A tuna tip...

[swampy]

I have never been after tuna (although I make a great deck hand , hint hint) but I read a tip I thought I would pass along.....when you catch your first fish stick a hose down its throat to the stomach to flush it out , if you find bait fish use green and blue patterns, find squid use brown and if you find tuna crabs or shrimp use red ....any truth to this ?? oh, and any tips for catching chinook in late march and april ? thx, swampy

[Pilar]

Swampy, we bounced a few off the deck and they chucked up small bait fish and shrimp. The bait fish looked alot like candlefish.

[Threemuch]

I have seen three kinds of bait in albacore, none of which resembled the feathers we were using. Pelagic Crabs, Pacific Sauries, and Squid are the only things I have seen tuna barf up besides green goo.

I think color choice has more to do with hitting a certain contrast than anything else. Dark days dark colors, light days light colors. Mid colors fish any day, like mexican flag, or rootbeer. No one will convince me that a tuna thinks a red and white jig is a pelagic crab. Cripes, those things are the size of my thumbnail and I swim faster than they do.

I dunno about you guys, but I have caught very few tuna on red and white. I really have to be scratching for that color to make my spread. My favorite colors in order are:

Dark day:
1. Purple and Black
2. Mexican Flag
3. Loco Joe
4. Green and Black
5. Natural Cedar Plug
6. Rootbeer
7. Zuchinni

On the rare sunny day, reverse that order. Every day is different, and I mix it up, but that is my starting point.

KB

[Threemuch]

Oh, yeah, late march april chinook, IMHO:

At this point, my experience is that they are mostly feeding on krill, not fish. I like red spoons, and hoochie flasher combos in red, pink, orange and purple haze combos. Think deep, 150' plus. Find balls of krill. Whales are good sign. Bait will fish early in the year like this, but I like to use shrimp oil on my bait and use Big Fin RSKs with a red fin or a completely red clip. Smaller baits fish well in the early part of the year.

Good luck! Wishin my boat would be ready.

KB