Whats your favorite technique?

[BanannaMan]

I am new to the board and say I like the company I am keeping here. I have been around fishing all of my life. Both my father and my grandfather were both charter captains back in the day. Needless to say I got a great background education in how to hunt just about anything that swims. I have really only two real passions now, deepdropping for monster lurkers and tuna. It's amazing how many people prefer hunting these badboys. Some like to jig, some like to chunk and other like to troll.

Personally I prefer to find a feeding school rather than just chunk over a hump. Seems like evertime I tried that I got a ton of bonita eating my bait and found it almost impossible to get any baits past them to the tuna that were hanging out under the bonita. Once I find a school thats shredding a bait ball I begin to sling handfulls of chunk cut bait to draw the school. When I got thier attention I toss out dip nets full of live pin fish or thread fins. I load up a livey, flip him out and hold on. My mates and I switch up fishing and pitching bait so everyone has the chance to drag one in. I was wondering what technique you guys personally like to use to hunt tuna with. Do you anchor on a hump and chunk, or troll, or what? If you troll, what kind of lures do you like to use? Do you prefer the old timer cedar plugs, or squid chains, or what? Do you use spreader bars or teasers? What kind of baits do you prefer to chunk with, if thats your way. I am crossin over to south Bimini in two weeks for a tournament thats going on and look to seal the fate on my share of YTF's and do some deep dropping for some black and queen snapper. Hell, I might even lower my standards and take a mahi or two. I know there is better fishing to the east in the canyon area but the tuna are hittin pretty hard off Bimini now. My buddy just got back 2 weeks ago and took home the three YFT's he battled. He got a nice 94lb, 108lb and a chubby 122lber. Needless to say I am eager to at least match him. It's always nice to learn alternative techniques in case the bite doesn't lean in the direction you are tryin and I would like to know how you guys "prefer" to hook'em up in case my way sucks that particular day. lol Thanks

[Ahi's & Mahi's]

On the West coast, I like to look for birds and then troll by the fish. I troll 2 skirted ballyhoo on the long riggers, 2 magnum rapala's on the short riggers, and a home-made cedar plug spreader bar on the center rigger. When the fish just dont "want to bite" a few people use these tall poles that they attach to their boat called Greensticks. The Japanese brought this technique to Hawaii in the early 80's. If you go to this website, it may help you a little better with the Greenstick.

Greensticks, green stick fishing, green sticks, greenstick fishing gear and tackle from alltackle.com

[BanannaMan]

Ahi's & Mahi's,

Thanks for the info. The "Green Stick" system looks intresting and spendy. But if it produces, it's worth it. Have you tried this sytem? It's intesting they talked about jumping squiddles. My buddy has a rig he made that he swears by. It has what he calls "jumping or flying squid". I haven't actually seen his rig but he says it is extremely productive. He is actually making the crossing with me, I will ask him to bring his rig to test. I will let you know how it works and get some pics to post. Does anyone have any comments on the use of trolling live bridled flying fish for tunas? Has anyone tried the "Tuna Teaser Magnet"? Is it worth the $$$?? Thanks

[Ahi's & Mahi's]

I havent tried it yet but if you have 5k to spend on the stick and base etc. you wont be disapointed.The problem with the greenstick is if you are way out and it starts to get rough your boat is going to rock. I am looking at buying the 40ft. stick but it costs a pretty penny.

[nestor]

BananaMan,

You going over for the GEM?

[BanannaMan]

Nestor,

Actually I was originally going to go over to the Abacos, via checkin in Bimini, for the Bahama Outback tournament but my mate who has hook-ups in Bimini said there was a tournament there at the same time. I figured we would save some fuel and hit that instead. My buddy was just there and fairly decent. Not sure of what tounament is actually goin on over there, at the time of my post I had just heard rough details that there was one. I surfed the web on the usual sites to try and see what was up, but found nothing. I even called one of my dad's long time friends who runs charters there to see what he knew of it. He sounded clueless to anything goin on there.

My mate is supposed to be gettin us setup. Worse case scenario, we get there and we still fish regardless. Gotta free place stay and 200lbs of goggle eyes sittin in the freezer. With all the nasty wind we have been getting lately we may be SOL even crossin at all. 8' seas with a 9 second dwell makes for an ugly crossing.

If you know more details or a website, I would appreciate anything you can tell me. I hate relyin on others to sign me up for anything, especially if I can't even find any info out about it. Thanks

[BanannaMan]

Has anyone been over to Bimini lately?

[nestor]

I'm fishing in the GEM (Great Escape Mon') the 31st-3rd. watching the seas, supposed to be settling down for 4' on Thurs and calming even more after that. Will likely make the crossing is 4' or less.

The GEM is a friendly tourney thats be going on for 22 years between friends. Very low-key with actually winning being secondary to hanging w/ the boys and catching some fish. We're out of Bluewater resort and maybe catch you arouond. Hope to get on some yellowfin....

[BanannaMan]

Sweet. I am actually going over the 9th thru the 11th. Sounds like a different tourny. Do me a favor and let me know how you guys do. It may mean the difference wether I do the Bimini thing or make the secondary crossing to the Abacos. The tourny thats going on during my time table is probably a local thing as well. I am itching to fish either way. I am getting some new electronics installed and updating a few odds-n-ends on my boat now. I will be doing some dragging and droppin off Prot Evergaldes this weekend to setup my gear and fine tune a few things in prep for this trip. Good luck over there, I look forward to your report. Be safe crossin and good luck crushin those tunies.

[riskreward]

Anyone fishing the Treasure Cay Billfish tourney? There are slots for wahoo,dolphin and tuna. Risk2Reward is in june 11 thru 15