Every tuna angler eventually meets the butterfish bite. Bluefin will pile onto a thick school of butterfish, that small, round, silvery bait, and become laser-focused on it, refusing bars, poppers, jigs and anything that does not look and drift exactly like the real thing. When that happens, you match the hatch or you go home fishless.
Why they get so picky
When there is an enormous amount of a single small bait in the water, tuna feed lazily and selectively, sipping butterfish with almost no effort and ignoring anything that stands out. A big lure or a heavy leader looks wrong, so the key is to make your offering disappear into the school, a natural butterfish drifting with no drag on the lightest leader you dare fish.
How to fish it
- Match the bait exactly. Fish a real butterfish, dead-drifted or live, roughly the size of what is in the water, on a hook hidden in the bait.
- Go light and long on the leader. A long section of the lightest fluorocarbon you can get away with, bait-locked bluefin in clear water inspect everything.
- Set a slick and drift naturally. A steady slick of butterfish keeps fish feeding; drift your hook bait back so it tumbles down-current exactly like the free-floating bait around it, no tension, no drag.
- Let it eat. With bait and a circle hook, do not swing, let the fish take, turn, and load the rod.
Tip Presentation beats everything on the butterfish bite. Keep the bait drifting drag-free at the same speed and depth as the naturals, one bait moving unnaturally against the current is exactly what a picky bluefin refuses.
Gear
Because you are fishing light leaders for heavy fish, drag and smoothness are everything: a quality conventional or heavy spinning outfit with a flawless Daiwa drag, so a light leader survives the first blistering run. For the wider bait picture, see tuna on live bait and tuna chunking at night; for the bait itself, see the baitfish profiles.