TUNA Frustration

[Van]

Spent a good 4-5 hours on loads of tuna today, they were everywhere !!!

I was chasing and casting and i had many good chances cause they were
everywhere.

Fish coming clear out of the water smashing and crashing. I must have had 50 good casts. Over and through them, behind and through them, in front in back, next to them you name it,,,,out of all that I got 1 bump.

They were even all around my boat while I was just sitting engine off. Casted til my arms hurt NADA !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finally I just had to get home. "FISHLESS" and frustrated. !!!!!!!!

[BigFish]

What were you throwing Van?

[Van]

Mostly metal lures, a few top water too.

But I have some metals all rigged up with BIG heavy hooks..

I have to get more various lures to increase chances.
They were feeding on very small bait fish.

I'll be out there again REAL soon.....

[BigFish]

Large topwater wood!

[Raider Ronnie]

Originally Posted by BigFish

Large topwater wood!

Deadle #^&#^&#^&#^&s!!!

[BigFish]

Wood!

[Pete_G]

Throw those topwaters some more, and work them as fast as possible.

Jumpin Minnows and Yozuri Hydro Pencils in particular. Walk the dog type lures are the best. Bone color Jumpin Minnow is my weapon of choice for picky tuna.

It's tough to throw on the heavy gear that you need to fight those fish, but it works in a big way...

[MTC]

Deadly #^&#^&#^&#^&s... let them drop... turn off your engine

[Flaptail]

Troll. Birds and GMs plus birds and daisys. Bling trolling works best make them come to you.

[Nebe]

bring out a 10 foot surf rod.. i did and loved every second of it.

[riverrat2]

Your gunna think I am crazy but, the 3" storms in bunker. I know plenty of charter guys around here who have been the only guys hooking up because they are throwing these. Next time give it a shot.

[Team Rock On]

Try using small metal with small hooks. I've been using 4/0 Gam. live bait hooks. Last Sat. went 0 for 30 using 50lb fc, on Sun. dropped it down to 20 lb and went 2-6. Fish had 1 1/2" peanut bunker and 1" shrimp in it's stomach. Hooked one last night and it had 2
5" spike mackeral in it's stomach. Most of the fish are around 30 lbs so heavy gear isn't needed.

[devils fiddle]

silver crippled herring, cast and let sink. fish on. at least thats what i heard works from some guys on the net.

[staltershoal]

how big do they have to be to keep them?

[Van]

Thanks guys, I did try all the metal I had, I also got info from a friend that Yo-zuri hydros have worked.

I had storms in the box, but that is one thing i did not try.

Next time I'm gonna bring everything, and I mean everything,,,

,,,EVEN WOOD,,,

[Van]

Originally Posted by staltershoal

how big do they have to be to keep them?

27" min...

[maddog2020]

Small Tsunami shads - BLUE. 3" size - MOTOR them as fast as you can reel. Remeber the bait fish is fleeing for it's life.

Small Yo-zuri Hydrometals jigs - change them to a stouter single hook.

Maria jigs - forget the name exactly - clear plastic over some foiled pattern - not many places carry them - sell out fast!

Try going down to thinner/lighter poundage Fluoro leader as well.

Hooking up & landing the fish are two different issues. Get them on first THEN worry about boating it.

If you decide to route of surf rod - be sure it is a blended graphite or better fiberglas - leave the high modulus at home.

Tuna make all other species seem like wussies fighting. Big adenaline rush - BIG fun! Good luck, Van!

[Mr. Sandman]

Van,

they can be picky and sometimes I think they just like to jump around sometimes and are not feeding, but all of a sudden the bite will come on. Hang around the area.

I prefer tiny metal with small but really strong hooks. Hydrometals, braid jigs, etc all work, but keep it light and I would fish them with 20# spinners and avoid the heavy stuff unless the fish are big, then troll. Use a floro leader. Avoid big stuff, I did ***much*** better with a small jig. Also the fish I caught were ***stuffed*** with tiny baby squid about 3/4" long.

Another thing I do is you can troll a couple of yozuri deep divers on while you are patrolling the area. Many times you will pick up the lone soldier on these and they tend to be bigger. I like a braid line with a long floro leader for this set up.

catchem up!

[Van]

With everything you guys suggest, i was pretty close to right on. I know they were feeding cause I could see the baits in the area and the birds were getting what they could.

The fish were 20-30 pound class, awsome sight coming clear out of the water like a freakin missle. I will diversify my gear and hope my next time out they are there as thick. Small jigs with smaller hooks, maybe some teasers, and def try storms.

SM: I did troll as well, but i think i had better shots gunning over to them, the guys in the bigger boats were just watching me. I did not see any trollers or chummers hook up.
Wish i had something to show them !!!!

[TheSpecialist]

Next time use an M-80

[nautibuoys]

We hit 7 and boated 6 yesterday, all using Yo-Zuri Hydro poppers. They wouldn't hit silver or the blue/white Atom poppers, or the metals. They liked the small Yo-Zuri in blue or green mackeral best, but the larger one worked almost as good (and we're able to cast it much farther over the school and bring it in to them). We remove the front treble and add an Owner 1/0 4x treble-wicked sharp and much better than the stock Yo-Zuri hooks. Another trick is to slow down; make a big splash, let it lie, another, let it lie. The tuna picked it up like it was stunned bait. Anyways, we had out share of frustration when you bring the lures through and not a touch!

[Van]

I found some hydros, but they are about 3-4" long, the bait they were on was eally small. Do they make hydros smaller???

[nautibuoys]

Maybe freshwater, not sure, but the Hydro's are thru-wired. The 3 5/8" weighs 7/8 oz; the 4 3/4" weighs 1.5 oz. As you mentioned, they are feeding on small bait but the slow, big pop, let it sit a second, pop again and repeat then let 'em eat, worked for us. Hope I didn't just jinx myself...

[Pete_G]

Originally Posted by Van

I found some hydros, but they are about 3-4" long, the bait they were on was eally small. Do they make hydros smaller???

I'm still not sure how important "match the hatch" is. Out the 100's we landed off of Newport, almost none were on baits that matched the bait in the water. Our best and smallest topwater offering was easily twice the size of the baitfish the tuna were eating. We got them to eat Dannys and other weird stuff. They will eat anything anytime some days, but usually what they want is something weird (as in something that doesn't match) when they're being picky.

[Van]

I have loaded up with more variety of lures, I think I going out tomorrow.
I also on vaca the wek of the 12th. IF the weather holds up I'll be fishng and fishing and fishing.....
If i do hook up, I have you guys to thank.

[maddog2020]

The Hydrometals (hydro jigs) can be found small. My smallest are 18 grams (~ 2"). Cabelas has some of the small 5/8 oz in stock for $5.95.

None of my local shops ever have any in stock - sell out FAST.

[Raider Ronnie]

Van,
Did they look like this?
3 of us went out yesterday and had a fun day!
We were hoping for one large one, but managed to land 4 of them this size,
But I only got this 1 picture because the batteries died in my digital camera!

[Got Stripers]

I had a customer order 100 of the olive/gold 9" big jerks 2 years back for tuna, so he's targetting them with a big sand eel imitation.

[Flaptail]

Originally Posted by Raider Ronnie

Van,
Did they look like this?
3 of us went out yesterday and had a fun day!
We were hoping for one large one, but managed to land 4 of them this size,
But I only got this 1 picture because the batteries died in my digital camera!

Gotta love the black and purple squids. That's been the hot color for me and my crew.

[Raider Ronnie]

Originally Posted by Flaptail

Gotta love the black and purple squids. That's been the hot color for me and my crew.