False Albacore

False Albacore (Albies)

False Albacore (Euthynmus alletteratus) better known as albies or little tunny, are one of my favorite fish that inhabit Rhode Island waters. Beautiful color patterns paired with lightning fast speed makes them a very sought after sport fish for us surfcasters and kayakers. The easiest way to describe them is that they look like mini tuna, but they actually are more closely related to the mackerel family.

Albies are a beautiful fish, sporting lime green color on their tops paired with mesmerizing black swirls that travel down to their forked tails. These fish are built for speed, they have a collapsible dorsal fin that tucks into their body making them more streamlined in the water, and they can hit speeds of up to 40 mph. They are also incredibly agile and can stop and turn on a dime at a moment’s notice. As you might imagine, they are very fun to fight on the rod and reel.

False albacore are a pelagic species, meaning they are normally found in very deep offshore waters. Despite this, every fall we are blessed with their presence as they come crashing into the Rhode Island shorelines, feasting on the abundance of baitfish making their way south. Although I love these fish, they can be incredibly frustrating to target.

Albies are notoriously finicky, they can be very hard to predict because they are so fast and never stay still. Sometimes they come cruising into shore and feed for only 2 minutes and are never seen again. Other times massive pods of false albacore will dominate an area and feed for hours on end. You just never really know with these fish. To go along with their unpredictability, albies are notoriously lure shy. Almost everything in your striper plug bag will not work for false albacore, as they typically will only go for small and shiny presentations reeled in at a very fast speed.