BIG EYE TUNA! Need advice...

[jtocean]

The one fish that has eluded me for 20 years...the big eye!

We caught some 100lbers in late 80s under a cateraman that had flipped after a storm and every pass we would nail 2or3 fish. All Big Eyes! Ended the day 12 for 18.

Since then we haven't really targeted big eye nor have they targeted anything we were pulling. So the question to the members...What's the best BIG EYE spread? just trolling?? downriggers, zwings??

Your advice is appreciated!

[shoefish]

Popping this one to the top as I'm curious to see what the experts have to say here. Bigeye is next on my wish list as well. The little that I've gathered is it's a dawn/dusk bite with big baits, but beyond that I'm clueless.

[clt_capt]

Every spring a few are caught out of Morehead and Hatteras. I'd love to hear
the deal too - Are they just strays (Schooling strays??), are the being targeted specifically? Are they Dawn/Dusk only?

Also seems like the yft bite has been around 30 Fathoms - Are the Bigeyes there????

[BlueH20Boss]

a lot of bigeyes are caught on the night chunk............ our experience has shown that they mainly hit deep baits on the overnight chunk (NJ,DE Canyons)

[giantfan]

Where's Tred when you need him.

He has a bunch under his belt and I'm pretty sure he targets them.

[Wild Life Management]

20 years? You are definitely due. I have never caught one myself, so at least you have that notch on your belt.

Don't feel too bad, I know at least one other person here dying to hang a big eye.

[lazyfatass247]

Start reading up man/ Tred wrote a good article a about a year ago. I think its luck really. although dawn/dusk have been coined the best for the bite.

[whitey]

Location
Find A good temp break that is up against the 100 fathom line. I have personaly never caught a bigeye in under 560 feet of water. Arrive at the location before daybreak and find the bait schools. Most of your bites will be 1 hour before and after sunrise and sunset.

Lures
For fast trolling I like large straight running lures like Bigeye Clones, Annihilators, Large Hex Heads and the Wide Range. I have had my best luck on purple and black, green and black and plain green. Blue and white Islanders with a horse ballyhoo have also taken thier fair share of eyeballs. For slow trolling I use 16 inch squid bars in orange and yellow or green and yellow. Slow trolled swimming spanish mackeral and horse ballyhoo also are a good baits.

[BlueH20Boss]

what whitey just said is good advice for catching ALL tuna........ i think ultimately it comes down to a bigeye being there! If its yellows you run over with that pretty spread, boom you have yellows in the box....if i happens to be bigeyes, you get the picture.......... I think it is a matter of being in the right place at the right time.... They are out there though..........

Additionally, you may have caught bigeyes before and mistaken them for yellowfin..... They look very similar unless they are mature and have the signature Long yellow fins... But average sized fished look very very similar.

[CaptD]

last year we hooked only two and lost both.. usually outside 100 fathoms ..we hooked the best one mid morning . fed it like a marlin...dropped baits right back into his mouth as he was close to the boat looking around..awesome!! fought for about 45m to one hour and got and empty hook.. I believe it was horse ballyhoo ..another one we caught was supposed to be yellowfin 105# right at dark.. chunk ..wilmington canyon...