Tuna Offseason Checklist: Get Ready for Next Season

The season’s ending — next season starts now

The crews who are first on the fish in spring do their work in the fall and winter. Cleaning, re-rigging and planning now means you’re not scrambling with frayed leaders and missing stingers on the first good weather day.

As water temperatures drop and the fleet hauls out across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, the offseason is the best time to:

• Protect your investment — salt and sun are hard on bars, squid and reels left in the boat all winter.
• Fix what broke — chewed squid, bent bars and tired crimps are easy to replace now, hard to replace at 4 a.m. at the dock.
• Learn from the season — while it’s fresh, write down what caught fish and what didn’t.
• Plan ahead — permits, boat work and new gear take time.

Here’s the full checklist, in the order we’d tackle it.

1. Clean and store your spread

Salt left on your lures all winter corrodes hooks, swivels and crimps, and dries soft plastics out. A good rinse and dry now adds seasons to your spread.

1. Soak in fresh water. Fill a cooler or tub with warm fresh water and soak bars, Side Trackers® and daisy chains for 20–30 minutes to loosen dried salt.
2. Rinse every connection. Run fresh water over swivels, crimps and hooks — that’s where salt hides and corrosion starts.
3. Dry completely. Hang lures straight, out of direct sun, until fully dry. Storing anything wet invites rust and mildew.
4. Store flat and separate. Put each bar in its own lure bag so squid don’t tangle or get crushed, and keep them out of sunlight — UV breaks down soft plastic over time.
5. Store somewhere cool and dry. A garage or basement beats a boat cabin or a hot shed.

Tip: label each bag with the lure, color and the position it fished best in. Next spring you’ll set your first spread in minutes.

2. Inspect and re-rig

Go over every lure in good light, one at a time. Anything that’s borderline gets fixed now — a fish of a lifetime will find the weak link.

Prices as of October 14, 2026.

Stingers: these take the most abuse. Retire any with chewed squid or a frayed leader, and stock fresh ones in your best colors. See our stinger guide.

Want to build your own? The Make Your Own section has bare Multi-Directional Side Tracker® bars, squid packs, teaser birds and hooks — a good winter project.

3. Rods, reels and line

Reels work harder than anything else on a tuna boat, and winter is when tackle shops have time to service them.

• Back off the drags. Storing a reel with the drag cranked down compresses the washers. Loosen every drag before you put reels away.
• Rinse and wipe down. Light freshwater rinse (don’t blast water into the reel), dry, and wipe with a reel-safe protectant.
• Get them serviced. Drop lever-drag reels at a reputable shop for cleaning, fresh grease and new drag washers if needed. Go early — shops get backed up before spring.
• Check your line. Strip off the top layer of mono that saw sun and fights; replace mono that’s chalky or nicked. Braid lasts longer, but inspect the first 50–100 yards and your top-shot connection.
• Inspect rods. Look for cracked or grooved guides (run a cotton swab through them — it snags on cracks), loose reel seats and worn gimbals.
• Store rods upright or racked, out of the sun, with no weight leaning on them.
• Check rod lanyards and belts. Replace frayed rod safety lanyards and inspect fighting belts for cracked gimbal pins or worn straps.

4. Review your season

Your memory of what worked will be fuzzy by April. Spend an evening writing it down while it’s fresh — go through your photos, phone notes and GPS tracks.

For each trip that produced fish, note:

• Date, area and water temperature
• Species and size
• Which lure, color and position got bit (short rigger, long rigger, corner, shotgun)
• Trolling speed and sea state
• What the bait looked like — sand eels, squid, butterfish

Then look for patterns. Did purple outfish everything at first light? Did the long riggers get every bite on calm days? Did you lose fish to pulled hooks or broken leaders?

Turn it into a restock list. Buy more of what caught fish, replace what wore out, and fill the gaps — if you only ran three rods this year and the crew can handle more, it might be time to move up from a Starter to an Angler spread.

5. Use the winter to get better

The offseason is the cheapest time to improve, because mistakes at the kitchen table don’t cost you fish.

• Practice rigging. Crimping cable and mono, rigging stingers, and building a daisy chain are skills that get faster with reps. Make a few spare stingers each week and you’ll have a full bag by spring.
• Build a lure. Put together your own bar or chain from a bare Side Tracker®, squid packs and teaser birds. You’ll understand your spread better once you’ve built one.
• Study the spread. Read up on positions and distances (How Far Back Should You Troll Your Tuna Spread?) and on how other captains set up — see our Northeast midshore bluefin and canyon yellowfin breakdowns.
• Learn your electronics. Spend time with your sonar and chart plotter manuals, and practice reading sea-surface temperature charts so you can plan trips around temperature breaks.
• Watch and learn. Rigging videos on the ChatterLures YouTube channel are a good start.
• Fish somewhere else. Some anglers follow the fish south for winter bluefin off the Carolinas, or book a trip farther south. Even one winter trip keeps your skills sharp.

6. Plan next season

Boat: have your mechanic winterize the engines, and book spring commissioning early — yards fill up fast. Make a list of anything that broke or nagged you this season (a sticky outrigger, a weak bilge pump, a rod holder that wobbles) and get it fixed while the boat’s out.

Safety gear:

• Check expiration dates on flares and replace any that are out of date.
• Renew your EPIRB’s NOAA registration if it’s due (it’s required every two years) and check the battery’s expiration date.
• Inspect life jackets — inflate auto-inflatables by mouth to check for leaks and replace expired CO2 cylinders.

Paperwork: the HMS Angling permit renews every year. Note your expiration date and renew before your first trip. Check for rule changes before the season opens — NOAA updates tuna regulations regularly.

Your offseason timeline:

• October–November: clean, inspect and store everything; write your season review.
• November–December: restock squid, stingers and rigging supplies; grab any holiday deals.
• January–February: reels to the shop; rig stingers and build lures at home.
• March–April: renew permits, check safety gear, re-spool, and set your first spread in the driveway so it’s ready for the first weather window.

Offseason shopping list

Prices as of October 14, 2026.

Moving up next season? Compare the Starter, Angler and Captain’s spreads.

Keep learning

• What Is a Tuna Trolling Spread? — the pieces and how many rods to run
• How Far Back Should You Troll Your Tuna Spread? — distances for every position
• Trolling Stingers — rigging and swapping stingers
• Tuna Fishing for Beginners — for the friend you’re bringing next year