Small Boat, Big Yellowfin!

[IglooMan]

Just in from Archer SuperBars Hawaii ProStaff member Courtland Pang:

Went out fishing on a friend’s 19-foot Arima and got lucky. Took an early morning double strike with both outriggers crashing down. The stbd ‘rigger was pulling an Archer JT Special RuckusRaiser (RR) and the port had an Archer Pro MeatBall on it – they sure do work to attract the fish!

As the two of us cleared the other lines, the port fish unbuttoned. But the stbd rod was still bent and the reel loudly protesting! With about 600 yards of line out and nary a splash to be seen, we figured we had hooked, not a marlin but instead, the highly sought after ahi (YFT). After several minutes, we saw color and – woohoo! – the beautiful shape of an ahi behind the RR. A few more turns of the reel and the RR was near the rod tip, the RR’s main leader in hand, and game over! After brining the fish down we worked the area for a short while, hoping the other one or its cousins were still around, but no more love and with limited ice and storage on our small boat, we went home.

We estimated the fish to be 120-130 lbs and the 55”L and 40.5”G calculated out to 153 lbs.

[Tunaman]

Funny I am from the east coast and we used the rr last year and it was on fire despite one of my crew having no faith in it.I will have to forward your post to him.Thanks

[Captain Fred Archer]

Tunaman...thanks for the head's up on the RuckusRaiser. The facts are that a yellowfin is a yellowfin and they are the same fish and act the same just about everywhere that they swim. RuckusRaiser is a long way from a "west coast only" tuna catcher. Some here who can attest to its effectiveness on tuna and other species include Captain Josh Temple, who helped us develop this lure, Ace and others. And as noted here, the big yellowfins (ahi) in Hawaii really go for them. Ditto on the ono's and mahi's. Same for Mexico, Panama and other points south...and as you have discovered, on the east coast too.

Sorry that your buddy doesn't believe in it, but that's not uncommon when people don't actually run a given lure, ours or anyone else's, long enough to prove to themselves whether it works or not. In my books I call it the "Won't work here" phenomenon and it's usually uttered by those who don't know what the hell they're talking about. Others who also haven't tried the lure or technique then pick that opinion up and pass it around. Kinda sad, but the way that it is. Keeps many people from trying really good, new products.

An old example of how this works was the cedar plug, a lure that many on both coasts know is a great tuna catcher. Well, it wasn't all that long ago that you couldn't find a cedar plug on the west coast and if you showed it to just about any fishermen there, especially if it was that excellent "natural" wood color, they'd laugh and call it "an east coast lure that would never work here." Unfortunately for the tunas that changed, again not long ago, and now that former "east coast lure" is mighty popular on the west coast too.

Meantime, I hope you continue to knock the snot out of the tunas with your RuckusRaiser and don't be surprised when the dolphins and wahoos (ask Ace, Courtland, Josh, etc.) jump all over it too, along with a marlin or two. It's a mighty good lure. If you'd like to get a look at it you can see it run on our website.