Side Tracking Bluefin Tuna

By Nick Honachefsky

Sidetracker Spreader Bars allow small to medium caliber boats to troll up to 10 rod spreads for bluefin in the 50 to 250-pound range.

Epic is a word that gets thrown out a little too often nowadays, but there are times during the bluefin tuna bite off Jersey when it can be used correctly. Chattering away, an eight rod spread of Sidetracker squid spreader bars were dutifully doing their job behind Christian Driscoll’s 32 foot Regulator, Fortunate Son, splashing and creating commotion in the Chicken Canyon, 46 miles off the Jersey Coast. As the sunbeams glowed on the Atlantic horizon right before the rise, 3 rods went off sending our three man crew into a frenzied drill of a version of a boat square dance, each jostling to maneuver our quarry. Two bluefin were immediately gaffed and boxed, the other released. The ease of deploying sidetrackers put us immediately back into the game to again get tripled up. In the time it takes for a half day fluke trip in the bay, we left dock at 5 AM and were back to dock by 11 AM with our two BFT unders in the box and released four other bluefin with numerous more knockdowns. That’s epic for a 6 hour BFT trip.

INNOVATION CREATION

Jason Braun of Chatter Lures is the innovator of what he terms “a multi-directional rudder based spreader bar”, more commonly known as a Sidetracker, which he holds the patented namesake adjustable rudder for. “The name Chatter Lures is predicated as such for a reason. I wanted to design not just a splash bar, but one that creates a great chatter disturbance in the water and to create a way to fish a bunch of them at once from a small to medium sized vessel (24 to 36 foot) to erupt a bunch of bubble wash without needing outriggers or even a lot of space.” That widened spread is exactly what is needed to fool Bluefin tuna during the summer months along the midshore waters off of NY/NJ and MD. “I run a 31 foot Contender and along with other small boaters, can’t normally pull a giant spread, as straight bars almost immediately clutter up making for a non-normal presentation and aggravating tangles on turns. So to answer that, we developed a rudder mechanism on the spreader bar that sets a wide spread of bars without using outriggers or a large cockpit and allows for taking turns without a mess.”

“Originally, the thought of a stationary rudder was the idea, but then I thought why create one that was purposed for only one side of the boat? The sidetracker rudder allows you to fish and switch to any side of the boat, as in you can pick up any of the bars to change it up, simply quickly adjust the rudder and you can run it off starboard to port or vice versa in a second. Time is of the essence when tuna are on the bite and when you need to change up the spread fast, a simple click eliminates minutes of hassle.”

Braun runs 6 sidetrackers on his boat. “My spread is two 36 inchers from the bow, two 19-inch bars mid ship in the long riggers and two 36 inchers down the back stern. The bow placement allows you to get in that “middle water” which is so hard to do with two bars normally in the riggers.” If you do have a larger vessel equipped with outriggers, Braun recommends running the 19 inch sidetrackers off the outriggers, where you can “Blow it way out there, and run three lines in riggers now.”

In any tuna spread, the franticness of the bubble wash is key to attract a strike. Sidetrackers allow anglers to widen the area out so its not so compact, in essence, creating a mini school on the offshoot outside of the main school; a small compact breakout school with its own bubble trail. Additionally, trollers can now make quicker turns, as bars don’t slide into eachother due to the resistance of the rudders which keep them grounded. As well, anglers starting out with a sidetracker need to just remember a simple notion – the long end of the rudder is always pointing forward toward the boat in the direction you want the tracker to go in.

SPREAD OUT

“You can make a much better tuna pattern off a center console with sidetrackers,” states tuna pro Captain Erwin Heinrich, Scales-N-Tales charters.  “I fish ‘em right from the gunwales, no outriggers needed on my 32 CC. In total I run a 10 rod spread in a diamond pattern on both the port and starboard side with two off the stern.”  Heinrich loves the simplicity of setting a spread without outriggers. “On a troll, I like to set a of the port and starboard rods like an edge of bowling pins on a slant line. 4 sidetrackers on each side from the stern to the bow, starting in the prop wash and working their way further out. The two front ones in the bow act as my normal outrigger lines.” Heinrich will even go as far as sending two more straight spreaders right off the rocket launchers behind the console to create an 11 rod spread, all from a 32 CC. “Tuna are nosy, when there’s no boat traffic they will come in to inspect commotion close to the boat but more traffic around, you need to put the bars even further back. I like a glassy, following seas, landing bar on the crest of each wave.” Darker color squid patterns in Black/purple are go to colors on dark days in the predawn and early morning hours and lighter Zucchini and Rainbow squids work better lighter sunny days or generally after 10 AM when the sun is up.

Modification is also a “one-up” advantage. “I modify the back of the sidetracker bar, adding a long stinger fixed with a Joe Shute and ballyhoo, Green Machine or RonZ rubber. Adjust the length of the stinger hook, normally its 4 to 5 foot back, but make it longer about 6 to 8 feet if there are rougher seas. Another trick is that I will add egg sinkers to the squids to root them down and hold better.”

Generally a 4 to 6 onto pace is preferred, but adjust according to the conditions and the bite. “For BFT, If I’m marking fish, I’ll go into neutral sink ‘em down slowly, then come up to speed. Another trick is to make Sharp S turns so the outside bars are really splashing around with a reaction bite. If they are picky and biting slow, the inside track will be a better presentation, you need to adjust to the speed tuna are keying in on. Try different approaches and adapt to what they are focusing in on.”

Sidetracker spreader bars are evening the playing field. Gone are the days of canyon sport fishing battle wagons needed to effectively troll bluefin, now small and medium boat anglers can sling with the best of them.

SWS TACKLE BOX

Rods: 50 to 80-pound class Shimano Tallus

Reels: Shimano Tiagra 50 wide/80 class reels

Line: 80-pound running line, 300 to 400-pound leader

Lures: SideTracker Spreader Bars

SWS PLANNER

Who:

Justin Braun, Chatter Lures, www.chatterlures.com

Capt. Erwin Heinrich, Scales-N-Tales, www.sntfishing.com

What:

Bluefin Tuna

When:

May through September

Where:

New Jersey/New York/Massachusetts, Rhode Island or Northeast/Mid-Atlantic