help me to understand when a tiny #9 roller tip is needed?

[Patudo]

As to your suggestion on trying fly fishing for bonito or skipjack with someone using lighter leader, I have actually done this  (yellowfin too). 

My suggestion was to try fly fishing (or whatever style you fancy) with hi-vis straight to your lure or hook.  I'd genuinely like to see what results an experienced fisherman gets doing this. 

[jurelometer]

As to your suggestion on trying fly fishing for bonito or skipjack with someone using lighter leader, I have actually done this  (yellowfin too). 

My suggestion was to try fly fishing (or whatever style you fancy) with hi-vis straight to your lure or hook.  I'd genuinely like to see what results an experienced fisherman gets doing this. 

I have fished a bit in the last couple of years with this "camo" fluoro leader that has dark red sections (hey - it was on sale :-) )  Didn't see a noticeable dropoff in getting bit by tuna species or mahi (which have much better acuity than tuna) when the red part was next to the fly.  The sample size and test conditions are way too small to support any claim other than it was not a noticeable deterrent for yellowfin, black skipjack and mahi for the time of day (morning to mid-day, and depth (surface to 30 ft) that I was fishing with small (size 2 1.5 inch) to medium large (4/0 - 6 inch) flies, 30 and 40 lb leaders.

By hi-vis, I assume you mean the bright yellow stuff. Since tuna only have blue color receptors- it will appear the same to tuna as my red tinted leader - the absence of reflected light waves is what we humans perceive as black.  BTW,  lot of fancy lure colors are also just "black" to tuna.

As a visual example, take a look at this photo (from mexican-fish.com - a great website for identifying species for us Baja fishers).  While the camera (and us humans looking at the photos) can process yellow light waves, yellow light waves get absorbed relatively quickly in the water, so next to none are available past 15 or twenty feet, and that mostly bright yellow stripe down the side of the yellowtail is now mostly black, since there are few yellow light waves available to bounce off of them.  Same result for a different reason. 



-J