Fishing not Catching

[Tightlines667]

When we fish for tuna, we usually setup up a drift or anchor up on the ball. Sounds like you guys are way too deep for anchors though. We'll stack live baits at different depths on sinkers and balloons. All bridled on circle hooks. Big baits get 30lb Tuf-line rigging floss. The smaller ones get the rubber rigging bands. Sometimes we use two if the baits are breaking off. Have a plastic 55 gallon drum rigged up with a pump to keep dozens of live baits alive all day.

Are you stretching out your leaders? That's a big thing with tuna fisherman here. All the fluorocarbon stretched out and wiped down with alcohol swabs. We use the swabs every time we check out baits too. The crimps all get colored in with a black paint pen to reduce reflections in the water. We analyze the leaders before fishing for the day. Any kinks get trimmed out. If they are less than 15 feet, they get tossed.

You fish the kite at all? I like the Aftco kite because it has a bridle that can be adjusted for different wind conditions. Also, has both light and medium spars.

That sounds like the way I fished tuna on the shallow banks in Bermuda.  We used to anchor in 500', chum, fish live baits, kites, and balloons.  Out here most guys wait until winter to fish live bait (squid at night, akule/opelu during the day).  I have a 50 gal bait Well, and a floodlights for making bait at night.  We use sea anchors/parachutes to control the drift.  Some guys deep drop with chum bags, but not too many fly kites here.  Greensticking is also popular if your setup for it.

I run short (5-6') floro leaders on my tuna jigs so its easier to deal with the fish boatside when single-handed or on multiple hookups, but you have me thinking a bit on this since I always ran long leaders for tuna, and Marlin when fishing the mainland.  I only streth the leaders to remove kinks, but even then I usually just replace. 

I have rigging floss and zip tie bristles of various sizes for different sized baits.  Next new moon, I may get more serious about procuring some live bait.  They are tough to catch on a full moon.

The big tuna have been largely absent from Oahu for the last several weeks.  The False Killer, and Pilot Whales likely pushed them on to the islands further south.  We could get another pulse of fish any day, but likely won't see any real numbers of big YFT for the remainder of the season.  The smaller 20-40lb fish should start showing up in the next 6 weeks though. 

Right now we have schools of large Skipjack, increasing numbers of Mahi, and the Blue Marlin are beginning to make their appearance. 

Trolling is simple and allows you to cover a lot of ground, but now you have me thinking that downsizing my gear, and setting up to chunk mid morning might be worth a shot.  I have a spot in mind, but it is a long run.

Funny how when your not catching, you start questioning your tactics.

Overall it's been a pretty slow season.  2 or 3 weeks of good tuna fishing, a few small pulses of small blue marlin, a smattering of Wahoo,a few Mahi, and some finicky Skipjack.  1 fish days have been the norm.

John

[FatTuna]

We start off with four fathoms of leader (approximately 24'). We rig them with windon Spro swivels. You can reel right up to the hook. The only catch is that when you get to the sinker, which is rubberbanded on to the topshot, the guy driving the boat needs to come over to quickly snip it off. The rubberband left over does nothing to mess up the line lay.

We typically only fish a couple of lines, three max. I only fish with one guy so anything more just complicates things. If we are camping out overnight, we fish just a single line. Sometimes I put a glow stick in the balloon to see where it is.

We fish live squid too. The system is to jig them up and then put them in a separate bucket first. Then I harass them with a stick for a minute. They shoot their ink into the bucket of water. Then I transfer them to a large garden bucket we leave on deck. I've found that the squid can kill other live fish if put into the general population.

We rarely chum. For one, it brings in the sharks and dogfish which destroy the expensive leaders and steal $3 hooks. Second, it just makes a big mess. There is usually a ton of bait around anyway. We might do a little chumming if we are marking fish. Usually just chum with whole fish.

Stretching the leader can help remove kinks but it also helps keep it straight. If there are coils in the leader, it reflects the light in different directions allowing the fish to see it better. We generally only fish light leader with circle hooks.

[Tightlines667]

Went out for 9hours of trolling yesterday.  I picked up 3 little Mahi (2-5lb,1-10lb), and lost a 4th predawn bite at BO bouy.  I fished the 1000fa. up to S bouy, and trolled the 500fa. back to R, then Barber's Point.  We ran into a big school of Sky outside the 1000 but they only surfaced briefly twice in an hour, and I left the school to beat the increasing winds and call it an early day.  My friend lost 2 300lb Blue Marlin fishing the same area, and my other friend had no bites all day.  Nice to get out again.

John