[miles "Dr. Fish"]

Hiya


I'm very interested in the methods you guys use for targeting yellowfin tuna. Our fish average 100-120lb's with quite a few going well over 200lb's. We catch most of our fish on bait. Creating a chum slick and bait fishing is a VERY effective tactic here. We also troll lures, but since we don't troll that much, our lures are very limited.

Here's a selection of lures we use. Unfortunately, most of our fishing is done on 16-28' boats, so almost nobody uses out-riggers.

Picture one is the HALCO lures we use. The middle one is the GT jig. VERY effective for large YF.

Picture two is RAPALA X-RAP's. The top one is responsible for a 205lb YF on its first trip!

Picture three is the usual RAPALA CD22 and CD18's.

Picture four is the meduim sized YAMASH-ITA squids with large bird, rigged with a single 10/0 mustad hook.

Picture 5 and 6 are plastic's pulled primarily for albacore tuna. They DO take the odd YF, but are primarily albacore lures (the albacore range from 20-70lb's)

Please post some pictures and techniques that are effective on YOUR yellowfins!!

Thanx in advance!!

Regards
miles

 

[Snagged]

Miles,
On the Gulf most of our fish are take by one of three methods, 1. Chunk (blackfin chunks), 2. Jigs, butterfly or knife jigs, 3. Top waters, either poppers or immitation flyingfish.
I'm sure some of the others will post pictures of the various lures.

 

[Argo]

along with that, alot of the larger ones are caught on the troll while trolling for marlin, kind of a bicatch......

 

[wacker]

yea.. what they said but for jigs I just use the old diamond jig with a stinger hook on top and J hook on the bottom. I know the west coast long range boys use live bait and fish from the kite alot for that 200lb class of fish.

 

[CP]

Catching yellowfin tuna

just to add one more technique to snagged list is live bait. Most people have heard of the tuna crack (that is just smallish blue runners). When they are available there is often little need to use anything else.

-CP

 

[DeepBlueGulf]

When fishing the overnight trips at the floaters, the best nighttime YFT bait is a live flying fish. Almost a guaranteed hookup if you can catch a flyer - just pin it on, send it down and hold on tight.

Tom - DBG

 

[newman]

Hey Dr Fish, Which coast are you on...East or West? All of the trolling lures you showed will catch YFT in the gulf but many guys here run out to the floaters (deep water oil rigs) and start chumming and catch them on topwaters, chunks, and butterfly jigs. Some guys troll around the floaters and are successful while others don't troll at all.

 

[Tall Steve]

Newman, I think Dr. Fish is out of South Africa.

Search his posts, he does some pretty amazing fishing/spearfishing down there.

 

[BPitcher]

You could look into trying the east coast trolling technique. They use a mix of spreader bars, daisy chains, and small/ medium jets. I think it would work well in your area especially since your fish are sort of scattered about an area and this spread will make A LOT of fish attracting commotion.

 

[miles "Dr. Fish"]

Hiya


Thanx for the responses!!!

Could you post some pic's of the jig's you use, specifically for YF's? Also, what sort of tackle do you use them on, and HOW do you WORK the jig??

Also, some links for the surface plugs used.

The pic's below are the jigs/spoons we use for ALBACORE tuna ONLY. I fish these on a Shimano Beastmaster 7' rod coupled with a SHimano TSM4 star drag and a Shimano TLD70 Heavy rod with a Trindad 20 with 50lb line. The thicker line is used as you SOMETIMES hook into 120-200lb class YF. How-ever, fighting a 200lb YF on this type of tackle is really hardcore!! You can't clip the rig into a harness!!

The second and third pic's are surface plugs used also for Albacore and yellowtail. Once again, my Shimano Beastmaster 7' Rod with a Trinidad 14 loaded with 20lb line. I've boated a 130lb YF on this tackle earlier this year, whilst plugging for yellowtail. Took me over 2.5hrs to boat that fish!! Not too keen on that sort of punishment anytime soon again!!

The biggest downside to plugging or jigging here is the tackle we use. The LIGHTEST recreational tackle i use is a Shimano 30LRS with 50lb line. When league fishing, we use either 30lb or 20lb line classes. VERY difficult landing BIG fish on star drag reels, which are needed when plugging and jigging. The SHimano Torsa's have just arrived here, but are simply waaaay too expensive!!

Regards
miles

 

[miles "Dr. Fish"]

ps. do you guys use BUNGEE'S and POLING techniques for your tuna??


Regards
miles

 

[Snagged]

Some links to various jigs and top waters.
http://www.anglerscenter.com/lures_knife-jigs.htm
http://www.anglerscenter.com/lures_yozuri.htm
http://www.anglers-proshop.com/product_list.php?category_id=35
http://www.anglers-proshop.com/product_list.php?category_id=36
http://www.frenzytackle.com/products/ballistic2.htm
http://www.frenzytackle.com/products/popper.htm
http://www.charkbait.com/cs/csc_River2Sea.htm
http://www.charkbait.com/cs/csar1.htm
http://www.enlure.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=30&osCsid=d6a5b2eadf15f88ae18bc215db0e3ef0
http://www.islanderscustomtackle.com/products.htm

Rods
http://www.islanderscustomtackle.com/smrods.htm
http://www.anglers-proshop.com/product_list.php?category_id=113

Reels
http://www.anglers-proshop.com/product_view.php?product_id=22
http://www.anglers-proshop.com/product_view.php?product_id=19
http://www.charkbait.com/cs/csrac.htm (Twinspin at bottom of page)
http://www.charkbait.com/cs/csrAvet.htm#AVET%20LX%20and%20JX