The Albacore Tuna

Albacore Tuna fishing is one of the most thrilling fisheries along the west coast and my personal favorite fish to catch. Although they are much smaller in size compared to many of their tuna cousins, they still pack a pretty good fight. They offer a good yield of tasty meat for their average size of about 10 to 30 lbs. Albacore tuna have been a staple fishery for California, Oregon, and Washington for well over a century. The range of albacore, also known as longfin tuna, has been greatly reduced over the past two decades for unknown reasons. However, it still remains a staple fishery for the entire US coastline north of San Francisco.

This write-up will be similar to the Bluefin 101 Tutorials I created back in 2023 and cover everything from reading water temperature charts, gear to processing. It’s a very lengthy and detailed write-up broken into individual sections for ease of reading. For the experts who are reading this, note that fishing styles vary up and down the coast and I’ve mixed a variety of styles into this write-up from mostly NorCal and a good chunk of Oregon techniques mixed in, but there are a few things I do a bit uniquely and these methods seem to work well up and down the west coast. I’ve spent just about my entire adult life focusing on albacore and it’s become a full-blown addiction. Here’s my first albacore I reeled in solo, caught near Cordell Banks sometime around the early 2000s that kickstarted the lifelong journey of tuna fever.

Early Season: Find the Warm Water

Unlike Bluefin tuna, albacore are typically picky about their water conditions, especially early in the season when the fish are a bit smaller. They need deep blue water, and 59 to 64-degree temperatures. You will often do best right on the edge of the transition from sub-60-degree greenish water to 60 to 62-degree cobalt blue water. This is what is called a temp break. It’s a rapid change in temperature, and the more extreme the better. Your eyes should be glued to your fish finder as you’re running out, waiting for a change in temperature. You will want to use satellite imagery to find these temp breaks before you leave the dock, but know the break can move several miles per day under the right conditions. A really good free website is tempbreak.com. It’s free and provides next-day updates for the entire west coast of SST (sea surface temperature) and chlorophyll (water clarity). For the average recreational fisherman, this site will work very well at giving you all of the information you will need. The chlorophyll scale is always constant, and if the water shows mid to dark blue on tempbreak, it will be blue enough to catch Albacore. The temperature color varies with conditions, so refer to the scale on the side of the map. If you’re very into reading currents and being able to customize shading of your maps, I recommend paying the big bucks of $170 per year for RipCharts. Out of all of the paid subscriptions, it has the most adjustable features and a decent app for your phone. Most of the paid software relies on the same satellites and updates every 3 hours, so you’re getting the same imagery no matter what you pick. Just note that RipCharts uses 3 types of chlorophyll shots, and they can vary highly; some are VERY sensitive to the slightest tinge of green in the water. I recommend referring to tempbreak.com and learning what types of shots show blue better on RipCharts, as some RipCharts can show pretty darn blue water as being green on the chlorophyll shot. If it’s dark blue on RipCharts, you can expect it to look nearly purple once you’re fishing with 200+ foot visibility, and that’s what the tuna really like, but it’s pretty rare to find within single-day range.

Now you see blue water you’ll want to look at the SST (Sea Surface Temp) map. To find concentrated numbers of albacore, you need to look for 3 things: warm water, cold water, and blue water. You want all 3 of those things in one area, and you want to plan on fishing the change from cold to warm, mostly staying on the warmer side of the break. Northerly winds will often make more dramatic temp breaks that are located far offshore with blue water, and southerly or lack of any winds will result in warm water close to shore with little to no edges. So in reality, you want some south wind to push the water close to shore, then some north wind to form breaks. Keep in mind the water can move quickly; I’ve seen it move 15 miles in one day on multiple occasions. Previous fish reports are always good, but people often forget to look at how the temps have shifted and just blindly follow last week’s report. Keep in mind these tuna can travel far distances; you’re often better off looking for your own fish or making a few buddies who are willing to form a search party along a break instead of just running to reported locations from the week before.

The first mistake people often make when looking at SST maps is seeing warm 58 to 60-degree water that’s not connected to the offshore mass of hot 60+ degree water and trying to fish that instead of the offshore water. In 2022, we had some terrible runs of unconnected water off Fort Bragg that fooled many good fishermen. You need the warm water to be connected for the fish to work their way in there, as they won’t cross cold 55-degree water to get into that blob near the shore, and with a cloudy satellite shot, you may think it’s connected. Here’s a perfectly connected temp break with some funky water inside of that’s not fully connected to the offshore mass. Albacore can be anywhere and the green or yellow (58 to 60 degrees), but the odds of finding that wide-open day we all dream about are much higher on that harsh temp break where the arrow is pointed below.

Now the water can “pinch off” where the fish ventured into a blob of water near the shelf, and the blob of water became disconnected from the offshore mass of warm water usually with a northern wind, leaving the fish stranded in the warm blob. This does happen often out of Fort Bragg, Coos Bay, and occasionally Depoe Bay. These can be the days where you find the fish much closer than normal, even as close as 5 miles offshore as the blob moves toward shore. Eventually, the water will turn green with some north wind and the fish venture back off west to find blue water and warmer temps. The picture below shows a slight warm blob of water right off the coastline of Fort Bragg about 5 miles, then a slight decrease in temps until you start finding the offshore warm water. There’s often no edge or temp break, but just an ugly blob of water. It’s hard to find fish in this condition, but you can be amazed at how close to shore they will come when this happens. It’s often hit or miss fishing on these types of days, but if you have a lot of buddy boats that can spread out and help find fish, you will likely do okay. Oftentimes I’ve had great luck burning the extra fuel and running far west to the slight temp break outside of the blob. Often it can be very tough to go lone wolf as finding schools is like a needle in a haystack and there’s a lot of luck involved. It’s common to see some boats return with zero fish and some boats return with 30+ fish. You want those friends who actually call you when they find the fish for these days.

SST and Chloro shots cannot penetrate fog or clouds, which is pretty common on our coastline. There will often be patches of warm water. Sometimes, there is distortion in the shots because the camera detected cloud temperatures, mistaking it for water. These are difficult to read. After years, you will develop a feel for what the water is doing underneath those clouds. It’s a science, art, and guessing game. I’ve managed to do well on many days. I’ve been running after patches, hoping they actually exist and are connected to something. Here’s an example of a patchy Chloro shot that produced well last year.

Later in 2024, I had a day where I could visibly see a patch of 1 square mile of warm water on the satellite about 50 miles out, but nothing around it, so I had zero information on where the break could be. It was after a large storm, so the water had all shifted from the previous shots. After heading offshore 40 miles out, the water was 49 degrees and dark green, and I felt pretty unsure about how the day would turn out. Then, suddenly, I spotted a slick spot on the water and found a harsh 9-degree jump with a transition to deep blue water. I sprinted to the deck, tossed in a rod, and hooked a fish within a few seconds of my clone touching the water. We proceeded to catch tuna non-stop until the boat was stuffed full by 10 a.m. We could have easily run too far west if I hadn’t noticed the jump and never found the bulk of the fish sitting on the break. So if you’re running out with little or no SST data due to clouds, really keep an eye on your water temps that your fish finder is showing and be prepared to set gear out the second you see a jump in temp. Rip currents and changes in surface water conditions are often good indicators of where bait and tuna might hang around, so keeping an eye out for them is always a good idea.

Late season Fishing: Find the life

As the year goes on, the fish get fatter and more desperate to put on weight before they head west into the open Pacific. Albacore will often venture into colder and greener water if there’s food to chase. You can feel the change of seasons into fall, and the birds will typically start to show themselves in greater numbers, and it’s truly the peak of albacore fishing if you hit it right. Washington can cool off as early as September, while Oregon typically transitions into their late-season bite during early to late September. You will notice the fish get bigger and push in a little more aggressively to the coastline. A lot of the coastline starts to slow down by early October, but the area from Fort Bragg to Bodega Bay really starts to shine most years due to the amount of bait available. Bodega Canyon is really the last big pit stop before the longfin go west when the water cools off, typically around late October to November. Also, keep in mind that later in the year, the air is often cooler than the deep water, so the top few feet of the ocean appear cooler than the water below because we are measuring surface temps. When this happens, your meter will show the water is colder than it actually is at depth. Fishing the late season is a risk, as the fish can vanish any day, but the risk is often worth the reward of fat 30 to 50lb longfin and being able to have birds and bait in the area to show concentrated schools of tuna. This often makes for a crazy bite, with every rod on the boat hooking up at once and all hell breaking loose if you find a school willing to eat. For this run-and-gun style fishing, you should be getting every rod in the water you can fit on your boat, and constantly on the lookout for birds, as one bird pile can make or break the day. Many days, I’ve experienced multiple 10+ fish hookups. Meanwhile, boats fishing nearby never had a single tuna all day. This success came from spotting birds and running them down.

The highlight of the 2024 season was us loading the boat full of albacore in 56-degree water. This continued for a few weeks into early December with complete chaos every day. There were several instances where we would get 5 to 10 fish hookups all day. There was even some very rare yellowtail craziness to polish off the season. It’s not common to get fish that late. However, it’s pretty awesome when it happens. Many boat owners have already given up on tuna fishing by October. This makes for little to no boat traffic. The photo below was from a rainy late November day. It was a wide-open bite with 30 fish hitting the deck by noon. There was not another boat in radar range all day.

The Typical Albacore Tuna Migration

Albacore spawn and live most of their life typically somewhere in the middle of absolute no man’s land of the subtropical Pacific Ocean. The modern-day range of albacore has shrunk. They used to venture far south into Baja. Even San Diego had a booming albacore fishery in the mid 2000’s. Now the albacore seem to remain only north of San Francisco Bay for whatever reason. Monterey and Half Moon Bay have been getting a little more action the past few years, but it remains hit or miss. The central California albacore bite may happen again one day as Morro Bay to Half Moon Bay were the main hotspot for albacore in the mid-2000s. Many SoCal anglers have repeated, “this will be the year!” for the past 20-something years and swear the albacore will return to the backside of San Clemente Island. The odds of albacore returning to San Clemente Island are pretty slim, so if you’re in SoCal, I would be planning a trip north or jumping on one of our boats, as we have had albacore tuna every year for decades out of Fort Bragg. Bodega has been the furthest south that albacore have been caught every year, and it still remains a little hit or miss, but can be great if the water lines up in our favor; usually, it’s a Bluefin or Albacore year, sometimes it’s both at once, and that’s pretty fun when it happens. North of Fort Bragg all the way to the Canadian border seems to remain pretty good for the past many years, with Coos Bay, Newport, Depoe Bay, and even southern Washington all having good warm water with good numbers of fish. Check out the map below of a random albacore’s migration pattern to see how they even go up into British Columbia for a bit.

For anyone who has spent time offshore, you quickly learn one thing. After you cross 60 miles offshore, that 99.9% of the ocean is completely void of all visible life, except for scattered small pockets of dense food and the predators that follow it. What this means is that when those albacore come within that 100-mile zone of the coast, they need to fatten themselves up to be capable of traveling thousands of miles with little to no food. Albacore, for the most part, are not a picky fish like bluefin; they will eat just about anything that fits in their mouths. Early in the year, they are often feeding on tiny pelagic fish and squid. Later in the year, they tend to locate on harder bait like anchovies, sardines, or Pacific saury. As you can see in the photo below, the saury can get big; people even eat them, I guess, and albacore can get a bit picky when they are feeding on saury. Fishing specific colors, like white or cedar plugs, will make or break your day if you hit a rare occasion when they get picky, but most of the year they eat just about anything you put in the water.

Tuna Clone/Feather Selection

Albacore are notorious for biting any lure you put in the water, and many fishermen really struggle with the fact that lure colors simply don’t have that big of an effect on these fish most of the time compared to lure distance from the boat and where you are fishing. For the most part, you will want to troll regular tuna clones or feathers. Some people swear there is a difference in how clones vs. feathers fish, but personally, I’ve never noticed a difference. If you can have only 4 colors of plain 6″ clones, you will likely fish just as well as any other boats out there; the 4 clones you will want are Mexican flags, zucchini (or green/yellow), and some darker shades of purples and whites.

From left to right, white, Mexican flag, Zucchini, purple.

Many fishermen swear that you want to match the clone to the sky conditions; in dark foggy skies, you want purples and Mexican flags; in light sunny skies, you want zucchinis and whites. I’ve found this to be somewhat true, but likely a Mexican flag will fish just fine in any lighting and is typically a good starting point when you aren’t sure. I found whites to work pretty well when the fish are feeding on hard shiny bait as well, but I often mix things up and see if they are interested in one color and run daisy chains with birds to add some chaos and see if they like that, which I will go over below. Some guys also swear you need to run the entire boat with the same color and lure; this is far from the truth. I’ll go over that below when I talk about spreads. You can run whatever you like as long as it doesn’t tangle, and if they prefer that lure, then start trying to match that color/action with more rods. But most days, you will notice a rod getting bit by the lure’s location versus the color.

You can buy your own clones in bulk or get them pre-rigged. I buy mostly 6″ clones in bulk from Fishfield in Tualatin, Oregon, for pretty cheap. Zukers used to be the standard for everyone, but they have ramped back production and now are pretty pricey. A single one costs more than a 3-pack of cheap clones. And they both fish great; many guys swear Zukers outfish a modern cheap clone, but I’ve had a lot of days where my boat had 5X as many fish right alongside a guy swearing that my clones don’t fish as well as his Zukers. To counter that, I have had a few rare occasions where the fish seemed to prefer the Zuker brooms, so it doesn’t hurt to have a few if you want to spend the extra money. You can still buy Zukers from Englund’s Marine. But as I said, don’t worry about clones that much if you’re first getting into it; I’ll go over the more important things below. Just get about 9 to 15 of each of the 4 big color types and plan on running mostly Mexican flags, and you’ll be set for a lifetime of tuna.

Single Clone Rigging

Self-rigging clones or feathers is very, very easy. I like to go overkill on my gear, and I keep that theme going for albacore. The first thing you will need is some big swivels; I like to run 200lb or better. You don’t need fancy ball-bearing ones, so the cheap and oversized ones do the job fine. If you are willing to spend more money, you can likely decrease the rating by a lot, as the expensive brands are a lot more realistic with their strength compared to cheap brands. However, you need swivels big enough to pass the barb of a double hook while rigging. I also run 120lb or 150lb leader. You may ask why I run such heavy line for a small fish, and that’s because I like to “flip” the fish in the boat without using a gaff. You will be putting a lot of stress on the line, and the heavier line is also a lot easier on your hands while doing so. The fact is, if you use heavy line, these rigs will last nearly forever, and you never have to worry about them breaking, even if they get scuffed up over the years. If you hook into a bigeye, marlin, or any other large beast of the deep, that heavy line will also do you a lot of favors with abrasion, so it’s good for multiple things. I prefer to crimp the line, but you don’t need to do it if you don’t like crimps. I just don’t like tying knots for that heavy line and find crimping faster and cleaner. I typically don’t run chafe guards for albacore, but it sure doesn’t hurt to have them, and it’s the right way to do it if you’re wanting full strength out of your line.

Next, you will need some hooks, preferably the Mustad 7982HS in 7/0 to 9/0 size. You will notice these hooks are pretty pricey, but keep in mind that many of the hooks I’m currently using are older than me, so they are a long-term investment. If you’re married, you can explain to your significant other that you’re building a tuna kit for your children. Tell them you need the good hooks. Use that as an excuse to spend the big bucks on hooks. If you’re on a budget, you can use the cheaper Fishfield. Alternatively, you can choose other off-brand Chinese double hooks. They only last a few years. However, keep in mind that if you hook into something big and mean like a bigeye, your hook will likely bend open or snap. I’ve heard of it happening many times when the bigeye were around off Fort Bragg, so I’ve switched all my gear to the higher quality hooks since they last for decades anyway.

Now you have the ingredients, and it’s a pretty easy job. I make my leaders about 4 to 5 feet long; it’s not an exact measurement, but a good arm-and-a-half length will do. You can go shorter or longer, but I like a bit longer leader for grabbing the leader with my hands while gaffing or rail flipping. You will need 2 swivels per rig: one on the end that goes to your rod line, and one that you run through the hook and squeeze into the middle spot as shown below. Some guys run zip ties on the midsection of the hooks to keep them closed. If you only bury one side of the hook into the tuna’s mouth, it might help, but I’ve only lost 1 or 2 out of many thousands of fish due to an opened hook, so I don’t mess with it. Again, I’m sure it doesn’t hurt to do it.

Next you feed the leader through the clone and then crimp or tie knots to both swivels and your ready to fish. One quick note is that if you’re on a tight budget, you can get away with buying fewer hooks. Just switch your hooks into whatever rig you want to run that day. You can leave an empty swivel on the bottom end of the clones. Toss on the hook before you send it out. I leave my rigs looped with produce bag ties to secure them. They are organized by color in big zip lock bags that are in big totes. You also can use fancy organizers as they work well. Luckily the heavy leader line doesn’t tangle that much. Storage and unpacking is easy no matter what you do.

Rigging Daisy Chains/ Birds

I’m a huge fan of daisy chains and birds in my spread. Some days they really fish well and I think the more clones and choas in the water, the more fish that will get excited and want to eat. I typically run 5 bird daisy chain combos, usually out the back of the spread and the sides in close. They like to tangle with lines that go behind them so keep that in mind where ever you put them, hence why I run them out the back and or off the sides that are clear of other lines. I rig them with 250lb mono as they store and unpack easier with heavy line but you can easily go with 150 if your willing to be more careful packing them away. Here’s a wide shot of a complete bird/daisy chain rig.

I run the entire leader about 6 feet long. Its hard to get a good picture but you can see I run typically 3 regular salmon hoochies with a 4″ bird in with a standard 6″ clone in the back. Many people get intimated by building these and buy them pre built, but they are really simple and pretty fast to build if you are into making your own gear.

The leader starts out with a swivel just like any other rig, then then a 4″ to 5″ trolling bird which you can buy off eBay or most tackle shops, with a crimp about 8″ away from the swivel to keep the bird held up near the swivel.

Then about 6″ back from the bird I put in the first hoochie. The way its crimped will make the hoochies “jump” in and out of the water and the dancing really makes a lot of chaos. To do this you want to feed the hoochie line in from the swivel side to force the mono to act like a spring against the flow of the water while your trolling.

I run about 4″ of mono from the crimp on the main line to the crimp that inside the hoochie which acts as a stopper.

Typically I run about 12″ between hoochies and about 18″ from the last hoochie to the back clone. I just rig the clone like normal and its ready to fish. You can run a variety of colors and see if you prefer a certain color. The colors shown which is orange/green hoochies and a Mexican flag clone has been a very good combo, this rig probably landed about 200 tuna over the past 2 years since it was created.

The Cedar Plug

Most offshore fishermen have a love/hate relationship with cedar plugs. They fish very well, and often if the tuna are being picky for whatever reason, you will likely get bit on the cedar plug over anything else in the water. The problem is that cedar plugs are very good at two other things, which are getting tangled and losing fish. The action of cedar plugs makes them roll and swim around, which attracts fish and also attracts other lines into making tangles, so if you run a cedar plug make sure to run it way clear of anything else nearby like on an outrigger or at the back of the spread. You will be in for a hell of a tangle if you run them in the middle of other lines. Also, use good ball bearing swivels as they like to twist the line up if you use the cheaper swivels. The single hook and lack of a pivot point at the base of the hook makes fish pull hooks often and be prone to short strikes (when a fish bites and stays on for a few seconds before pulling the hook). In terms of colors, they all work pretty well, but some days they might prefer the lighter versus the darker or natural plugs. Last year my deckhand Cody pulled a funky green and orange pattern plug out of his bag from years past. We got six fish in a row on that plug. So, I started throwing more funny plugs out. They started biting every plug in the water. So crazy colors can work, but the action is usually what makes them get bit. In short, I only run cedar plugs when the fish are being picky. I’m desperate for bites. You should keep a few in your arsenal. Try fishing them if you’re not getting many bites on clones. They can be a magic ticket from time to time.

Spreader Bars/ Spreader Birds?

Side planning spreader bars are a great way to add more lines to your spread and are sort of the “new” thing to the sport fishery for the West Coast. Some days they do a great job of picking up fish when the bite is slow. I used run the 18″ sterling tracker bars, and they work great for getting bites. I took the idea of a spreader bar and shrunk it down into a single bird (see below) to avoid the downsides of the bar. There are two main downsides to spreader bars: they foul up and roll in choppy weather when going too fast, and they are a real pain to reel in. I typically run them on my bluefin setups with a Mak50 or Mak30 and a Seeker 2X. They aren’t the most fun to reel in, even on the big rods, but they work really well some days and typically catch some big fish. If the fish are biting wide open, the spreader bars do get removed from the spread pretty quickly as they take too long to reel in, even with the crazy oversized rod, and I prefer the quicker and easier options and its the reason i made the spreader bird I talk about below.

Spreader Bird Prototyping End of 2025 season

I’m also very deep into prototyping a 3D printed spreader bird with a lead ballast that may reduce or replace the need for spreader bars. These are going to be a big-time game changer once I get them fully perfected, and they are in the trial phase currently and have been working amazing. So far they’ve proven to be EXTREAMLY effective at hooking fish and can even hold up in some pretty nasty weather. They are also super easy to reel in once you hook a fish. They can even run in front of your wake. You can run several of them on each side without tangling.

These should be a massive change to your spread and will really allow you to run significantly more rods without tangles. I’ve actually bumped my spread up to over 22 troll lines total using these just to see what’s possible, its a bit much for a sport boat but for many folks being able to go from 6 to 8 or even 10 lines will make a huge difference. Ill be posting more about these as I get them perfected with materials and production. Below is a video of a green bird with a pink daisy chain behind it. The bird provides action and a lot of side planing ability, keeping the clone just in front of the boat wake.

The Spread/ Rod layout

I’ve been known to be a bit aggressive with my albacore spread. Most guys think I’m insane when I say I can fit nearly 20 rods on a boat with a 10′ beam. I believe you should run as many lines as you can effectively handle. Your goal is to run as many lures as close together as you can get without tangling. The reason for this is that you’ll likely get multiple hookups as fish rush into a certain area of your spread. If your entire spread is in one clump, the fish will enter a feeding frenzy in that zone, and many rods can hook up at once. SINGLE FISH HOOKUPS ARE A SIGN SOMETHING IS WRONG. If you get singles, you need to tighten your spread. Adjust your speed or try something different. Singles mean that 99% of the fish looking at your spread are not willing to bite. Usually, I have about a 5 to 10-foot separation of clones, but I tighten them if I’m getting singles. To check the distance of your clones, grab the rod, hold it above your head, and yank on it. The clone should skip out of the water. If you notice two rods hooking up, try clumping as many clones as possible near that region to pick up more fish per stop. If you run them too close, they will tangle. Experiment with distances and check your lines frequently to stay tangle-free.

I typically run one side of the boat with lighter color clones (zucchini/green & yellow, white). The other side features darker colors (purple/mex flag) and some random colors. If the fish favor one side, I switch colors on the other side.

On our 28′ Parker with a tuna tower, I can run a max of about 23 lines with my experienced deckhand before things get messy. Most of the time, I run 15 to 19 lines to keep things sane, but if the weather is bad, I drop to 13 lines.

For those late-season bites, having more rods fishing can make a big difference. It’s common to get only one or two stops per day, so if you can catch 8 to 12 fish near 30 lbs per stop, that’s great. However, if you’re tangling and losing valuable trolling time, you might be running too many rods or turning too tightly. Your lines should cross when you turn. A little vertical separation helps your lines “swing” over one another without tangling. Many folks fish 6 to 10 rods for 2 or 3 people and do well, so don’t feel the need to overdo it when learning. I usually have 8 people total on my boat, so we have plenty of hands ready to help when things get busy. If you’re new, start with 5 to 6 rods and 2 handlines. If you’re experienced but running fewer rods, add some side planing setups like spreader bars or hopefully my spreader birds and a few more rods. Pushing your limits with as many rods as possible helps on slower days.

Believe it or not, you have 3 dimensions to work with while trolling. You can go side to side, closer or further, and use diver boards on your handlines to achieve depth from the surface. I’ll cover handlines and diver boards in another section, but diver boards provide depth that you can’t easily get while trolling. Diving lures like Xraps/DTX minnows work good some days but tend to tangle and can be a big hassle to untangle if they do get caught up. I prefer the diver boards but anything that goes deep will get the job done. The rest of your lines have side to side and distance from the boat options. Try different patterns to see what works best for your boat. Every boat fishes differently, and I’ll highlight a few patterns I run on our Parker 25 and 28. They both fish differently, needing unique spreads for effective fishing. I have different rod holder options. The heavier 28 Parker creates a different wake. I have outriggers on the 25, but none on the 28; however, it has a tuna tower that gives a lot of vertical separation on rods.

Here’s the parker 25 with the outriggers.

As you can see, the lines are all pretty close to each other, but the use of angled rod holders and longer rods in the 90 mid-deck position gives just enough separation to avoid tangles. As I mentioned, during good bites, the spreader bars are removed, then the outriggers if things are getting really crazy, as they take more time to reset. I’m hoping the Yozuri side planers or my DIY spreader birds will really help with this, as I’ve only had one day with them to test them out. In rough weather, I often run a single spreader bar on each side and spread the lines a little further apart. My handlines remain constant at about 45 feet back. You can adjust the entire spread closer to the boat or further from the boat as you’d like, and often, if the fish are aggressive, I’ll run my close rods on the 1st or 2nd wake. If you are getting bit on your back rods, then move the entire spread back and clump them all together, as you don’t want any outlier lures since it will likely only produce single hookups for you.

Here’s my more aggressive Spread on the 28 parker without outriggers.

As you can see, 17 rods with no outriggers is really playing with fire and requires some precision turning of the boat and careful attention to detail on the set. I can actually squeeze in two more rods off the deck rails between the 45 degree and 90 degree rod holders if I want to go crazy and another 2 or 3 per side via spreader birds. The tuna tower makes a massive difference in providing that vertical separation between rods and giving me a higher perspective and allowing me to watch the clones and lines cross each other while I’m turning the boat. Ultimately, I will be mounting 20′ outriggers and running 2 more lines per outrigger, but this spread has proven to be pretty damn effective. So in short, try to run a lot of rods and, most importantly, try not to get tangled while doing so. Also, you don’t need to wait for tuna season to practice this; bring a few extra rods and practice trolling around on a rockfish trip; you will get a feel for your boat without wasting real tuna fishing time.

Trolling Speed

I typically troll from 4 to 8 knots and will vary the speed often to see if the fish are interested in a specific speed that day. If you find something that works, stick with it for a little while before going back to varying the speed. If you notice they bite on a speed change, or slowing down, then try to repeat that often. If you have twin engines, you can even mess with individual RPMs, but typically when they are synced is when you will do best, as albacore have an amazing sense of vibration, and your engines are a major attractor while trolling. Some days, big inboard diesels catch better; some days, little 90hp single gas outboards kill them while no one else can catch anything. It’s annoying, but every boat will sound a bit different to the fish, and you can be struggling right next to a boat with the right hum that’s knocking them dead. It does make you feel good when you’re on the knocking dead side, though, and all the boats are struggling around you, and it can switch throughout the day, so don’t get discouraged if you’re not catching well near a boat that is. Typically, the sweet spot is around 6 knots for many boats, but I’ve had days when they won’t bite below 7 knots and days when we hammered them at 4 knots. Know that if you’re getting singles, you should be adjusting your speed; you’re either too fast, too slow, or not doing something right, as tuna are usually in schools, and the other 100 fish that aren’t biting don’t like something about your setup.

Troll Dragging Albacore Tuna

A key concept to having big albacore landings is knowing how long to “drag” the fish at trolling speed after you get a bite. In very simple terms, under the right conditions, a good rule of thumb is about 15 seconds after you get your last bite. So if you get a bite, then drag count to 15; if you get another bite, start over and count down from 15. Now unless you’re using heavy rods, you can really lose a lot of line quickly. So this is where having heavier rods comes into play. Usually after a bite, I’ll have my deckhand walk over and bump up the drag if the line is screaming off, but if it’s barely coming out, then the drag can stay where it’s at. If you get to the point where your reel is looking too empty, then stop the boat, or you can always try to take 5 or 10 seconds to slow down the boat, as some days I’ve had really good luck slowing down to 4 knots and picking up additional fish while dragging. One critical aspect is when you get bit on your far back rods or outriggers. You don’t have to drag as long. Typically, I will only do 5 to 10 seconds to avoid getting a bunch of line stretched out. This prevents taking forever to reel the fish in. Oftentimes, that means the school is already far away from the boat. You want to get hit on your closer rods right off the boat, then the fish will slowly start stacking on your further rods as the school moves away from the boat. It doesn’t always work that way, but just know to drag the closer fish longer and the further rods less.

Jigging/ The conversion from Trolling to Jigs

Catching albacore on jigs is the most exciting type of fishing you can do in my opinion. You get a strong fight, the fun of holding the rod and the fast action all at once. Getting albacore on the jig can be pretty tricky for many folks, as I struggled with it until I spent a few years in Oregon where its a lot more common that in Norcal. Similar technique applies to live bait for the few ports that have access to it, just instead of a jig use a 1/0 or smaller circle hook.

Gear setup

The most critical thing I learned I was doing wrong for jigging was using trolling rods like a jigging rod. For tossing jigs you want a lightweight rod, with a soft tip that matches the weight of the jig. Some rods like the shimano trevalla will have a recommended jig weight on the rod, but often I’ve found its kind of a go by feel thing, you want the rod to have a pretty good bend when your retrieving the jig or actually giving it a jigging action. For line I typically run 40 to 60lb braid with a 4 to 6 foot flouro topshot. Most days I will run 30 or 40lb floruo and not have issues, some days I’ve found dropping down to 25lb or even 20lb will increase the number of bites. If they are hungry then they will hit anything but 30lb is typically my go-to. For jigs I’ve started running the Farallon Outfitter tungsten Jigs. They are spendy but will put you in the zone quickly without tangles. All the sizes work but the 160 and 200 work best.

When to Send Jigs

Typically I focus on trolling and just fish “the slide” until I get about 30 fish in the boat, or when everyone is happy with the number of fish we have. The “slide” means the boat stays in gear at an idle and you deploy jigs while reeling in the troll fish. You can do really well fishing the slide and its a good compromise of jig and troll fish, Ill send a jig down on every stop, if the jig gets hit keep sending more back. Jigging is not always a fast way of putting fish in the boat, but often a lot more fun.

Straight Jigging

To go to straight jigs with the boat in neutral you need a decent bite, you should be getting 3 to 5 fish hookups back to back within a few minutes. The most important thing you will want to see is small red specs on your sounder right after getting bites, that means the fish are interested in your boat and following along typically at 50 to 150 feet below. Albacore leave small marks on sonar, but you can defiantly see them chasing the boat, and when that happens is often when you will do well on jigs. Chum will keep the fish interested in the boat. They arnt picky, anything fishy will do.

If your interested in just jigging all day or planning on switching to just jigs for fun after loading the boat down with troll fish you will need to run a few rods to locate a school of fish. Once I’m dead set on deploying a bunch of jig’s I drop down to 4 total troll rods and 2 handlines, with all of the lines close to the boat about 50 to 70 feet back. I run the heavy troll rods, and set the drags very stiff. The fish you hook trolling will act like a decoy and you want it staying close to the boat, so stop the boat within a few seconds of getting bit. Make sure you have a jig rod setup for everyone on the boat and in a accessible spot, when you hookup you need to get the jigs back fast. If you have chopped herring, squid, anchovy or anything for chum start tossing right when you get bit, a little goes a long way. Ignore the troll fish and let it hang and attract other fish while you send jigs back. Once you hook a jig fish or two then someone can crank in the troll fish and get them out of the way and let the jig fish act as the decoy.

Jig Technique

There’s a few methods of jigging I like, but honestly, the only rule is to keep the jig moving as fast as possible.

The foolproof way is the Baja-style Yoyo, which consists of 30 to 60 seconds of free fall (or your best guess to a little past the depth of where the fish are on your screen), then retrieving as fast as possible and repeating until you hook up on a fish or your arm stops working. This is a foolproof method and great for clients and is super effective for hooking fish.

Another method is the traditional rockfish jig. Go to a depth and jig the rod up and down, really focus on loading up the rod and allowing it to slingshot up the jig many feet in one stroke. Constantly change depths and keep an eye on the screen for any new fish showing at certain depths; marked lines are good to keep your jig near or above the fish you’re seeing on the screen. Typically, I do a combo of jigging and yoyoing. I’ll do a few yoyo drops, then a few jigs on the way up, then repeat. Seventy-five percent of the bites you’ll get will be on the drop; it will feel like you hit bottom you’ll miss most of those fish. Keep a finger on the drag, and when it stops dropping, slam the drag and reel hard into the fish and get tight as fast as possible. On the retrieve the fish will often stay on the hook a lot better. Don’t worry about setting the hooks, as they set just fine once the line is tight. The SoCal guys have figured out a whole science in terms of reeling into fish. They prefer this method over swinging the rod up into the fish. I follow their method since they are the jig experts, and it seems to hook a lot more fish vs trying to swing the rod into the fish. You’ll see guys doing these crazy, awkward multiple tug hook sets in videos when tuna fishing. The best thing you can do is get the line tight on the fish and keep it that way.

Surface iron fishing is probably the most exciting method; it’s simply like any other topwater fishing. Using Tady’s, poppers, or anything else fishy, just cast it out there and retrieve back at a pretty fast speed, every surface lure has its own retrieve speed where it has a good swimming action. When the fish hit, it’s one of my favorite bites in the world. You have to have a pretty wide open bite for this method to work consistently, so save it for the days you’re looking to have fun. Typically, deeper fishing jigs from 50 to 100 feet are going to get bit a lot more often.

Albacore Rods and Reels

With high speed trolling for bluefin I’m very picky about my rods and reels, with albacore I kind of run whatever the clients and I are both feeling that day. A heavier 2 speed setup with 80 or 100lb line will catch you a lot more fish compared to a light single speed setup with 40lb or 60lb. Early in the season when your catching 10lb fish, this is not the most exciting method but you will land a lot more tuna if that’s what your looking for. If your looking to have fun with the 10lbers then your perfectly fine running your 30lb salmon/ inshore rockfish set up and really getting to fight the fish for more than 5 minutes. When there are a mixed grade of fish I often mix my rods with some heavy rods in the back, and some lighter rods closer to the boat. When the big fish are around I go a little heavier on my setups but its a personal preference. All of my rods have 60lb or above test, and mostly 80 or 100lb test to give us the ability to drag the fish at trolling speed for at least 30 seconds and not let them peel a hundred yards of line out. All of my trolling rods have at least 100′ of mono top shots usually matching or above the braided line strength for abrasion resistance incase the lines cross, this is critical as one braided line can become a knife across all of your mono lines under tension if you get a wild fish. Its also way easier to untangle mono instead of braid. I also set the drag just stiff enough you can barely hand pull line off the reel while trolling, then after a fish strikes I will bump it up to roughly 25% of the line capacity, I don’t use a scale on most of my smaller albacore gear so its kind of a go by feel thing usually but a scale set drag can be helpful on the heavier setups if your anticipating on some bigeye or very large 40+lb albacore to be in the area.

Light Troll/Jig Stick

Avet SX or MX Raptor spooled with 50lb on trevalla medium fast medium heavy rod.

This combo is great for everything from tuna to salmon, rockcod and halibut. It will kill almost any albacore but a 30lber is going to take a while to get to the boat after dragging for 20 seconds and your going to spend a lot of valuable fishing time fighting a bigger fish. I like the raptor as its a 2 speed and the dual drags seem to last a lot longer than the single drag avet systems. A single drag MX and up will provide plenty of stopping power though you just need to replace them more often. I’m usually a very hardcore American made blanks and wraps only guy but I do bend the rules for the trevalla, as they are pretty impressive little rods for how light they are and hold up to the abuse well. I do like my Seekers and Calstars for the heavier applications though.

Medium Troll/ All around Albacore Troll setup

Okuma Alijos 14II spooled with 80lb on a seeker 6460

I have 14 of these seeker rods being wrapped with reels on order, I believe its truly the happy medium where you feel the fish fight, but can also put the screws to them and get them to the boat in a hurry when its time to get to business. I love my heavy setups but this is kind of the best of both worlds and many folks appreciate the feel of the lighter setups. You also have enough drag and line strength to drag the fish around while at trolling speed for longer.

Heavy Albacore Troll/ All Around West coast Troll rods

Now my two personal favorite setups.

Avet HX Raptor with 100lb on a Calstar Baby Boomer JR

Makaira 15N Special Edition with 80lb on Seeker 6455

These are absolute killer combos and my two personal favorite all around setups. I’ve landed everything from big wahoo, yellowfin, Bluefin, Pargo, yellowtail, albacore to pacific halibut, ling and many more on my HX raptor. Its a effective combo and still fun to fight 20lb albacore or a 75lb wahoo. We even landed a 400lb salmon shark on this setup pushing over 30lbs of drag for nearly an hour straight. The Makiara 15N is new to me and I bought a bunch of them at a good price, but so far appears to be an excellent combo that I expect to perform even slightly better than my favorite HX raptor. They both have a lot of stopping power without feeling to big or bulky like a 30lb class setup. Im also a huge fan of the classic short 5.5′ to 6′ rods for tuna, you get far better leverage to lift the fish and it save your arms significantly.

30lb class Overkill Albacore / Light Bluefin Troll / Bigeye Setups

Makaria 30 on Super Seeker 2X

Avet 30 On calstar 40 to 100lb rod

These setups are far overkill for albacore, but make for good rods to run your spreader bars on, or to toss in if there’s rumors of bigeyes in the area. Keep in mind even with a 30lb class setup 2 years ago, It took us over 50 minutes to land a small 120lb bigeye at 30+lbs of drag, they are a wicked mean fish compared to whimsy bluefin, you really want to be running as many 50s as possible for bigeye but a 30 will seal the deal with a lot of work. Our jumbo 250lb Bigeye took over an hour on a seeker 4x with a Makiara 50 at 60lbs of drag so a 30 may not land every bigeye you hook into but its better than nothing. I usually run a 30lb or 50lb class setup for my spreader bars, as I mentioned they are a pain to reel in and a big rod makes it easier. This isn’t a lightweight or fun rod to reel albacore in on, but it will put meat in the boat and do it quickly.

Spinning Rods/ Jigging Rods

I don’t have much specific on spinning rods, As I use a complete mismatch of stuff for jigging and really just a lot of our rockfish rods. Some heavy, some light and occasionally some way to light gear gets tossed out when we get the jig bite going and often I decide to see if my bass rod can handle a tuna. Basically since the boat isn’t moving you don’t need a ton of line or stopping power to land fish, but it all comes down to how fast you are looking to get fish into the boat. You also want a rod with a light tip as that makes a huge difference in the action of the jig as I will go over in the jigging section. To be honest any setup with 150 yards of 30 or 40lb braid will do the job, if your running jigs then usually your already having fun and not planning on killing fish in a hurry so bring your favorite inshore setup out there and jig it until the drags burn out of it. A sx raptor or alijos 5II on a lightweight trevalla or jigging rod is a pretty fun setup, and you can button the drag down when you decide play time is over and get the fish in the boat quickly. I run about 4′ of 30lb flourocarbon for jigging. For live bait sometimes a small hook and 20lb test is required if the fish are being super picky, in that case you will want a rod with a little more line capacity.

Albacore Handlines

Handlines are something that is truly special to albacore, and can be a lot of fun. you can run as many handlines as you like instead of rods, but most folks run 2 off their stern on the D rings or rear cleats. You can rig your own, but the pre-made 250 lb handlines work plenty fine. I do cut them down to about 45′ long. Handlines are a fast way to throw fish in the boat and most commercial albacore boats only run handlines, as you really don’t need to slow the boat down at all to get the fish in. I typically run super heavy clones from Englund’s marine, the heavier the better. Or I will run standard clones attached to the size 9 yozuri diver boards. As mentioned they work really well but can be a bit of a pain to spot when a fish bite sometimes, so check them often. Here’s a good video on how to set up the diver boards to run a lot better than the original rigging they come with.

I also run 250lb or greater mono leaders on my handlines, to prevent any chance of breaking If a big albacore bites. If bigeye tuna are around you should avoid running handlines, as they love to snap them off when they are in town. If you snap a 250lb or heavier handline then usually its a Mako shark or bigeye and if multiple boats are reporting snapped handlines means its time to start thinking about breaking out the heavier trolling gear and removing your handlines from the water.

Circling Back on The fish

As with most school fish, after you get a bite, it’s smart to circle back to the spot where you got bit once your gear is back in the water. Save a mark on the GPS immediately after getting a bite. The exception is if you see bait or birds working nearby. In that case, chase whatever you see, as the bulk of the fish is typically under the bait the birds are pursuing. In 90% of cases, if you don’t see anything on the surface, circle back to your GPS marks as soon as possible. You can often work an area for hours and still get bites in the same general location. Having a well-set spread allows you to turn tighter without tangling. It takes time and experience to figure out how tight you can turn your spread. I usually work an area for about 30 minutes before considering moving on, unless I have information or believe there are better grounds elsewhere. My GPS often looks like a mess of circles as I search for better bites, but I revisit my original hotspot now and then. You may notice a pattern of the fish moving in a certain direction. If your marks shift that way, continue to work the area in front of where you receive bites. Remember, currents offshore can move quickly, and nothing stays still in several thousand feet of water. As you can see, the fish are moving from west to east. When I get a bite, I will turn around. I will work the spot before continuing in the direction I think the school is moving. I do this for about a quarter mile before looping back to the original spot.

Other days your GPS is a mess as shown below. The most important thing you can do to put more albacore in your cooler is to focus on why your getting a bite in that location, then try your best to repeat the same scenario. It’s not always possible. However, any type of pattern recognition in terms of location is significant. It will have a much higher effect over fancy gear and using the right type or color lures. You will notice patterns over days and years. Keep an eye on those as they are always changing. Even the smallest difference can make or break a tough day. Commercial boats can typically only troll a straight line or subtle turns. Us little sport boats can do tight circles. This gives us a huge advantage. Use that advantage and put some brain power into where you want to position your boat.

Gaffing Albacore

Gaffing albacore can be a bit tricky at first. People often mess it up and ruin a lot of meat. They may also make a mess of their boat. The fact is that you really don’t need to gaff that many fish with a huge tuna gaff. It all depends on how big the tuna is, how well they are hooked and how desperate you are for the fish. If they are biting wide open and the fish are under 15lbs, then don’t use a gaff at all. Grab the leader about a foot away from the hook and swing the fish over the rail with one swift and smooth motion. Its the ideal way since you don’t make a mess with blood spraying everywhere, but you may knock off about one in every 25 fish, so its not a flawless approach. If the fish is between 10 to 25lbs or you are in really not wanting to gamble the chance of loosing them, then you go to a spike gaff. Englund’s marine used to sell nice pick gaffs for $5, commercial salmon gaffs work as well and are easy. You essentially grab the line and bring the fish to your hand then pick the fish in the head to bring it over the rail. Minimal blood and mess, take a few more seconds but works well. See the video Below, as our deckhand Cody makes a smooth and quick pick on a decent sized albacore.

When you start hooking into larger albacore over 25lbs, typically the hook gaff comes out as swinging fish over 15lbs usually results in a lot of fish being lost and spiking can be tricky as the fish don’t come to the surface as nicely. most guys go for a huge bluefin style hook but short 4′ to 5′ gaff with a 3″ hook is far more accurate and you will have less chance of striking the loins on the fish. Here’s Cody performing a perfect belly gaff on about a 25lb fish, no meat lost and no bloody shower with a well placed gaff to the pectoral fin. A gill or body shot often results in a shower of blood covering the boat and everyone nearby and body shots will cost you meat. Misses and blood happen from time to time, but keeping it minimal will make your day go smoother.

Cooling and Handling Albacore Tuna

The most important thing you can do with albacore, is to bleed and cool them properly. albacore Will heat up to pretty high temps will fighting so you need to drop those temps rapidly, this is where a little heavier rod and reel will actually allow you to spend less time fighting the fish and keep the internal temp of the fish lower throughout the day. If albacore are not bled and cooled quickly, you will never want to eat them again, as it turns mushy and fishy quickly, while a properly handled albacore will be extremely mild and flakey when cooked. Your process should be knock, Bleed, Slurry, Gut (if storing whole for multiple days) then Ice pack for storage.

How much Ice to Bring

Like the rod spread, every boat has a unique setup for handling and storing tuna. Typically you want a several large coolers and or kill bags and one lb of Ice per lb of Fish caught minimum. Usually I plan on 750 lbs of ice for 750lbs of whole fish, which works out to around 36 mid size fish for 6 clients, that’s just enough to keep the fish covered until we get back to the dock, If I get a group who can handle a lot of fish and want a big batch to can we will bring 1000lbs and go for larger landings with 50+ fish if possible. Most people will have a years supply of canned tuna at 10 fish per person, but at the same time its hard to drive away from a wide open bite. Keep your expectations reasonable for the amount of fish you really want to deal with back home, as its very easy to catch more albacore than you will ever know what to do with.

Knocking/ Bleeding Albacore

Once the fish is on board Spike/ hammer head, there’s a sweet spot a little behind the eyes on top that will do it. It takes very little force to knock out a tuna unlike lings or halibut that take a sledgehammer. I often use a set of pliers and even a rodholder on the boat will work if you hit the right spot if I dont have the spike gaff in my hand.

Next is to Rip a handful of gills as your sliding into a slurry. Some guys like to cut or use a big set of scissors to open the gills, but I’ve had great luck just grabbing a handful of gills and giving them a big twist, just keep in mind tuna blood loves to cause pretty nasty infections so wash your hands well throughout the day and if your hands are getting to shredded doing this then go for the knife or scissors. You don’t need to remove all of the gills, just tear a good chunk of them out to get the blood flowing. As mentioned, I recommend doing this while sliding into the slurry as when the blood reaches their tail it will start to rain blood in every place imaginable.

Ice Slurry

You will want to set up your slurry mix when you start fishing. Usually, I set the rods, then get a slurry going. You’re adding a lot of water weight to your boat, so no need to waste fuel running out to the grounds with a cooler full of water. For the slurry, you will want something with a small removable lid that you can quickly toss fish into and shut the lid. The second the albacore hit that bloody slurry water, it’s a full-on shower for the entire boat with an open lid, even if the fish are knocked out. I use my large 90-gallon livewell on our Parker 28 for a slurry, and the bigger Igloo with the open mini center lid on my Parker 25. Both of them work great. You don’t need much water at first, maybe half full of whatever your slurry cooler/container is, then add about 6″ of floating ice. If you have any floating ice after a few minutes, your slurry should be plenty cold; sticking your hand in there will result in a pretty sharp pain after a few seconds, and that is when it’s ready for fish. Adding salt helps to keep the temps lower by a hair, but it is not necessary by any means, and I have never found a real difference in fish quality by adding salt. The more ice you can fit into your slurry bin, the better, but you want water underneath the ice, so don’t go too crazy with the ice and leave room. You will want to make sure your slurry always has at least some ice remaining at all times. Keep adding ice and checking throughout the day, as a few big hot fish can burn through several bags of ice. Once the slurry is full, then they go straight to gutting, then ice for packing; I leave the fish in the slurry as long as possible. Some days when the fishing is slow, the fish will spend hours in the slurry, but usually when it’s good fishing, I will try to at least go first in, first out by feeling the temps inside the body cavity. Just know if you leave your fish in the slurry for a long time that they will appear a little beat up for photos, as the ice tears the scales off them, but it doesn’t cause any harm to the meat. Here’s a quick video of what the boat looks like about 30 fish into the day; the slurry is full, and the fish start moving into the below-deck fish hold on packed ice as the slurry fills up.

Gutting

If your storing the fish on ice for a few days, grab all of the gills through the side of the gill plate with the throat in there too , twist and pull and the stomach, liver and heart all come out in one pull. It might take some practice to get quick with it and not tear it off. A good slurry will cool the guts and all in a hurry, so we don’t usually gut if the clients are wanting us to clean them day off catching. But gutting is defiantly needed for storing fish over night one Ice which I usually recommend doing is possible as the meat firms up much better and your cuts will be far cleaner.

Ice Packing

This is simple, Start stacking fish and adding as much ice as you can. The more Ice the better. Make sure if your storing fish for a long period of time that the plugs re removed from the cooler to allow for drainage, if you keep the fish well iced the will last for a week without issue.

Processing

I will be making some videos showing how to fillet tuna, but for now here’s someone else showing pretty similar to how I do it. Its very fast once you get a rhythm, I can do about a fish every 90 seconds when I get rolling. 60 Fish still does take a while though. Make sure to remove any dark red bloodline before consumption or storage, its fishy and nasty.

One key thing is with tuna is to put paper towels or some kind of absorbent in the bag if your going to leave them for a few days to keep the juices from sitting, As the meat will get a bit soft and fishy if left wet.

You can also just chop the head, and tail off then wrap the whole fish in newspaper and toss it in the freezer whole. Its honestly the best way to store tuna if your capable of doing so, it taste great for many months, but this method takes a lot of freezer room so its not always ideal. Canning is typically the preferred way to store albacore for most folks, and how 90% of all albacore is consumed. Albacore makes great poke and sashimi as well, its a very versatile fish and can be consumed in just about any form and be good, my favorite is the recipe below.

Cooking Albacore: My favorite shish-kabob

Here’s my favorite albacore recipe. I want to start by saying I’m not a chef; I’m spoiled with nearly unlimited fresh fish and lots of wild game, but I’m also very simple-minded in the kitchen. There are so many things you can do with albacore, like other types of tuna. But here is my simple-minded favorite; it’s so good I even spent a night in the emergency room for eating it so often (13 days straight for 3 meals a day) while in college. So don’t eat only tuna for more than 12 days; otherwise, you may have issues with gallbladder failure and heavy metals off the charts.

You will need:

• Tuna!
• BBQ skewers
• Thin-sliced bacon
• Some good marinade such as sweet teriyaki, sweet chili, garlic, or any mild marinade that works well on fish. I’m always trying new things, but the sweet chili or Veri Veri Teri are both old-time favorites.
• Onions/mushrooms/bell peppers/whatever else you like on shish kabob; you can go plain tuna and bacon as well.
• A BBQ

Prep:

Make sure all bloodlines are trimmed.

Cut loins into strips as wide as the bacon, then wrap with bacon.

Place bacon-wrapped loins onto skewers with onion/mushrooms placed in the middle. (In college, I passed on the onions since that required going to the store, but porcini mushrooms were free if they were in season; portobellas are usually the go-to, though.)

Set the skewer in a tray and cover tuna in marinade for 1 to 6 hours, depending on the potency of the marinade and how strong you want it to be. Regularly mix around and coat the top of the skewers. I leave the tray in the fridge for usually about 3 hours of marinade time with regular turning and mixing.

Cooking:

Get your BBQ pretty hot. If it’s a pellet grill, then go full temp; for charcoal or gas, you want it hot but beware that the fat from the bacon and tuna will flame up quite a bit, which is okay since it will crisp up that bacon and get a good sear on the tuna. You don’t want to completely scorch them; otherwise, the bacon gets a funky taste, and the onion doesn’t get cooked fully.

Cook until the bacon is thoroughly cooked and the tuna is just barely raw in the center. You will see the color change; you want a little bit of that translucence showing. If you overcook it, then it will dry very quickly and taste terrible, but there is a happy medium when it’s flaky yet not dry. I prefer it a little on the more raw side.

Your Prepared to be an Expert!

For those of you that read this far down, you should know nearly everything needed to go catch some albacore tuna! Keep your eye for good weather, warm water, and cross your fingers for another year of bloody decks and full coolers!