Inshore Tuna Tactics . . .(continued)

Fishing to Bait

When sight fishing, it is sometimes possible to lead a fish by judging its direction, speed and depth. Unfortunately, the speed and erratic course of bonito and albacore makes this approach useless. In fact, probably the surest way to cast to barren wat er is to cast where fish were breaking only seconds earlier.

Another common approach in fly fishing is to fish to likely looking water. Striper fisherman who ply "holes" in the surf, or snook fisherman who make repeated blind casts to mangrove shorelines know how productive this technique can be. Bonito and albac ore, however, are accustomed to relatively featureless open water and are designed to chase rather than ambush their prey. With the exception of fishing open water rips, where pelagic species can still make use of their primary weapon of speed to their a dvantage, fishing to water is rarely the most productive strategy.

The one element which will concentrate these speedsters is bait, and this should be the fly rodder's focus. Since I found out the hard way that chasing fish is more frustration than it is worth, my strategy for fly fishing bonito and albacore entails anc horing my boat in a position where I will be able to cast into schools of sand eels. Though bonito and albacore will at best confine themselves to an area only measurable in acres, large schools of the small tuna's favorite baitfish such as sand eels and siversides, will often hold near a ledge or breakwater for extended periods. While they may move laterally along the ledge or be chased off it by predators, they can be expected to return with reasonable regularity. This gives the angler a reasonably s tationary target.

The waters outside of Edgartown and Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard, and around the jetties at Nantucket Harbor have areas that consistently hold large schools of sand eels and silversides in the months of August and September. The prospecting angler sho uld look for terns that confine themselves to a regular pattern. The birds are probably circling over bait which is too deep for them to catch. Anchor your boat upwind of these areas and used polarized glasses to find schools of bait in the water. You may have to fine tune your positioning to find a spot close to which bait will return, but your patience will pay handsome dividends. When you do maneuver, be considerate of others who are fishing around you. Positioning yourself two casts away from you r neighbor is a good rule of thumb.