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Life history, including information on the habitat, growth, feeding, and reproduction of a species, is important because it affects how a fishery is managed.

 

Geographic range: In tropical, subtropical, and temperate zones of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans.

 

Habitat: Temperature is a major determining factor in Pacific albacore habitat. Juveniles are often found near oceanic fronts or temperate discontinuities; adults occur to at least 1,250 feet deep. They will also explore deeper waters in search of prey.

Life span: Maximum of 11-12 years

Food: Pacific albacore are top carnivores. They opportunistically prey on schooling stocks, such as sardine, anchovy, and squid. They eat an enormous amount of food to fuel their high metabolism, sometimes consuming as much as 25% of their own weight every day.

Growth rate: Eggs develop rapidly, hatching within 24 to 48 hours. Juveniles grow at an estimated 1.23 inches per month. Growth progresses more slowly with age.

Maximum size: Grow up to 79 pounds in weight and about 47 inches in length

Reaches reproductive maturity: At roughly 5 to 6 years old and 33.5 inches in length

Reproduction: Females have 0.8 to 2.6 million eggs per spawning (100,000 eggs per 2.2 pounds of body weight). They broadcast the eggs in water near the surface, where they are externally fertilized.

Spawning season: From March to July; there is some evidence that albacore spawn multiple times a year.

Spawning grounds: In subtropical waters in the Pacific centered around 20 degrees North to 20 degrees South latitude

Migrations: Pacific albacore, particularly juveniles (2-5 years old), typically begin an expansive migration in the spring and early summer in waters off Japan that continues through the late summer into inshore waters off the U.S. Pacific coast, and ends in late fall and winter in the western Pacific Ocean. The timing and geographic extent of the albacore s migration in a given year is strongly influenced by oceanic conditions.

Predators: Predators of albacore include larger species of billfish, tuna, and sharks.

Commercial or recreational interest: Both

Distinguishing characteristics: Pacific albacore are metallic, dark blue on the back with dusky to silvery white coloration along the sides of the belly. They have exceptionally long pectoral fins, which are nearly half the length of their body.

 

Albacore is a warm water fish and like the water temperature to be at least 60 degrees.. They will cruise and feed along the breaks of the cold water and the clear blue, warm water.

 

Off the coast of Northern California, Oregon and Washington usually the best months to fish will start in mid July, August and September.  However, sometimes the warm water doesn’t move in at all (within 30 miles of shore). Therefore no Albacore fishing.

 

As a sport fisherman we find the warm water by talking to commercial fishermen, looking at NOAA sea surface temperature charts, Terrafin, and good communication between friends and other Albacore fishermen.

 

The primary way to fish for Albacore is trolling tuna jigs on the surface. We like our trolling speed to be at least 7  1/2  miles per hour.  We use a GPS to gauge our trolling speed and then maintain that speed by watching the RPM’s of the motor.

 

When trolling we use fishing rods and reels. That seems to be more fun than hand lines. However, make sure you have good equipment when trolling for Albacore. Just hooking a fish at the speed we troll is hard enough on the equipment, must less the wear and tear on equipment that these lightning fast fish put on it as well.

 

Our Albacore lure trolling pattern below.

 

 

The jigs shown are just an example . The jigs  and color pattern will change with every fisherman.

 

 

The staff at TalkFishin like the Lamiglas L 870C 7’ medium action 15-30 Lb line, and the Penn Sabre Stroker G270C  7 Pole medium action with a line weight of 15-30 LB line.

 

We feel these are good choices for Albacore because they have enough power in the butt section to land very strong fish, and the tip section is soft enough to have a lot of fun fighting these missiles.

 

The negative...The guides on the Penn seem to be fairly weak.. If the pole is dropped and the guide is bumped they can break.

 

 

As hard as Albacore strike lures and as fast as they can strip off a 100 feet of line, a good reel must be strongly considered.  We didn’t want to spend a lot of money but did want a dependable reel, so we chose the Penn 320 GT2 levelwind.. These reels have helped us land many Albacore.

 

We load up the Penn GT2 reels with  150 yards of the high visible green 50 pound test Berkley Trilene Big game line.  This line is easy to see when trolling and when making turns.

 

There are more expensive reels on the market of course, but the GT2 works well for our needs.

 

The Negative..The clickers don’t hold up. Most of them stop clicking after one season of Albacore fishing.

 

 

Most tuna clones are tied with a double hook as shown above.   Some tuna Clones come pre-tied with hooks and some do not.

 

The double hook works well, but a barbless hook is highly recommended.  The action can be very fast when in a school of fish, and trying to remove a barbed hook from a wiggling albacore can be very frustrating and dangerous.

 

A 130 Lb test leader or larger is recommended.  When 3 to 4 Albacore are hooked at the same time, it is a lot easier to grab a heavier leader and pull the fish into the boat.

 

 

Most Albacore fishermen use a diver board instead of weights. The boards are made by Yozi and can handle the trolling speed needed to attract the Albacore.  The diver board is for hand lines and aren’t commonly used with rod and reel.  When Albacore go deep a vertical type jigs can be used (as shown above) However, the boat must be stopped to use this type of jig.

 

Most rubber skirt type jigs (Tuna clone shown on right of page) come from the manufacture with weight in the head of the jig and some have changeable weights in the head.

 

 

A recommended swivel for Albacore would be a size 6 coastlock, and the barrel swivel would be a size 5 both swivels should be saltwater type heavy duty.  The coastlock swivel is tied to the main line of the pole and the barrel swivel is tied to the leader of the lure as shown below.

 

Fishing videos, pictures & reports from anglers and guides and charters.