do more trolling the next day before heading home.

Although yellowfin tuna are the main target on overnight trips, longfins are a definite possibility.

The late afternoon and early morning troll are great times to fill the box with longfins. But we’ve also caught very well on the chunk, mostly around sundown and sunup.

Jigs are deadly on longfins during the chunk. A diamond jig or a butterfly jig fished on a good jigging setup is preferred.

If no yellowfins are on the bite in the chunk slick with some daylight showing, there’s no reason to give up, because longfins could show up. I’ve caught longfins while chunking in the bright sun through mid morning.

Rule No. 1 in finding longfins is to find the bait.

Longfins tend to be a deeper-water fish. Fishing at least 50 fathoms will definitely increase your odds of finding large concentrations of longfin albacore.

You can be around no structure and in bad water and still have a banner day. But does this happen often? No.

Therefore increase your odds of finding bait by working the waters from 50 to 500 fathoms over humps, sloughs and notches, areas where baitfish will gather in the zone where the tuna can be found.

Water quality is also very important. Good, clean water near dirty, green water is about as textbook as you can get. Fishing along the edge in the clean, blue water will allow the fish to see your spread, thus creating strikes.

Longfins tend to stick around off the coast later in the year than other tunas. They’re great fighters, often travel in groups that create multiple catches and mayhem, and they taste great.

This is truly a good time of year to set your sights on longfin albacore along with other tunas.