LAST EDITED ON Oct-03-00 AT 12:19 PM (PST)

I have fished tuna the past few years on both the sea hawk and other party boats. One KEY factor in getting bit that I have seen time in and time out, being able to get your bait AWAY from the boat. I have a friend who strictly fishes long rods, 8.5 feet and up. He gets beat up pretty badly on the fish, but generally has 2 or more to everybodys elses fish. Get the livestly, greenest bait, I like to collar or anal hook them to get them to swim away from the boat.

Also, LISTEN!! If you hear that they are crashing on the bow, drop your bait, grab your jig stick, or grab a lively sardine so you can cast it further, and hustle up to the bow. The key to my getting 5 fish on my last tuna trip - even though I was filming my buddies catching them, and also filming Chris from the landing fight a bluefin for over an hour and 15 minutes, was that I hustled.

"Fish Crashing on the BOW!!" Run up there and get one fish here, one fish there when the bite is spotty. Remember you may only get one stop that will open wide open, so be ready to trade up in line class, all the way up to 60 lbs. You may only get 20 or so minutes to put the fish on as they rush the boat. This is the time to put your two or three fish on board! Inversly, if you the bite is seeming to fade you may want to get that last fish so be ready to drop down.

Make sure, that if you can, you bring a 20, 25, 30, 40, lb set ups, I also like to bring 50, 60 adn 80lb setups if the bigger stuff shows up, and 16 and 12 lb setups ( freshwater bass rods with abu garcias 5500's) This has saved me on more than one occasion. Remember, you are paying top dollar for a top fishing experience. What if the big bluefin 100 lb + show up, will you be ready, or the one who got spooled. This will only happen a 'finite' number of times. Be ready. As for the 12 lb setup, I was on a Ronnie Kovach Fising School ( don't ask, I won the trip in a raffle) had about 35-40 anglers and staff on board. I show up with my full quiver of rods ( not shiney gold and silver reels and new shiney black rods but setups I put together while deckhanding, a rod here, a reel there) Well the staff and a few other anglers began to give me a hard time about my 'fresh water gear' Little did they know that the grade of fish we were looking at were all 10-12 lb bluefin. I had fished them four days before. Long story short, out of 35-40 people fishing, I had 5 bluefin out of a total count of 65 fish. The fish were super line shy. The only reason I didnt have more was that it took me time to get the fish in. Every bait I dropped, I got bit on. I also used circle hooks to corner hook the fish. I didnt lose any fish that trip.....

Another thing, spend the extra 20 minutes to let your line drag behind the boat on the way out. This does two things, it takes out any spin in the line, straightening it, and it also wet-packs your line on your reel, both inhibiting backlashes and "line-crunch" These are no 3 lb calicos. The fish are getting to be bigger, and any little mistake that you may get away with a smaller fish, DRASTICLY reduces the chance of landing fish. Line that is old, or not well packed, will be 'bit' down by the pressure of the running fish and you can cut your self off at the reel or give yourself a mini backlash, again causing a weak link that may fail.

Good luck - Tight lines and burnt drags.

MAKE SURE THAT YOU KNOW HOW TO SHORT PUMP YOUR FISH - it has made the difference for me from a 50 minute 50 lb bulefin - to a 3 MINUTE 56 LB Bluefin on 30 pound test! Post if you want me to elaborate on short pumping.