Chasing Football Tuna Off Cape Cod With “Team Goose”

The plan was to take advantage of a brief weather window Monday morning, before an all out gale was predicted to hit Cape Cod in the afternoon. Also onboard for this "run and gun" tuna trip was videographer Tyler Adams and Viktar and Passah from Edged Up Fishing.

Just before sunrise we launched Phil's 39 foot Contender the Yoshki from a boat ramp on Cape Cod which provides easy access to many of the best tuna grounds.

At the moment conditions were dead calm with no wind, but we all knew that would change later in the day. By early afternoon the forecast was calling for 30+mph winds and seas of 6 feet. 

The weather window was small but we could safely do it considering the size of the boat we would be fishing from. We enjoyed a flat calm ride as the sun peeked over the horizon. It was a beautiful October morning to be on the water.

The trip began with the idea that we would be targeting giant bluefin tuna. The commercial tuna season reopened this past Monday and Tuesday, so we were hoping to take advantage and put one more 73 inch or larger tuna on the deck for sale either here domestically in the US or abroad in Japan.

So with giant tuna on the brain Phil moved the boat around until we eventually stumbled across the mega school of mackerel. We would use the mackerel as live bait for tuna, and there were plenty of them to be found.

Those are all mackerel on the sonar above. The mackerel were big too - easily the largest mackerel I have caught all season long.

Tyler took advantage of the calm conditions and put his DJI Mavic drone into the sky. The Mavic is a well priced and excellent performing drone.

I used to get extremely nervous when I would fly my drone over water, however Tyler remained calm, cool and collective as he flew the thousand dollar plus piece of equipment all around the boat and low over the ocean.

I'm looking forward to seeing all his video footage from this trip, which I will publish here on My Fishing Cape Cod this coming weekend.

With a livewell full of huge mackerel we made a quick run at 40 miles per hour to the tuna grounds. It was not long until Viktar spotted a big pile of birds on the horizon, and Phil brought the big Contender over towards the birds to investigate.

We began seeing big splashes and crashes! Could these be tuna crashing all over the surface!? However as we rolled up closer we realized these were not tuna, but dolphins - and they were everywhere!

With dolphins, bait and birds as far as the eye could see, we decided it was probably not a bad idea to set our baits in this area. 

We set the live mackerel on the Alutecnos 130 reels (pictured above) and quickly had three macks staggered at different depths so we covered the entire water column.

Now the waiting game began, as all we needed was for the tuna to show up.

About 30 minutes into our fishing a call came over the VHF radio about a boat in distress. Apparently there was a small center console with a broken down engine located roughly 10 nautical miles northeast of Truro Highland Light.

With no other boats in the area, and with a gale predicted to start blowing in just a matter of hours, Phil decided we had no choice but to respond and help. We reeled in the lines, fired up the engines, and arrived on scene less than hour after first hearing the PAN PAN call from the Coast Guard.

Soon we had the boat undertow. The entire time I was thinking about how important it was for us to get these guys back into port before the wind kicked up.

Successfully and safely towing a boat in gale conditions would be an incredible challenge, so I crossed my fingers that the wind would remain calm for the 20+ mile tow we had ahead of us.

Not long into our tow however, another call came over the VHF from the Coast Guard. Apparently a cutter was on their way to the scene, prepared to take over and relieve us from the tow. 

The captain of the center console was extremely gracious and thankful that we responded, as was the captain of the Coast Guard cutter. Soon the Coast Guard took over control of the situation, and we returned to our hunt for tuna!

With the rescue mission behind us, Phil pointed the bow of the Contender back towards the tuna grounds. The wind had picked up a bit and there were white caps on the ocean, but conditions were still fishable. 

15 minutes into our cruise Viktar once again spotted a big pile of birds on the horizon. We motored up closer and it was apparent that tuna (and not just dolphins) were in the area! Small "football size" tunas were slashing on the surface.

These fish were much too small to target with the 130 class setups, so we all grabbed smaller spinning rods and reels. The plan was to motor up on the fish and cast lures, in hopes of hooking into one of the 45-60 inch class tunas.

Initially the tunas were acting a bit finicky, and difficult to sneak up on. Each time we saw tunas breaking on the surface we quickly motored over to them, however upon arrival the fish would sound and go deep - leaving us scratching our heads and wondering what we were doing wrong.

The wind was now beginning to kick up, and we all understood that our time on the tuna grounds was limited. Soon the seas would be too rough and potentially too dangerous to fish. 

If we wanted to catch a tuna, then it would have to happen within the next hour. Before I knew it we had covered another 10 miles, finding birds and bait all along the way but no more jumping tuna. However that changed in a big way around 12:30pm, when we rolled up onto a massive flock of gannets and shearwaters.

Hundreds of birds were sitting, flying and diving into the water all around the boat. Phil kept the Contender moving forward as we searched for jumping tunas, when suddenly I saw several large swirls out of the corner of my eye. 

Tuna were swirling on bait right among the sitting shearwaters. I waved my arms and yelled at Phil to stop the boat. It took a couple seconds for everyone to zone in on the swirling tunas, which were difficult to spot among the hundreds of sitting shearwater birds.

I headed to the bow of the boat, wound up and placed a decent cast into the swirling tunas. Shearwaters immediately took pursuit and did everything they could to attack and catch the small Strategic Angler plug as it swam just beneath the surface. 

At the same time I caught glimpse of Phil pitching a live mackerel off the bow just to the left of my shoulder. An instant later I saw a tuna make a dash at my lure. The fish swirled just behind behind my plug, as the tuna tried to decide whether or not to engulf the lure. 

Despite following my plug almost to the boat, the tuna refused to eat the lure, however it did swallow Phil's live mackerel! 

I must mention that it's possible (and probably likely) that it was a different tuna that ate Phil's mack. However I like to think I "teased" the fish in towards the boat before the fish turned and ate Phil's live mackerel.

Pitching a live mackerel into the feed had worked! Phil was hooked into a perfect size "football tuna" for fighting on spinning tackle. 15 minutes later he had color on the fish. Viktar placed a perfect gaff shot on the tuna and in an instant we had pounds of fresh sashimi flopping on the deck of the boat.

Viktar's good friend Passah then went to work on the tuna, bleeding the fish, gutting the fish and packing it with ice. As you can see in the photo below it was clear that this tuna had been feeding on small butterfish, which explains why the fish were being so finicky and difficult to fool.

The action continued to get better as the wind and seas kicked up. We began a long drift through the hundreds of shearwaters and gannets, and every so often we would see tuna breaking the surface chasing bait.

The most amazing thing were the tuna we were marking on the sonar. We had a steady stream of tunas swimming beneath the boat throughout the entire two mile long drift. The tuna were cruising at around 50 feet beneath the surface.

Viktar cast out a Ron-Z style jig and let it sink down to where we were marking the tuna. He put the rod in the rod holder and just let the motion of the boat impart action on the soft plastic jig. 

A few minutes later Viktar's rod doubled over under the powerful strike of a tuna! He ran over to the bent rod but somehow the tuna missed the hook and let go before he was even able to touch the rod. 

Not long thereafter Phil spotted a batch of bluefins busting off the starboard side. He pointed at where he saw the tunas and I placed a long cast into the area. All it took this time was a few cranks of the reel to get the lure swimming, and one of the tunas turned and exploded on the plug, sending whitewater high into the air!

The fish put up a great fight on a Stella 10K spinning reel and 60 pound leader. If you can afford it, then the Stella series of reels are a great choice for targeting tuna on spinning gear.

15 or so minutes later we had the fish on the deck of the boat.

With two "footballs" in the boat we would all have plenty of fresh tuna and sushi to share with our family and friends.

It was tempting to stay and try for another fish. Tunas were now all around us and beneath the boat, and I think we could of at least caught a few more.

However the weather was deteriorating and sea conditions were only going to get worse. We began our cruise back to port, passing by swirling and feeding tunas, shearwaters and gannets.

The ride home was pretty nasty. The wind blew up to 30 miles per hour and seas were approaching 6 feet. It was wet and bumpy and I was very happy to be onboard a 39 foot boat. I never would of made it home had I been in my little 21 footer!

By 3PM we were safely back at the boat ramp. A couple of hours later and we were filleting the tuna with a beer in hand. A lot had happened and it was an exciting trip with a great crew.

I had a great time fishing with Phil and Tyler from Team Goose, and Viktar and Passah from Edged Up Fishing. Thank you guys for inviting me!

Best of luck if you head out this fall in search of tuna. Myself and the entire crew from the Goose Hummock are happy to help if you need advice or equipment. As always, make sure to keep an eye on the weather and be sure to play it safe.

In addition, I edited a full 20+ minute fishing video from this trip. Please click here to access that video.

Tight lines