While trolling lures have been the quintessential method for catching southern bluefin tuna, night-time jigging is proving a highly effective technique for anglers.

Night jigging for bluefin has been a successful method for catching these fish when they are feeding down deeper at night. It gives fishermen the option to double their opportunities once they have travelled all the way to the tuna, or when they are not coming up to hit trolled surface lures.

Pelagic Charters skipper Ethan says they have had a lot of luck with jigging for southern bluefin over the last year. 

"We've been doing it on just about all of our trips this season,” he says. “And it’s proven very lucky for our fishers.”

But jigging for bluefins is not a new thing for Pelagic, Ethan says.

“On a charter trip back in 2020, we had some good weather one night, and we were just parked up drifting, having been trolling like we do every day,” he explains. 

“We had one young kid on the trip, and he dropped a jig one night, and he ended up getting a 65-odd kilo bluefin. It was pretty cool. So after that, we would do it from time to time, and then last year, we got back into it and have had a lot of success during the night over the last year.”

Ethan says feeding patterns this season have been different than in previous years.

"This season, we're finding a lot of time if you haven't hooked up and caught a bluefin by around 9:30pm, you're not gonna get one,” he says. 

“So that's when we started sort of getting into the night-time stuff, actually physically targeting them, trying to sort of work it out a little bit more on the jigs. 

“And it's been really productive, particularly this year. It almost seems as if the feeding patterns of the season are a little bit different than in previous years. |Not really sure why – every year is a 100% different. 

“It has become a little bit trickier on the lures to catch them. But in saying that, we've had some pretty spectacular fishing this year on lures,” Ethan says. 

“But it's mainly been that first thing in the morning and last thing in the day, that change-of-light bite, that's been the most productive. And we're still catching them throughout the day, but it's not as productive. 

“It's not uncommon for us to catch five or six before 10 o'clock in the morning and then catch nothing until it's dark and we're jigging. One of our better nights this year was 15 on the jigs, and we caught four during the day on the lures. And that's a relatively short time-span as opposed to a full day of trolling, which could be up to sort of 12 hours."

Ethan says Pelagic starts its season for the bluefin around the second week of June and pushes right through till the second or third week of August. Their tours run for two-and-half days, with clients boarding late afternoon or in the evening for a fully catered trip.

"If the weather allows, we are pretty much straight out to the grounds and they could be jig fishing for tuna for as long as they can handle it," he says.

What's working?

Kaz Otsubo, from Ocean’s Legacy, says jigs that have been working are mainly long slim jigs that get down to where tuna are, and that flutter down as a slow pitch jig. 

“At night, baitfish come up high and tuna follow them and actively feeding around 30-100m,” he says. 

Jigs

Long Contact jigs 170g, 210g, 270g and Deep Contact 300g, 400g are the best choices and catching heaps of bluefin tuna.”

Kaz says the following set up works well:

Rods:

Ocean's Legacy Vengeance B521H 5'2" PE4-8 rod or Ocean's Legacy Elementus Deep B611H++ 6'1" PE6+ rod

Reel:

A high-end overhead reel with 300m of PE6/PE8 line capacity

Braid:

High-quality PE6 & PE8 (100lb or close)

Leader:

Fluorocarbon leader 130+lb

Hooks:

‍Ocean's Legacy Lancet Heavy Jigging Assist Hooks 9/0 & 11/0

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