Technique 06
Chumming for tuna in the Canary Islands
Instead of looking for the fish, you bring them to you. A steady trail of cut bait, and then you wait.
What chumming is
Chumming (brumeo in Spanish) means putting small pieces of bait in the water in a steady stream, so the current carries a scent trail away from the boat. Tuna follow that trail up to its source, which is you.
Then you feed a hooked bait into the same drift, indistinguishable from the free ones. If it is done well, the fish never sees a difference between the bait it can eat safely and the one it cannot.
When and why
When we use it
Mainly in the colder months, when the big yellowfin, the ones called astrudos here, are around and will not come up to a trolled lure.
It is a different rhythm from trolling. The boat stops. Nothing happens for a while. And then it all happens at once, very close to the boat, which is what makes it worth the wait.
Tackle
Tackle
Fluorocarbon leaders as light as we dare, because a fish sitting in a chum slick has time to inspect. Circle hooks. And a lot of cut bait.
On board
What it is like
Quiet, and then not. Tuna appear in the slick as shapes before they are fish, and the take usually happens where you can see it. It is the closest thing to fishing a river that offshore gets.
We don't wait for the fish. We follow them.
Tell us when you are coming
Send us your dates and the species you are after. We will tell you honestly what the ocean is likely to be doing.