HookIQ Tuna Blog

Technique

Fishfinder & Side-Scan Sonar: How to Find Baitballs and Tuna

Offshore trolling for tuna comes down to reading your fishfinder right. Learn how frequency choice, baitball shape, CHIRP settings, and real-time temperature readouts help you spot bait schools and the tuna feeding beneath them before anyone else on the water does.

Sep 15, 20266 min read

Safety

Planning Your First Offshore Tuna Trip: Crew, Safety, and the Emergency Checklist

Before you ever cast a line offshore, the real work happens at the dock. A veteran captain breaks down weather windows, EPIRB and life jacket basics, crew roles, and the five-minute safety briefing that separates a great day on the water from a story you'd rather not tell.

Sep 10, 20266 min read

Technique

Kite Fishing for Tuna: Presenting Live Bait Free on the Surface

Kite fishing lifts your bait clean off the water on tuna grounds, letting it swim free on the surface with zero line drag. Here's the full setup: kite rig, release clips, the right wind range, and how to keep live bait kicking until the strike.

Sep 8, 20266 min read

Destinations

Charter or Own Boat in the Adriatic: Planning Your Big Game Entry

Thinking about your first Adriatic bluefin tuna trip? Here's how a Croatian big game charter compares to buying your own boat — costs, permits, the Jabuka Pit, and the best time of year to fish between Vis and Palagruža.

Sep 7, 20266 min read

reviere

Aegean Bluefin in High Summer: Prime Tuna Grounds Around the Cyclades

Chasing bluefin tuna through the Cyclades in high summer is less about the calendar and more about reading the Meltemi wind, the drop-offs between the islands, and the grey light at dawn. Here's how to find the window when the surface boils and the birds start falling.

Aug 18, 20268 min read

Technique

Popping for Yellowfin Tuna: An Azores Primer

Casting poppers and stickbaits for yellowfin tuna over the Azores seamounts is big game at its most honest. Here's how to pick the right lure, work a fast retrieve, and read the birds so you're ready when the surface erupts.

Aug 13, 20268 min read

praxis

Water Temperature and the Thermocline: Where Tuna Really Hold

Stop hunting for fish and start hunting for temperature edges. Learn to read SST charts, find the thermocline with your temperature probe, and use a downrigger to put your bait right where the bluefin are feeding.

Aug 4, 20267 min read

reviere

White Marlin in the Azores: Late-Summer Lure Trolling on the Condor Bank

White marlin are the twitchiest, fastest billfish in the Atlantic — and the Condor Bank off the Azores fires for them in late summer. Here's how a smaller, livelier spread, a well-run teaser, and one calm drop-back turn frustration into hooked fish.

Jul 28, 20268 min read

Technique

Jigging for Dorado: Wreck Fishing and Vertical Strategy

Wrecks in 25 to 50 metres of water hold dorado schools for weeks. Speed jigs, the right tackle, and aggressive vertical technique turn these structures into some of the most reliable summer spots in the Mediterranean. A hands-on guide to wreck jigging for mahi-mahi.

Jul 21, 20267 min read

praxis

Catch and Release for Big Game Fish: How to Give Every Fish Its Best Chance

The fight doesn't kill big game fish — the handling does. From fight time and glove choice to boatside recovery, here's how thirty years of offshore experience taught me to release bluefin tuna, marlin, and yellowfin the right way.

Jul 14, 20266 min read

Technique

Drone Scouting Offshore: Spotting Schools from Above

A drone can reveal what hours of blind trolling cannot: baitfish activity, tuna schools, colour breaks, and feeding zones. Here's what three years of offshore drone scouting taught me about regulations, realistic range, and the four aerial signals every big-game angler should know.

Jul 7, 20267 min read

Fishing Grounds

Bluefin Tuna in the Mediterranean: Where the Giants Hunt and How to Find Them

From the Balearic shelf edges to the Strait of Messina — a veteran big-game angler's guide to finding and fighting giant bluefin tuna across the Mediterranean. SST charts, trolling spreads, seasonal patterns, and three decades of hard-won wisdom.

Jun 30, 202610 min read

Technique

Bonito Off Sicily: Light Spinning for the Little Harbingers

When bonito schools flood the Strait of Messina in June, they bring more than fast action on light tackle. They signal the arrival of the bluefin. A hands-on guide to finding bait, reading current lines, and working metal jigs from a boat off Milazzo.

Jun 23, 20269 min read