The $100 tuna lure kit

Two related questions; 1) If you could only spend $100 on trolling lures for tuna, what would you buy? This would be for trolling only, not casting or live bait. 2) Suppose you only had your $100 lure kit to troll with. How much would your trolling catch rate decrease? In other words...

www.ifish.net

 

This was my fist year so I’m not an expert but the tuna newbie process is fresh and there is a ton on the forum. What I used…

• Clones( weighted squid) in Mexican flag, zucchini, purple (most productive for us and affordable)
• Cedar plugs, natural and green/purple pattern
• Swim baits (lead head with an eye and a large paddle tail rubber jig.

I tried some other flashy stuff but did not have luck with it and had some other stuff I bought but did not use. Everything that wasn’t strung up in the package I did with 150lb mono and used double hooks. This help manage fish without as much gaffing.

Used two hand lines and 4 rods. If you are not stopping the boat, you need sturdy reels. Hand lines are easier and we set them about 40ft back.

Picked up a bunch of jig gear late in the season but did not really get to deploy it.

Fishing outcome was mixed. Only made two trips with weather and family stuff. First trip was epic and second trip we got skunked and move to halibut.

My learnings… get a SST subscription, keep it simple, start early if weather/fish are there, if you are only trolling add more hand lines.

 

We have tried it all, and end up with clones and cedar plugs 99% (the other 1% is desperation when nothing works).

Buy the cheap cedar plugs on E-bay in natural and purple and black.

Buy the cheapest MX flag, purple, and zucchini clones you can find, as they all work pretty much the same.

Rapalas work, but are not worth the hassle of storing or the danger of hooks flying around.

Simple is better, I have wasted tons of $$ on lures that only caught me.

It is tuna hunting, the catching is the easy part once you find biters, so don't overthink things- Larry and Larry on Fat Cat, the most consistent tuna fishermen I know, always troll the same thing as they "only want biters".

You cannot argue with their success.

Terrafin or Rip Charts is a must have, as they will help you catch more fish.

Good luck,

Mike C

 

Lot's of good info above. Looks like you live in the Troutdale area? I live in the Troutdale area as well and you are more than welcome to stop by and talk gear.

 

Everybody's favorite jig/rod/reel? Weight/color? Lb. test for braided line?

I was super fortunate to jig up a few albacore this year and am totally in love with throwing jigs and feeling a tuna hook up! I REALLY want to get good at that!

 

Everybody's favorite jig/rod/reel? Weight/color? Lb. test for braided line?

I was super fortunate to jig up a few albacore this year and am totally in love with throwing jigs and feeling a tuna hook up! I REALLY want to get good at that!

My favorite jig setup is a Trevala M or ML with a 6000 Saragosa with 50lb metered line. The Spheros is a close second and quite a bit cheaper. With metered line I can count colors to approximate depth.

I find most people can get the rhythm for vertical jigging easier on a spinning setup. 7 of 10 of my jig rods are spinning.

 

My troll rods are all mono with a different color on each reel. 50# on the gunnel rods and 80# on the way back. Pretty easy to figure out what's tangled with what. Braid is a nightmare on tuna troll rods. Unrigged cedar plugs from ebay that get spray painted purple/black, green/orange or left plain then rigged with 150# mono and small eye 7/0 hooks.

 

We use braid on our saltwater gear that fishes TUNA!, Halibut and deep rockfish. 80#. Use a high quality ball bearing swivel and we add a bead to prevent reeling the swivel into the tip guide. Best cheap rig going is a penn 4/0 and an ugly stick tiger 20 - 50 # one piece rod. We have a few rods and reels that are custom for Halibut but pretty much all of it can be trolled for charlie.

There is no limit to what you can spend on fishing gear BTW. Terminal gear? Bar none zuchinni clone in 4" with a stainless double barbless hook and seven foot of 200# mono. If it has green on it you are fishing.

Keep it simple stupid. Finding the fish is the game here. Catching them is fairly straight forward if you find them.

 

I am looking to build a small collection of Albacore tackle before next year season starts. I have a few trolling rod/reel combos already but have no other tackle.

What lures should I start collecting?
Zurkers, cedar plug, rapala?
What colors should I start with?
Any terminal tackle?

I live in Dallas but have a ton of tuna gear that health issues mean I won't be going Tuna fishing anymore. I have tackle, jig, tackle boxes, rods and reels. Just way too much to take photos but maybe??

 

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We have tried it all, and end up with clones and cedar plugs 99% (the other 1% is desperation when nothing works).

Buy the cheap cedar plugs on E-bay in natural and purple and black.

Buy the cheapest MX flag, purple, and zucchini clones you can find, as they all work pretty much the same.

Rapalas work, but are not worth the hassle of storing or the danger of hooks flying around.

Simple is better, I have wasted tons of $$ on lures that only caught me.

Larry and Larry on Fat Cat, the most consistent tuna fishermen I know, always troll the same thing as they "only want biters".

You cannot argue with their success.
Good luck,

Mike C

Is this the same lure theory?

 

Spare Link, PM me your email address and I'll send my free guide to Suggested Tuna Trolling Lures.

 

I'm a commercial troller. We used clones exclusively (yellow, orange, and chartreuse -- we called it pb&j) until zukers came out. Now we use them, but basically the same color.

 

Rods reels, whatever can handle a halibut/sturgeon or lingcod basically will work. Braided line works great but avoid cedar plugs on rods unless it has a birdy in front of it because line twist can be really bad.

get a couple hundred yards of 200-300’ test mono for making leaders and a crimper and appropriate crimps.

Get a half a dozen plain cedar plugs/clones or, zukers/feathers in each color green/purple/pink basically whatever looks cool to start. They will all work. Birdies are really nice for seeing exactly where your gear is and in theory they catch more fish but just the visual component is worth it for me.

Personally I really like handlines. I would make a couple of those. You can use tuna cord or whatever rope you want with a heavy bunji for shock absorption.

If you have some extra bottomfishing rods laying around you could set up a couple jigging rods. Basically 30’ of 30# mono and a 80g colt sniper or flat fall. Picking one or two up on the slide is a really fun way to up the boat numbers.

 

Handlines were invented by the devil and catch no fish, you can't convince me otherwise!!!

Watch for used Avet reels on ebay/CL/fb/etc. The small SX works great, but if you find bigger ones for the same price you might as well get them.

Ugly Stick Tiger rods are a good budget rod IMO.

Any decent 4000+ spinning reel will be good for throwing iron.

 

You are going to get a ton of different information from everyone on here. But most importantly, as Han Solo said, KISS! I hear on the radio, time and time again, about catching a fish on blue, then black, then pink, then white, on and on. People will argue with me on this, but green, green, green. It has been mentioned: Mexican flag and Zucchini, period! If the fishing is slow, run a natural cedar plug way back.

Use a heavy reel that will handle a hot fish (keep the drag loose for trolling). Heavy enough rod to pull a fish in. I use electric reels and braid. High quality snap. I also use splashy things and side planers. 5-7' of heavy mono to a green clone. One rule I have on my boat is NO barbed hooks; I don't want a barb in someone's hand 50+ miles offshore. Swim baits in pacific 'chovy are also productive for me. I use a combination of rods and handlines (5 rods & 5 handlines). I do think 2 diver boards is paramount. Again, as 15 guys how to catch albacore and you'll get 17 answers. Good luck!

 

You are going to get a ton of different information from everyone on here. But most importantly, as Han Solo said, KISS! I hear on the radio, time and time again, about catching a fish on blue, then black, then pink, then white, on and on. People will argue with me on this, but green, green, green. It has been mentioned: Mexican flag and Zucchini, period! If the fishing is slow, run a natural cedar plug way back.

Use a heavy reel that will handle a hot fish (keep the drag loose for trolling). Heavy enough rod to pull a fish in. I use electric reels and braid. High quality snap. I also use splashy things and side planers. 5-7' of heavy mono to a green clone. One rule I have on my boat is NO barbed hooks; I don't want a barb in someone's hand 50+ miles offshore. Swim baits in pacific 'chovy are also productive for me. I use a combination of rods and handlines (5 rods & 5 handlines). I do think 2 diver boards is paramount. Again, as 15 guys how to catch albacore and you'll get 17 answers. Good luck!

Another solid producer time after time is pink. I know one boat who averaged well over 35 fish a day all season on pink and plain cedar plugs. But these things really are easy to catch once you find them and finding what’s most fun for you and crew is what it’s about.

 

Good info above. I'll double down and expand on keep it simple. Albacore aren't like salmon, you don't need 14 different lure color combinations to figure out they want the spinner blade with the purple dot today.

90% of the time I troll the same lures. My friends get bored when we're not catching and swap things out. Then they think we caught fish because we swapped out a plain cedar plug for a purple one. Maybe? I suspect we got bit because we finally found some biters.

Zuker brand clones make up 70% of my troll gear. Nomad DTX-125 blue/green crushed it for us this year. Swim baits are a consistent producer as well, 3oz triangle shaped jig head and a big hammer tail.

 

Yozuri 9.0 diver boards. I did not break any this year. Last year we had a big fish go through the props on the outboard and jam the diver in the duoprop. It stalled the motor and bent one edge of one of the props. We also run a Dabo set on the center handline to jump, splash, and make noise. This line rarely hooks up but this year it did way more than usual.

The last season the divers were the most productive gear we ran using a Zuchiini Broomtail zuker. Usually the first to go off followed by other handlines. Two things ... 1 - they will not go really deep and we limit the handline on a diver to 35 feet or less. This allows them to pop to the surface and not be right in the longer handlines. 2 - you can reel in a rod fish over the divers but if the fish is all over the wake as you reel it in it is best to pull the diver on the side you will land the fish on. We circle to steer the fish over to that side. If the rod fish bumps the line going to the diver it is usually gone soon after.