Bluefin Advice

[skip_mff]

Hi,

Hoping to turn to you guys in the US for some advice. We're getting some 30-40lbs bluefin running around at the moment, however the sea temps are pretty high at around 78F and we have loads of bait fish in the water. Squids are not coming in and so we're finding that they're simply not going for squid/skirted lures at all. They're in a feeding mode but only for these small 8-10cm bait fish so I'm wondering what we can use.

Don't have a live baitwell on boat, even though I guess it would be best to try and use some of these live bait fish rigged up perhaps?

Small pin minnows worked but ripped out on hookup as the hooks couldnt handle the fish. I used a 4 inch cedar plug daisy chain with a painted Zucchini 6 inch rigged with 10/0 hook which resulted in a nice hookup of a 30lbs BFT, followed by a 16lbs BFT on a blue sparkle 6 inch conehead skirt but otherwise we trolled all around them chasing them down, varying speeds and lures with no further results.

Just wondering if there is anything we could try. The swimming action of the Cedar plug seemed the closest to a large baitfish I guess. We were trolling at the surface not weighted down.

Water is extremely extremely clear, but I dont think with BFT its so much of an issue in terms of needing to use Fluorocarbon as with Big Eye/Albacore is it?

Thanks,

Nick

[quack quack]

I would still go with the flouro and try some of those braid marauders.
Braid Marauder - Wahoo Lures - braidmarauder

try a large clark spoon trolled far back.

James E. Clark - Chrome Spoon # 2 3 1/2'' (No Bead) 6/0 Hook

[chummer]

I've never caught a BFT, but where I fish the YFT's are all feeding on these really small baitfish most of the time - no larger than 1-2" or 3-5" if it happens to be flying fish. It seemed that when we sized up to Braid Marauders or large cone jets, we'd only hookup whenever the tuna were busting large bait.

So, it might be worth a try to downsize your baits. Braid Speedsters (the smallest ones) are very productive for me, as well as small chugger lures in the 4-6" range. Something else to consider is that I believe most tuna hit from below or the side, and not from a trailing perspective. Whenever we've gotten our baits down deeper, it seemed like we were most productive. Hence, if I could troll a pattern of all Braid speedsters - I would because those lures simply get destroyed around here. Another lure that got crushed was a Yummy Flying Fish. However, after two skippies chewed it to pieces, we were out of $18 and wondered how we could fish more of them without going broke.

One last thing to consider is speed. For me, the slower I go the less fish I seem to catch. The faster I go, the more fish I tend to bring up. The limiting factor is whether or not my lures will track correctly (larger Mauraders come shooting out of the water, smaller speedy's track fine). My speeds are usually about 8-10 kts, and I wish I could do 12-14kts without planing. I think there are two possible reasons for this. I'm covering more water and/or the lure speed is spurring a more competitive bite. By competitive bite, I wonder if the tuna aren't looking at this lure and thinking that if they don't bite it fast, it'll be gone or another fish is going to get to it first.

Good luck and I hope this helps!
Chummer

[savanna lynn]

skip keep with the live bait and flouro your problem is your hooks sea deamon CIRCLE HOOKS GUARENTEED
they make all size hooks to match the bait the small hooks work fine try it i bet you dont pull any hooks

[bajakian]

We have live bait chummed with 1 to 2 inch pilchards using 80 lb test and the smallest gorrilla hooks you can find. We have caught 100 lb yft in Eleuthra like that and did not have a problem of pulling hooks, though we broke a few big ones off when the mono chafed.

[skip_mff]

Hi,

thanks for your replies. Seem Braid has quite a choice to look at and I don't think we have anything like that except Rapala's and Yozuri Hydro-squirts and I don't really like running Rapala's as they tend to get easily snagged with the other lines.

We dont have outriggers and can't fit them so our four rod spread isnt as nicely spread as it could be. Also tried some teasers on a spreader bar but it didnt really appear to raise them.

We didn't run the lures we had out deeper which was perhaps a mistake trying to keep them near the surface. And we didn't go past 6 knots. Chummer, have never trolled that fast 8-10 knots, but might be interesting to give it a go once. I guess you drop your lures further back as you generate more prop wash/wake behind you at higher speeds?

Nick

[islandshark633]

try the Braid Little Speedy or Braid Runner in purple and black, deadly just behind the boat at 5-10 kts. They will dive below surface lures that are set behind them so no tangles and they will not pop out of the water at any speed ( Marauder will, I don't like that one at all )

[chummer]

Nick,

I've caught fish both in my prop wash and way back. But typically I'll set my flat lines with speedies at about 100-150' back, staggered by no more than 30-50'. This particular lure tracks well at speeds up to 12-14 kts and tends to dive deep. The only downside is that these lures tend to get beat up very quickly and the welded rings holding the hooks will break quite often. Despite these shortcomings, I still buy them because they produce. For example, on my last trip out all of my fish came up on speedies. Out where I fish, the darker colors seem to do better - black/purple and all black.

But in general, I think tuna tend to be deeper than we think and getting your lures down to them would probably produce more fish. I've even thought about using trolling weights on my chuggers, but it's one of those things I just haven't spent the time to test out.

[Certifiable]

I agree with Chummer. Speed kills, and Braid Speedsters kill more !
Not sure about BFT fishing, but if they are like YFT you are getting some serious advice from the replies on this thread.
If you can get Rappalas, look for the X-Rap with the deep diving lip. It is deadly, small body 8-10cm, big lip for deep diving. I remove the factory treble hooks and replace with Mustad 7691 7/0 hooks on split rings.

Localy for YFT, it is required on my boat to always run a 4" purple and black Zukers feather, caught many a big nasty on that simple rig. Use the correct color for your hatch in your area, and always run flourocarbon leader.

BTW- I was in Malta in June, pretty cool island Did the typical tourist thing and went to Golden Beach, WOW, there were some hotties there that day . Saw the Popeye village movie set, and was late back to the cruise ship.....as usual.

Good luck, put your time in, you will figure it out.

[Tuna Devil]

Make a couple of spreader bars with the second squid from the top. I use 29 squids. When the bait is small we switch to these things. Also cut a ceader plug down and fish it about 150 yards beind the Boat. We also slow down when fishing for Bluefins 4-6 knots for schoolies and slower for Giants.
The squid in the picture are from E-bay, they are called Fluke squid.

You said you do not have a live well but, if you can get on them and live chum you can do some damage.

The other day we caught about 15 from 15 to 30 lbs on 6 lb. spinners using peanut bunker. I actually fried a Shimmano FG1000.

[Yellow Dog]

In North Carolina, we have great success with sea witches primarily in blue/white cut down some with small ballyhoo. Another option is the Jr. Ilander or even the Ilander Tracker with a small ballyhoo. Once again, the hot color is blue/white, but pink and white is a close second.

[savanna lynn]

make a live well with a garbage can and a washdown pump i've caught plenty of scool bf and live bait is first choice then sea witch ballyhoo combo second tried pulling speedsters and didnt work probably water color or speed i think the bf like a slower presentation at least from my exp but it cant hurt to try them all and let us know how it all goes

[skip_mff]

Originally Posted by chummer

So, it might be worth a try to downsize your baits. Braid Speedsters (the smallest ones) are very productive for me, as well as small chugger lures in the 4-6" range. Something else to consider is that I believe most tuna hit from below or the side, and not from a trailing perspective. Whenever we've gotten our baits down deeper, it seemed like we were most productive. Hence, if I could troll a pattern of all Braid speedsters - I would because those lures simply get destroyed around here. Another lure that got crushed was a Yummy Flying Fish. However, after two skippies chewed it to pieces, we were out of $18 and wondered how we could fish more of them without going broke.
Chummer

Thanks for the above will get some of the braid speedsters. Do you have a link for the yummy flying fish as could find no reference on the net for them.

We usually run a 10.5oz torpedo inline weight to try and get the lures down a bit. But was wondering what you use and how far back you set the weight from the lure.

[skip_mff]

Thanks for the info.

Looks like I def need to get some speedsters, do you guys recommend a good online source?

Could you enlighten me a bit on 'use the correct colour for your hatch area'

Can probably get the X-Rap here as they are usually fairly well stocked.

Golden Bay Beach is pretty nice and yes in summer loaded with hotties

Nick

Originally Posted by Certifiable

I agree with Chummer. Speed kills, and Braid Speedsters kill more !
Not sure about BFT fishing, but if they are like YFT you are getting some serious advice from the replies on this thread.
If you can get Rappalas, look for the X-Rap with the deep diving lip. It is deadly, small body 8-10cm, big lip for deep diving. I remove the factory treble hooks and replace with Mustad 7691 7/0 hooks on split rings.

Localy for YFT, it is required on my boat to always run a 4" purple and black Zukers feather, caught many a big nasty on that simple rig. Use the correct color for your hatch in your area, and always run flourocarbon leader.

BTW- I was in Malta in June, pretty cool island Did the typical tourist thing and went to Golden Beach, WOW, there were some hotties there that day . Saw the Popeye village movie set, and was late back to the cruise ship.....as usual.

Good luck, put your time in, you will figure it out.

[chummer]

Hi Nick,

As far as "matching the hatch", my personal belief is that size is more important than color as far as YFT go. I've gone to all-black lures and my hit rate seems to be the highest, but I know there aren't any "all-black" bait. The only rationale I can come up with is that the black lures are more visible, possibly in silhouette from below . The specific brand and model is "Braid Little Speedy" and color is black/purple, or all black. I've tried the BraidRunner, but it doesn't track at the faster speeds . But when I've setup properly on a school of tuna, they'll hit any color - but the darker colors produce for me better. Online I've found them for as little as $13 or $14 a lure. Just reminds me, I need to pick up some more.

I haven't tried the trolling weight trick yet. For me, these have been a mixed blessing because of how much more effort it takes to bring fish in (wahoo, dolphin, etc). Instead of trolling weights, I'm thinking of trying a couple of planers off of some downriggers. Hopefully no monster YFT's end up hitting the planer.

For the Flying Fish, here's the manufacturer's link. A bit expensive, though.
Yummee FlyN Fish

Catch 'em up.
Chummer

[Tuna Devil]

The Bite has been hot. The bars i mentioned above in black were the way to go. Alo Rapala (Sp?) swimmers worked well. But as usual live bait was king.

[skip_mff]

Do you have success with bars even when the Tuna are small, say 10-15kgs. I have several different spreader bars from fishmagiciantackle.com and to be honest never produced any results, in fact at times I'm worried its scaring them away.

On the last trip we had a spreader bars being pulled closeby but nothing came to the surface to attack. yet to see results in the med with spreader bars.

For the trip this weekend, have gotten hold of some Yozuri Bonito's, a squid/ballyhoo combo and a couple of Rapala's, so we'll see how that goes. Will also change to Flurocarbon leaders. Do you still recommend a snap swivel at the end of the leader so it attached straight to the eye on a Yozuri and is it necessary to cover it with a small squid.

[Tuna Devil]

[quote=skip_mff;64043]Do you have success with bars even when the Tuna are small, say 10-15kgs. I have several different spreader bars from fishmagiciantackle.com and to be honest never produced any results, in fact at times I'm worried its scaring them away.QUOTE]

The squid on the bars might be to big. I don't think they are scaring the fish. The fish probably are coming up to look but you just are not seeing them.

You might want to try putting a diving lure right under the bar (or a dink Ballyhoo) This helps when you raise them on the bar but they won't eat. More often than not they will grab that little lure under the bar.

Once you find fish don't be afraid to slow your trolling speed way down and if you do hook up and have the opportunity, drop a jig down.

[Jared Chasteen]

good ole fashion tuna feather, or locate them and chum with 40# floro.

[skip_mff]

I have an 18 inch nylon bar with 10 4.5inch tako skirts and a 30 inch bar with 20 4.5inch tako skirts so I'm doubtful those are too big?

I usually put a chase bait on the spread bar, but perhaps I should leave it without. Will try and rig underneath the bar with a rapala or Yozuri.

Thanks

The squid on the bars might be to big. I don't think they are scaring the fish. The fish probably are coming up to look but you just are not seeing them.

You might want to try putting a diving lure right under the bar (or a dink Ballyhoo) This helps when you raise them on the bar but they won't eat. More often than not they will grab that little lure under the bar.

Once you find fish don't be afraid to slow your trolling speed way down and if you do hook up and have the opportunity, drop a jig down.