Circle hooks and tuna trolling

[LuckyDrew]

Someone clear something up for me please. Is y'alls meat dead or alive?? To me it's a world of difference. I troll live skipjack at 3-4, and live macks at 3, and I wouldn't think of using anything but circles. Anyone who insists that hookup ratio will automatically go down is blowing hot air. I can drag lighter leader(fluoro) and worry less about chew thru. My strikes go up, my kills go up. I fish Hayabusa magnum circles in 5/0 for macks and 11/0 for skipjacks. And my billfish swim away all lit up. Time for some to get out of the dark ages. And that ain't no bull. Drew

[babalaza]

hmm never trolled a live mack, how u rig them?

[anthony]

Someone clear something up for me please. Is y'alls meat dead or alive?? To me it's a world of difference. I troll live skipjack at 3-4, and live macks at 3, and I wouldn't think of using anything but circles. Anyone who insists that hookup ratio will automatically go down is blowing hot air. I can drag lighter leader(fluoro) and worry less about chew thru. My strikes go up, my kills go up. I fish Hayabusa magnum circles in 5/0 for macks and 11/0 for skipjacks. And my billfish swim away all lit up. Time for some to get out of the dark ages. And that ain't no bull. Drew

Dead bait...

[hotrodmarlin]

Someone clear something up for me please. Is y'alls meat dead or alive?? To me it's a world of difference. I troll live skipjack at 3-4, and live macks at 3, and I wouldn't think of using anything but circles. Anyone who insists that hookup ratio will automatically go down is blowing hot air. I can drag lighter leader(fluoro) and worry less about chew thru. My strikes go up, my kills go up. I fish Hayabusa magnum circles in 5/0 for macks and 11/0 for skipjacks. And my billfish swim away all lit up. Time for some to get out of the dark ages. And that ain't no bull. Drew

On the NC coast we fish a lot of dead bait like ballyhoo rigged behind a lure or seawitch. We're not in the dark ages, it's just a different type of fishing. I fish circles bottomfishing for grouper/snapper, trolling any live bait like bonito, mackeral, and menhaden. Haven't had much luck trolling dead bait with circles for tuna or wahoo. waynofish says it works on tuna so i'm gonna keep trying- still concerned about wahoo.....

[waynofish]

It's worked for me on the incidental tuna/albacore bite while billfishing, however, if I was to be targeting strictly tunas while trolling I would still use the longer J-hooks.
What wahoo bites we get are usually clip offs, but then again, 80 or 100 mono aint zactly wahoo leader.

[viejo blanco]

i'm talking about trolling dead baits for tuna and marlin with and without skirts.

[waynofish]

I have found it works better not to feed a tuna, as they gulp & go. If it misses, jig it. With the smaller baits one would use while targeting whity there's a decent chance it will get hooked because it may engulf the whole bait. You stand about the same chance as if you were using, say a 9175 7/0 J-hook.
I am sold 100% on circles for the way I have been fishing, which is billfishing or somewhat mixed bag with the main emphasis on billfish.
For tunas, it's hard to beat the sea witch/bally or a naked swimmer with a longer J-hook rigged slightly farther back in the hoo. Even in Costa Rica, if I want to target the big yellows while trolling I would opt for a J-hook (it's legal for tunas).

[Free Spirit]

I have outfitted Green Machines with 14/0 Mustad circles for tuna for several years. The ones I used with the circles are the soft head green machines and I have had no problem hooking and boating fish with them. We fish them at strike with 20% drag or so and they catch. Sometimes you have to try something to see if it works. I just tried it to see if they would work, not for conservation reasons since most of the tuna go in the box. Just be sure not to set the hook but let it lodge in the jaw naturally. Some folks take vice grips and bend the hooks in or out but the inline mustads work well in the lures I have used.

[striper101]

That applies only to tournaments. I can promise you I will NOT be trolling circle hooks when meat fishing or when putting out an all around spread for both marlin and tuna.

I'm with Anthony on this!
We will not be trolling with circles when we have a charter out there trying to put meat in the box!

[capt. woodward]

Sounds like you have had great luck with them...but yours is a different application. We are talking trolled baits here.

Just because it's Canada.geez, you guys slay me.....tuna, sharks, halibut, tunas, dogfish, hake, salmon everything is caught trolling. We're not longlining here. This is a large commercial native fishery.