Melton Cherry Jets

[roughriderjosh]

Hopefully someone can answer this beings I am not sure if there is a Melton Representative here anymore.

I have some Melton Cherry Jets that have seen little water but they look good for use. I have some 7" and 9". If anyone is familiar do you guys run these or any similar jet heads with ballyhoo or just the jet head with no meat for tuna fishing as I am going to put them in the water more soon?

[Patudo]

Personally I wouldn't run them with natural bait. They're not designed to be a bait enhancer like a seawitch or an Iland style lure and the double plastic skirts will only get in the way. Pull them as is in an artificial lure spread at a slightly faster speed. Its been a while now since I fished with them last but they get bites from all gamefish - blue and white marlin, dorado, wahoo as well as tunas. Try the 9" off a rigger on the 5th, 6th wave or further back in clean blue water. The 6" can go way back off a center rigger. You could try around 300 lb leader on the 9" with a 180 degree two hook 9/0 rig and for the 6" , 250 lb leader with a single 8/0 or 7/0 unless there are lots of wahoos in your area in which case remove them from the pattern and substitute for the cheapest metal jets with scraps of skirt and cable leader!

[jwalker]

I would run them as part of your artifical spread, they run great at medium to faster speeds, 5-9+ kts.
Patudo's suggestions on leader and hooks is right on, I have also run them behind birds with good success.

Good Luck

[Capt Josh]

We catch the chit out of tunas on those bad boys...run em long in the center or down the long sides...we find 130# fresh fluoro leader works great for tunas ie you get more bites and run 4 mauraders in front of them off the rod tips for a killer yellowfin spread...Johnny's right faster the better, we like 9....and birds too...Pro Soft Dirty Birds work great about 12' in front...catchem up!

[roughriderjosh]

Now thats the information I was looking for! Wow, much thanks to you three. Couldnt have asked for better. I planned on running em around 8 or 9 off the short rigger with the 7 holding 120 flouro and the 9 with 200 for the tuna bite. Will see how it goes........
Thanks once again.

[Tracym]

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you as we have been in Miami for the boat show for almost 10 days now. Cherry Jets are desogned to be run naked "no bally's" and I have personally caught piles of tuna, marlin (blue's and stripes), sails, spears, dolphin and wahoo on them. I have some customers that run the smaller jets (small and medium) with bait and swear by it. Persoanlly I like the faster troll speeds that come with trolling baitless.

Good luck!

Tracy

[gradyfish265]

I know some charter guys in the NE fish them close to the transom on flat lines and kill the tuna on them. I really have not found a position they do not run well at. I always keep a jet in my artificial spread, usually on a flat line or long rigger.