Tuna Fishing in the Philippines

Philippine Sport Fishing INFO

Anything and Everything about Sport Fishing in the Philippines

9 October 2008 6 Comments

Yellow-fin Tuna (Thunnus albacares ) reach a maximum size of 450 pounds. Yellowfin have thick round, elongated bodies, dark blue or black above with yellow on the sides and fins tinged in yellow with the finlets yellow and can be found in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Yellowfin Tuna are a highly prized gamefish. They are schooling fish that toils on the deeper part of the ocean. They will undoubtedly burst onto the surface when feeding and running after baitfish. Schools of tuna will sometime set up residence on the structure for weeks at a time. Marker bouys, FADs and even floating logs or kelp will attract these predators.

There are a few primary ways that these fish are caught. One is by chumming the fish too the boat and then hoping to get one to eat a piece of chum drifted back with a hook in it. Another is to troll baits both natural and artifical behind a boat. Jigging with long strokes can often produce when the fish are deep and only surface briefly before retreating to the cooler deeper waters. Probably the most exciting way to catch tuna is casting surface popper baits. Arguably, the most effecient method is to troll tuna feathers beside schooling scads or sardines.

DIY Tuna Feathers

Tuna feed almost exclusively on smaller fish and squid. They like thier meal to be bite sized
and doesn’t fancy chewing it up. When trolling for tuna, reports have it that the larger baits don’t catch as many fish as the smaller 6 or 8 inch baits. You can say that with yellow fin tunas, bigger bait doesn’t neccesarily mean bigger fish. Tuna are known to have keen eyesights and can be quite line and hook shy when they see heavy wire leaders and exposed hooks.

In the Philippines, tunas abound in the Visayas Region, most particulary General Santos or GenSan as more commonly known. Lesser known to others are the fact that there is another tuna capital up north of Metro Manila. The coastal waters of Zambales hold Yellowfin Tunas as well. They can be caught all year round several kilomters off shore, roughly 3 hours by bangka. But during the months of October to December, they move closer to shore and can be seen a few kilometers away, mere minutes from shore.

We’ve been visiting Zambales for several times already and the local boatmen tell us that tunas and other pelargics go near shore during the start of the BER months or September. Sure enough, a few weeks ago, my colleague JL caught his first yellowfin tuna on a rapala CD11 silver black. (sorry for the crappy photo) This weekend, I’ll be trying my hand at fishing for tuna. Stay tuned for my trip report next week

6 Comments »

Ronondo Rico said:

local net fishing gets 3-4 kilo Tuna about 300 meters off shore in front of Manarch Sands Rsort, near Siaton, negros oriental.

# 10 October 2008 at 3:40 am

Admin said:

Nice! and they’re so close to shore.

# 10 October 2008 at 5:39 am

Jou Moer said:

You say the coastal waters of Zambales hold yellowfin. When I was in San Juan, just north of San Fernando, La Union I saw local fishermen come back from a day’s fishing with nice size tuna ( bigger than the one in the pic )which they were selling on the beach. Any info about this - where, how far off shore, etc.

Thanks.

# 15 October 2008 at 12:27 am

Admin said:

The tuna on the photo above was caught only a couple of kilometers from shore. During this time of the year, anchovies abound and pelargics go nearer to shore to feed on them. Bigger tunas can be caught around 50-100km offshore where ship marker bouys are. It about 2-3 hours bangka ride at 7-8 knots. The bouys acts as an FAD where Tunas, Dorado and other pelargics toil around.

I’ve seen 30kg tuna at the local market.

# 15 October 2008 at 2:59 am

nonong said:

A good Yellowfin Tuna(YFT) Fishing Spot is located off Bacon Beach Resort Area in Sorsogon City, Bicol Region.

This is between mainland Sorsogon and Rapu-Rapu Island. “Ber” months are good here for 200 pounders. Don’t take my word for it as the information comes from the banca boatmen i have gone out with. Average depth between Prieto Diaz reef area to the point where LaFayette Mining was located is 2,000 meters of cobalt blue water.

Access is thru SLEX down south passing thru Laguna, Batangas, Quezon, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Albay and finally, Sorsogon City. Air transport is possible thru Legazpi City Airport hence to Sorsogon.

Check it out this Holy Week.

# 5 March 2009 at 4:48 pm

Ronnie said:

Hei,

Want to experience tunafishing in Pangasinan(Bolinao) can you recommend some experience person chartering the trip. (includes boat and fishing gadgets).

thanks
Ron from Norway

# 4 February 2010 at 5:33 pm

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