Skipjack tuna

Scientific Name: Katsuwonus pelamis

The skipjack tuna, Katsuwonus pelamis, is a medium-sized perciform fish in the tuna family, Scombridae. It is otherwise known as the aku, arctic bonito, mushmouth, oceanic bonito, striped tuna, or victor fish. It grows up to 1 m in length.

It is a streamlined, fast-swimming pelagic fish, common in tropical waters throughout the world, where it inhabits surface waters in large shoals (up to 50,000 fish), feeding on fish, crustaceans, cephalopods and mollusks. It is an important prey species for large pelagic fishes and sharks.

Skipjack tuna live in temperate seas of the world. skipjack tuna can be easily recognized by the four to six long dark stripes on its underside. Skipjacks are open ocean fish demanding clear water to feed. Often near the surface during the day they usually go deep at night. Like other tuna skipjacks feed heavily on smaller fish and squid and are even cannibalistic at times.

Chasing stripies is best done with lures as they love dining on a fast moving menu. For casting a light spin stick and threadline reel loaded with 2-6kg mono, or braid, are just ideal, with a metre of 10kg mono trace at the business end of your rig. And for trolling I would probably use a small baitcaster rather than a spinning outfit.

The list of casting lures that will catch stripies is endless - poppers, bibbed and bibless minnows, metal slices, lead-head jigs, flies and even soft plastics. When it comes to trolling lures, feathers and small skirted lures are very effective.


When sighted within casting range of the rocks the most important thing is to be quick and get your casts in before the school races away. High-speed metal lures and lead-heads are most effective in these circumstances.

Offshore you will often find stripies hard to get close to, as they have a disturbing tendency to sound when a boat approaches. At times, if you simply cut the motor a couple of hundred metres from the fish they will continue feeding and travel past your boat within casting distance.

However, probably the easiest way to catch stripies is to troll past them with small skirted trolling lures well out the back of the boat. By turning the boat back in the direction of the school once comfortably past the fish, you will drag your lure towards the feeding stripies and hopefully be rewarded with a hook-up.