Yellowfin's ?

[Davy Holt]

Hiya,

 

Thanks to Ifish on Discovery, Linda (Orca) has decided she wants to try and catch a yellowfin Tuna. Since we have a shortage of them on the West coast.. can anyone suggest a good place to try without it costing an arm and a leg???

[frankthebass]

Would not a northan Irish blue fine do? or a southan Albacore?

[Norm B]

Hiya,

 

Thanks to Ifish on Discovery, Linda (Orca) has decided she wants to try and catch a yellowfin Tuna. Since we have a shortage of them on the West coast.. can anyone suggest a good place to try without it costing an arm and a leg???

Madeira, Ascencion Island, Costa Rica. TAKE YOUR PICK.

[Happy Dude]

davy,

 

kenya might only cost you a leg and a couple of fingers

 

let me know if you want more info....

 

me and tony had 40 odd in a day last march, fish in the 8-25lb range, at one point we had 9 fish on at the same time, each one of the bigger fish took about 70-80 yards of line and they left the 2 of us to wind them all in, you just landed one and they stuck another rod in your paw, knackering stuff in 100 degrees

 

i just booked my digs for next year, £650 for 13 nights full board inc flights from london and transfers from mombasa to watamu

[Norrie]

Loads of them off California !!!!!.... Digs in San Diego ...Free...fly from Manchester for about £4-500each, scheduled flight, forget those charter things !!!! transfer at either Chicago or Atlanta, straight to Lindbergh Field.....20 mins in car to Chula Vista, ...then 10 mins to fishing boat !!! Been there...done that !!!!

Edited November 27, 2006 by Norrie

[merlino bill]

OI OI,

scarbourough used to be good for tunny's

 

a long time a go

[Vagabond]

Hiya,

 

Thanks to Ifish on Discovery, Linda (Orca) has decided she wants to try and catch a yellowfin Tuna.

 

 

I know just what you mean by "Linda has decided" because I also live with a lady who fishes. Just a casual dropping of the word "marlin" into the conversation has Norma looking up flights and charters within seconds. So I am able to tell friends and family "Norma wants to go marlin fishing again"

 

Whose idea was it to watch Ifish in the first place?

 

To be more serious, as other posters have already indicated, there are lots of places to choose from. Wherever you choose, check you go in the right season, as tuna swim about a bit.

 

Cost - Florida is nearer than California. Kenya is less expensive than most, as Dude says.

 

Canaries and Madeira are close to home, although the fish are a bit scarce there sometimes. We would choose them for blue marlin, but not yellowfin tuna.

 

If we were targetting yellowfin tuna, then Kenya, California, and Baja California would be our first thoughts.

 

Cuba is an option too - forward TonyU !

 

Whatever and wherever, GO FOR IT - the first relentless pull of a tuna is something never forgotten.

 

To quote Philip Wylie

 

"Burgess McClean felt, for the first time in his life, the mighty power of a giant fish, going like a greased coffin down the stairways of hell"

 

Feel free to PM us if you think we can help.

 

Dave and Norma

[PanamaJack]

Hi Davy

To start with one that's already been mentioned - Ascension Island.

 

It's a place you can't fail to catch a Yellowfin - they're everywhere! And during the summer months they even catch them drifting out livebaits via kites or balloons from the beach. From memory I think someone's had one of just over 280lbs that way. But I've found you get more fun anchoring on the edge of the drop offs, in approximately 5 to 600' of water and chunking (freelining) for them. We've even caught them dead drifting flies that way. And friends have caught them jigging.

 

Also offshore I've seen, on occasions, acres and acres of them on the surface pre-occupied on tiny red Grouper fry or Scad (aka Google Eyes).

 

That's the good news. Bad news - the two game boats based there charge 1100 euros a day. But you can get one of the locals to take you out on their small boats for under £100 a day. They'll catch just as many, it's just not as comfortable and their tackle is somewhat crude. The biggest downside cost-wise, unless you can access 'military' fares is the cost - around £900 return on an ageing Tristar.

 

I've got some pictures somewhere, I'll include the urls on a separate post.

 

Then, like someone else has already mentioned Kenya during the late summer months can be really good. The plus side is that charter rates are very reasonable and you can find cheap charter flights/packages.

 

One not mentionned yet and one I really rate for Yellowfin are the Cape Verde Islands, about 1000 miles south of the Canaries. Charter rates are somewhat more expensive that Kenya in the 650 to 750 euro range. If it has a problem there're too many Marlin! Seriously when I fished there last year we were getting up to 8 strikes a day, releasing 3. But it can get better. Back in the mid 90s an American angler - Stewart Campbell - released over 20 fishing the channel off Sao Vicente. Anything else? There light tackle challenges - Amberjacks and Crevalle Jacks - and, if the fishing slows off Sao Vicente, the boats run the 40 miles to Sao Nicolau and fish the extensive lee for Marlin and Tiger Sharks.

 

Forgot to mention the other plus side with Cape Verde is that this year they've started running charter flights direct from UK airports. Before you were forced to transit in places like Amsterdam or Lisbon.

Dave

[PanamaJack]

Hi Davy

Here're a few of the urls I mentionned I'd post. Please bear in mind though most show a bit of an obsession with Marlin. Most of the time the crews do unfortunately view Yellowfin as a distraction. Any rate here they are.

 

And firstly some pictures of Cape Verde taken by a young Danish lady, Ingrid, who, whilst she's a university tends to spend summer holidays crewing on boats in the Atlantic. If you follow the link back to her home page there'll also be fishing photo essays of Ascension, the Azores and Los Roques, Venezuela. The latter cover fly fishing for Bonefish.

 

Now to Ascension. Here're links to news diaries to one of the crewman, Olaf, I've fished with in Cape Verde and Ascension, and Matthias. Also here's a link from our Club's web site on Ascension and a link to a report on one of our members' trips that includes pictures of Yellowfin on the fly.

Dave

[Toerag]

Acension - Google up 'roddy hays', he ran aboat there for a year or so and has some good stories on his webpage. They also get yellowfins around Hawaii, but that's an expensive place to fish.