What worked: 2025 SoCal Bluefin Season
As the 2025 Bluefin Tuna season wraps up, many have hung it up after another successful season. Once again, a year full of great fish of all sizes, ranging from little five-pounders, to outstanding 250+ pound fish. However, one could argue that this year saw tougher fishing, and not as wide open as previous years. With that said, it is not to say that fishing was awful, in fact those who put in the time and work reaped the benefits. From fishing like vampires in the night jigging for them, to flying the kite for picky eaters it all culminated to different techniques. So, what worked for 2025? I’ll break down five methods that definitely got bit this year.
Kite fishing
Ah yes, the good ol’ trusty kite and flying fish combo. A staple in the Southern California bluefin fishery. A method that year and year out continues to deliver quality trophy bluefin. It seems that no matter what year, flying the kite will always reward you with fish upwards of 100 pounds. However, that is only the case when the larger fish are in town and are willing to cooperate, with various conditions having to line up in your favor such as wind, current, fish sightings and much more. This year a lot of early season fish were caught on the kite, mainly in waters nearing the Mexican border. You had to go the distance to find them. As the summer went on we saw an increase in smaller school sized bluefin which makes kite fishing less effective. But if you goal was to land one of those monster cows, the kite-flying fish combo was for sure the way to go whether you used a an artificial setup like the California delta flyer or the Nomad Slipstream, or the most popular way using a frozen California flying fish from the guys at gflybaits.
2. Spreader Bars
If you have been following the bluefin fishery for at least a couple of years, you’ll know that there is always something new or different that catches on because of its success. This year, the spotlight went to spreader bars. It seems like the hot ticket for many this year was using spreader bars of all colors and sizes. It was a great method for covering ground and getting fish to come up and bite. As I previously mentioned, it seemed like fish this year were more shy and not as aggressive to feeding on top. So the use of spreader bars was a great way of getting subsurface fish to come up and bite, as well as a way to cover more water in hopes of finding foamers.
In fact, the use of spreader bars is what won the Pelagic California Tuna Challenge for captain Chuck Newberry and Joseph Ta. They utilized a set of CaliMade bars in the color “New Blue”, which have seen an increase of success this year. Personally having used bars this year, I can definitely say that they work, and see them becoming more popular next year.
3. Topwater lures
By far many people’s favorite way of fishing, and especially mine. Something about casting a popper or stick bait into a foaming school of tuna is a thrill most fishermen seek. Topwater fishing this year was no slouch, although not as widespread as previous years, but once it got going it was game on. Once again the popular item for topwater fishing was using some kind of clear popper like the Yo-Zuri Clear Mag Popper, Clear Choice Ghost Popper, or the new for 2025 Tuna Riot Popper which grabbed the attention of many anglers this year. Either way, being able to make a decent cast into the foam zone was a sure way of getting bit.
A true topwater connoisseur, @topwatersocal did a great breakdown of tackle, techniques and tips for fishing for bluefin using only topwater lures on The Bait Tank Podcast a year ago. It is definitely worth a listen.
4. Madmacs
Is the the Madmacs craze over? Thats debatable, only because they keep catching fish and they work. Sure the craze for them like in 2022 is over, but they continue to be a productive way of catching bluefin here in southern California. Many people saw success in using them this year including myself, with two great sized fish including my personal best in one day of fishing. So it could be argued that madmacs continue to be the bait that gives anglers access or chances at multiple fish without having to do the kite stuff, or if foamers aren’t present. The most popular ones being the 200 size in any of the popular colors. For southern California at least, any of the pinks and sardines colors seem to work the best. Of course you want to be trolling these lures at higher speeds, many like 14 knots while others will troll them even faster.
5. Night time jigging
Time to fish like vampires! Now what do I mean by that? Well it is quite literally fishing during the dark hours of the night, dropping knife jigs, eddie bombs, slow-falling jigs and even doing some slow-pitch fishing at night. This method can be one of, it not the most productive ways of fishing for big bluefin on sportboats. You’ll want to use heavy set ups with rail rods ranging in the 2x-4x heavy class and reels like Shimano’s Talica 25 2-speed, or Penn’s International VISX 20 to name a few. Tackle for this method is very broad and many will tell you different things. But the basics are, heavy line, big rods and reels, and a good jigs with strong quality hooks. I cannot stress the hooks part enough because a lot of of these jigs were initially designed for rock fishing, however any decent sized bluefin will straighten out the hooks that come prepackaged with the jigs. So in short, upgrade the hooks. Choosing jigs can be difficult and do not even get me started on the tungsten jig craze. But to keep things concise, check out BFT tackle jigs, Nomad jigging lures, Daiwa SK jigs and Mustad Rip Rollers.
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