Species Guide: False Albacore (Little Tunny)

"They're just albacore, trash fish," was the refrain I heard over and over again in the 1960s and 1970s from my father and other fishermen as we passed through schools of breaking false albacore in and around the inlets of the North Carolina Outer Banks. While surf fishing during the same period, I often saw albacore causing bait to shower right at my feet. But to most anglers at that time, false albacore were little more than a high-speed nuisance. Spotted sea trout, bluefish, red drum, flounder, stripers, and mackerel were the prizes sought, and almost no one targeted albacore.When hooked by mistake, albacore were destroyers of light spinning and conventional tackle. Perhaps the main reason for their low regard was that, for even the most open-minded seafood lover, false albacore with its dark red strong-tasting flesh didn't make the grade. Their highest and best use was as strip-baits for trollers.As I look back, one of the great ironies in my fly-fishing life is that during the same period I would have hocked my grandmother's wedding ring to spend more time in the Florida Keys. The objects of my passion in the Keys were the same as most other anglers--tarpon and bonefish. Both were caught by sight casting. They were strong and fast, and they were totally devoid of culinary value. The same attributes applied to the albacore I left behind in North Carolina, but at the time I couldn't make the connection.It wasn't until the early 1980s when Pete Allred, a friend from Morehead City, North Carolina, told me he was having a great time catching albacore on spinning tackle using slender silver jigging lures called "Stingsilvers." The lures proved to be an excellent imitation of the two- to three-inch silversides, or glass minnows, that false albacore key on. Using #2 and #4 long-shank hooks, silver mylar piping, and sparse bucktail for the wing, I tied some decent slender minnow imitations. They were really variations of the familiar Black-nosed Dace streamer used by many trout fishermen.Using bonefish-weight tackle and my new flies one beautiful October afternoon, I was astounded to learn that false albacore love flies. Almost every time I got my streamer into or in front of a breaking school, I got a hookup. By the end of the day, however, I had taken a terrible beating The score was 14 to 2 in favor of the albacore. Even with lots of Keys flats fish under my belt, I was simply not prepared for the speed and strength of 10- to 20-pound albacore. That first afternoon I had hooks straightened and loops lodged in my fly rod's guides. Even more humbling, I had to break off several fish when they took me almost to the end of my 175 yards of backing.Over the past 15 years I have learned a lot about catching false albacore on fly tackle along North Carolina's Outer Banks, the Virginia Capes, and other waters along the East Coast. False albacore, once a high-speed trash fish, now rank with only a few others at the top of my list of favorite saltwater fish.Before sharing some observations, it's important to clearly identify the mackerel/tuna-type fish I call albacore. False albacore (Euthynnus alletteratus) are also known as albacore, little tunny, spotted bonito, Fat Alberts, and bloody mackerel. They are often confused with Atlantic bonito (Sarda sarda), usually referred to as bonito or in New England as "bones."Atlantic bonito are easily distinguished from false albacore in three ways. First, bonito are usually half to two-thirds the size of their larger cousins; second, they have straight horizontal markings on their sides as opposed to the dark jagged markings found on false albacore; and finally, bonito are absolutely delicious. They are so good that, even though I am a staunch practitioner of catch-and-release, I often release the first couple of bonito into my ice chest. Both are great fly-rod fish, but along the Outer Banks, false albacore are much more common.Over the past four or five years, fly rodders have discovered the extraordinary false albacore fishery from the Virginia Capes to the North Carolina Outer Banks. The best fishing occurs in October and November, with the peak usually occurring about the first week of November. Although all inlets along the Outer Banks have good false albacore populations, none is better than Bardens Inlet near Cape Lookout.At Bardens, Ocracoke, Hatteras, and Oregon inlets and along adjoining beaches, false albacore arrive when water temperatures begin to drop into the high 60s. Optimum feeding and concentrations of fish occur when the water is between 58 and 64 degrees. Good fishing can continue until the water drops into the low 50s and baitfish begin to disappear, often well into December. The inlets concentrate baitfish coming out of North Carolina's sounds--Pamlico, Albemarle, and Core--much like funnels. It is at these points of concentration where the albacore and other predators gorge on silversides and finger mullet. On a good day a competent fly rodder can get 20 or more hookups.