Top 5 Mistakes

You Make When Night Jig Fishing for Bluefin Tuna

Written by BFT Staff

We have all been on a trip where nothing seems to be going right for us. Be it that our line snaps or we don't have the lure that's hot that trip. We have all experienced this one way or another while out on the water. Here are our top 5 mistakes we see on the water that could lead to a bad trip.

Not Fishing The Right Depth  

2 words METERED LINE: Time and time again we see many anglers knot fishing the right water column while Bluefin Jig Fishing at night. They are either fishing too high or too low in the water column. The reason they are not in the bite zone is because they don't have an accurate estimate of how far their jig has sunk. Drift, current and the shear rush of the drop makes it incredibly difficult to accurately guess the depth of your jig. The simple fix to this is to use METERED LINE.

What is a metered line ? Spectra that is marked at a specific point throughout the line itself. Depending which brand of line you purchase could determine how the line is marked. Some come with a marking every 25 ft , 50 ft or even 100 ft.

What do we recommend ? All our reels are spooled with Power Pro Depth Hunter OFFSHORE spectra. The reason we use this line is because it is marked with highly contrasting colors every 100 ft. But there is more to this braid. Not only is it marked with highly contrasting colors every 100 ft but also has a small black dash every 10 ft which helps you even more when it comes to fine tuning the depth you are fishing.

Not having the correct setup

DO NOT BRING A KNIFE TO A GUNFIGHT : On almost every trip we see some guys come on the boat with too light of gear for these bluefin tuna. It doesn't come by surprise that they have a hard time bringing in a fish when they do get bit. You could only have one productive stop in the entire trip so if it takes you 1 hr to bring in a fish because of the setup there goes your entire bite window.

What do we recommend ? When it comes to night time jigging for tuna you can go 2 routes; Rail rod or Jigging rod. Revert to our “Rail Rod Vs Jigging Rod : Which is right for you ?” Journal for an in depth dive on that. However to generalize we recommend a solid 80-100 pound out fit for the rail rod or a PE5 - PE10 jigging rod. A reel that can easily hold over 400 yards of 80lb spectra and some BFT jigs.

Rail Rod Recommendation - United Composites 76 Centaur or Calstar 775XH on the high end or Okuma PCH 74XH 60-100 on the lower end

Jigging Rod Recommendation- United Composites GPCXJ 6405 OR 6406 on the higher end or a Phenix megalodon 608-609

Rail Rod Reel Recommendations-  Shimano Talica 25ii or Daiwa Saltiga 60LD2

Jigging Reel- Shimano Ocea JIGGER 4000HG - Daiwa Saltiga 55Jp or 55ld2

Line - 80LB - 100LB Power Pro Depth Hunter OFFSHORE

Jigs - Light current situations use BFT Maguro knife jigs in 200-250 gram sizes.

 Heavy current situations use BFT Yorai jigs 300-500 grams

Using either too heavy or too light of a jig.

Does you jig swim away from you? Well if it does it may mean that the jig you are using is a little too light for the conditions that you may be facing.

One of our favorite ways of determining what size of jig to fish in what conditions is to use a simple rule known as the 1:1 ratio which will give you a darn good idea of what size to use.

What is the 1:1 Ratio ? What this means is FOR EVERY 1FT USE 1 GRAM. For example if the captain is calling for 300 feet it is pretty safe to say a 300 gram jig will work and same when it comes to 500 feet you'd be using a 500 gram jig

1FT/1G = W

Being on the wrong side of the boat.

Do you find yourself always in the prop or wrapped around someone else's line while fishing ? Well if this is you chances are that you are fishing the wrong side of the boat.

How do you know what side is right ? On every boat and on every stop of the night you'll hear the cap shout Port side or Starboard side which in simple terms means Left and Right. That alone will give you the direction you should be dropping your jig.

One thing we do that really helps us out is casting our jig up swell. We stand at the bow of the boat and cast our jig in front of the boat as far as we can and follow our jig under the boat. Don't be worried though just because it's under the boat doesn't mean you are on the wrong side; you just have to wait for the boat to drift slightly and BOOM you're in the zone.

Not spending enough time on the rail

After each stop throughout the night we start seeing less and less people on the rail. This is the biggest mistake one can make while jig fishing for tuna especially at night. Typically i grab as many cat naps as i can meanwhile the boat moves from spot to spot throughout the day but this is even more true at night since it's a race down not only amongst you and other other anglers on the boat but with the fish as well as they are swimming by and youre just trying to intercept them.

SIMPLE TERMS - FISH FISH FISH the more you fish the more your odds increase of catching a fish. YOU CANT GET BIT FROM YOUR BUNK.