I'm sure I will catch abit of chit...but lets talk chunking to start...

[Captain Michael Buffington]

Capt Mike you are right on . here are some tricks from here on the va coast . we use peanut bunker netted the morning of fishing or the night before for bait and chunks . pick the larger of the lot for hook baits , hide the hook inside the bait . the chunks most we leave whole and inject air into some of them to help them float . during the chunking we use a menhaden oil dripper to make a longer slick to help draw them in . we will fish some baits on top behind boat and some deep under baloons from the riggers . goodluck fishing give chunking a shot it is worth it at times .
Capt Kevin

do you feel the menhaden oil makes a difference? I have tried it only a handful of times. the peanut bunker thing I do in the summer to add abit of flash and also to add bulk to what we have. We keep all the red meat off our previous catches and bag it up already cut also. On the air thing you mentioned are you inflating large bunker or a red meat chunk? fishing behing shrimp boats I take a large croaker or flounder and fill its belly with pieces of styrofoam to make it float and for whatever reason the bonita wont touch it but the yellowfins woof it. I am curious as to how your chunking is different over there! thanks again Cap!

I'm also interested in how your scallop boat fishing relates to our shrimp boat fishing. i am sure there are techniques we each use that can be incorporated into each others schemes. i would love to hear about it when you or someone els gets the time.

Mike

[Tenacious]

Would you ever consider using chunk over live bait and why? Also in April, if Ace has a pile of snacks in the cabin and you ran out of bait but he had a twinkie how would you rig it?

[skirt chaser]

some will say that the bunker oil will draw sharks or bluefish . I have found it to work for the tuna more often both BFT and YFT . as for red meat I do not use it for tuna but do use it to bail mahi . we use about 6 to 10ft of 100 lb flouro at the hookend to keep some fish from being hook shy . on occasion we use butterfish for baits and chunks if we cannot catch bait before a trip .

[Captain Michael Buffington]

Would you ever consider using chunk over live bait and why? Also in April, if Ace has a pile of snacks in the cabin and you ran out of bait but he had a twinkie how would you rig it?

most definitely. I always make an effort with the live bait but certain situations it doesn't work as well as the chunks and vice versa. Fishing shrimpboats, night time tuna fishing, and early spring and winter fishing around here are afew scenarios that spring to mind. None of any of this is/are hard and fast rules and you never know until you try. Chunking is a tool in the arsenal and sometimes one tool works better. Being a toolshed you will definitely understand that analogy

Mike

[Captain Michael Buffington]

some will say that the bunker oil will draw sharks or bluefish . I have found it to work for the tuna more often both BFT and YFT . as for red meat I do not use it for tuna but do use it to bail mahi . we use about 6 to 10ft of 100 lb flouro at the hookend to keep some fish from being hook shy . on occasion we use butterfish for baits and chunks if we cannot catch bait before a trip .

I gotcha. i'll have to try the oil again. give the red meat a try. Some days that is all they want. For the yellowfins ecspecially. hundreds of times chunking bunker for an hour and start getting bonita and chunk two and it turns into yellow volkswagons just that fast. thanks again!

Mike

[Captain Rich Adler]

Mike-Interesting thoughts, up here I have never used that long a floro leader (18'), usually we use 6 to 8' of mono. I run 80 lb mono on the reels, then we vary the lb test of the leader depending on how the tuna are behaving. I'm going to have to rethink my setups.--Rich

[MR. tuna]

Maybe I missed it are you using wind on leaders? or are you using 18ft leaders from the swivel? I'll have to use the red meat. Never did that one before. Can you use frozen red meat? Alot of times our false albies are inshore of our yellowfin. I may catch them on and inshore trip and freeze them to use on a offshore trip. I know tuna blood line works extremely well on stripers in the vicinity of a cleaning station.

[Captain Michael Buffington]

Mike-Interesting thoughts, up here I have never used that long a floro leader (18'), usually we use 6 to 8' of mono. I run 80 lb mono on the reels, then we vary the lb test of the leader depending on how the tuna are behaving. I'm going to have to rethink my setups.--Rich

The 18' leader is just my standard length, 3 armspans. I cut off 6"s or so after every fish and fish it until its about 4 or 5' long.

The mono thing is my pet peeve. I think you will really enjoy having at least one set up slam full of braid with the short top shot. Just give it a shot on one reel and fish it next to the mono. When they are eating everything it wont make that big of a difference. You will see the change when they are finicky. Hope you like it!

Mike

[Captain Michael Buffington]

Maybe I missed it are you using wind on leaders? or are you using 18ft leaders from the swivel? I'll have to use the red meat. Never did that one before. Can you use frozen red meat? Alot of times our false albies are inshore of our yellowfin. I may catch them on and inshore trip and freeze them to use on a offshore trip. I know tuna blood line works extremely well on stripers in the vicinity of a cleaning station.

My run of the mill non tourney chunking set up is a reel packed with braid, then I tie a bimini in the braid, then I take the fluoro and tie a yucatan instead of an albright. There is a trick to getting the stiffer fluoro to bite on the spectra. Unlike mono that will easily wrap around the braid with just pulling it tight with a five turn yucatan I have to use and 8 turn yucatan and roll thge loops in. I will tie one and post it in the knot tying video thread on the big game forum today some time.

The albies will work well frozen. Trick is to freeze the whole fish because the precut chunks will try to fall apart. They still work but are a ***** to use as bait. Freeze it whole and it works almost as well as the fresh stuff.

Mike

[Captain Michael Buffington]

Maybe I missed it are you using wind on leaders? or are you using 18ft leaders from the swivel? I'll have to use the red meat. Never did that one before. Can you use frozen red meat? Alot of times our false albies are inshore of our yellowfin. I may catch them on and inshore trip and freeze them to use on a offshore trip. I know tuna blood line works extremely well on stripers in the vicinity of a cleaning station.

Mike