Bluefin Tuna Question

[Ace1st]

The GBT's have showed up thick offshore of my inlet. Made it out yesterday and saw several fish taken in the area I was fishing. Several more shorts were released or broken off.

My question is do you guys ever pull spreader bars when targeting these fish. Yesterday we pulled two baits up and one down on a planer. Water clarity was decent and I thought that a spreader bar or a bird might generate more interest to our spread.

Didnt notice any other boats doing that so I thought I would ask some of you guys.

[Big Jay]

Bigger fish down there but we use the same concept when trolling them up here in NJ.

Generally we run 2 baits down on planers. 24 and 32 with Islanders in front of hoo's.

Then we'll run 2-3 more lines WWWWWWB. Down there its not that important to run them WWWWWB since those fish school up and go into "feed mode".

4 lines is all you really need to troll for them. Islander/Hoo combo is the go-to lures

EDIT: The whole spreader bar thing is more of a NE BFT tuna thing but it could work down that way as well.

If anything a bird in front of a Hoo/Islander combo WWWWB down the center would prob kill something. That combo always has killed tuna for us.

[Canyon Runner]

If we could catch 'em on spreader bars believe me we would. But they seem to respond to the meat better down in Morehead.

[Ace1st]

Thanks guys......we do pull Islanders with horse hoos. I was thinking the spreader bars would make our spread more attractive though.

Maybe we'll get lucky and hook one up soon. Good luck to you all.

[Big Jay]

Thanks guys......we do pull Islanders with horse hoos. I was thinking the spreader bars would make our spread more attractive though.

Maybe we'll get lucky and hook one up soon. Good luck to you all.

Could pull a GIANT spreader bar full of horse hoos and islanders!

Now that would be cool

And expensive to say the least!

[Ace1st]

Maybe my 48 Bullyhoo bar would do the trick. They are large.

[clt_capt]

Maybe a bluefish or Pogy bar with 4 - 6 doz fish on it would work...

[92 feet down]

Maybe a bluefish or Pogy bar with 4 - 6 doz fish on it would work...

I tried pulling bluefish this past summer for BFT. I rigged them like a split tailed mullet. They washed out really fast. It was a great idea on paper.

[hotreels jr]

I tried pulling bluefish this past summer for BFT. I rigged them like a split tailed mullet. They washed out really fast. It was a great idea on paper.

We pull rigged bluefish on planer boards up here. Matt Zajac rigs them up for us. I think he guts them/ sews them up with a 12/0 hook then sews the mouth shut. They swim great!

[92 feet down]

We pull rigged bluefish on planer boards up here. Matt Zajac rigs them up for us. I think he guts them/ sews them up with a 12/0 hook then sews the mouth shut. They swim great!

Yeah, I think the split-tail rigging was the reason they washed out so quickly. I'll try again this summer, & leave the tail intact.