The Key to Catching Blackfin in the Florida Keys

written by Evan Anderson

Tuna are one of the tastiest and most frequently sought after saltwater game fish, and the blackfin is no exception. Lightning fast and strong fighters, blackfin tuna are a regular request from clients fishing in the Florida Keys. Captains Tom Rowland and Rich Tudor head out with orders to bring some blackfin home to their families. Along the way, they give their best tips for how to catch these awesome fish in the Florida Keys on this episode of Saltwater Experience.

BAIT IS THE KEY

Tudor and Rowland set out in the early hours before the sun is up to get a head start on everyone else. “The secret to the tunas (and the bait),” says Tudor, “is getting up super early and getting out there before the other boats.”

“One of the secrets is we’ve got to have the bait. We have to have a lot of pilchards to get them fired up on the surface.”

— Rich Tudor, Saltwater Experience

For their first stop of the day, the two captains are going to try to get as much bait as they can, because the best weapon in your arsenal when it comes to blackfin tuna fishing is having as much live bait as possible.

“One of the secrets is we’ve got to have the bait,” explains Tudor, “we have to have a lot of pilchards to get them fired up on the surface.”

FINDING THE BAIT

Most offshore fishermen will have to catch pilchards in deeper water, according to Tudor, due to their large boats, leading to more competition. But the Yellowfin 26 Hybrid the Saltwater Experience captains have chosen, outfitted with a Mercury 350 Verado motor, has a shallow draft, allowing them to maneuver through the flats looking for pilchards uncontested.

After a short while, Tudor spots a school of pilchards sprinkling on the surface through his Nikon binoculars. “We saw an area where the pelicans were diving,” Tudor recounts, “You could clearly see the sprinkling of the pilchards on the surface.”

“ANCHORING” ON THE HUMP

Once the live well is full, Tudor and Rowland make their way to one of the many “humps” on the Atlantic side of the Keys.

“These tuna are looking for some sort of upwelling in the ocean,” explains Rowland, “Down in Key West there’s a really famous spot called “The Sub”; it’s a sunken submarine down there that really draws these fish to it. Up here you’ll have these natural areas where there’s a hump like the Marathon Hump or the Islamorada Hump, those are big community spots. But there are some smaller ones as well.” Tudor and Rowland roll up on one of the smaller, less congested humps and get right to work scooping pilchards and firing them out into the water to bring the tuna closer to them.

“I’ve seen guys try to anchor out at the Islamorada Hump and it’s a nightmare...With a trolling motor it’s great.”

— Tom Rowland, Saltwater Experience

There are a couple strategies to fishing one of these humps. The first, which is preferred by the larger charter boats, is to drift across the hump, chumming as they go. “Most of the people are drifting across that hump,” explains Rowland, “so if a boat has a lot of bait, it might pick up the tuna here, keep chumming, and drift away; and the tuna will stay with that boat in that chum line - so they could be catching fish well off of the hump.”

Another way to do it would be to anchor in place over the hump. But Rowland’s experience has proved this to be less than ideal since it essentially locks them into that spot, preventing them from easily moving to fish a school that they may see further away. Plus there’s the added hassle of actually dropping and pulling an anchor. “I’ve seen guys try to anchor out at the Islamorada Hump and it’s a nightmare,” says Rowland.

Instead, our captains employ their Motorguide trolling motor which has a convenient “anchor mode”, keeping them essentially “anchored” in place at the push of a button and allowing them to create a nice chum line behind them without the hassle of an anchor. “We were stopped, so they’re following that chum line right up behind us,” says Rowland, “and if you keep feeding them they’ll stay there. With a trolling motor it’s great.”

SKYROCKETS

Part of the draw to blackfin is how visually spectacular their fight is. You know when a school of tuna is hitting your chum line because they leap into the air going after those pilchards. “That’s the exciting part to me is watching them explode and skyrocket out of the water,” says Tudor.

“That’s the exciting part to me is watching them explode and skyrocket out of the water.”

— Rich Tudor, Saltwater Experience

Having caught enough tuna to satisfy their families, Tudor and Rowland let the Mercury roar as they cruise back to the Hawks Cay Resort.

Check out the full episode below and see these tips in action on Saltwater Experience S15:E5. Follow @saltwater_experience, @tom_rowland, @rich_tudor1, and @waypointtv on Instagram if you want more Saltwater Experience content. You can also subscribe to The Tom Rowland Podcast for 5 shows a week including interviews with icons, and how to episodes.