Skip Jack as live bait for Florida tuna

[Certifiable]

Anyone have any success in using skip jack for live bait fishing for Yellow Fin Tuna on the Florida East Coast. I am seriously thinking about installing some tuna tubes on my boat. Live bonito is scarce on the way to the tuna grounds, so skip jack is the more available bait.
I have seen the success of live baiting with Bonita, just not sure how skip jack will do on the menu for tuna. I have heard that Yellow Fin Tuna do eat skippies, but I do not have any personal experience fishing with them.
Also, I would appreciate any recomendations for the size and type of feather or squider to pull for the "smaller" bait size skip jacks. I have had my share of the big fat ones while searching for yellow fin.... just need to target the smaller bait size ones (1-5 lbs).
I expect the fishing to be much slower than pulling artificials, but I would venture to guess that the fish will be much larger than the normal catch.

Chime in with any facts or theories. Cuz the fish are right around the corner.

[Tuna Devil]

I have done it with Skippies a few times, mostly trying to catch Eyes. We have caught a couple of fish Yellows and eyes. That being said if you don't stop the boat the second you hook them they won't last as bait. They bleed real easy and if the bleed the are no good. 4 oz jap featers, red and white works the best for us. If you are going to put them out make sure you are on the meat because you can not troll them faster than a couple of knots, chasing fish is not an option. While you are at it Mahi makes an awesome Yellow fin bait but again you have to be on the fish.

[Boboe]

A yellowfin will eat anything that will fit in its mouth. They're hungry-hungry-hippos. I've used tiny blackfin (8" fork) for bait. They weren't any bigger than some of the hardtails we had out. I don't see why a skippy would be refused, assuming it wasn't too big.

We would pull spanish mackerel trees around a rig to catch them, hardtails, bonita, etc. All the little stuff would jump on them. We'd double them up (thus having 8 hooks in a line) with a 2oz lead at the end to hold it in.

Don't know what a mackerel tree is? Mackerel Rigs

[NightStalker]

A skippy would work if you were around the fish. In Mexico and central america, live baiting a skippy is the prefered method to catch the monster yellowfins that prowl those waters. Im not sure that this type of method would be my first choice for the east coast of florida though mainly cause the predominant size of the fish found there. Regardless, it would work and like you mentioned, IMO you would probably catch less but larger fish on them. Also like you mentioned, catching smaller skippy would probably be more productive. The one upside to fishing this way is you have a great chance of hooking into a blue marlin if you are fishing in the right spots.

[Certifiable]

I just came back from Panama, and we were using small Bonita for bait. EVERYTHING eats Bonita in Panama, that is all we used. The Bonita were the perfect size, 14-18" long, but we were fishing for 200+ lb tuna and larger marlin.
Here on the East Coast of Florida, we have more humble size fish, the larger ones are in the 80 - 120 lb size range, so I expect to use a 10-12" max size bait.
Bonita are only around when you don't want them !! Skippies are everywhere in the tuna schools. I would hate to gear up for the tuna tube thing, only to find out that the Yellowfin will only eat them if they are starving.
I agree that I must be right on top of them before I drop the livies over the side, the schools move way to fast to drag the live bait.
My thinking is to switch to skippies when the afternoon temp heats up and the fish go deep. I could use my plotter to establish the feeding zone from the morning troll, and set up in that target area. I would save some fuel, and have a shot at a larger fish during the afternoon doldrums. I could set a 2 line spread on the downrigger to 150' deep and bump troll in the area while I choke down a few cervesas and a sammich'.
I sure wish we had some structure to set up on with the live bait. It is just a different type of fishing over here. We actualy have to stalk and attack the school with the perfect trolling pass, no such thing as chumming and waiting for them to come to you.