Long Island Bluefin Tuna Bite

I know I should, but I can hardly sleep the night before a tuna trip.

That's how exciting tuna fishing is for me and in the month of May and June fishing for bluefin tuna has been real good.

And to top it off, we've witness a great spectacle of offshore life, that alone, is worth the trip. On a good day you can see hundreds of dolphins pushing bait and dozens of large whales joining in on the feast, it never gets old and a good sign that the tuna is near by.

But sometimes you can witness the ultimate in tuna fishing, bluefin tuna on the water surface, you can recognize them from far away by looking at the water, sometimes you'll see the distinguishable football shape of the tuna jumping out of the water or sometimes you'll see a flash of blue/silver and if you're lucky you'll see a full blown blitz of tuna jumping out of the water as they hunt baitfish to the top.

However often you hope that the top water action you see in the distance are tuna, but as you gun your boat towards the action you realize that is dolphins causing the mayhem.

Running the boat is tuna fishing expert, Ray Phelan, whose instinct and keen eyes seem to always locate the action. We fish mostly for tuna using spinning rods with poppers, stickbaits and jigs and so far this year the bite has been a mix of all of them. We had days when jigs were the only way to hook a tuna, but lately it has been all top water action, and casting a popper or stickbait into the feed has been the ticket.

In our recent trips the conditions for fly fishing for bluefin tuna have been perfect! The size of the tuna range from 35-45lbs and they have been feeding aggressively on the top. We came so, so very close to hooking one the fly but it missed by less than an inch. Heart breaker, but we'll be back at it and we're feeling pretty confident about hooking one of these tunas on the fly, stay tuned.

Ray Phelan Fly Fishing for Bluefin

Al Lescius Fly Fishing for Bluefin

In my next article I'll share the details of the gear and lures we use for top water bluefin tuna. If you want to go tuna fishing using poppers, stickbaits and jigs, give Capt. John McMurray a call. John is one of the best long island tuna fishing captains. One More Cast charters: https://nyctuna.com

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- Sergio

Sergio Diaz fishing with John McMurray