Kite Fishing

[jurelometer]

From reading textbooks and scientific papers on fish senses, I have learned the following:

The lateral line on fish only works for relatively close situations, usually 2 meters or less, and definitely under 10 meters.

Tuna can't see very far. Nothing can see very far underwater, due to light waves getting absorbed and refracted. For a target the size of a large baitfish, on or near the surface in clear water, figure maybe 15/meters maximum.

But sound travels very well in water.  Tuna are capable of hearing frequencies made by schools of baitfish thrashing on the surface, but the volume has to be loud, like 80db minimum, if I remember correctly.  The wake of a trolling fishing boat makes a similar enough sound that it attracts the tuna, which then find the trolling lures along the wake.  If you have ever seen a tuna find and turn to attack a surface trolling lure, you can recognize how close the tuna has to be to the lure before it can visually lock in.

Some (but not all) sounds being generated are not so good. Tuna respond negatively to sudden changes in sound.  We have all seen surface feeding tuna go down when we cut the RPMs on the motor.  Multiple boats accelerating and slowing  down  to chase a surface school will really make them shy.  This might be a good  time to move off of the fleet, shut down the motor and deploy a kite or balloon setup.

Trolling live baits slowly is also an option, especially when you are searching or the tuna are not feeding on the surface.  Unfortunately, you have to troll slowly enough that you don't kill the bait, so you are probably not able to use the boat wake as an attractant.

If you are looking for a trolling method with multiple lures hopping in and out of the water, you might want to also look into greenstick trolling. It was (is?) a thing for the Hawaiian sports fishing community for a while. I think it might have originated as a Japanese commercial trolling method. It seems kind of sketchy to try on a  smaller boat though.

Just some thoughts...

-J

[oc1]

The green stick was a thing on the Wicked Tuna show.  Everything I know about tuna fishing was learned on Wicked Tuna.  Too bad it's cancelled now.