Yo-Zuri bonita question

[Robs]

Hey guys,
I have received contrasting advice from three different people working at the local tackle shop regarding the Yo-Zuri Bonita lure. I asked the question if I am trolling at 5-10 knots, will I need a trolling sinker to keep the lure below the surface or is the lure heavy enough to skip the trolling lure? I will be fishing with a topshot of mono with a 6' wire leader. One guy says I need a 24-32 oz trolling weight to keep the lure several feet down, another guy says no, another guy says 12 oz will do. What do you guys with experience with this lure have to say? I have the 4 7/16 oz model.

[Harry Klauber]

Robs,
We fish the largest Yozuri or Marauder lures on the long range trips out of San Diego when we troll wahoo. Any size Yozuri bonita lure WILL stay in the water at 5-10 knots without the use of any lead. We fish them in either orange and black or purple and black and the Marauders with the rattles in them work the best!! There are a couple of tips for fishing them.
1- You cannot use single strand wire as the wobbling action of the lure will stress the wire and when the first fish, or second, gets on it it will break. You need to rig them with flexible 49 strand cable with crimps and anything over 250# to 480# will work.
2- Our optimum speed is about 8 knots where the lures will wobble as they are supposed to and not come out of the water.
3- For best results fish your shortest lines clipped low to the water (as close as you can get) and use a couple of #64 rubber bands as breakaways that will hook the fish.
4- Wahoo often hit these things and grab hold of them but don't always have the hooks in their mouth. You need to pull them on a minimum of 60# test, with 80 being better, as if not hooked when they open their mouth to let go of the lure you are going to need a pretty good amount of drag to drive the hooks into the bony mouth. We fish 22 pounds on our 80# test. When a fish hits keep going at trolling speed for two reasons. First to insure the fish is hooked and not just doing the bone in the mouth routine like a dog as well as trying to get a second or third fish on at once. Wahoo travel in small packs and multiple hook ups are quite common in areas where they are migrating through.
5- Should the lure get all slashed up and look like garbage don't worry it will catch just as well as a new one. The wahoo chase the shape, shadow, and action. If the face of the lure gets broken it will never track straight and you can just replace it as it won't catch for you. When fished directly off your rod tip you should clearly observe the vibration of the tip that the lure action creates. NEVER fish them off an outrigger unless you have a heavy breakaway that will hook the fish and even then you will lose alot on the drop back off the outrigger. Best fished off the rod or pulled down to the waterline with a couple of #64 rubber bands
6- The single drawback over jet head lures and higher speeds is that at 5-10 knots you are going to get ALOT of annoyance from the cudas especially in the Bahamas. With jet heads, leads, and 15 kt speeds you eliminate 99% of the cudas as they are a bit lazy to give chase at that speed where the wahoo love it.
Good Luck. If you have any other questions PM me. Harry

[Robs]

Thanks so much Harry- you are a wealth of knowledge. You give great advice as I have not pulled a Yozuri before. The #64 idea is a great one, keeping the line angle close to the surface. It sounds like you recommend higher strike drag with the hoos than I would have considered. Thanks for that too. I will be sure not to use an outrigger for the Yozuri. I will keep those reserved for the Islanders.
Harry, it is because of people like you that this site is so enjoyable.
Rob

[WhItEoUt 23]

[Disco Lady]

[Brandon]

Well put harry, also to add to that, if u have double hooks I would recommend you switch them to either single hooks or my fav. 4x strong 10/0 treble hooks, you will lose alot less fish... by the way try green/white- mackeral color, to switch up the catch slow it down in 70-120' for a few kings... good luck

[Harry Klauber]

Originally Posted by Brandon

Well put harry, also to add to that, if u have double hooks I would recommend you switch them to either single hooks or my fav. 4x strong 10/0 treble hooks, you will lose alot less fish... by the way try green/white- mackeral color, to switch up the catch slow it down in 70-120' for a few kings... good luck

I use the larger plugs which already come with single hooks on swivels. I agree to change out the double hooks that the smaller plugs come with to extra strong single hooks of the appropriate size. I don't think I've ever seen
4x 10/0 trebles but I think I'd still go with single hooks.

All color lures will work but here is my theory. I've wahoo fished all over the world and found one thing to be true, and I've seen packs of 30-50 fish behind the lures at once in both the Pacific and Indian oceans. In the white turbulent water right behind the boat darker colors definitley outfish lighter ones as I believe they offer more contrast in the white water. On the San Diego trips they troll 5 lines and the farthest one back is just 100 feet. They fish the corners at 30 feet, the next set at 60 feet, and the "long line" at 100 feet and that's on a boat with a 24 foot beam. Way back on the shotgun, where the water is less turbulent, I love light blue and pink. It's just what works for me. We don't like kingfish so you can have all the ones i leave behind. Harry

PS - Thanks to all for the positive response. I'm always happy to share

[Capt Bligh]

YOUR THE MAN

[RiskTaker]

Harry,

I've got a couple of those Yozuri Bonitas. Indeed, they dig in the water nice, even without any weight. Wow, and the action they produce, you'd think that you've got a live Little Tunny on the line every time you look at the rod tip. They are commonly sold with the double dual hook configuration because that is all I can seem to find new. I would concur that the single swivel hooks, mid and aft is a better solution. Are they also sold that way OEM?

Question: Can you effectively use those stainless split rings to retrofit the dual hooks to a swivel hook? I have seen some split rings open up like they were soft plastic, for smaller split ring applications. I would be concerned for a strong Wahoo strike coupled with a strong drag setting.

[Harry Klauber]

Split rings work fine as long as you get the high quality heavy test ones. I have never had a problem. You should have to use split ring pliers to open them so you know they are not too soft and again - high pound test. Harry

[Harry Klauber]

Originally Posted by Capt Bligh

YOUR THE MAN

The picture in the Avatar (Capt Bligh) is me but I am not the writer. Some nasty individual has now copied my picture from a post by billfish32 that I posed for as a joke and has connected my face with his words. Eric knows the history of the problem. I just wanted all who know me to understand I am not writing under different names as if it was the case why put my face out there? Harry

[Capt Bligh]

??????????holy smokes

Originally Posted by Harry Klauber

The picture in the Avatar (Capt Bligh) is me but I am not the writer. Some nasty individual has now copied my picture from a post by billfish32 that I posed for as a joke and has connected my face with his words. Eric knows the history of the problem. I just wanted all who know me to understand I am not writing under different names as if it was the case why put my face out there? Harry

[d-a]

Originally Posted by RiskTaker

Harry,

I've got a couple of those Yozuri Bonitas. Indeed, they dig in the water nice, even without any weight. Wow, and the action they produce, you'd think that you've got a live Little Tunny on the line every time you look at the rod tip. They are commonly sold with the double dual hook configuration because that is all I can seem to find new. I would concur that the single swivel hooks, mid and aft is a better solution. Are they also sold that way OEM?

Question: Can you effectively use those stainless split rings to retrofit the dual hooks to a swivel hook? I have seen some split rings open up like they were soft plastic, for smaller split ring applications. I would be concerned for a strong Wahoo strike coupled with a strong drag setting.

RT

You can buy them with the swivels and single hooks already. There more expensive but then again if you going to add the swivels and singles it might be the same price wise. Also the ones that come with better hardware also seem to troll at faster speeds above 10 knots better than the ones that come with the double hooks(BPS ones).

d-a