Lures vs Meat...

[FenderBender282]

Just wondering success rates if anyone is trolling good lures (ie Black Barts, Moldcraft, etc) vs dead baits in the northeast, mainly tuna/white fishing, thanks.

[TunaBully]

Like most boats fishing the northeast canyons we troll a combination of lures (I think they're good ones) and meat and both catch well. Some days the lures outfish the ballys and other days the bally are the hot ticket. In terms of lures, the simple $7 green machine continues to outperform many of the "good lures."

[The Codfather]

GBFT fishing in the gulf of maine, we occasionally slow trolled live baits such as large macks and bluefish for tuna, you could cover more ground than chunking, it was cheaper, but on days that we were trolling because it was too rough to chunk the baits would frequently die and wash out. We mostly trolled large spreader bars. For smaller tuna, green machines single and in daisy chains work well as do a large diving plug such as a manns stretch 30. I dont thinkwe ever used 'hybrids' but I can see a large islander/hoo combo working well. I think I will try running a large jet (10oz) over a dead mack at 3-5kts next time I have the chance, it would run deep and the large head should protect the bait well enough. Problem is keeping it from spinning due to the larger profile of the mack. And it would probably be eaten by a mako as well. I'd use a jobu through the nose and possibly a trailer jobu hook on wire in the meat of the tail.

[Patudo]

For what it's worth, recent report by Backman (New England fishing reports) had a blue marlin caught on a small Bart lure in Hydrographer Canyon and another strike on a moldcraft.

Hydro 8/7-8/8

There are several other area reports in the same forum and on other sites - happy reading!

[Bert Rodgers]

When in Rome.

Where ever you go the guys who put fish on the dock or flags on the riggers day in and day out have the fish dialed in pretty well.Your odds are better if you do what they do than doing something different.

Bert

[Henrique38]

Interesting this thread was started because I've been thinking about the very same thing. I've been exploring options to natural bait. I think naturals work well if rigged perfectly. That's the key. I think a lure will out perform a natural if that natural spins, even a little bit, or doesn't swim quite right. Best Bait Systems has a really neat rig for ballyhoo.

http://betterbaitsystems.net/

Personally I'm going to experiment with Chewy Hoos from Head Start Lures and artifical flying fish like the ones from Carolina Lures.

http://carolinalures.com/Products.htm

[jemche]

i think bait is better for whites. usually it is hard to hook them on lures. the ones that are hooked on lures are sometimes called suicide marlin. i think if a white comes up and takes a bite and gets a bunch of plastic in his mouth he is less likely to come back. if he eats a bait and does not get hooked he will often come back multiple times, and a good amount of time they are hooked on the second or third take.
just my opinion.

[Henrique38]

I agree with that. Naturals probably work better for whites, but I've caught as many whites on artificial ballyhoo as I have on naturals. Maybe that speaks more to how I rig a natural bait than anything else. On the other hand, I've caught far more tuna with lures than I have with natural.