Fishing Type Part 1
Schools of open water Tuna can be very productive, but you have to work them differently than schools of Tuna on structure like a rig. When you see a school of busting fish get prepared to throw both top water baits and live baits at the school as soon as the boat comes off plane as the first few moments you come into the school can be extremely productive. You can drive yourself crazy trying to get in the exact perfect spot so just get in the general vicinity and get a live bait in the water, and then have your guys with the top water baits cast to the nearest busts they can get to Don't be afraid to have the guys make some blind casts, because this too can result in a hook up.
After the school has gone down, which normally doesn't take too long, keep the live bait in the water and just wait. I think this is where most people screw up. The thinking is that the fish went down so lets keep heading the spot we were going to. If you wait a little while they WILL come up again! Look around for Frigates, if they are in the area follow them all the while keeping your live bait in the water because you never know when that stray Tuna may smack it.
The Frigates will give you a pretty good idea where the school is and what they are doing. The deeper the school sounds the higher the Frigates will get and conversely the higher in the water the school gets the lower the Frigates will get. Sometimes the school will get so deep that the frigates will loose them. You will know this when the Frigates get really high and start to spread out, almost to the point of scattering. Now is the time to reel up the live bait and get ready to run because when you see the Frigates starting to head in the same direction really fast then they have found the school again. Point the boat in the same direction and hammer it and repeat the whole process.
Patience is the number one rule when working open water fish, but if you do exercise patience this can be a very fun and productive method for putting fish in the box. You will quite often have the whole school to yourself because the first time they go down any other boat that may have been on them will often times leave. It doesn't make much since to me to leave fish to go look for fish.