What's your secret to catching large tuna instead of footballs?

[fishn'brewis]

I cant keep a secret........If I knew I would tell you. I say its just like real estate.......Location, Location, Location. Everything else is wrong.

This is what I was thinking.

[Big Jay]

Bluefin - Bigger baits and slow down (4-5 kts. MAX)

Yellowfin - Bigger spreader bars fished farther back but in tight groups

[teddyp]

Bluefin - Bigger baits and slow down (4-5 kts. MAX)

Yellowfin - Bigger spreader bars fished farther back but in tight groups

I'm with Jay on this one. I like at least 2 spreader bars inthe spread and a couple XL Ilander/bally combos in the long riggers. But Hubris makes a good point its all about being at the right spot at the right time up here in the northern canyons. If I was fishing down south I would look to Jig some of the fish. If you can get a jig down it might be very productive on larger fish.

[Pete Santini]

all you need to get big tuna is a radio or a cellphone and some good friends other than that live menhaden fished deep and drifting if theres no dogfish around if so troll 2 floating big squid bars close then troll the menhaden on the riggers right behind them but slow really slow works on stellwagon for me

[perfectscore]

drop a hoo on a downrigger to target bigger sized tuners, alwyas worked in OI for me, especially in greener water

[Captain Fred Archer]

We are talking bigger to very big yellowfin here, right? As I pointed out, we bait & switched for them down in Mexico to separate the big units from the smaller ones when they were up top down there.

From what I saw and experienced, many, if not most of the cows that were deep were caught on truly big baits, not smaller ones like ballyhoo and runners and such. As it is up top, you have to deal with too many of the smaller tunas that hit those kinds of baits. The best cow baits were universally smaller yellowfin and skipjack, for the most part. Many of those baits are over ten pounds. Cows have no trouble wolfing those big baits down. The junior sized tunas leave 'em alone. Blue and black marlin don't and good numbers get caught while downrigging the big baits.

[WahooKing]

Fred

I don't think he's talking about the size YF like you see in Mexico...Since the orginal posted is from Virgin Islands, I would venture to say he is seeing the same fish we see in the Bahamas...mostly fast moving schools...25-50lbs are footballs and mostly dominate the schools...The larger ones seem to be the minority w/in the schools....They can get up to 150lbs...Anything over 100lb is considered a trophy.

[Captain Michael Buffington]

We are talking bigger to very big yellowfin here, right? As I pointed out, we bait & switched for them down in Mexico to separate the big units from the smaller ones when they were up top down there.

From what I saw and experienced, many, if not most of the cows that were deep were caught on truly big baits, not smaller ones like ballyhoo and runners and such. As it is up top, you have to deal with too many of the smaller tunas that hit those kinds of baits. The best cow baits were universally smaller yellowfin and skipjack, for the most part. Many of those baits are over ten pounds. Cows have no trouble wolfing those big baits down. The junior sized tunas leave 'em alone. Blue and black marlin don't and good numbers get caught while downrigging the big baits.

Cappy Fred'd got it

skippies or small yellows, on the chunk, and on the kite in that order for me.

Mike

[Captain Fred Archer]

Ace,

I'm not trying to be argumentative here, but for discussions sake, it sounds to me like there is a similarity between the yellowfin we encountered down south and the ones in the VI's, except that a really big fish in Mex is 2-3 hundred pounds, while the VI big fish sound like they're 100-150. Still very nice fish that I would call "big". The similarity being that there are a lot more of the little ones than the big units in either place.

Now, I can only speak for The Baja, but I can tell you for a fact that if you don't know how to target those big fish, you will rarely, if ever, catch one. The runts rule with smaller baits and regular tactics and getting through them to the brutes is usually nigh onto impossible. If, on the other hand, you go about it the right ways you stand a very good chance of catching some.

Of course, if you bait & switch (not very popular here, but it was the same way with high speed trolling, and I'm sure you remember that), you will not catch any schoolies if you don't want them. Most of the time, that was fine with us, so that's why we did a lot of that kind of fishing. Toss in the fact that we had the choice of pitching to and usually catching any of the many other species that we raised and it got to be very hard to "pot luck" troll ever again.

The Buff is right about those chunk and kite fish, but that's drifting and Long Ranger fishing down thataway, not smaller boat trolling. I know that he's seen humongous cows come up on big azzed giant squids hung off a kite or balloon. What a sight that is! And some of those squid they hang out there look big enough to star in a danged monster movie !

"Bombs away!", eh Buff?! Like a pod of big tunas or a blue or black or even some big mahi coming in on teasers run virtually at your feet and going insane after them, that sort of sight is hard to get over, or to forget! We saw plenty of it, but never enough.

[Captain Michael Buffington]

Ace,

I'm not trying to be argumentative here, but for discussions sake, it sounds to me like there is a similarity between the yellowfin we encountered down south and the ones in the VI's, except that a really big fish in Mex is 2-3 hundred pounds, while the VI big fish sound like they're 100-150. Still very nice fish that I would call "big". The similarity being that there are a lot more of the little ones than the big units in either place.

Now, I can only speak for The Baja, but I can tell you for a fact that if you don't know how to target those big fish, you will rarely, if ever, catch one. The runts rule with smaller baits and regular tactics and getting through them to the brutes is usually nigh onto impossible. If, on the other hand, you go about it the right ways you stand a very good chance of catching some.

Of course, if you bait & switch (not very popular here, but it was the same way with high speed trolling, and I'm sure you remember that), you will not catch any schoolies if you don't want them. Most of the time, that was fine with us, so that's why we did a lot of that kind of fishing. Toss in the fact that we had the choice of pitching to and usually catching any of the many other species that we raised and it got to be very hard to "pot luck" troll ever again.

The Buff is right about those chunk and kite fish, but that's drifting and Long Ranger fishing down thataway, not smaller boat trolling. I know that he's seen humongous cows come up on big azzed giant squids hung off a kite or balloon. What a sight that is! And some of those squid they hang out there look big enough to star in a danged monster movie !

"Bombs away!", eh Buff?! Like a pod of big tunas or a blue or black or even some big mahi coming in on teasers run virtually at your feet and going insane after them, that sort of sight is hard to get over, or to forget! We saw plenty of it, but never enough.

the best fish came off of little tunasMonsters I meanThe squids we usually used were huge. If they were alive no matter the size they went splashing out there. The coolest morning with the kite me and the vietnamese kid we called Chico or something mexican as a joke sabiki'd about 60 pompano dorado and sent them out the next day. KABOOM...KABOOM...KABOOM...and the dodo was still visable...Bring it all in and they had knocked it up past the swivel and it was caught there. We caught the bigger ones but not the ones too little to eat it

Another time we scooped about 100 oceanic puffers and used them to slam the crap out of 150 to 200lbers. 1 puffer = 2 cowettes

The chunk consistently caught the biggest yellowfins after big live baits in our style of fishing.

All this is just talk...You have to fish the situation. Every day is different. Thats what makes it fun.

Point is use what they are eating

Thanks Fred My favorite analogy is..."LIKE A WASHING MACHINE DROPPED FROM A HELICOPTER"

Mike