An old debate-Meat or plastic?

[arthurj]

I know this is constantly being debated, but after searching the forums I haven't found enough info to be satisfied. As a new fisherman I have a hard time deciding whether to focus on fishing meat or plastics for yellowfin. I fish out of Orange Beach, Al so my fishery may be a little different than yours off of the East coast, but it seems to me that a yellowfin is a yellowfin and I can't imagine that the tactics could be that different. Who here likes to fish meat, and who likes to fish lures?
Thanks,
Al

[WAHOONBOX]

YOU WILL MOST CERTAINLY GET A LOT OF HITS ON THIS TOPIC ...........

NATURAL BAIT RIGGING IS AN ARTFORM.....A DYING ARTFORM .........WHILE LURE FISHING IS GOING INTO A STORE AND BUYING A HOOK AND LURE AND THROWING IT OVERBOARD.......

[snakeeyes]

old saying "you want meat , you use meat" no more plastic for me, its all about the meat..dave

[HiddenTreasure]

For what it's worth, we started years ago with baits (BallyHoo & Squid). Somewhere along the way (1981) we switched to all lures and then got onto the spreader bar craze when that became the trend. Now we pretty much fish all baits again. Why, I think when we are alone fishing we do good with lures, when we're in a tight fleet we seem to do better with baits. So, baits seem to work better than plastic for us?

[arthurj]

I was kind of afraid of hearing that! Wahoo said it right, it is so easy just to go buy some lures and throw them out, but there is some obvious success with meat. I have never had much luck with ballyhoo so I've slowly leaned towards lures, but everyone around here says to put the meat out when they are around. Bottom line though, I don't care how much work it takes, I just want some tuna in the box. I guess I will be buying a bunch of ballyhoo for the next trip.
thanks,
Al

[clt_capt]

Ya know - I asked a charter captain in Hawaii if he pulled ballyhoo (we were having a slow day) - He said he didn't pull them out unless he had to.

THAT KINDA SAID IT ALL FOR ME.

If meat is the fallback - surefire way to catch fish, I'm just gonna start out that way.

If you are fishing next to me, please feel free to pull all of the plastic you want!

[reel fool]

YOU WILL MOST CERTAINLY GET A LOT OF HITS ON THIS TOPIC ...........

NATURAL BAIT RIGGING IS AN ARTFORM.....A DYING ARTFORM .........WHILE LURE FISHING IS GOING INTO A STORE AND BUYING A HOOK AND LURE AND THROWING IT OVERBOARD.......

Dang Marty...wish I had known that b4 I moved to Hawaii to learn to fish lures from some of the best in the world

Please say you didn't really mean it like that, but were just making a good point. say it ain't so Joe, say it ain't so.

IMHO, there is a hell of alot more to it than just throwing plastic into the water. I've been preaching for years that the best thing you can do to get more bites is rig a better bait. that goes for the plastic too.

and for the record, while here in Hawaii, I was told a little story about dead bait vs. lure fishing. A few (or a few plus a few) years back, a well-known fisherman (won't say who, but you know him well) came here to spend the year proving that dead bait will outcatch lures. After a year of dead-baiting, he absolutely, unequivocably proved his point--that lures catch more fish. Now, he was targeting fish with pointy heads. but I can tell you that there are a whole lot of ahi (yft over 100 lbs) caught here on lures. but I still like to drag a ballyhoo for them in the porpoise schools

[jbrob]

Dang Marty...wish I had known that b4 I moved to Hawaii to learn to fish lures from some of the best in the world

Please say you didn't really mean it like that, but were just making a good point. say it ain't so Joe, say it ain't so.

IMHO, there is a hell of alot more to it than just throwing plastic into the water. I've been preaching for years that the best thing you can do to get more bites is rig a better bait. that goes for the plastic too.

and for the record, while here in Hawaii, I was told a little story about dead bait vs. lure fishing. A few (or a few plus a few) years back, a well-known fisherman (won't say who, but you know him well) came here to spend the year proving that dead bait will outcatch lures. After a year of dead-baiting, he absolutely, unequivocably proved his point--that lures catch more fish. Now, he was targeting fish with pointy heads. but I can tell you that there are a whole lot of ahi (yft over 100 lbs) caught here on lures. but I still like to drag a ballyhoo for them in the porpoise schools

You know it is intersting to watch debates such as these. Most places in the world fish for blue marlin with lures. The fishermen of the Carolina and Virginia Coast have had great success over the years using natural bait and lure combinations.

Neither method is the answer to itself. Lures do better at times while bait works better at others. If the fish are concentrated in one area bait seems to do better while if fish are scattered out lures do the job better or so it seems to me. To be a complete angler you must become skilled in the use of both and there is a lot of skill in the use of lures and not just throwing them over the transom. Rigging them, knowing where to pull them behind the boat on different days, the type of lure for a given day-rough calm conditions, and other factors do indeed make a difference. Same is true for natural bait, though in my experience, much of the detail in natural rigging comes down to a matter of personal pride, which is admirable in its own right, but probably not all of the particulariness is necessary.

Neither of the methods will catch fish if the boat doesn't run over them. But neither method works best on given days and I guess fishing would not be so much fun if we did not have some guess work involved.

[WAHOONBOX]

HEY FOOL..........HAWAII ..........IT'S ALL ABOUT THE DOLLAR AIN'T IT? .....AND LACK OF.....MAINTAINING NATURAL BAIT IS EXPENSIVE......AND WHEN YOU HAVE PLENTY OF FISH ....LURES ARE OKAY

THE ORIGINAL QUESTION I BELIEVE IS WHAT WILL CATCH TUNA......AND I DO KNOW AND ACCEPT THAT TUNA WILL PILE ON A ARTIFICIAL SQUID...


BUT I ALSO KNOW THAT IF EVERYONE OF YOU DO NOT ATTEMPT TO LEARN HOW TO RIG NATURAL BAITS....ONE DAY YOU YOUNG GUNS WILL FOREVER....LOSE THE ART OF BAIT RIGGING.......

PULLING ARTIFICIALS IN THE BEGINNING OF YOUR OFFSHORE CAREER IS LIKE GETTING YOUR DRIVERS LICENSE WITH A CAR AND AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSSION.....

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO 4 IN THE FLOOR.....OR STRAIGHT DRIVE ON THE COLUMN?

[arthurj]

This will only be my second season offshore fishing, so I am a beginner in every sense. When we started fishing we were told to keep the old blue and white islander out at all times, so most of the time our spread consisted of plastics with the blue and white down the middle. I know our spread was probably so bad that nothing would even think about touching the islander.

You will laugh at this but our first tuna came on an orange yozuri bonita, then our second and fourth came on a purple yozuri bonita, one of which was 120 lbs. Our smallest yellowfin(around 30lbs) came on a pink and white islander. So our poor little yellowfin body count stands at four. After those yellowfin, that is all I can think about, and I want more.

I really have spent a lot of time trying to read and learn as much as possible. Since our start we managed to catch two whites last season, which came on bart plastics. Now this season we have kicked it off with two blues on bart plastics. We have caught wahoo and dolphin of course but we want tuna. We still try to keep a blue and white down the middle but it never gets touched. All of this action on plastics has made me slowly gravitate towards lures, which I will probably stick with for billfish. Those billfish are fun but damn I can't catch a tuna for the life of me.

I will be honest, I will have a hard time pulling meat out in open water but when we go to the rigs where the tuna congregate better I guess that will be the time to put out the meat.

Thanks,
Al